1 01 | Shanks are Red!
01 | Shanks are Red!
"Capture everyone before the marines arrive!" A pirate called out, leading the charge. His allies followed behind him with their weapons drawn.
Chaos reigned in the streets of Syrup Village as the pirates ransacked the town. Thatched roof cottages burned while panicked villagers fled in all directions, desperate to avoid the leering buccaneers gathering up prisoners.
Mothers clutched wailing children, knocking over carts of spices and woven goods in their terror. Cries for mercy went ignored by the jeering pirates hauling captive villagers to the fields, intending to sell them into slavery, or at least use them as leverage to get away from the marines if they appear.
"Please… why are you doing this?" One of the villagers begged.
Only to get a foot on his face, "Shut up, scums!" One of the pirates growled, "Keep in line or we'll break your knees."
The other villagers cowarded, backing away. A few brave ones had tried to fight off against the pirates previously, mainly using their numbers to try to defend their homes. But the captain of the pirate crew was a strong man, using his overwhelming strength to swiftly end the small resistance.
"Gather all of 'em, we don't have any time to waste…" The large man said, captain of the Broker pirates. The man eight feet tall, build like a tank, his body covered with scars and tattoos of various animals. His upper body was bare showing his muscles with an open coat draped over his shoulder, he wore black pants. He was unarmed but that didn't reduce his threat.
His pirate crew was also organized, almost all of them having similar clothes to their boss. Black pants with white lose shirts, they looked more like organized gangsters than pirates. Something that was quite rare to see in East blue.
But that was the problem, after the pirate king's execution, many pirates from the grandline had came here to test their luck. Marines of course tried to stop them, but their numbers were running thin on the east blue waters.
"Boss Sadaki! Some of the women and children from the villages managed to flee from us…" one of the pirates said, "They might have gone towards the town… should we catch them."
"Forget about them… gather up all the prisoners after you are done looting the village." The captain said, "We will move out before night falls… Tequila Wolf is on the other side of East Blue, we will meet our buyer there."
"Yes, Boss Sadaki!" the pirates said in unison, not intending to break their captain's orders as they used their guns and swords to push the prisoners towards the port, where their ship was.
Gecko Island had only a few towns and villages, none of them had any marine bases. But due to the recent execution of the pirate king, pirate activity had increased, so it wasn't odd for marine ships to rome near well-known islands.
But while a few villagers had hope for getting help from the marines. Most of them had given up on that, Gecko Island didn't pay the required government taxes after all. So there was less chance of something like this happening. But that didn't mean all hope were lost.
As the pirates were done gathering up all the villagers they started to push them towards the area where they docked the ship. Syrup village was situated near the shore, one just needed to cross the jungle to get to the village. And the population of the village was also small barely even having eighty.
With a few of them dying against the pirates, and a good chunk of them fleeing from the villager. The village prisoners were around fifty in number, including the kids. And even though the pirate group had only thirty members, they were skilled enough to hold the prisoners for a short period of time.
They were pirates originally from Grandline after all. Nothing here on east blue would be able to challenge them. The group of pirates pushed the villagers through the forest to bring them back to their ship.
The forest was densely packed with trees. And a good hiding place for anyone who was willing to put in a last-ditch effort to stop the pirates. And while others ran away, one man didn't.
Crouched unseen between the large trees, perched in the island's massive oaks, Yasopp hid himself as he eyed the enemy.
The hunter was late and unprepared. Regretting that he didn't have his hunting rifle with him to pick off a few pillagers. His hands gripped the pair of pistols hanging from leather straps across his chest, itching empty them on the enemy. But he had to becareful on how he did things.
He only had 24 shots, and he had to make them count. Yasopp knew he was fighting a loosing battle here abd he badly needed some help.
But that wouldn't stop him from trying. This was his home, and he won't let these invaders haul off his people without a fight. But the main concern was the pirate captain of the group. He was strong, and Yasopp had a feeling that he would be problem if he didn't take him down first.
So he waited, trailing behind the group of pirates as they pushed the villagers through the forest towards the ship. He carefully jumped over from one tree to another, sliding down, hiding behind large rocks as the group reached their ship.
The ship was a large one, but there was just one problem.
"Who removed the gangway?" Sadaki, the captain of the ship growled, "Bob, Johnny… where the fuck you at? We have new prisoners!"
But there was no response, they had left two of their men behind to guard the ship just in case, but they were no one in sight. Also the gangway that connected the ship to the ground, used for passage was also withdrawn, meaning there was no way to get aboard the ship.
"Where are those two?" One of the underlings said, "Those good for nothing. Oi, someone go and set the gangway up…"
Right as they were conversing, suddenly two figures jumped on the to railing of the ships. Two teenagers no less than fifteen, with capes fluttering in the wind. As they posed with their hands on their hips and swords pointed at the pirates.
"Shanks are Red!" the red-haired kid said, confidently.
"Buggys are Blue!" the blue-haired —and blue-nosed— kid said, looking a bit embarrassed.
"I'm gonna be the Pirate King!" Shanks said, nudging Buggy with his elbow.
"And save the village too!" Both of them said at once, giving victory signs at the spectating pirates.
For a while nothing happened, but the blowing sounds of the wind. Even the villagers were dumbstruck by the boys bold actions.
"Is this a joke?" Captain Sadaki asked, his eye twitching with anger, mainly glaring daggers at both of them.
"No," Buggy said, glaring back with a smirk.
"But this is…" Shanks said, lighting up a match and throwing it over his shoulder, and as if to make a point the the sails caught fire.
"You!" Sadaki said in anger, taking out his flintlock, and pointing at the boys, "Shoot those bastards… we have to stop the fire!"
The pirates that had guns and rifles on their side took aim and a shot was fired. But not from the pirate's sides, no. It was someone else.
"No! Captain!" The crew said as the captain dropped to the floor, a bullet wound piercing his head. Several other shots rang out, as the pirates that were nearest to the captured villagers were shot dead.
Most of the villagers were on the back of the pirate group, only having a few of the pirates in the back, and they were taken out by the precise bullets.
A few smoke bombs and flash bangs were also thrown from the forest disrupting the vision of the pirates, giving the villagers the opportunity to flee as the pirates visions were blurred. Some fled, while other villagers got a second wind and attacked the nearest pirate for what they did. Some picked up swords and rifels to get revenge on those that died.
"Uh… that was unexpected," Buggy said, looking at the young man that was trying to save his villagers while shooting at the pirates. "What do we do?" He then looked at Shanks, who shrugged.
"…all according to the plan," he said, making Buggy deadpan, yeah, that wasn't part of the plan. But Shanks to his credit didn't care as he pointed at the pirates, "Let's charge!"
"Shit! The village' bastards are getti'n out of hand, kill' em!" One of pirates said, he seemed to have taken charge, now that the captain was seemingly dead.
The pirates fired off their rifles indiscriminately at the villagers, some were hit and thrown to the ground. Some were injured, while some were dead, still it didn't deter those who were fighting as some of the villagers had picked up the guns and were fighting back. Against well-equipped and trained pirates the villagers
"Ugh… my hand!" One of the pirates shrieked holding out his arm which was stabbed by a dagger, he saw the blue-haired brat (who was responsible for his injury) land a kick on his face that knocked him out.
"Shit! Kill the brat! He's the one responsible!"
"No, that credit goes to me," Shanks said, taking down two pirates with one swing of his sword.
Shanks smirked tipping his straw hat, "Come at me!" he said as he pointed his sword at them.
And that they did, firing off bullets and while others charged. But Shanks moved with impressive agility, skipping around shots, deflecting some, while he fought against pirates. His sword moved in a blur, chopping down the ranks of the pirates, cutting through them. Even though Shanks really didn't want to kill, it was really hard to hold back when you have so many things to account for and the only life that was important to him was his own and his friends.
"Fuck! Why can't you bunch kill a brat!"
The villagers that were fighting weren't many, so the pirates were overwhelming them. But when they saw Shanks and Buggy destroy their ranks, they changed targets. They also had to account for the unseen hunter who was gunning them down
So the pirates rather than focusing on the villagers, started shooting at Shanks. And yet it did nothing as the young man skillfully used his blade to chop down the shots with before it could hit his body.
"Oi, stop shooting at my captain!" Buggy's voice rang out from somewhere, as TNT dropped from above all lit up. The pirate's eyes comically widened as they looked up, only seeing floating hands in air, before the explosives detonated right in their middle, taking down a massive chunk of them.
"Oh shucks, Buggy! I didn't know you cared?" Shanks said, taking out his blade from a pirate's stomach and ducking under another sword slash from a pirate, and avoiding getting tackled by the other. The young man swang his blade, leaving a deep wound on the man's chest who tried to stab him, while twisting planting his feet on the man's jaw knocking him out.
The red-haired swordsman moved with ease, there wasn't any rhythm to his swordplay, and yet it was unique and unpredictable. Easily being able to take down the pirates that outnumbered him by the dozens.
But while he was good, even Shanks had his limits. One pirate managed to graze his shoulder, with a bullet. While another one was able to leave a flesh wound on his back. It halted his movements a bit. But that didn't mean he would give up. Pain was just part of the process after all.
Besides he was fighting against the Whitebeard pirates since his diaper years, he could handle some pain.
Buggy was doing good on his own end, avoiding bullets and stabbing down pirates with his multiple short blades. Throwing down explosives and creating general chaos to take down the opponent. "Muahaha! Fear the wrath of the mad clown Buggy!"
"This one's a devil fruit user!" One of the pirate called out, before getting sand thrown in his eyes, "Ugh… my eyes."
A lone arm punched the man's throat, making him gasp and fall on his comrade. While another explosive was thrown at them.
"Be careful where you walk, you flashy bastard!" Buggy said, before getting punched in the face, "Ugh, shit… not my blue nose." He said, kicking off his attacker, before jumping back, when a few gunshots rang out.
Buggy blinked when rather than getting harmed two of the pirates that were about to tackle him fell down. They had two bullet wounds on their back.
"You looked like you needed some help?" Said a certain black young man holding two pistols on his side.
"Ugh… sure, but don't get in my way," Buggy said, while Yasopp grinned.
"Shore thing, but try to keep up," Yasopp said as he spun around firing off multiple shots taking down one pirate with each shot.
"Stop showing off flashy bastard!" Buggy growled throwing daggers at two pirates taking them down, before throwing a TNT towards a group that was charging at him, taking out the poor bastards.
The battle continued with the numbers of pirates getting reduced as the resistance started to win. But right then a loud roar stopped the whole fight. "STOP!"
"I-its boss Sadaki!" One of the pirates said, "He's alive! Ugh…"
"Don't take your eyes off me," Shanks said knocking of the distracted pirate and gaining the eerie of Sadaki.
"Tell me brat? How does working under me seem to you?" The large man said. The bleeding from his forehead had stopped now, and for some reason he looked more imposing than before.
"Really?" Shanks asked resting his sword on his shoulder, "How about a no?"
Sadaki gave a bloody grin, "Well, at least I offered a olive branch…"
"Well, you can stick it up your ass," Buggy cut him off, pissing off Sadaki as he glared at the clown, "Also, how the fuck are you even alive?"
Sadaki laughed, "Killing me here, in the east blue is impossible. I ate the hard-hard fruit, making me a hard human! So do you get it?"
"So, you're hard all' the time?" Yasopp asked, a bit put off.
"I mean I feel you man, I'm going through puberty right now, and I get hard at random times," Shanks said sympathetically. That seemed to have brought a few chuckles from the villagers ruining the tension. And of course, Sadaki got angrier and angrier.
"Yeah, in fact, I was just a moment ago," Buggy added getting weird looks from both Shanks and Yasopp. "What? I'm just being honest here? It's not like I can control it? Puberty remember…"
"Shut up!" Sadaki roared, his face red with anger, "I'm gonna kill all of you with my bare hands! And I'm going to enjoy it!"
"Oh, I think he's angry?" Buggy said.
"Really? What gave it away?" Shanks said with a deadpan.
"Men! Kill all of the villagers and if I find you slacking off, I will rip out your jaws!" That seemed to have motivated the remaining pirates as they picked themselves up glaring at the villagers who tired to fight against them.
By now, most of the bullets had ran out, so they were relying on swords and fist again. Shanks looked at Buggy and nodded.
The red-haired pirate walked forward pointing his sword at the pirate, "I challenge you to a dual, erection man!"
"My name is Sadaki, you fucking imbecile!" The pirate captain roared as he charged at Shanks, making the boy yelp before he started running towards the forest, "Come and fight me like a man!"
"…"
"…"
"Well, that went well," Buggy said grinning evilly at the remaining pirates as their leader gave chase to Shanks, "Now, let's finish this quick. Shanks might need our help."
Yasopp nodded as he readied his guns, the pirates that were remaining really felt unsure about themselves right now.
.
With Shanks,
The boy ran through the forest with surprising agility, while Sadaki gave chase from behind. Uprooting trees and going through them as he tired to catch up the red-head.
"I'm gonna rip you off, limb by limb! you fucking weasel!" Sadaki said, cracking his knuckles, "Any last words before you die?!"
"Remember the bullying you went through as a kid? Well, you deserve it you piece of shit!" Shanks said as he brought his left hand forward in a 'come here' motion.
Sadaki could feel the veins of his neck pump blood to his head, "Im gonna fuckin kill you!"
"Hah! As if you could… Good joke though… ten out of ten." Shanks said, being the first one to move. Disappearing from his spot and swinging his blade directly at Sadaki.
Sadaki was a bit taken back, but like expected Shanks's sword bounced off leaving sparks in air. The giant swang his fist, but Shanks managed to slip away in time.
'This would take a while,' Shanks thought, 'Didn't he say, something about his skin being tough as steel, well, it looks like I'm gonna learn to cut steel today.'
