Jonny's POV;

The ship we were going towards was drifting dead in the water. There were quite a few people on deck, some were holding rifles and taking aim at us. A few were even trying to shoot us down with the onboard cannons. Those could be easily ignored, cannons aren't really precise enough to hit a human.

I was a few geppo jumps behind Lara, with Yosaku on my left. The strongest woman I know was easily deflecting every bullet that came close to us. And those who were shooting were also dropping one after the other. Nojiko's sniper was such a powerful weapon that sometimes only half of its target was left.

Fiara has had made one scary weapon. A weapon Nojiko was now using with practised ease and deadly precision. Only Lia was better at shooting things down, our cook could hit everything with everything. Ussop was almost equal in skill with Nojiko, yet he was less deadly. His projectiles were more tricky and of the disruptive or annoying kind.

Anyway, I stopped my slight mental musing and used one last geppo to propel myself over the enemy ship. I then let myself drop down and unsheathed my blade. Someone with a spear was placing himself under me and raised his weapon to impale me.

I pointed the tip of my blade at him and thrust forward. The piercing force blade rushed down, he was too slow and shocked to react and got pierced through the head. It exploded like an overripe grape. The headless corpse touched the deck the moment I did.

All around I could see men with weapons and angry expressions. There were at least seven close to me. Further to my left, I could hear loud crashes, Yosaku was never fighting silently.

I couldn't hear Lara's fight, she was fast and precise. If everyone is as weak as the guy is just killed then they won't even notice when they die. A lot of dead people were already lying around, victims of Nojiko's precise sniping.

“DIE!” shouted one of my own attackers. I have felt his rising hostile intentions way before he acted and sidestepped his spear thrust. I swished my blade to the side, almost casually, and cut his arms cleanly off.

Kuronazo, the blade I got from my captain, its deadly black blade wasn't even coated in blood. This masterpiece of a weapon was my very own. With it, I will become one of the strongest. It will rise in its glory as will my own and everyone will know what a master crafter my captain is.

But for that, I will have to fight, fight and fight some more. People will have to fear me and my blade and they will!

I made a fast turn and beheaded the fool that attacked. His comrades looked at me with more wariness, yet also more hate. Once I would have quaked in fear by the simple thought of facing so many at once. But now I can see their weakness.

The one to my immediate left was grabbing his sword tighter, he will attack me in a moment. From the position of his feet, I can deduce that he will strike at me with an overhead slash. He had just raised his arms and opened his mouth for a war cry when I was already in his guard.

My sword flashed black and half of his face fell down to the ground. I kicked his body into two of his comrades. I then turned swiftly and pierced through the right eye of another one that tried to attack me from the behind.

Since awakening my Observation Haki the world was clearer. I could understand people better and fighting became easier. These no names were projecting their thoughts clearly and made it easy for me to react accordingly.

Like I did with the three who came at me from my right. One had a mace that he swung over his head and down at me. He was trying to distract me from his two buddies. The one to the left had decided to pierce at me with his sword, while the one on the right will try to cut me diagonally.

A little jump brought me out of the reach of the mace, followed by a twist to evade the pierce, which left me in a good position to simply place my sword in the path of the last one. His sword met mine and the way inferior blade got cut in two with me barely doing anything.

He looked dumbly at his now destroyed sword and was too shocked to even notice my own blade until it cut into his stomach and sliced him open like a sack of rice. He slowly grabbed his stomach, trying, and failing, to keep his organs inside his body. I didn't bother with him any more, too busy with doing a quick twirl to the left. The mace of the first attacker crashed into the wooden planks of the deck.

The weapon splintered and got stuck, long enough to cut his arm off. He fell screaming to the ground and would be out of the fight. These people aren't used to this much pain and would not be able to continue fighting.

The last one, the one that tried to pierce through me with his sword, panicked and turned around to run. I sent two piercing force blades at him and cut his legs off. He might be able to answer some questions, that is if he survives the blood loss.

That left two men alive and able to fight. The two I have made fall down by kicking their dead friend into them. In the time I needed to kill three of their friends they had managed to do nothing.

Seriously, they were still under their dead friend and trying to push him off of them. I sighed and killed both quickly by cutting their head off.

Now with more room to see, I could spot the other two fighting places. Lara's was a literal bloodbath. Body parts were lying around, some of their owners were still alive, even if they were rapidly bleeding out. She was currently busy evading a man that was shooting something that looked like a stream of fog at her. She was smiling, so there was no trouble on her side. Not that I did expect any.

Yosaku's fight was also over, he has done a lot more damage to the ship. The deck was partly cut open, bodies of crushed people were lying inside the walls of the ship. One of them must even have been thrown through the railing and into the water if I judge the hole inside the railing correctly.

Besides us four there were no more people on deck. Maybe there were more inside the ship, I am not skilled enough in Haki to feel the presence of people who aren't close to me. At least not without some time to concentrate.

So I walked over to Yosaku and watched with him how Lara was taking out the obvious Devil Fruit user. He was partially transformed into a foggy cloud and desperately trying to enclose Lara.

“What do you think his fruit is?”, asked Yosaku without looking away from the fight.

“Well, we do know that someone created the fog. There was a presence inside, so I think he has a Logia fruit that gives him the body of a fog human. He will be able to create and manipulate fog. But from what I can see not a very tricky one.”

“Hmm, yeah, soundly likely. But why not tricky? Using fog to sneak up on enemy ships can be quite helpful. We did it as well a few times when Lia and Lara were experimenting with their fruits.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Both of us winced when Lara suddenly bitch slapped the fog guy into a wooden wall. The guy was so perplexed by the hit that he was staring at her with big round eyes. He must have never met someone who can use Armament Haki then. Not that there were many around Paradise who could.

“Well, fog is just evaporated water. With each breath we take we create fog and suck it into our lungs. I would have tried to control that fog inside our lung and use it to harm my enemy from the inside. From his attacks, I can also imagine that he can make his fog harden.

I would have created a thick fog over the deck and then attacked from out of sight. The fog on my enemies body might even allow me to feel their presence.” I explained.

The fog guy has not managed to come out of his shock and was gathering a lot of his element on his hands. He then pushed both his arms at Lara and a strong stream of fog raced at her. It showed its strength when it easily obliterated the wood in its path. Lara was long gone when it hit her previous position.

She was now standing next to the fog guy and slapped a pair of sea stone cuffs on his still outstretched hands. The guy crumbled down like a puppet with its strings cut. “True, but that wouldn't have helped against Lara. She can feel him and heat the fog up so that there won't be any left. She can also cut him with her Haki.” Countered Yosaku. He had holstered his sword and was now casually walking over to Lara and the cursing fog man. I followed with a shrug.

True, but not much would help against Lara.

“You fucking bitch, release me now!”

“Tut tut, that's not what a prisoner says. You should hope that I won't hurt you,” replied Lara with a way too friendly smile.

“Yeah, Jonny and I will search the ship. I don't want to be here when you ask him your questions,” muttered Yosaku quickly, before he almost sprinted off and inside the ship. He had his pistol drawn and a small dagger in his hand. His long and massive sword would be useless inside the ship.

I glanced at Lara, then at the cursing fog user and decided that Yosaku needs my help. Quickly.

Yosaku was waiting for me in front of a closed door. It leads further inside the ship and there will probably be more enemies behind.

“Puh, that was close. I don't want to see Lara interrogating someone again. The last time I had nightmares for days,” muttered Yosaku to me when I caught up with him.

I nodded in agreement. Lara can be quite friendly and is pretty easy going. But she can also be really fucking scary. Especially to those who tried to harm her, the crew or Lia. Especially Lia, I seriously still don't know how Sabo is still alive.

“Well, can you feel something?” Yosaku was looking at me expectantly. I remembered that I had to try and feel for a hostile aura. With a shake of my head, I pushed the images of Lara's last interrogation victim out of my head and concentrated.

Observation Haki was strange, it's not as if I can read the mind of others. I can feel them like you sometimes do when you are in a room with someone you can't see but know he is there. If their mind is on you then it feels as if you are being watched. Just that Observation also gives you a vague sense for their emotions.

When they are hostile and want to do you harm then you can feel someone nearby. It makes me shudder and uncomfortable.

That was when I activated it for the first time. Later I learned how to interpret the emotions and their presence into their movements. How their aggressiveness and presence form something like a possible attack course.

A skilled fighter can counter that by being able to switch their attack within a moments notice. Other Observation users can feel you as well and know that you know, which force you to react to their reaction.

Fighting someone who is equally good in Observation Haki can be arduous and take some time. Lia sometimes fights me while suppressing her skills down to my levels.

Anyway, I focused and tried to feel the presence of everyone on the ship. Slowly I started to feel those auras I know the best. Yosaku's burned right next to me. It oozed strength and I was quite familiar. He is my brother in all but blood.

Next was Lara, her aura was cold, calm and of assured victory. She always feels calm, I rarely feel any emotions from her. I'm either not skilled enough to get past her own Observation or she is just like that. The only times I can feel her projecting something other than calmness is when she is with Lia. Then her aura feels warm and carying, but also fiercely protective of Lia. Her aura is even trying to enclose and shield Lia's.

Next to her was the man, his aura was now feeling pain, fear and angst. Followed by a spike of pain. I stopped focusing on him and tried to feel behind the door. Slowly auras began to show itself. Five at all. They were worried, nervous and panicked.

“There are five, they all are nervous and in fear. I think they are aiming at the door and will shoot the moment something moves. Should we go through a wall and flank them?” I finally said after making sure that there were no other people on board.

“Nah, I will just bash the door in and use my sword as a shield against their bullets. Once they have shot we can go in and take them out,” replied Yosaku confidently. He put the dagger away and grabbed the massive sword with one hand. His strength is still awing me, but I know that he's the same with my speed.

He then placed the massive sword in front of himself, effectively blocking everything from the front, and got ready to kick the door in.

I moved to his back, using his larger frame to get cover as well. I had my sword ready and was in a position to come from behind and attack.

“Ready? On three. 3...2...1..., Knock knock bitches !” With a loud roar, Yosaku kicked the door out of its hinges. The door flew through the air, knocked into someone, if I heard the pained grunt right, and crashed into the wall on the other side of a long corridor.

Four loud gunshots followed immediately after, their bullets pinged harmlessly off of Yosaku's sword. I rushed from behind him and speeded into the corridor.

Two people were on my left, another one further inwards on my right and the last remaining again on the left at the far back, right next to the landed door. With a quick cut, I killed the first two on my side, both died simultaneously.

A soru brought me up to the next one on the right, he raised his rifle to shoot, but I was upon him and pierced my sword down through his heart, killing him instantly.

The last one had enough time to aim and shot his rifle, his bullet flew out and right at me, yet I felt where he was aiming for and bent backwards, evading it by using Kami-e. I turned to him and cut a second bullet in two before it reached me.

He shouted for me to die and shot once more, but his aim was messed up from the shaking of his arms. The bullet hit the ceiling, not doing any harm at all. I brought my sword forward and pierced his head with a piercing force blade.

Like the first guy I killed today, his head exploded in a gory mess.

“Dude, if I weren't used to fighting fast people I wouldn't have seen you move at all, “praised Yosaku. He was still standing in the door, his leg hasn't touched the ground yet.

I chuckled in embarrassment and changed the topic. “Let's search for valuables, food and other stuff we can use.” He nodded and we started to go from room to room.

We found a kitchen and the connected food storage room, the food was fresh and plentiful. Those guys must either have started their raid just a few days ago or we are close to an island.

I was just about to walk out when I spotted something fascinating. “Yosaku, look!” I shouted and pointed at a nearby apple. He spun around, alarmed by my outcry and looked at the fruit I was pointing at. It was changing its colour and grew in size.

The apple was turning into a Devil Fruit. It quickly got a lot of dots, not unlike a goose skin and turned grey. It grew to the size of a small honey melon and got a long twirly stem.

“Did that thing just now turn into a Devil Fruit?” Asked Yosaku in awe. I nodded dumbly and picked the fruit up. It was heavier than an apple and felt rough to the hand.

“Let's take it with us now, we can get the rest later. We still haven't found their storage room,” I said and wrapped the fruit into cloth to make a makeshift bag.

The next two rooms were crew quarters, some personal belongings we have to sort out later. After that we came to a storage room for daily necessaries and spare parts, we can use that.

And the last room was locked behind a large iron lock.

“Here, hold this while I open the lock, “I said and gave Yosaku the bag. He stepped to the side with the Devil Fruit in his hands, as far as possible from his body as he could, and watched how I cut the lock in half with a single strike of my sword.

The door opened and we found a room filled with treasures. Not up to the ceiling but enough to amount up to a small fortune. These guys must have raided a few ships to get this much. Or someone who had a lot of money.

“Heh, that will please Nojiko. She is almost as bad as her sister,” chuckled Yosaku after taking a glance inside the room.

“Yeah, let's get out and tell Lara, “I agreed and took the Devil Fruit back out of Yosaku's hands. He really doesn't like them, not the user, the fruit itself. He fears that something can happen and he might eat it by mistake. He does not want to be a Devil Fruit user, full stop.