19 Celebration

Bone armor encased my body two inches thick in the most heavily armored parts. Even a bone helmet covered my head. I watched as James' eyes grow wide as I approached him, "My thorns can pierce through metal. Your bone armor won't stand a chance."

His attacks did nothing to me, and as I drew closer and closer. The more panicked and frantic he became, "Sorry, but my bones are already stronger than metal."

[Iai Sutairu: Draw]

I landed on the other side of James, blood coating the edge of my sword. With a flick, I cleaned my blade before sheathing my weapon. James' body was relieved of his head as his body collapsed to the ground.

The battle around me was wrapping up. We had won easily, as one of the strongest pirates crews in the world. All the enemy pirates that weren't dead were sent off on a small rowboat to fend for themselves.

And once I presented the head to Whitebeard, I was officially part of the crew. My first action was to help with the injuries. There were no casualties, but more than one person was in critical condition.

Marco, after volunteering my services, Marco immediately appointed me as the second head doctor. My devil fruit abilities were convenient in blood and organ donations. If I had a sample of their blood, I could create any organ that person could need. The process took hours, but it was worth it.

The next day everyone was in a good mood as we celebrated our recent victory. Everyone heard the memo that I had beaten the drinking champion thanks to my devil fruit. It wasn't surprising that Whitebeard banded me from drinking competitions.

That was fine with me. While everyone was celebrating, I worked on my experiments. The seeds Crocus had given me had started to flower, and he was right. It was the ultimate energy drink. I was trying to concentrate the leaves into a pill form when someone sat down right next to me.

"Hey, Marco, what do you need." I looked over from my work, and I smiled at the phoenix man. Marco handed me a mug.

"You should take a break from all that stuff. Believe me. You'll have plenty of time to yourself. Some times too much."

Thinking it over for a bit, I shrugged, "Sure, why not? I'm going to see how much I need to drink to get hammered."

"That's the spirit, here. Let me introduce you to everyone." Marco took me around the ship introducing me to literally everyone. I recognized a few of them from the nursery ward.

I swear the god made the people in this world out of sterner stuff, we partied into the night, and by the time the sun rose, I had claimed an entire barrel of sake for myself.

I was defiantly feeling the buzz by then. One thing I also realized I was pretty young. Everyone looked shocked when I answered the question of how old I was. With my height and demeanor, I did look a lot older.

Draining the barrel of sake, I closed my eyes, the alcohol making me sleepy. Waking up in the morning, I thanked my lucky stars that I never had to deal with another hangover in my life.

From its looks, I wasn't the first one to rise and not the only one to be in bright spirits. Walking down to the showers, one of the private stalls was open, so I hopped in.

No one knew about my past as a slave. It's not as if I was scared of them finding out I didn't want to have that conversation.

Walking out of the shower, I walked back to my room. To change, I said hello to the people I saw along the way. Once I dressed, I found myself on the deck. The general feel of the Whitebeard pirates was laid back.

I saw people sleeping, eating, drinking, and sparing.

"Hey Soren, you want to get a round In? I want to see that draw style again." I looked over to see Bane calling me down to the designated sparring area.

We talked about swordsmanship and blade forging. The guy was a fanatic. Smiling, I walked over and clasped forearms, "I don't see why not. I'm interested in that khopesh at your waist as well."

Bane was tall, almost seven-foot covered in muscle with dark skin and a shaved head, "I hope we both learn something from this exchange."

We waited our turn, which wasn't long. Standing at opposite sides of the mat, we both brandished our weapons. I was surprised initially when I first saw Bane's weapon. I recognized it from Earth. It was a traditional Egyptian sickle sword. It was about 24 inches in length and weighed a shocking 40 pounds.

The weapon was adapted from a Waraxe. Bane could use the curve to pull away an opponent's shield or trap their arm.

"Are you ready Soren? I won't go easy on you."

I grinned, "I would hope so."

Once the countdown began, I shifted my weight rooting myself to the floor, "Five, four, three, two, one, begin!"

[Iai Sutairu: Domain]

I sheathed my sword and activated my domain as Bane rushed me, "Is this one of your techniques. I can't wait to see it."

Bane brought his sickle down in an overhead slash his sword entering my domain, "Don't worry I'll use the back of my blade."

[Iai Sutairu: Counter]

My sword pushed Bane's khopesh to the side and in one smooth motion, my sword ended up against his neck. Bane sweatdropped and his eyes were wide, "I admit defeat.."

I smiled, "Of course you do, your mistake was rushing ahead." Bane smiled, there were no hard feelings between crewmates.

"Anyone else wants to go a round, I'm in the mood to fight someone." Instead of being culled people started to form a crowd to challenge Soren, 'I hope don't get too excited.'