211 The Champion of Decay

Jayr POV - Blue Star, Grand Line, Nanatsu Islands(Hi) - 20 GAP

My mind continues to randomly drift to various places as I calmly lie on the floor of the deck of the Athena's God Bidoof, at the same time, I continue to look at the white clouds above in the sky as they slowly drift while my gaze doesn't focus on anything in particular, and at one point, I close my eyes and start to nap as I enjoy the wonderful weather.

All of a sudden, a small figure appears right next to me and as I focus on it, I see Bidi's cute face as she looks down on me with a happy smile on her face as she says, "Nap time is over, Jayr-nii. We are about to reach Hi Island."

Hearing that, I slowly get up and say, "Thanks for waking me up, Bidi." then after I strenched my muscles, I pat Bidi's head and lazily ask, "Is everything fine? How are the kids doing? And how about Igaram, Vivi, Koby, Gad, Saphir, Rubis, and Emeraude? And more importantly is Alvida still alive?"

As Bidi enjoys my caress with her eyes closed and a content smile just like a cute puppy, she replies, "The bodacious woman named Alvida that you brought is still alive. She is still talking with, Seika-nee, Saori-neesama, Tio-nee, and Eri-nee, but they asked me to not tell you anything about what they have been talking about as it is a woman's secret. The Galen-chan and Kharna-chan are having their morning nap with Python-chan, and at the moment Crateris-dono is watching over them. Koby-chi is resting in his room, while Igaram is practicing with his saxophone, and Vivi is grooming that big duck Karoo."

At this point of her report, I ask, "And Gad and his wives?" making Bidi reply, "About Jayr-nii's guests, well, I can't be too sure of what they are doing exactly at the moment, because as soon as you left them in their room, they started to undress to do their baby-making acts, but remembering what you taught me, I cut off my awareness of what is happening in that room to give them their privacy, but from what I can hear, they are still going at it at the moment, but should be almost done as the green-eyed one and the blue-eyed one are very content... Ah! Now the red-eyed one too! Update, they are done and the guests are resting now." then she comments, "He lasted only 45 minutes with three women... Isn't that too fast?"

Hearing that, I decided to hold back the groan that was about to come out of my mouth to not start a discussion with Bidi about that topic and also to teach her that even if she doesn't see, but still carefully listens to everything they are doing is still considered an infringement of their privacy, one because there are no laws against that in this world, but more importantly is because that way she can always warn me in case they plan something, not that it will happen with Gad and his wives as I trust my eyes and what my instincts tell me about them, but in the case of some less savory guest, it always good to be somewhat more guarded.

After hearing Bidi's report, I focus back on our destination that can already be seen from the distance, Hi Island, I can already notice the difference from the last time we were here, which was actually only an hour or so ago in fact.

The island is now calm, and while there are still clear signs of the battle that took place, the ruckus of the battle is gone, moreover, the arid climate is also gone, and it is now the usual one that can be found in this archipelago.

Seeing that, I quickly tell to Bidi, "Well then, I'm going to check on Nikita and the situation on that island, more importantly, I'm going to meet a fellow Champion. There is no need to tell it to the others, after all, I should be back in a few minutes with some more guests." Bidi beside me nods and says, "Okay, but be careful, Jayr-nii. Just give me the signal and I'll send Crater Gar your way."

I smile wryly and say, "Don't worry, I don't think the situation will turn so bad that I'll need to unleash a Galaxy-sized mecha on them... In fact, I can think of only a few beings that would force me to use such drastic measures... and none of them are beings I'd like to meet anytime soon." then I quickly fly over to Hi Island to reach the main village of this island Hitori Village, the place where it is most likely to find Nikita, Law, and the Champion of Decay, Zandeer.

On my way there, I also take a look at what is going on around the island and see that the people living here are still working very hard to clean up the battlefield but still, the foul smell of blood and burnt corpses is still very clear in the air as are the damages to the surroundings caused by the battle. 

I see that the people living on this island have already gathered in one place all the bodies, separating them into small groups depending on their affiliations, and are now making sure to cremate them to avoid the spread of the usual issues caused by such a large number of bodies decomposing. 

Luckily it is mostly pirates the one that ended up dead, but still, that doesn't mean that there aren't civilian victims, only that their number is very low thanks to the Heart Pirates and Nikita's actions in stopping the battle, saving the villagers, and giving them medical aid in time. 

After flying for a few seconds, I finally reach Hitori Village and see that the villagers are working hard on repairing the damages caused by the battle, I also notice the presence of Ko and the other members of the Laotour Bandits, who are also helping out, which make me internally comment, 'What is wrong with this world? Those people are clearly bandits and not of the noble kind, they also admitted that, but they behave better than some "official" law enforcement back in my world...' 

At the same time, I also found the people I was looking for, a short young woman, about 1,58 meters tall, with wavy auburn or dark brown hair, bright light-colored blue eyes, and full lips, wearing some light yet somewhat gothic clothing that compliments her full, curvy figure, she is, of course, Nikita.

She is holding the arm of a tall young man with olive skin tone, reddish-brown hair, and amber eye, his attire consists of a white Japanese hakama, a black sash, and an elegant white jacket that he leaves open to expose his muscular chest, he also has a long straight sword strapped on his back, he is the Champion of Decay, and also Nikita's boyfriend, Zandeer.

It is pretty easy to recognize him, not only are his Hole and Estigma (Stigma), the pattern on an Arrancar's face which is the remaining part of a mask that in his case covers his left eye, which is actually where his hole is located, like some kind of visor, a clear indication of his true race, but he also wears clothes that very much reminds me of those worn by Aizen's Espada, basically everything about him screams, "I'm an Arrancar from the Bleach Universe!"

Besides the pair there are other two familiar people, one is a polar bear Mink Tribe wearing an orange jumpsuit that bears the Heart Pirates' Jolly Roger and a pair of small brown boots, he is Bepo, and if I remember well, he is the navigator of the Heart Pirates, and maybe the second in command, but I could be wrong after all, he is the only one I actually remember among all the people of that particular pirate crew.

Of course, that is if I exclude the young man beside him, the captain of the Heart Pirates, Trafalgar D. Water Law, a slim young man of a relatively tall height, he has faint shadows right under his grey eyes and wears the iconic northern-style fur hat, which is white and has a spotted pattern along the bottom and the bill which partially obscures his short dark hair, but not his sideburns and a small goatee, his body is full of tattoos, but most are covered by his current attire.

He is wearing a yellow hoodie, with black sleeves and a black hood, the hoodie has his Jolly Roger printed on the front of the chest area in dark ink, and he keeps the sleeves rolled up, in addition he sports a pair of jeans with odd dots on both the knee and ankle areas, similar to the ones on his hat, but darker in color with a pair of dark, pointed shoes, and also wears a pair of small earrings on each ear.

I see them all standing in front of what looks like a warehouse with some serious expressions on their face, as some other people in lilac boiler suits, very likely some other members of the Heart Pirates, drag out four corpses from within the warehouse, and with a single glance I instantly notice that three of them were all killed with a single precise strike to the throat. 

A very precise cut that not only severed their carotid arteries, but also their vocal cords, a quite cruel way of killing someone as with that kind of cut, the person in question would die in about 5 to 10 minutes as they drown in their own blood, and what is worse isn't the fact that they didn't die of blood loss, but for lack of oxygen to the brain which will then slowly shut down, the only saving grace is that after a minute or so, the person in question will enter in a state of confusion, and won't be able to realize what is going on anymore, it is truly a sadic way to send someone off.

After taking a look at the bodies, I silently land behind the four and say in a calm tone, "Hello there. What is going on here?" making all of them jump in surprise, especially Zandeer who seems very spooked by the fact that he wasn't able to sense my presence until I talked.

At the same time, Nikita lets out a surprised cute-ish shriek, then they all raise their guards ready for an attack, at least until Nikita yells, "Jayr, dammit! How many times do I have to tell you to not take me from behind by surprise!?"

Hearing that, I sigh and ask back, "And how many times do I have to tell you to be more careful in what you say? You can easily cause some misunderstanding"

Nikita tilts her head in confusion, at least until she hears, some of the guys in liliac boiler suits snicker and comment in a low tone, "Huhuhu! So she likes it from behind..." which makes her blush in embarrassment as she realizes how her words can be misunderstood, but soon they stop as Zandeer looks at them as he cracks his knuckles. 

At this point, a still wary Law asks, "Nikita, do you know him?" to which she replies, "Yes, he is my friend..." to which I nod and introduce myself, "My name is Pucci Jayr, a wandering doctor strong enough to go whenever he wants and help whoever needs it. Nice to meet you all."

Hearing that, Law nods and says, "Captain of the Heart Pirates, Trafalgar Law, likewise." followed by Bepo who bows and says, "Navigator, Bepo. Nice to meet you." 

Then Zandeer steps forward and says a little bit tense, "And I'm Firror Zandeer, while Nikita didn't say much about you, she did tell me what you have done for her and have my gratitude for helping her."

I simply smile then reassure him, "Don't worry about it, in these months we spent together she became quite a good friend of mine to the point that my kids think of her as their aunt. And if it can reassure you, she also didn't say anything about you, the only thing I knew was your name, all the other information she knew is under the protection of the Contract."

At this point, Nikita asks, "Since you are here, this means that the situation is now under control, right?" to which I nod and reply, "That's right, Koby, Eri, and Seika are already taken care of the situation on the other islands, while I took out the Simon Pirates' Headquarters on Mu Island and foiled Simon's plan, everything is fine now."

Hearing that, Nikita lets out a sigh of relief as she comments, "That's good... I don't know how it was on other islands but here the situation was quite bad as the battle caused quite a bit of damage and many people lost their lives..."

At this point, Law comments, "Well, remember that it could have been a lot worse after all the deaths are mostly those people from the Simon Pirates and that other pirate group I already forgot the name, most of the innocent ones are still alive even if not really fine." 

After saying that, Law's expression turns more stern as he says, "Now we only have to find that Zabal guy and make sure that he won't be able to harm anyone else. I'm very sure that he is the one that killed these people and kidnapped those two Devil Fruit Users." making Zandeer comments, "That asshole! He first lowered our guard acting as a doctor then he took advantage of a moment of distraction to enter the warehouse to kill and silence the prisoners, while kidnapping those other two!"

Hearing that, I ask "Zabal... are you talking about an average-sized middle-aged man, with a black goatee, black glasses, and a black beanie, with two white sparks on it, he wears an open red coat, with a big white collar, and two white surrounded in black spark at each side of the zipper, under the coat, he seems to wear a red unique suite, with a zipper in the front, he also wears two long scarfs, a white one around his neck and a blue one on his left shoulder, brown open gloves, two narrow brown belts around his legs, and polished dark red shoes?"

Seeing all of them nod, I smile wryly and explain, "Well, you don't have to worry about him. He was a member of the Simon Pirates and was killed by his own Captain when he deemed that he didn't need his services anymore... While a shitty way to go, it isn't totally undeserved, it isn't like he was a good person anyway."

That is in fact, an understatement as in my eyes as a God of Justice his soul shined in a deep bloody red light, he was quite a cruel person with a lot of innocent blood on his hands, moreover, in my eyes as God of Healing, I also know for sure that he didn't use his own knowledge of medical treatments to save lives but abuse anybody and torture anyone he got his hands on for his own amusement, even if the subject isn't his patient, that is the main reason I didn't make a move when Simon killed him, he deserved that and a little bit more.

Learning of Zabal's demise, Law shrugs his shoulders not caring anymore about him, then he looks at Zandeer and asks, "So, now that you have finally reunited with your woman, what are you going to do now? Are you two going to continue to travel with us or will you go with her?"

Hearing his question, Zendeer remains in silence, as it seems that he has some problem finding the right words to answer Law's question, then after some time, he replies, "I'm sorry Law, I'd love to continue to travel with you guys, but my situation doesn't allow me to stay in one place for too long, as I already told you before..."

Law smirks lightly and says, "Don't sweat the small stuff, no matter what, you'll always have a place in the Heart Pirates. Remember, no matter where you go in the future, you'll always be a member of the Heart Pirates!" which makes Zandeer smile back at him and reply, "Aye, aye, captain! These few months together were really fun, thanks a lot for accepting me in your crew!"

After that, with tacit understanding, Zandeer, Nikita, and I quickly excuse ourselves and walk out to the slowly recovering village to head somewhere more private so that we can have a very important discussion.

Once we are away from everyone else in a deserted clearing of the nearby forest, I turn around and look at Zandeer right in the eye as the tension among us rises, I ask, "So, what are your intentions? Are you going to challenge me? Fight me? Straight up surrender or ask me to surrender? Or do you have another idea in mind?"

Again, Zandeer falls into silence as he looks back at me, then after a few moments of tense silence, he sighs and says, "First of all, I have no intention of fighting or challenging you, first because I'm very grateful for how you treated Nikita, she is a very important person to me and having her back by my side safe and sound is more than what I hoped for since the last Random Battle."

At the same time, I smirk seeing Nikita standing beside him as blushes heavily and starts to fidget a little as her gaze shyly moves to Zandeer, whose gaze is still trained on me as he continues, "Second, I don't like to admit it, but I'm not sure if I can even defeat you to being with even if we fight, after all, you where easily able to sneak up on me, even at this very moment you appear completily invisible to my Reikaku (Spiritual Sense), it is like you don't even exist to being with, which is very scary considering that I have never encountered such situation until now."

Zandeer's tone becomes firmer as he continues, "But at the same time, I also don't want to surrender to you, and so, lose my Blessing and my qualification as Champion, and there are two important reasons for that." 

Then Zandeer grabs his Zanpakutō, a very long katana, about as tall as he is, with a brown handle, a x shaped crossguard, and an equally brown sheat, and explains, "The first one is that I'm not sure if I would be able to actually control Chacales (Jackal) without it as its power is already wild and dangerous enough as it is, I truly don't want to think about the damage it could cause if it goes on a rampage..."

Hearing that, I can't help but think, 'Oh... just what kind of dreadful powers are sealed within that Zanpakuto? For sure something related to the Concept of Decay since he feels that is necessary for him to have his Blessing to keep it under control, and from personal experience I know that none of the Concepts are really that straightforward and simple... After all, at first, my Blessing only enhanced my mental capacity a little and my learning and teaching capabilities, but then there is the hidden feature of the Seed of Culture and who knows how many others I still can't access thanks to the low level of my Blessing.' 

After saying that, Zandeer smiles wryly and adds, "As for the second reason is even simpler, while I don't really care too much about becoming the ruler of this Omniverse, I truly won't feel very safe if the final winner of the Battle Across the Omniverse is someone like that piece of shit I encountered before or maybe even worse than him, especially since he or she could harm those I hold dear." 

While saying that, Zandeer for the first time takes his gaze away from me and looks directily at Nikita beside him, showing just how important she is for him. 

At the same time, I can't help but agree with his reasoning, in fact, that is exactily the main reason why I'm also aiming to win the Battle Across the Omniverse. 

I have already a very fulfilling life the likes of which I could only dream about it before, I have a loving family, beautiful, smart, and incredible lovers, amazingly cute children, I have the abilities to save many lives from what before I thought as incurable diseases and ailments, powers way beyond the common sense, I became a literal God with at the very least two worlds worth of people praying to me for salvation, protection, and guidance.

But all that could easily go to the drain if a sick piece of shit ends up winning the Battle Across the Omniverse and gain absolute authority over this Omniverse and every being living in it, that's why I can't allow that to happen and the only way to ensure that is to win and earn that authority myself.

While I'm silently agreeing with his words, Zandeer looks back at me and says, "Those are the reasons why I'm going to propose you something different from all the options you have said before. From what Nikita could tell me, I know that you are a trustworthy person. So, I want to form an official alliance between us, an alliance ensured by a Contract enforced by the Concepts themselves just like the one that you and Nikita currentily have, with terms that will prevent us from harming each other and the people we hold dear, and that once we, and our possible future allies, are the only Champions still competing, will ensure that the final winner of the Battle Across the Omniverse will be decided in a non-lethal way."

After explaining his proposal, Zandeer looks at me with a smile and asks, "So, what do you think about my idea? I think it is a good win-win situation for us." 

I stare down at Zandeer for a few seconds thinking about the pro and con of his proposal, 'The advantages of this proposal are pretty clear, for one I gain a decentily powerful ally which can be trusted and join forces travelling together in some particuarly dangerous universes, plus it also makes it possible to visit more than one universe in one year as together we will essentially have two Unigate to make us of, moreover the presence of two Soulbound Territories could also be another safety net for Saori, Seika, Tio, Eri and the others. On the other hand, the disadvantages of his proposal are also pretty clear to me, first of all, there is the most concerning matter of increasing our Blessing's level, after all, the only way to do that is by defeating other Champions and since there would be two of us this means that I may not be able to gain levels as quickly as someone who is moving alone as our gains would be divided among the two of us, which in turn would also make it the Random Battle more difficult as my opponent could have a higher level than me granting him all kinds of advantages. But despite that, overall I think it is a good idea especially since in case something bad happens, I can always ask him to bring everyone safely back to my homeworld using his Unigate... or the Garganta if it allows him to move between Universes, something I'm not actually sure of.'

Coming to that conclusion, I offer him my hand and with a smile, I say, "I agree with you, working together will bring us more advantages than disadvantages, moreover, it will also bring more safety to those we will hold dear. Let's sign a binding contract withnessed and enforced by the Concepts that ensure that we won't knowlingly harm each other and those dear to us, both directly and indirectly, will make us unable to reveal any secret we will learn, and also with the term that in case we and our allies are the only remaining competing Champion, the final victor will be chosen in a non-lethal competition."

He doesn't think about it for even a second as he quickly holds my hand and replies, "Let's do it."

At the same time, a small table with a pen and the contracts in question laying on top of it appears between us, as Culture's voices declares, [A contract under our name has been requested by the Man of Culture and the Man of Decay. All the Concepts in existance will witness and make sure that this contract's terms are held in such a way that both parties won't casually breach it, but if one of the parties breachs the terms of the contract then his or her soul will be fully and forever erased the same instant he or she does so, nothing will be able to save them.]

After Culture finish saying that, Zandeer doesn't hesitate and quickly picks up the pen and signs his name on the contract, then he looks at me and offering the pen he says, "Done! Your turn."

I take the pen with a smile and also sign the contract, and as soon as I lift the pen from the paper, the contract shines with a multicolored glow and turns into countless motes of light that are then absorbed into our bodies, making me realize that now the contract is fully in effect making our alliance official.