9 Demon of The Sea

[3rd Branch Marine Base, East Blue]

"How's the situation going with the Mad Eyes Pirates?" A one-eyed man with long grey hair and a scare across his forehead asked, he was sitting on a desk and doing paperwork.

"I can't say much, they didn't make any significant movements for the past two months" A noticeably large man with bald head replied, he was sitting on a couch with his weapon beside him.

"We need to quickly clean them out before they get more troublesome, I trust you can get this job done Brody?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it" Brody replied.

"COMMODORE ASAHORI!!" A marine came yelling into the room drenched in sweat.

"What's going on?!! Why are you yelling?!!" Asahori put down the papers in his hand and asked the marine officer.

"We got an urgent report!!..." He paused for a second to catch his breath and then continued "Captain Kotsumi got killed along with lieutenant Morgan and dozens of other officers!!!" Asahori and Brody were shocked upon hearing the news.

"WHAT?!! GIVE ME THAT REPORT NOW!!" Asahori ordered him and the marine handed the report to him. After reading it he got furious and smashed the table with his hand.

"THAT CARELESS BASTARD TOOK THREE SHIPS TO CAPTURE TWO PIRATES AND STILL GOT KILLED!!" Asahori looked like he was going to explode from anger.

"Calm down, there is no use getting angry about it now. We should start thinking about how we deal with this situation!" Brody tried to calm him down.

"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN AFTER READING THIS?!" Asahori yelled at Brody "HOW CAN I EXPLAIN THIS TO THE HEADQUARTER?!" He yelled out and started cursing but, after a few minutes he managed to calm down.

"Sigh…This is a mess…I want you to increase their bounties immediately specially that Ashen guy and transmit this report to other branches."

"YES SIR!!"

"You're dismissed!" The marine left the room.

"We don't know anything about this guy, I want you to do a full background investigation on him!" Asahori ordered Brody.

"I'll get into it right away" He replied.

"Let's put the matter of the Mad Eyes Pirates on hold for now, I want you to focus on these guys. I want them dead or in prison as soon as possible do you understand?!" Asahori said to Brody.

"I understand!"

"We need to cut the roots before they grow stronger"

[Somewhere on the sea]

(First Person Pov)

It's been two months since we left Orange Town, since then we have been sailing in the sea hunting and raiding pirate ships to steal their treasures and belongings as it was the easiest way for us to make money.

"KEN QUICKLY BEHIND THEM!!" I shouted at him while observing a pirate ship from a distance with my spyglass "If you dare loose them, I'll cut your wage in half!!"

"Damn it!! Don't you have any respect for old people?!!" Ken said while steering the ship.

"Captain, we're close enough. Should we start preparing the canons?" Calving asked me calmly while puffing smoke from his mouth and holding a cigarette in his right hand.

"Yeah!" we immediately went down to the powder magazine and brought the cannon balls and started loading the cannons.

"ALRIGHT GET US IN LINE WITH THEM!!" I shouted to Ken, and he immediately turned the ship, so we were side by side with them.

On the opposite ship,

"T-That flag… it's ASHEN PIRATES!!" One of the pirates screamed.

"Then that guy must be 'Demon of The Sea' Ashen!!"

"The bloodthirsty demon who never leave any survivors!"

"SHUT UP!! Don't start panicking because of a rookie!" a drunk man wearing the captain's hat appeared, he was carrying a huge club in his left hand and a bottle of alcohol in his right one.

"B-But he-" The pirate got interrupted.

"STOP CRYING LIKE LITTLE BITCHES AND GET READY TO FIGHT!!!" The drunk man shouted at his men.

"YES CAPTAIN!!" All the pirates went to their positions and got ready.

Back at the ship,

"FIRE!!" I gave Calvin the signal and he used his cigarette to apply fire to the breech, then we started shooting at the enemy.

"*CANON SHOT*…*CANNON SHOT*"

"*BOOOM!!*…*BOOOM!!*" We managed to hit them.

"*CANON SHOT*…*CANNON SHOT*" They also fired back at us.

"*BOOOM!!*…*BOOOM!!*" Our ship was hit and received some damage.

"We got hit!!" Calvin informed me.

"Ken!! Let's close the distance, we're going for a close fight!!"

"Roger That!!" He replied then immediately started rotating the wheel and moving the ship closer to the enemies.

"*CANON SHOT*…*CANNON SHOT*"

"*BOOOM!!*…*BOOOM!!*" They kept shooting at us, but we didn't receive any serious damage.

When we got close enough, we jumped into their ship.

"Calvin let's go!!" The moment we landed they came charging us.

Without wasting any time, I kicked the ground hard and used Geppo to fly above them and then used 'Tobu Shigan' to shoot them from a distance. Thanks to my continuous training and fights these past two months I was able improve Shigan to the point that I can use a projectile version of it.

As for Geppo it was just a matter of time before I learn it as I already built enormous leg strength from my leg training, and I also unlocked Rankyaku at the same time.

"H-HE'S FLYING!!!" The pirates were shocked at my performance.

"RANKYAKU!!" I kicked with my right leg as hard as I can and at a high speed which resulted in a sharp compressed blade of wind flying down to hit the ship.

"*BOOOOM!!*" The attack left a huge crack on the ship surface, injured dozens of pirates and killed several others.

"You always like to show off!" Calvin commented on my attack.

"HAHAHA! Life is short why not enjoy it the way you want!" He proceeded to use Tekkai which he also unlocked recently to attack the rest of the pirates.

"D-DAMN IT!! YOU DEMON!!" The captain was crawling backward on the ground.

"I Heard that a lot in the past few weeks" I said to him while holding my gun.

"W-Wait! Please don't kill me! You can take everything just spare my life!" The captain started begging for his life.

"I will do that anyway" I pointed my gun at him and shot him. After that we cleaned the rest of the pirates and searched the ship, took any valuables then left.

"No survivors again?" Ken asked.

"Do you feel bad for them?"

"No, it's not that…"

"These lowlife pirates live off of killing and stealing other people's stuff so you shouldn't feel bad for them" I said to him.

'The straw hats are an exception'.

"Aren't we the same?" he said.

"Yeah! We are also pirates" I answered him.

"Just do your job and stop worrying about useless stuff" Calvin told him while lighting another cigarette.

It's not like I enjoy killing, it's just that I don't want people to come back for revenge later or something like that.

"I don't know who started this rumor but it's not like the other pirates don't commit massacres" I said.

"It's because your massacre pirates, that's why they call you 'Demon of The Sea'" Calvin explained to me.

"What about you? You're also a culprit?" I asked him.

"You're the captain, you represent the crew" he said, then went to pick a bottle of sake and started drinking.

And speaking of killing I never would have imagined myself getting use to killing people this quickly. It's good that I was able to adapt to this world in a short amount of time, I can't afford being weak if I want to survive.

Even Whitebeard who was portrayed as good pirate in the anime didn't hesitate to kill his enemies, he even waged a war to save Ace.

I went to Ken and told him our next destination and then made my way to the captain's cabin to rest.

I laid on the bed and closed my eyes and started thinking for a bit.

'It's time to enter the grand line. I can't get any stronger if I stay here' I thought, I already made the decision. There was only one pirate crew left that I want to fight before leaving.

"Mad Eyes Pirates" I heard their captain came back from the grand line a year ago, he most had been defeated by someone strong and fled back here.

'We'll see how strong he is once I find him' I also decided to wait until I enter the grand line before I eat or give the Mera Mera no Mi to Calvin as there is a chance to find a stronger fruit like the Goro Goro no Mi which shouldn't be found by Enel yet.

Another reason is that I don't want to get too dependent on a devil fruit because in the end the most important thing is Haki once you enter the New World, even Kaido himself said only haki matters.

I kept thinking for a while until I fell asleep.

One Week Later,

I was standing on deck enjoying the beautiful view of the sea, it was calming, and the weather was perfect with a clear blue sky.

"Captain! Should we dock here? It looks like someone is here before us." Ken asked me. We were near an Island called Koko, its uninhabited place about five days away from Gecko Islands where Syrup Village is located.

"Let's rest here for a few days!!" I gave order then we docked in the island.

"Should we take care of them?" Calvin asked me.

I looked at the ship's flag to try and identify it.

"Hmm…WHAT?!!" I was shocked when I saw the flag.

'I can't believe I forgot about that guy, it's around this time when he starts his pirate crew' I kept looking at the ship in disbelieve.

'In the original story he came here to recruit Yasopp two years after Roger's death' It's a little bit earlier than the original, 'is it the butterfly effect?' I thought.

"The Red Hair Pirates!" This is bad I can't believe I encountered a future Yonko.