44 Chapter 44

Bartolomeo opened his eyes behind the bars. He attempted to move, but realized that his hands were cuffed.

"...Damn."

The alert bells rang loudly. Bartolomeo could hear the busy steps just outside.

'Was I the cause of this...? What's going on? Are captain, Nami, and Deuce fine?'

Bartolomeo felt angry at himself; he was ashamed. 6 months of training, and then... this? Is this all that he amounted to?

"Fuck no!!"

Growling, Bartolomeo thrashed his arms against the chains connected to his cuffs, trying to break free. However, his wasn't strong enough to break away from the alloys and ended up flopping back while huffing rapidly.

"...Wait, hold on."

Then, for once, Bartolomeo's brain was activated.

"This isn't the seastone."

He hasn't used his devil fruit ability in front of marines, not even once.

"Wow... the power of knowledge."

Whispering at himself, Bartolomeo closed his eyes and focused. Upon the operation of his devil fruit power, transparent barriers were formed between metal handcuffs and Bartolomeo's wrists. Then, he pushed those barriers forth against the cuffs, with all strength that he could muster.

Crack.

Then, his efforts finally began to yield the fruit. Bartolomeo, although huffing,

"WRYYYYYYYY!!!!!"

roared as he continued to push his barriers against the cuffs. Finally, they broke, and the metal shards splattered. Few were stabbed on Bartolomeo's arms, and few left gashes on his skin, but even as blood dripped down from his body, Bartolomeo laughed.

"Hehehahahaha!!! I'm free!!!"

Standing in front of the metal bars, Bartolomeo smirked and formed another barrier. He then sent the barrier forth—

"...Eh?"

—only for the barrier to simply bump into bars and dissipate.

The metal bars were several times denser and harder than cuffs, and Bartolomeo's barriers weren't sufficient enough to physically break them.

"Fuuuuckkkkk!!!"

Bartolomeo shouted as he angrily smashed the wall on his right. Then, surprisingly, the wall immediately crumbled upon Bartolomeo's strike,

"G-Gahhhhh!!"

which earned a yelp out of him. The cloud of dust arose, and Bartolomeo coughed. Eventually, the dust cleared, and Bartolomeo got to see from within... a corpse that had begun to decompose from a neighbouring jail cell.

The strong stench of the dead intruded Bartolomeo's jail cell. Clasping his mouth, Bartolomeo was trying his hardest to suppress the urge to throw up.

"W-What even..."

Then, Bartolomeo saw. In the pocket of the decomposing corpse, there was an object that reflected the slight light entering the jail cell. Though disgusted, Bartolomeo approached the corpse out of curiosity and quickly took the object that was peeking from the pocket. Running away to the opposite corner of the jail cell, Bartolomeo finally got to see the object in his hands.

"...Eh?"

It was a log pose. Log pose that was pointing elsewhere... meaning that it has finished recording the marine base G-11.

BOOM!

Simultaneously, the muffled noise of an explosion was heard from right outside, which caused Bartolomeo to flinch while crossing his index and middle fingers to generate a barrier in front of him instantly.

Immediately after, the doorway into this room full of jail cells was barged open.

"Bartolomeo!!"

From beyond the opened gate, Nami's shout was heard. As Nami, who was holding onto a sac with one hand, became visible in his eyes, Bartolomeo couldn't help but cry in joy,

"Nami!!"

...

Having gotten out of the jail, Nami and Bartolomeo were found running.

"Log pose?!"

Nami, as she took hold of the log pose that Bartolomeo passed to her, cried in a mix of joy and disbelief.

"This is...!"

Nami placed the log pose in the sac and smiled at Bartolomeo, uncaring of the unconscious marines who were lying on the floor as they went past the hallway,

"Great job, Bartolomeo! I can't believe this... for once, you've been useful!"

"Heh, aren't I helpful—w-wait, what do you mean by that, huh?!"

Bartolomeo comically barked at Nami, to which she mischievously stuck her tongue out in response.

Then, as they continued running, Bartolomeo looked around the path they were going through. Furrowing his brows, he asked,

"So, where are we going?"

Nami said in seriousness.

"The port—"

BANG!

Then, a bullet struck the metallic floor and generated a spark, which brought Nami and Bartolomeo to a half. In front of them, there stood a group of marines who were fully armed.

"It's 'Weather Witch' Nami and 'Cannibal' Bartolomeo!"

A marine officer who seemed to be leading the group stated firmly,

"Subdue them! I permit you to kill if it is impossible to capture them alive!"

"Now, I was wondering where all of you folks have gone to!"

Within the dim light, the marines positioned themselves. Bartolomeo, with a confident grin, crossed his fingers. As numerous bullets were fired from the marines, a transparent wall then sprang forth and prevented every single bullet from reaching Nami and Bartolomeo.

"Heh!"

"Devil fruit?!!"

Bartolomeo smirked, and a marine cried.

Confused and surprised, marines momentarily paused. Seizing the chance, Bartolomeo dissipated the barrier, and simultaneously,

"Take this!"

Nami, who managed to form a ball of fire between her hands, threw it toward the clustered group of marines. Before they could react, the ball of fire exploded with a booming noise, knocking them out.

As the fire cleared, Nami and Bartolomeo went through the fallen enemies and finally reached their destination: the port.

"Deuce is supposed to have Shooting Star ready to sail at any time! Although the plan got tweaked a little because of that Gasparde, what we'll be doing now is simple!"

As the vice captain of Grimheart Pirates, Nami began to explain the plan onward,

"We'll join Deuce and position Shooting Star at the water right behind the storage room!"

Bartolomeo quickly asked,

"What about the rations?"

Nami grinned slyly as she revealed the inside of the sac. Bartolomeo gave her a genuine thumbs up, saying,

"Now that's our vice captain!"

Through the large port, the two of them ran past multiple marine ships that were docked. A good deal of pirate ships too were found, and some seemed to be in progress of being taken down.

Finally, they reached what seemed to be the end of the port. Two unique ships were found to be docked, with one far bigger than the other. One was obviously Shooting Star, which looked fine much to Nami and Deuce's relief. However, they then found themselves confused, for,

"H-Hey! Why are we fighting?!"

Deuce, who was supposed to have the ship ready to sail by now, was busy facing a man wielding a rapier.

"Aren't we both pirates?! The first thing to do here is to get out of here safely! Now isn't the time for us to be fighting, use your brain damn it!!"

"Escape? Hah, of course escape is a must! However..."

This man was quite tall and broad, enough to cover Deuce's figure with his shadow. Characterized by brown hair and a thick brown mustache, his green-coloured eyes gleamed in intuition,

"An attempt to escape from this base must mean that you have attained a source of navigation! Furthermore, judging by how prince Cavendish and Vasco are yet to return, it is the duty of I, Rico the 'Impaling Rapier', to secure an alternate plan for the crew!"

"Tch..."

"How many times have I told you?! We don't have one! The reason to escape from here is because our cover is blown—it's either we sail out with nothing to guide us or to get stuck in the Impel Down for eternity!!"

"Lies, lies, LIES!!"

Deuce, while sweating profusely, ducked to dodge the fast series of stabs from this man named Rico's rapier. He quickly took a pistol out of his holster and fired it at Rico, who immediately ducked to the side to evade it from hitting him.

Just then, a ball of fire landed straight on the unexpected Rico's back, and sent him flying into the air before falling into the water with a splash.

Deuce turned around in delight,

"Nami!"

"Oi, I too am here, y'know!"

Bartolomeo complained, to which Deuce laughed lightly while waving at them. Nami quickly approached him and asked,

"A member of Beautiful Pirates, I'd presume?"

Deuce nodded with a blatant annoyance,

"They are more in number than us. I knocked out around 4 of them on our ship, then this dude named Rico popped out... I didn't even get to board Shooting Star yet!"

Just as Deuce said so, Nami and Bartolomeo found around 4 men lying unconscious nearby. Looking at their attire, Nami dryly remarked,

"...Are these guys some royal army or what?"

Just as Nami said so, they were wearing luxurious-looking outfits composed of red, white, and gold. And Bartolomeo added on,

"I mean, they call their captain 'prince', if you didn't notice."

Deuce then brought them back to the reality,

"Anyway, now isn't the time to fret! Since you are here, now, we got to—"

"Halt! You shall not pass...!"

Emerging from the water was Rico, who pushed himself out of it and lifted his rapier once more. Then, as Nami, Deuce, and Bartolomeo faced the man, he brazenly charged at the three of them.

Bartolomeo picked his nose while crossing his fingers, and Rico, who was charging with blazing will in his eyes crashed face-first against a barrier that suddenly sprang forth.

"E-Eh...?"

Backing away a few steps, Rico found that his nose, now broken, was bleeding profusely. Then, his eyes rolled to the back, and he fell to his back, knocked unconscious.

"...What a broken ability you got, Bartolomeo."

Deuce mumbled with a slight jealousy in him, and Bartolomeo crossed his arms with his nose peaking high in pride.

On the other hand, Nami boarded Shooting Star and quickly called,

"Get into the ship, you two! We're moving out!"

Afterward, Deuce found his eyes popping out as Nami pulled out the log pose and strapped it on her wrist.

"Wait, what?"

Bartolomeo flashed a grin as he pointed a thumb at himself,

"Thank the great Bartolomeo-sama for that!"

Deuce bumped his fist with Bartolomeo, unable to conceal his joy,

"Bartolomeo, you fucking chad!!"

"Hehehaha, that's right! I—"

"You guys, do something instead of wasting time over there!!"

Nami then shouted at them, and the two, yelping in surprise, ran to their respective positions to operate Shooting Star.

__________

The wisps of fire and sparks fly throughout the room as Rowan's form moves at a blurry speed to combat the countless spikes of candy syrup that were blasted from Gasparde.

"How... how is this possible?!"

The marines, who arrived as the backup, couldn't help but cry in disbelief as they saw a man without a devil fruit going toe-to-toe against the commander of their base, the user of logia-type devil fruit.

"Rear admiral Gasparde and his Candy Candy fruit have been invincible up until today!! So how—"

BOOM!

The marine's cry was cut short as Gasparde's candy spike crashed right by his side. Paling up, he slowly retreated his trembling body.

Marines couldn't do anything but watch. Surrounding Rowan and Gasparde were the fallen marines who, without a doubt, would be hit if they were to fire bullets. In addition, Gasparde didn't care for their safety as they fought; no marine desired to go into the cross-fire and throw his or her life away for naught.

"Ugh..."

On the other hand, Cavendish, who was still stuck to the wall, finally seemed to have regained his senses. Groaning as he felt the stinging pain from the candy spikes on his back, he ran his eyes to his left and right, trying to assess the situation.

"Prince Cavendish! Thank god..."

Vasco, who saw that Cavendish was awake as he was attempting to pull the latter out of the wall while Gasparde's attention was locked onto Rowan, sighed in relief.

However, Cavendish paid no attention to Vasco. Instead, his eyes headed at Rowan and Gasparde who were fighting one another, and snarled,

"Why is he taking the spotlight, and not me?!!"

"That's the first thing you say after regaining consciousness?!"

Cavendish then tried to yank himself out of the current position, but to no avail. Turning back, he finally saw that he was stuck to the wall.

"What?!"

"Don't move, prince! I'll try to get you out!"

Following Rowan's suit, Vasco took out a lighter from his pocket. Lighting it up, Vasco carefully held it against the spikes that had one end embedded in Cavendish's back and the other end attached to the wall. Slowly but surely, the candy began to melt into syrup.

"Hurry, Vasco!!!"

"Be patient, prince!! Also, keep your voice low; we can't afford to have those marines notice us!!"

"Grrr..."

As Cavendish rambled in frustration, Rowan spun and slashed the blazing Sting to cut candy spikes that were approaching him from multiple directions. Subsequently, he flipped midair and used the momentum to avoid landing on top of the candy syrup that was spread on the floor right below him.

Then, Gasparde, who appeared in front of Rowan, had his candy-covered fist thrown at Rowan, which Rowan blocked with the blazing Sting. Instead of combatting the force behind Gasparde's punch, Rowan let the force send him flying to the wall.

"Grimheart...!!!"

Gasparde, who saw Rowan grinning as he landed vertically on the wall, scowled. Though the room was now filled with candy syrup, they at the same time were burning in an intense fire. In this hot environment, Gasparde's devil fruit ability was losing its versatility, for they quickly melted and left his control.

Landing on the floor, Rowan maintained his calm as he stood around the burning piles of candy syrups. Scooping some of the burning candy syrup with his Sting, Rowan then met Gasparde's metallic blade with his Sting. Rowan snorted,

"So that's what you resorted to."

Having given up the operation of his devil fruit, Gasparde decided to unsheath his sword—one that he rarely ever used.

The fire on Rowan's Sting splattered as the blades met, and some landed on Gasparde's cheek and burned intensely. Gasparde, ripping out his melting cheek without a wince and throwing it away, glared at Rowan. Uncaring of the bleeding wound on his cheek now, Gasparde took a step back and readied his sword again.

CLANG!

Then, two blades met for the second time.