24 Downfall [Part 2]

....

I didn't know why... But at that moment my whole head turned dizzy.

I was still able to see clearly everything happening around me. However, no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to think straight at that moment.

My fists were clenching as hard as they had ever done throughout my entire life, and I could feel how my teeth ground against each other with no mercy.

I could feel it... All I wanted at that moment, was to smash that guy's head into the ground and make him plead for mercy...

...To make him apologize while in tears to sister Elena and the other kids from the orphanage for what he had just done... And to make sure he never got to set sail on the seas ever again...

-Crack...-

-Step-

-Step-

-Step-

Walking slowly towards him, I could feel how the ground was slightly cracking apart because of the energy in my steps as I prepared to start punching him into submission. However, just as I was about to reach Graybeard, my steps abruptly halted and my expression stiffened for a short moment when I noticed something very important.

I immediately felt my anger cooling down the moment I noticed how all the pirates were tightly pressing their daggers against the kids' throats and were already prepared to kill all of them instantly if they felt threatened by me. Fortunately, they seemed to be in a slight trance right now, and probably because of my presence, they weren't able to move. However, if that trance suddenly broke because of me suddenly attacking their leader, then it would mean that all the kids from the orphanage would die for sure.

I had rushed up here on alert when I heard that sister Elena and the others had been captured and taken as hostages, so I didn't have enough time to prepare a proper plan or at least make use of the surprise factor.

So... my only option right now was to somehow take all of the pirates down and immediately get sister Elena and the others out of there.

But... How was I supposed to do that?

"Hehe...hehehe... So it's you, huh?"

Hmm?

Suddenly, as I was looking around the room, the voice and disgusting laugh of Graybeard reached my ears and abruptly snapped me out of my thoughts, making me look immediately at him.

He, who was sweating like crazy and had his breathing turn rough, smiled viciously as he looked at me with an expression of surprise.

"To think that the famous bounty hunter would end up being some snotty brat... Well, it doesn't matter, does it?"

Correcting his posture and grabbing the hair of sister Elena, Graybeard's smile deepened before he took out his sword and pointed it toward sister Elena's throat.

"As you can see, if you dare to attack any of us, my subordinates here won't hesitate to kill your little friends immediately. Isn't that right boys?"

Hearing the voice of their boss, all the other pirates snapped out of their trance, before they looked back at me and smiled a little bit more confidently while pressing the daggers even tighter against the kids.

Shrugging his shoulders with a completely calm expression, Graybeard smiled smugly at me, before he turned to look towards the exit and pointed at it with his sword.

"Now, if you don't mind, get the fuck out of here and let us be at least until we finish our business here. After that, I will give you the hostages and everyone here will be happy, understood?"

Staying silent after saying that, Graybeard looked me directly in the eyes, and waited for me to answer him.

When I turned to look at the expressions of the kids, who were on the verge of bursting into tears, and the expression of sister Elena, who seemed too confused to care about the sword on her pointing towards her neck, I felt how each part of my body was trembling with anger.

Normally, it would have at least pretended to have heard him... However...

...

...His cocky attitude was pissing me off.

And besides...

... It was common sense that no pirate ever keeps their word. Right?

-Bam!!-

In the blink of an eye, just as Graybeard finished speaking, I kicked the ground and instantly lunged at the nearest pirate before launching a punch at him.

-Crack...!-

Not restraining myself in the slightest this time, I felt how my fist broke apart his jaw, and immediately sent him flying at an outrageous speed toward the walls of the building. However, before he would even separate from me, I grabbed his leg and redirected his trajectory toward the other pirates.

-Swooosh!-

-Bam!-

""Gah!""

The pirate's body rapidly flew towards his companions like a bullet, and in the blink of an eye, two of them received the impact of their companion crashing onto them and fell to the floor unable to hold onto their daggers anymore.

Obviously, seeing this, the other pirates immediately reacted and tried stabbing the kids' throats in order to stop me from doing anything else. However, before they had that chance, I rapidly picked up the dagger that the pirate that I sent flying away had, and threw it with all my strength toward the group.

Furthermore, because I threw it with all my strength in a calculated manner, the dagger soon started spinning around at an outrageous speed and rapidly took the form of a shuriken while flying toward them.

"Watch out!!"

-Boooom!!!-

Feeling the danger approaching, all the pirates reacted immediately and jumped away from where they were standing with all their might. Thanks to that, they managed to evade the incoming dagger, which destroyed a good part of the wall once it crashed with it.

Unfortunately for them, jumping away also meant that they had left the "hostages" behind.

Moving at a vertiginous speed, I rapidly jumped towards the kids and threw a nearby pebble toward the pirates, knocking one of them down, and allowing me to pick up his dagger at the same time.

The kids behind me were startled when they noticed that the pirates behind them had disappeared and that now I was the one standing behind them. However, despite that, it seemed that they had finally relaxed down a little bit, after feeling how the danger had subsided.

It was then that I heard a loud shout come in my direction.

"You bastard!!"

Seeing how I had beaten up at least half of his subordinates, Graybeard yelled at me from the other side of the room, before he rapidly swung his sword toward sister Elena's neck in anger.

It seemed like his patience had depleted.

Unfortunately for him, I have dealt with a lot of guys who tried to use hostages against me throughout these three years.

-Swoooosh!!-

-Ka-shing!-

"What?!"

Throwing the dagger that I had picked up previously towards his sword, I managed to stop his attack right on time before it touched sister Elena's neck and made him fall backward because of the recoil.

"Guh... Damn it!"

Rolling through the floor, Graybeard rapidly separated himself from sister Elena while cursing under his breath, before he then sprung from the floor and took out a gun from his pocket in a rushed manner.

"I'll show you...-!"

-Bam!!-

Not letting him even finish, I kicked the ground and propelled myself in his direction.

"Wha-?!"

-Paf!-

Slapping the pistol away from his hands, I breathed a deep chunk of air, before I launched a punch directly toward his ribs with all my strength.

-Booom!!!-

-Crack...!-

"Cough...!!!"

The instant my fist hit his ribs, I felt how some of them succumbed to the pressure and cracked apart. All while Graybeard looked at me with popping-out eyes that seemed to express just how much pain he was feeling.

Hearing Graybeard's pitiful gasps for air, I looked at him to see if he was planning to do anything else before he then coughed blood and accidentally spilled some of it on my face. Seeing this, I frowned slightly, before I then kicked him away, and sent him flying toward one of the walls of the building.

-Baaam!!!-

-Thud!-

Crashing against the wall, Graybeard's body came to a stop before it then fell to the ground completely unconscious.

"Huff..."

Finally relaxing, I turned to look at the rest of the pirates, who were looking at me with astonished expressions, before I snorted and rapidly changed my posture to lunge at them immediately.

After all, I can't just let them take a break, can I?

-Booom!!-

-Swooosh!!-

Kicking the ground one more time, I propelled myself in their direction, and in the blink of an eye, I appeared in front of them.

""Ah...-""

Unable to react in the slightest, the pirates let out a startled voice after seeing me appear in front of them so suddenly, before soon one of them received my fist head-on and the one-sided beat-up started.

-Baf!-

-Bam!-

-Pow!-

Fists rained down on them constantly, and as I was slightly trying to hold myself back in order to not break them more than necessary, suddenly the pained voices of some of them reached my ears and made me frown in annoyance.

I was making this much effort to not break them more than necessary, but here they were crying like little kids.

Their voices and pained cries were also very annoying at that.

"Ahhh! How dares a brat like you...-"

-Bam!-

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Some of them even tried to retaliate from time to time, however, with their level of strength, their fists actually felt more like tickles to my body instead of punches... Though it was incredibly praiseworthy that most of them were unexpectedly a lot sturdier than normal pirates, even with me using my full strength, it was still not possible to take them down in just one hit.

Though, two hits were often enough for most of them.

-Baf!-

-Pow!-

-Bam!-

The one-sided beat-up continued for a while, and finally, after some seconds more, most of the pirates had finally fallen to the ground, and only a pair more remained.

With most of their companions unconscious on the ground, the pair of pirates that were still able to continue standing were soon cornered into a wall, and forced to face me in a final struggle.

"How is it possible...? How can a stupid brat like you have this much power?!" Seeing me approach completely unafraid of their numbers, one of the pirates left couldn't help but blurt out his frustration and yelled at me in anger.

Hearing his words, I couldn't help but stop walking toward them, and sneakily glanced at the screen beside me for a brief moment with squinted eyes.

After all, it was obvious that this screen was not something normal... And it was very probable that I was the only person who had one of these.

That raised one question... Why was I the only one with a screen like this?

Where in the world had a thing like this one come from, in the first place?

-Sigh…-

However, I knew that I would probably never arrive at the correct answer no matter how hard I thought about it, so, I rapidly snorted, and turned to look at the pirate dead in the eyes while leaving the matter of my screen aside.

"I was lucky, I guess..."

Hearing my words, the pirate couldn't help but groan in anger, before I suddenly appeared in front of him and slammed my fist right into his face, not allowing him to continue making me waste time.

-Thud!-

Seeing the body of his companion fall to the ground completely unconscious, the other pirate couldn't help but look at me in shock and take a step back in horror.

And why wouldn't they be horrified? After all, I might not have planned to kill them, however, I was surely going to make sure that they never are able to do the same thing again, even if they somehow get out of prison.

Be it by instilling fear into them, or simply by making them disabled... Both options worked wonders with the other pirates that I had met so far.

'Alright... Time to end this farce...-'

"...?!"

However, just as I was about to charge at them, I felt enormous goosebumps run through my whole body and shivered in surprise after feeling such a thing.

The moment that happened, my whole body turned cold, and my eyes immediately widened in shock.

As if it was by instinct, I knew immediately that those goosebumps were a bad premonition. That something bad was about to happen...

Something... that I wasn't seeing.

At that moment, time seemed to have slowed down several times, and all of my senses heightened to their limit looking for that "something".

I was able to hear, smell, and see everything around me, and my Observation Haki, which was allowing me to sense almost everything around me, was also working at its maximum.

It was at that moment, that I saw it.

A long, and incredibly sharp sword was slowly moving toward a woman who was still not aware of the danger approaching her... A woman... very familiar.

Her back was completely exposed to the attack, and slowly as the sword was moving in my vision, the woman was still not reacting in the slightest to the attack despite it being almost about to hit her.

What was more... That woman... Was right behind me...

"Could it be...-?!"

Finally having the realization strike my head, I widened my eyes in shock, before I spun my whole body around to look at what was happening behind me.

There... I saw it... It was a vision... A vision of sister Elena suddenly having her heart pierced by a sword... A sword that was being handled by Graybeard, who despite his wounds, was still able to move around.

'That bastard...!'

However, for some reason, I could feel how that vision was not real... I could feel that it was a possibility... a possibility for something that was about to happen.

Feeling my whole body be struck by lightning, I stopped caring about thinking anymore and immediately sprang into action.

-Boom!!-

Kicking the ground with all my strength and cracking the whole floor in the process, I was immediately propelled forward and started moving at an astonishing speed towards sister Elena, who was watching me with a bewildered expression on her face.

Then, I saw it, that bastard was charging towards sister Elena with his sword pointing towards her heart... He was aiming for her life.

It was at that moment that I noticed something that made my heart grow cold... At my current speed, I wasn't going to make it on time... I was going to arrive a second later than him...

... My speed wasn't going to be enough for stopping that from happening... Such a realization was making my head go crazy.

In just a second, anger and frustration started filling up my head, as my desperation for increasing my speed started growing without control.

'Faster...!'

Screaming inside my mind, I felt how my vision focused directly on the sword, which was only a few centimeters away from sister Elena's back, and made my stomach revolve imagining what was about to happen.

'Faster!!'

Desperation filled my whole being, as my mind screamed even louder and made my whole body try to increase its speed while still being in mid-air.

Time slowed down even more than before, probably because of the adrenaline filling my body as it had never done before, and focused completely on the sword.

Then it happened... The sword... touched her back.

At that moment, I felt how all the blood in my body rushed directly to my head and made my heart stop for a brief moment.

My muscles trembled, and my whole mind went blank when that happened.

However, that only lasted for a brief moment, as soon, the anger hiding within me rose up and made me scream all out in anger at my own body.

"FASTER....!!!!"

That scream echoed inside my mind like thunder on a silent night, and soon, as my whole body shook in response, I instinctively kicked the air.

-Bam!-

Creating a thundering shockwave behind me, at that instant I felt how my whole body was propelled forward and reached an even faster speed than before...

... A speed that I had never reached in the past...

However, even then...

-Shieck!-

"Ah...!"

I wasn't able to arrive in time.

Blood splattered in the air, and soon, I saw how the sword entered sister Elena's back.

…

-To be continued-

°°°

(A/N: Changed a few little things here that don't really matter too much, I changed a lot more important things in the next chapter)