48 Baba Yagá
Three years after Fred set out on his adventure out of Narthad
Thirteen years before Luffy set out on his adventure outside of Goa Kingdom.
At night, in the middle of the West Blue sea, on the ship of the [Iron Fist] pirates there was a part
A party to celebrate the victory they had this afternoon against the [Wooden Leg] pirates, whose currently abandoned but treasure-filled ship was sitting alongside theirs right now
And in the middle of the party, a nineteen-year-old boy named Komatsu Koba, who felt like a fish out of water... and stuck in lava...
'Why? Why am I here?'
Komatsu Koba was a boy from an East Blue merchant family who had recently managed to join the nobility of a certain country. And due to the competition with the rest of his brothers to become the heir to his father's merchant company and/or the new title of nobleman, to demonstrate his initiative and ability as a merchant Komatsu decided to travel to West Blue to expand his family's business and thereby get many points in front of his father
But... everything went wrong...
'Why is all this happening to me?
It's not normal!'
After arriving at West Blue, a storm and some sea monsters that came out to play during the storm sank his ship and made it shipwreck!
After that he drifted on a wooden plank without drinking water, food, friends, acquaintances, relatives or servants for days... alone and with the firm belief that he would die at any moment.
Until... HE SAW A SHIP!
A ship passed close to him and stopped to pick him up and with that save him from a more than certain death!
However... the poor Komatsu might have preferred to tempt fate and wait for another ship
'SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!'
Since that ship was a pirate ship!
Extremely evil pirates that they made him work like a slave for days, mistreated and insulted him constantly, gave him food in very poor condition that was hardly edible and they even joked... or maybe not... with selling him as a slave if he didn't work hard for them
The poor Komatsu almost gave up hope of ever going back to his old life, much less inheriting his father's business empire and peerage...
Especially when those pirates were attacked by other pirates who practically slaughtered them completely!
'I'm jinxed, I swear, nobody can be so unlucky!'
Fortunately for him and another young man like him aboard the [Wooden Leg] pirate ship, the [Iron Fist] pirates for various reasons needed more people to join their ranks and since those two boys they weren't on their enemies' ship of their own free will and hadn't killed any of theirs nakamas the captain [invited] them to join their tribulation
"COME ON KIDS! DON'T BE SO SCARED!
WE DON'T BITE!"
"At least not much!
HUAHUAHUA!!!
Have some beer!"
In a few days Komatsu had gone from being a young man living comfortably in his mansion to an ambitious merchant trying to earn recognition from his family, then a shipwrecked waiting for death, then a slave to the [Wooden Leg] pirates and now to a member of the [Iron Fist] pirates
'Look on the bright side Komatsu...
At least these pirates treat me better than the previous ones
Finally some human food and drink!'
Despite not liking this situation at all, Komatsu wasn't an idiot like other clichés noble. Right now kicking, whining, demanding or even negotiate amicably and reasonably with them wasn't a very good idea, rather it would only harm him, his family and future due to his identity
If he wanted to survive, be treated with a modicum of dignity and one day have the opportunity to recover his life in an uncertain future, he needed to earn the trust of the [Iron Fist] pirates. And to achieve that goal, the first thing he needed was to start a conversation with them
'Let's see...
How can I break the ice?'
In search of a topic of conversation, he looked around, at all the pirates celebrating victory at a party and Komatsu saw something at least curious.
Some of the pirates, including Captain Drenvor, still hadn't drunk a drop of alcohol, hadn't eaten a single morsel of food right under their noses and instead of feasting with their mates they were with his gun in hand and looking nervously from side to side
A behavior unusual enough for Komatsu to ask in the most discreet way possible "This...
Captain... Don't you like alcohol?"
"..."
However, Komatsu didn't receive any response from the captain, nor from the vice captain or other pirates who were acting weird like him... and certainly not from the drunken partygoers.
The answer was given by the other young man who until recently was enslaved by the [Wooden Leg] pirates "They are probably worried about the [Pirate Butcher]"
And that answer...
Clank! Clonk! Ruby! Crash!
Stopped the party completely...
The pirates who were celebrating suddenly became extremely serious, those who had already shown seriousness before now seemed to be about to engage in combat, the musicians stopped playing their instruments and more than one dropped their plate or glass on the ground.
Just naming that person made the 96% of the experienced pirate crew freak out like little kids hearing about the Boogeyman
However, Komatsu didn't really know who the hell they were talking about, so he asked with a lump in his throat "Who's he?"
"WHO!!!??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!??'
EVERY PIRATE AND NON PIRATE IN THE WEST BLUE KNOWS WHO HE IS!!" Almost the entire crew shouted in unison hotheaded and even offended by Komatsu's question.
And Komatsu, now more terrified than before for fear of having offended them in some unknown way and that they would do something bad to him, was forced to clarify his situation "I'M SORRY!
It's been a few days since I came from the East Blue and I became a pirate very recently too!
FORGIVE ME FOR MY IGNORANCE!"
An explanation that minimally appeased the exalted spirits of the pirates, who were sympathetic unlike the previous ones with whom he lived the last few days
"Ok... calm down guys...
If so, it's not unreasonable that you haven't heard as much about him.
Although it's also possible that you recognize him by another name... after all in these three years he has earned a lot of nicknames...
[Pirate Butcher], [Child of the massacre], [Venom Demon], [The Grim Reaper], [Demon-faced torturer], [Bloody Hair], [Dark Brain], [Impending Doom]...
But if you have ever heard of Frederick Freed, it was surely with his first nickname, the [Demon Hunter]" Said the Drenvor, who as captain saw himself with the duty of educating his new members
But luckily Komatsu had a good memory and remembered hearing that name a long time ago "Frederick Freed... [Demon Hunter]...
OH! YESSSS!
That boy who at the age of 10 wiped out an entire pirate crew!
There was a lot of talk about him at the time..."
"That's right...
And two years later he officially started working as a bounty hunter.
Three years ago, when we saw in the newspaper that at the age of twelve that boy, who rose to fame solely by a stroke of luck, had entered this world, we didn't take it very seriously.
We and all the others West Blue pirates believed that sooner or later we would also see in the newspapers that brat had died from overestimating himself and underestimating us, but...
We couldn't have been more wrong!" Said the vice captain Thomas, who took over from the captain of him to also explain this story
A story that the pirates wanted to remember in a masochistic way! That's why they gathered in a huge circle with Komatsu in the center, as if the scared guy was a campfire and the pirates were the children in a summer camp telling horror stories before going to sleep.
"For three years, almost every week we have been able to see in the newspapers how that little monster finished us off with a method more twisted than the previous one...
Poisoning food and drink, especially at parties, like the one we are having now..."
And not only the captain and the vice captain, many others completed this explanation
"Hiding on the bathroom ceiling and ambushing us when we're just pooping"
"Doing exactly the same when we are enjoying a girl in a brothel"
"Poisoning or even electrocuting the water in public toilets when we bathe"
"Perfectly disguising himself as a nakama to stab the captain in the back"
"Brainwashing nakamas to kill each other, sometimes using human bombs"
"Getting inside the mattress of our beds to get out of it and stab us or cut our throats with a wire just when we are asleep"
"Putting deadly traps on chairs, floors, beds, or anywhere we normally sit, stretch, or walk"
"Taming hordes of wild animals to attack us when we find ourselves in the middle of a forest or jungle"
"Manipulating our guns or cannons so that they explode in our faces when we use them"
"Putting a bullet in our heads from the other end of the city"
"Using gases in closed places, which KO us in a matter of seconds"
"Detonating explosives on ships, sinking them completely in the middle of the sea... while gunning them down from his super-fast ship"
"And...also...things...that it's better that you don't know...
At least if you don't want to vomit..."
The list was huge, so much so that Vice Captain Thomas had to intervene so he wouldn't spend all night listing them. The important thing was to make Komatsu understand what the hell they were up against. "The list of methods that this little monster uses to kill is as long as the sea itself and that's what makes him so terrifying...
Because of him, many pirates, at least the most... cautious... no longer eat or drink well, to the point of starvation...
Some are no longer capable of going to shit if there isn't someone with them to watch... and even so they don't even completely sit on the toilet or drop their pants all the to his ankle's or knees in case they need to run for their lives.
Now we cannot trust each other, since he could be impersonating anyone or he could use us against our Nakamas!
We are even afraid to use our firearms!
Many aren't even able to sleep!
That's what makes him so scary...
He makes you live in constant fear, forcing you to be extremely cautious every hour of the day, every day of the week, affecting your work, life… ANE EVEN SANITY!
BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THAT TWISTED MONSTER WILL HAVE YOU IN HIS SIGHT OR WEN HE WILL DECIDE TO KILL YOU!!!"
By now Komatsu already fully understood the strange behavior of some pirates... and he was starting to get really scared, especially since the Vice Captain's face was extremely close to his, surely to reinforce his terrifying explanation
"And if that time comes, pray that Fred kills you on the spot.
Because if he catches you alive and for whatever reason you haven't been able to kill yourself... you'll wish you had as soon as he starts torturing you...
A torture that even Impel Down's professional torturers believe is too cruel to be used on humans...
People say that a few pirates are lucky enough to witness such torture without being ...turned into something other than a human being... surrender themselves to the Marine, tearfully begging and with unspeakable trauma to be locked up in their deepest prison...
In a place far from the reach of Fred!
Where many of them, especially those who are left alone with their thoughts, commit suicide the same day they are locked up after remembering what they experienced..." Said Captain Drenvor, bringing his terrifying face closer to Komatsu in the same way as his second in command to scare the young man as much as he could and thus make sure that the greatest number of people felt the same fear that he felt.
A fear that Komatsu would have felt even without all this performance, which in itself was also very terrifying 'FU... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK!
NOW MORE THAN EVER I DON'T WANT TO BE A PIRATE!
WHY OF ALL THE SEAS DID I HAVE TO BECOME A PIRATE IN THE ONLY ONE THAT THERE'S A BOUNTY HUNTER SO CRAZY!?
I'M JINXED! I'M DEFINITIELY JINXED!'
However...
Not everyone understood what the veteran pirates were trying to convey...
"BUAHHH!!!
HE'S JUST A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD BOY!
A coward without hair in his balls who can only kill with poisons like a woman because he lacks the strength and guts to fight like a real man!" Shouted Ogami, a tough-looking, extremely muscular 25-year-old man with little brain and who seemed to have atrophied his brains even more with a copious amount of alcohol "¡If we surround him in the open field and attack him together, that microbe have nothing to do!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
"YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"
A stupid and senseless laugh that was interrupted by one of his companions, one who hadn't eaten or drunk that night either, whose hands were shaking and he showed more fear than anyone else.
A man in his 35s named Klein who, as soon as Ogami stopped laughing like an idiot, had the opportunity to explain to Ogami, Komatsu and any other ignorant what they were facing "Many of you know that I joined this gang six months ago.
What some may not know is that before joining this crew I was part of the [Black Door] association, a powerful underworld organization specializing in kidnapping, robbery and murder, especially focused on extremely wealthy people..."
"And... why are you no longer in that association?
What happened?" Komatsu and Ogami asked when they saw that Klein had stopped short of his explanation, perhaps to get a breath, to remember more details, to put those details in order... or simply because it hurt to remember...
And after a few seconds, after taking a breath and putting his ideas in order, Klein continued "The Kingdom of Ballywood eight months ago was attacked by the huge and feared fleet of pirates [Guns and Bullets]
The security forces of the kingdom couldn't do anything against the pirates and the Navy would take many hours to arrive
The entire country seemed to be on the verge of collapse, but luckily for the citizens of Ballywood the [Demon Hunter] was inside the country at the time to do business.
I don't know the full details but he alone killed the captain and vice captain in less than a minute and while panic spread over the death of their leaders that monster slaughtered the rest of the crew that could be counted in thousands mercilessly in a matter of minutes...
He alone stopped an entire army in the middle of the battle!"
And the vice captain, one of those who read the newspaper and therefore knew about those facts added "That earned him the nickname [Hero of Ballywood]
"Glup" Many ignorant pirates gulped, stunned to hear that story of last year for the first time.
And after that introduction Klein continued with his story "To celebrate that victory and win the favor of the one-man army, politicians, aristocrats, magnates, the king and practically all the people with power in the country planned to celebrate a luxurious banquet in which obviously Fred would be the star
And we saw this banquet as a great, great opportunity to do business...
How could wen't see it?
All the rich people of one of the richest countries in the West blue and their families would be concentrated in one place!
Their wives would be walking jewelry stores crying out to be stolen! They would leave their sons and daughters there to be kidnapped or taken hostage, giving them no choice but to give us a fortune if they wanted them back! Or if they all wanted to get out of there alive!
So we came up with a great plan...
The entire [Black Door] group, with the help of some mafia groups, infiltrated the security team of that event for days until we completely took it over and from there we created our ideal scenario…
To avoid an excess of people we limited the companions of each family preventing them from bringing many bodyguards and due to security measures and among other rules no one was allowed to bring weapons...
Nobody except us, obviously...
In addition, we had put sleeping pills in food and drink, taking inspiration from a certain person."
WOW! That was a great plan!" Some of the pirates yelled, impressed with the intelligence of the criminal group Klein belonged to.
But Klein turned a deaf ear to such flattery, in part because he was too focused on his story. "Everything was going according to plan...
There was no way the local weaklings could do anything against us just as they couldn't do anything against the pirates [Guns and Bullets]
The only variable was [Demon Hunter]!
A 14-year-old boy famous for his ambushes who this time would be completely exposed, surrounded and caught by surprise...
A famous user of weapons and poisons who would be completely unarmed while we would be armed to the teeth...
Also, we removed the forks and knives from the entire event replacing them with chopsticks just in case...
For this reason, we believed, just like you did a moment ago, that in this way we would be able to kill him, increase our fame and earn extra money with the reward that the Dones had offered us for killing him that night.
And that was the worst mistake of our lives!"
And from there his explanation began to become even more dramatic "...
...
When almost everyone started to fall asleep... although not Fred, obviously...
Three of our most capable men went to kill him at lightning speed... and even faster that kid killed all three with a bottle of ketchup...
WITH A FUCKING... BOTTLE OF KÉTCHUP!
…
And immediately after that madman... after leaving us all stunned... ignoring us all, he sat down again and poured the reddish content that was in that broken ketchup bottle over his steak... that we no longer knew if it was ketchup or no... and he ate it as if nothing had happened..."
"WHAT!? With a bottle of ketchup!?
WOW! What fucking disgusting!
Why did he use a ketchup bottle? A broken bottle of wine sure would be better for that.
He put ketchup on a steak!? THAT WOULD KILL IT'S TASTE!!" Many of the pirates present there asked and exclaimed, among them the chef who was very outraged by what he heard
"I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHY HE DID THAT!
HE'S CRAZY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT NOW!?
Ahhhh... but that was only the beginning...
When we got out of the initial shock and started shooting at him, everything got worse." Said Klein, who continued his explanation while his whole body trembled, almost as if he suffered from impothermia "At a surreal speed, that red-haired demon began to slaughter us while dodging our bullets, even though it seemed like it was a game to him...
Some were killed by friendly fire, as he was literally using us as human shields.
Yeah! He would grab us by the neck and use us as a shield while he ran!
But most died directly by his hands...
Blowing their heads off with a punch!
Turning them into a cannonball with one kick!
Puncturing their brains by sticking a toothpick up their noses!
Gouging out their eyes with his fingers!
Tearing their throats out with a single bite!
Breaking the plates and bottles and using the fragments as throwing weapons!
¡FUCK!
I saw how he tore pieces of meat with his hands, as if for him the human body was made of paper!
His hair seemed to take on a life of its own and like an octopus he would strangle multiple people to death at once!
As he ran he sanded Mike's face against the wall until it disappeared!
And I watched as he broke the arms of Joe's the [Dwarf], grabbed him by the ankles, and used him like a club against our comrades as he yelled...
I'LL USE A MOTHERFUCKER TO BEAT ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKER!
GOD! IT WAS LIKE WATCHING A MAN CRACK A WALNUT WITH ANOTHER WALNUT, ONLY THAT THE WALNUTS WERE HUMAN HEADS!
...
That was hell... he massacred us... and we made that boy who laughed like a demon while he killed us look like a hero
An even greater hero by rescuing all the wealthy citizens again...
We were too naive, with or without weapons, that bounty hunter is a monster…" "It was at that event that he earned the nickname [Human Weapon] right?" Asked the Captain, who had obviously heard of that event, one of the many reasons why he felt great fear for that child
And Klein nodded, although his body continued to shake non-stop "Yes…
Anything he owned or had around him became a weapon..."
"AND...
How could you escape? Komatsu asked, who as a son of a nobleman was happy for Fred's feat, but as a forced pirate... he was even more terrified than before...
"Not all of us acted as security guards that day
A few of us posed as people who attended the party and thanks to that I was able to escape among the rest of the participants...
After that I wanted to leave this life for fear that vengeful monster would find me... but unfortunately he didn't kill everyone and managed to make talk some of our members… and with that they put a bounty of five million on my head and also on the heads of all those who managed to escape...
And now I'm here, being part of the [Iron Fist] pirates with all of you...
Explaining to a poor idiot why he shouldn't make the mistake that I and my late companions made that day
DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW YOU FUCKING IDIOT!?" Klein yelled while grabbing Ogami by the neck lapel.
A rude and disrespectful Ogami who didn't respond to Klein, who was weaker than him, with an insult or a punch to the face out of respect, for being stunned to hear the story, for sympathy or because he was seriously reflecting on the bravado he said earlier.
He just... couldn't move a single muscle...
Neither he nor many others like him, who had eaten and drunk without caring about the Boogeyman.
"FUUUUUUCKKKK!!!!" Shouted all those who had been too cautious, who drew their weapons and fearfully looked from side to side in search of the same demon
In a situation like this, the most resonable thing would be to make a circle and protect each other's backs, but... nobody did that, quite the contrary...
They all looked at each other as if any one of them could be the enemy in disguise! No one trusted the other, they didn't even trust their own shadow right now!
'It just can't be...
I'm jinxed! I'm definitely jinxed!' Komatsu thought, paralyzed like most of his new companions as he watched in amazement as the greatest of his new fears materialized in front of him...
It was happening...
It was happening just like the story those superstitious pirates told him just now...
Their nightmares were becoming real...
"WHERE ARE YOU [PIRATE BUTCHER]!?
GET OUT AT ONCE!!" Shouted Captain Drenvor the [Iron Fist], armed with his metal gauntlets that earned him that nickname and demanding that the demon they seemed to have summoned manifest before them.
A request that like every demon would surely only fulfil in exchange for their souls.
"HAHAHAHAHA!
The good thing about making my methods famous is that I can screw up your fucking life even when I'm shitting in the comfort of my house
The bad thing is that sometimes you force me to make an extra effort..." Said one of its oldest and oldest members, who unlike them was always the soul of every party and drank and ate a lot without worrying about anything
And today he was no exception, however... unlike the others who also drank and ate... he could move perfectly
"It just can't be...
Stuart..." Murmured the pirates that hadn't been paralyzed... and that couldn't believe what their eyes were seeing and what their ears were hearing
And what they knew would happen next...
Stuart, an almost bald man, middle-aged and approximately three meters tall, whom many have known for a lifetime, raised his hand to his head and...
Chaf...
He tore it off as if it were a mask, revealing under it a young man with a fairly normal face
The face of a young man with green eyes and extremely long reddish hair that no one understood where he had been until now under that bald mask... and now with a totally different voice from the Stuart they knew told the pirates that they were about to to shit on yourself
"BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Did someone say my name three times in a row in front of a mirror?"
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You'll be able to see 8 chapters in advance in my Pa-treon
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