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Chapter 9, Arc 1

Lia's POV;

I decide to seize the pirate ship. We will be able to refit it for our uses and maybe its captain has a bounty, that would be good.

So I did a quick Soru and added by a couple of Geppo jumps and landed on the enemy ship. A good two dozen men were gawking at me with open mouths. None of them felt strong, most even barely above a normal person.

Their weaponry was an assortment of badly maintained swords, guns, and axes.

“Who's the strange chick?”, asked one of them. He had badly rotten teeth and I felt a quiver of disgust by the mere view of him.

I have to take care not to damage the ship.

“Who is it that stands against the Great Zenso? You must know I have a bounty of nine million Berry”, shouted the largest of the ugly men. So this was their captain? Good, so I only have to keep him alive. It is really fortunate that guys like him shout about their bounty to whoever may not care.

I wordlessly grabbed a few pebbles from my pouch and flicked two at his knees. I did not even need my Devil Fruit to pierce his bones and cripple him. What a weak man.

The others shouted in shock and then anger before rushing at me from all sides. Some even shot their guns. I scoffed at them, guns were of little use against me. I weaved and ducked through the bullets like I was dancing. The projectiles missed me and hit some of their friends. Three fell down wounded by friendly fire. Observation Haki made it almost too easy.

Now others were close enough and they tried to grab me, most likely not wishing to kill me for some nefarious purposes. But only Lara is allowed to do such things to me, so I swished my finger at the height of their throats and shot a weak Rankyaku at them. The air blade cut their flesh and into bone, leaving six corpses to fall down around me.

The remaining pirates were now stiff in fear.

“We surrender!”, shouted the downed captain from his position on the floor. His legs were bleeding heavily and he might die from it if he does not get bandaged soon.

“What do you want?”, asked another one. I glared at him and the goons around him stepped back a little.

“Your ship and the bounty of your captain, you are not needed”, I simply said and shot ten more pebbles at them before they could comprehend the treat behind my words. All ten men I aimed for died with a hole in their heads.

The last five thought that fleeing was a good idea and jumped down in the water. I looked at them and pushed their heads underwater with some pressure and waited until they stopped struggling.

I then turned around to the captain, who by now was a crying mess, and kicked him in the chin. He dropped and was silent. I then felt for any other life sign on the ship and found a terrified weak presence. It was a man inside the ship. He felt too frightened to even move, so I ignored him and jumped back to the ship.

“What happened, are you okay?”, asked the captain of our transport the moment I landed.

“Anything is fine, I took care of them. My sister and I will change ships. You can keep the money”, I said dismissively and walked down into our cabin. There I put our things into my inventory. I then dressed Lara and grabbed my still sleeping sister. Seriously how could she sleep through that?

I put her over my shoulder and went up to the deck. From there I jumped with Geppo back over to the pirate ship.

The terrified presence was now on deck, looking down at the captain. It was a weak teenage boy, that was the best description I had for him. He was maybe 16 or 17. His muscles were none existent and his body was still quivering. He even let out a yelp of fear when he saw me and dropped down on his ass.

I raised my hand to kill him like the rest of the pirates, but he crawled to his knees before I could raise my hand. Not that I wouldn't have killed him while he kneed in submission.

“Please, I am not one of them. They used me as their chore boy, please don't kill me”, he pleaded and I dropped my hand. He might be useful.

“Make sure that this cretin does not die through loss of blood and then tie him to the main mast”, I ordered and threw two more pebbles at the captain. This time aimed at his elbows. Now he won't be able to struggle.

The captain cried out in pain, the weak teenager cried out in fear and my Lara mumbled something incoherently. I patted her ass soothingly and walked inside the ship in search for a clean bed and a map to reorient us for our course. We both learned the basics in navigation and shipwright from our books. Medicine was somewhat covered by our knowledge about the human body.

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I did not find a clean bed for Lara, so I carried her along until I found the captains room. There I found a treasure chest with a few valuable things and a good fifty thousand Berry. I also found the map of this region and a compass.

I made my way out with both in one hand and found the still frightened boy struggling with tying the captain to the mast. I left him on his own and walked up to the steering oar. There I leaned Lara against the railing and stepped to the oar. A quick glance back on the map and the compass showed me how I had to reposition it and we quickly were on our way to Loguetown.

“Eh...ehm, my name.. is Olsy”, said the boy. He looked to have finished with tying the captain on the mast and looked at me with a questioning and fearful expression. I locked the rudder and turned to him.

“My name is Lia, this”, I pointed at the still sleeping Lara”, is my sister Lara. We're sailing to Loguetown”, I said and sat down next to Lara. I put her head on my lap and began to stroke her soft hair. It was loose when she was sleeping, the same was with my hair. Which was why I had no braids in them. Something that I will have to change.

“Ehm”, he began but said nothing. He felt curious as if really wanted to ask something. Too bad for him that I don't care.

“Throw the dead bodies over the railing, but keep those that have a bounty”, I told him instead. He jumped a bit but run off to do as I said.

I began to influence the ship in the meantime, increasing the wind pressure on our sails, decreasing the water pressure on our ship and pushing us forward faster than what would be otherwise possible.

Half an hour later Lara began to stir. Her green eyes opened and looked up at me. “Morning. Why am I able to see the sky?”, she asked and sat up. “And why are we not on the same ship”, she further asked in wonder.

“We were attacked by pirates, I thought it would be a good idea to take their ship. We can use it to sail to Conomi Island and the captain has a bounty on his head, so easy money as well”, I answered.

With a grunt, she stood up and stretched the sleepiness out. “Okay, I'll see if there is something good on the ship”, she then said and skipped off.

A moment later she came back with the boy hanging from her outstretched hand like a puppy.

“Who's that?”, she asked me. Why did she not ask him?

“That's a boy I found on the ship. He said he was not one of the pirates and only a prisoner”, I answered. Lara looked at the boy for a moment and then shrugged. She dropped him where she stood and walked back down.

The boy looked at her with wide eyes and then scrambled off. He does not feel as afraid towards her as to me. Well, I think I'm gonna take a nap. These pirates interrupted my sleep.

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Lara's POV;

The ship would do until we get our hands on a neat marine ship. Its previous owners did not take good care of it and we wouldn't survive a single Grand Line storm with it. I jumped down on the deck and found a few blood splatters, must've been the other pirates. There was also one dead man, I froze him by slowing down any vibration in his molecules.

For me, any movement is a form of vibration which means that I can control it. Of course not the movement of a body, but certainly the molecules it's made out off. Every model of an atom looked as if the thing was vibrating and my teachers always told me that adding energy to them lets them vibrate.

The frozen guy won't thaw for a few days now. I looked at the sleeping guy that was bound to the mast and shrugged before walking inside the ship.

There were only four cabins, each had a bunch of hammocks, except the captain's cabin. That one was way larger and had some interesting trinkets, but nothing important.

The kitchen was dirty, something that would greatly annoy Lia. The pantry left a lot to wish for. Dried fruits, salted meat and generally long shelf life food. Good to have for an emergency, but not something either Lia nor I want to have on our future ship. A fridge was a must.

I searched some more and found a lot of stolen goods in their storeroom. It was there when I saw a single hammock and some personal things. One of them was a drawn picture of the marine symbol.

“Hey, do you know who slept here?”, I asked the boy that has followed me since I went exploring. He desperately tried to hid from me, but my observation Haki wouldn't be fooled by him.

He let out a frightened yelp and then came out from behind the door. “That's my sleeping place”, he admitted embarrassed. He mustn't be used to speak to women his age.

“Why the marine symbol? Hope for rescue?”, I asked. There were few marines who would save him. Most would simply sink the ship and be done with.

“I want to become a marine. Zenso kidnapped me before I could enlist”, he admitted and picked the picture up with a fond smile.

“Good for you that we're going to Loguetown then, we'll be handing in this Zenso guy. You can enlist then”, I said with a shrug and walked back to the captain's cabin. The boy followed me, now without hiding.

“You are not like your sister”, he noted while watching how I pulled the sheets of the bed off.

“Why do you think so?”, I asked. I knew that Lia and I had a lot of differences in our behaviour, but it was always funny to hear an outsider. We still often think the same and have like minded world views, but we act differently. I'm hiding my cruelty and apathy better than she does.

“Your friendlier and not as scary, you also answer my questions. By the way, my name is Olsy. I was the cabin boy for the Zenso Pirates”, he explained.

“It's just that Lia does not like to speak with people who are boring”, I said and he deflated by being

called boring.

“May I ask what you are?”, he then asked after steeling himself.

“You mean because we have long ears?”, I asked back and he nodded. “We are what people call long-ear-humans, from the long-ear-tribe. Our origin lays on the grand line”, I answered and he looked at me in awe. Easy to impress as well, did we got our own Corby?

I looked at him a with a bit more than a glance. He was rather short, maybe 1.60. Barely taller than me. His hair was brown and cut short, his face pudgy and still showing his youth. No visible muscles and thin. Yup, we have our own Corby.

“Any reason for becoming a marine?”, I asked with mild interest. Maybe he had other goals.

“I want to protect the people from pirates like Zenso. Scum like him shout be put behind bars”, he declared heatedly.

“What if I told you that we are also pirates?”, I asked with a smirk. He looked at me with wide eyes and the shock his head in denial.

“Not possible, you are too nice to be a pirate. You saved me from Zenso, your sister might be as frightening as one, but she too seems to be nice”, he said while waving his arms in a dismissive gesture.

“Well, I'm sorry to crush your delusions but both Lia and I are or will indeed become pirates. Our crew will be named the Kage Pirates. We're just short of a crew as of now, and a good ship, or a jolly roger”, I said and laughed at all the things we were lacking. Seriously we were just like Luffy, just stronger, more intelligent and cuter.

“But, but why? You're so strong, you could become marine captains in no time at all”, he asked incredulously.

“Long-ear-humans and the marine are not really on good terms with each other and neither of us likes to do the bidding of someone else. Especially someone who is most likely only in his position because of connections. The marines are 75% corrupt. But luckily for you, Loguetown has a captain that isn't”, I explained and he just stared at me.

“Please don't be angry when I don't believe you”, he finally said. At least our Corby had more backbone than Luffy's.

“Believe what you want to, you'll see soon enough, that is if you get up in the ranks”, I said with a shrug and turned the mattress around. The other side was sadly as filthy as the first one. Seems like we have to sleep in hammocks. Cuddling is better in them anyway. Only sex will be a problem, it's too dirty for sex anyway. And I'm not in the mood to clean.

“Olsy wasn't it?”, I asked with sudden inspiration.

“Yes?”, he asked back, understanding the coming questioned order.

“Would you please clean the kitchen? My sister is a cook but hates a dirty kitchen and even hates cleaning up other one's messes even more” I asked and he nodded fearfully before sprinting out of the captain's cabin.

I laughed a little and opened the window to clean the air, before walking back up to Lia. She was sleeping, so I sat down and put her head on my lap while stroking her hair.

The ship wasn't as fast, now with Lia sleeping, but still faster than the merchant ship. We should reach Loguetown in a week at most. Then I'll forge my sword and we're going to prepare for real.