5 Chapter 5 : Cocoyashi Village

The sun had just risen above the horizon and brightened the sea. A rather large wooden boat was seen drifting in the sea. Gun's group continues their journey across the sea without being hindered by any force.

Right now, Gun was sleeping soundly in the room that Jonh Cane had prepared for him. Rize is reading a book while sipping a cup of coffee. Akaza is preparing breakfast for her master.

Suddenly, a random pirate shouted as he observed something.

"Captain John Cane, we have seen the Conomi Islands. Quickly inform Gun-sama about this. "

John Cane immediately obeyed and went to Gun's room to wake him up. However, he encountered Akaza, who was standing in front of Gun's room while wearing an apron.

"Gun-sama, breakfast is ready… huh? What are you doing here?." Akaza asked while looking at Cane.

"Ah umm… I came to tell Gun-sama that we have come close to the Conomi Islands."

"Yes, I will report this to Gun-sama." Akaza nodded and opened the door to Gun's room.

Gun was now awake, he put on a light white shirt before looking towards Akaza.

"I heard about the conversation. Tell everyone to get ready, we'll go to this island after breakfast is over."

He then began the process of personal hygiene before starting his breakfast with the others. Gun's breakfast looks very nutritious with many different dishes. He trains every day so it takes a lot of energy and that also applies to Akaza. Rize's breakfast consisted of an adult piece of meat while Cane and the others' breakfasts looked much more frugal.

****

After about an hour of sailing, Gun's group finally reached the Conomi Islands. They decided to lower the anchor nearby once the forest was not far from Cocoyashi village.

It didn't take them long to walk before they saw Cocoyashi village. Cocoyashi Village is the hometown of Nami and her sister, which is currently being terrorized by the Arlong pirates. They are a group of fishman with some connection to some corrupt marines who let them get away with everything.

Their current get-rich-quick scheme is to take over villages and then charge each resident a living fee, in Beli, the local currency.100 thousand beli per adult and 50 thousand beli per child just to live.

When Gun's group entered the village, some of the people living there recognized them. These residents immediately became confused by the appearance of these strangers.

At this moment , a gentleman walked out from the group of villagers and walked in front of the group of people . Looking at the man's appearance, Gun immediately recognized that the character had appeared in the anime. He just couldn't remember who this man was.

He's a medium-sized, dark-haired man with a thick mustache; His face is quite stern. He also wears an outfit that resembles a police uniform.

"Welcome to Cocoyashi Village. I am Genzo, the sheriff of Cocoyasi Village. Can you tell me what your purpose is here? ." Genzo asked curiously, he was clearly misunderstanding that this group of people were just ordinary tourists and he wanted to warn this group of Arlong's presence. However, before Genzo could warn them about the Arlong Pirates, a loud noise not far away caused everyone to riot.

"Damn it, what are you guys gathering here for?" A fishman complained in an annoyed voice. He walked over to the gathered villagers and shoved a random villager away.

"Huh? Who are these people?" This random fishman said when he saw Gun's group.

"Well, it doesn't matter who you are. The more people we have, the more fairies we will earn." Fishman walked over while showing a confident smile. He wanted to educate these strangers before handing them over to Arlong and enslaving them.

"This fish is too noisy Akaza."

Akaza just smirked and suddenly appeared in front of the fishman and threw a kick at him. Akaza's simple kick instantly caused the fishman's head to explode and blood splattered everywhere.

Looking at the bloody scene before their eyes made the villagers immobile. Everything happened so fast that they didn't know how to react properly. After a while they seemed to be able to react, all the villagers ran to their homes and closed the doors again . They feared that the whole village would suffer Arlong's wrath.

However, Gun didn't care about these people, he just looked towards Genzo, the only one brave enough not to run away. Gun pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. At the same time, the purple-haired girl took out a lighter to light him.

"Genzo right? You can think of me as a bunch of bounty hunters and we're here for business."

Hearing what Gun said caused Genzo to show some hope. If these guys were bounty hunters then this group of people must have come here to capture Arlong. However, he was careful with Gun's phrase 'business'.

" Business ? What do you mean ?." Genzo said cautiously.

"It's simple, we want to meet someone" Gun said.

" Who do you want to meet ?."

"I want to meet a girl named Nami. I want to buy oranges from her." Gun said causing Genzo to step back. He knew well that Gun's reason for buying oranges was a lie. He didn't want to lead these suspicious people to Nami, but with the power they just showed, it was easy for them to suppress all the villagers and search for Nami.

"No need to worry, I won't harm her. Like I said, I'm here for business purposes." Gun replied simply as he breathed a puff of white smoke into the face of Genzo, who was much shorter than him.

Genzo hesitated for a moment before reluctantly agreeing to what Gun said.

"Okay, follow me."

Then the group of them walked to a wooden house not far away. The wooden house was built quite simply with a large orange garden on the side.

" Wait for me a minute ." Genzo spoke to Gun before knocking on the door and a girl's voice could be heard from inside the house.

"I'll be right out."

After about a minute, the wooden door opened. Welcoming them was a young woman with a beautiful face and a well-proportioned body. Her hair and eyes are light blue, and her skin is tan. Her right arm and chest have many different tattoos.

From Gun's memory, he easily recognized who this girl was. Her name is Nojiko and is also Nami's older sister.

"Genzo-san? Is there something serious?" Nojiko said that when he noticed Genzo's serious and sweaty face, it showed that Genzo wanted to see her for a very important matter.

"Nojiko… Is Nami at home?"

"Nami? She went out yesterday…Maybe in a week or two she'll be back.." Nojiko said with a sad voice thinking about Nami's current job, she clearly understood that Nami was trying to redeem this village from Arlong's hands.

Gun now frowned upon hearing Nojiko's answer. He cursed his bad luck when he arrived at the time Nami had gone out. Although he wanted to meet Nami to invite her to join his party, he didn't have the patience or time to stay on the island for a week.

"Genzo-san, why do you want to meet Nami?" Nojiko asked curiously.

"It's not me, the people who want to meet Nami are these people." Genzo said that while looking in Gun's direction, Nojiko did the same thing and she was surprised to realize that there was a very handsome looking man here. Not only that, this man was looking for Nami.

*****

Inside the living room of the wooden house. Gun and Rize sat on the couch while Akaza stood behind him. Nojiko walked over and placed three cups of Coffee on the table before looking at Akaza with questioning eyes.

"Aren't you sitting?"

"No, it's enough for me to stand." Akaza answered simply while Gun didn't pay much attention to his actions. Anyway, they had known each other for over a year, so Gun was used to Akaza's actions like this.

Nojiko said nothing and just sat down before talking to Gun.

"Then Gun-san… um… what is the reason you want to meet Nami?"

"Well, I've heard about Nami's talent. It's because I want to recruit Nami to our team. She is a potential navigator so I certainly won't invite her for free. " Gun said as he took a sip of his coffee.

Nojiko now feels extremely scared thinking that the people in front of her are pirates and the purpose they are looking for Nami is similar to Arlong.

"Are you pirates? "

"Pirates? Well, we are bounty hunters. At least for now. The future is uncertain." Gun said.

Nojiko seemed to think of something when he heard that Gun was a bounty hunter. She wanted to try hiring these guys to deal with Arlong. If they were random hunters, Nojiko would think they had no chance against Arlong but now it was different. Looking at Gun's eyes and confident smirk made Nojiko realize that these guys are not simple. They always exuded a dangerous aura and Nojiko found it to be far more terrifying than Arlong. Before Nojiko could speak, Gun stood up and was about to leave.

"However, she's not here and I don't want to waste a week on this island so maybe we'll leave now." Gun said as he turned and walked towards the door.

" …Wait a minute ." Nojiko hurriedly said.

"Huh?"

"You guys are bounty hunters right? I want to hire you." Nojiko said.

"You want to hire us to free this village from Arlong, right?"

" That's right ." Nojiko nodded.

"Well, exterminating the Arlong Pirates is pretty easy for us."

"If so…" Nojiko felt there was hope of freeing her villagers but Gun coldly snuffed out her hopes.

"But there is no reason for me to help you. To be honest, I was planning to destroy Arlong to convince Nami to join us but now I have no reason to do so." Gun replied simply and turned to leave. Behind him, Nojiko knelt down on the ground in disappointment while her gaze remained fixed on her only hope. She understood that she herself did not have anything valuable enough to exchange with Gun.

They go to the outside of the house and meet Cane's group, who are sitting outside the house eating delicious oranges. The guys didn't notice Gun until he walked up to them and kicked them in the butt.

"Gun-sama." Cane hurriedly stood up while hiding the oranges.

"Let's go, we're going to Loguetown." Gun said and walked away, then Nojiko ran over and stood in front of him.

" What do you want ?."

"Please… If you free us from Arlong, I will join you." Nojiko said

'Bingo.'