"Haa, anyways, Captain, will we eliminate those stalkers that keep following us or not?" Asked Trenza with a shake of her head as she pointed toward the entrance of the bar, where a marine soldier was peeking through and spying on them.

"No point in doing so; I'll kill them all at night, so it doesn't matter. Besides, how do you expect to kill them without a single weapon? Don't tell me you're going to use your fists; I've heard enough jokes for one day." Replied Diddy while dismissively waving his hand at the marine, who quickly ducked behind cover before eyeing Trenza

Other than some incoherent grumbling, Trenza didn't bother responding to my question, most likely because what I said was true; I doubt Trenza is even capable of beating a regular marine in hand-to-hand combat, and I'm specifically talking about female marines as well.

Since Trenza didn't have much food left, once she finished, we stood up and left the bar; as we were pirates, we obviously didn't pay for our meal. Exiting the bar, we walked right past the marine who'd been stalking us for the past half-hour, shocking him as he backed away while trembling in fear, yet neither of us paid him any mind; Trenza was too busy looking for a blacksmith shop, while I didn't care about his presence.

This town or city, whatever you want to call it, was filled with blacksmith shops, so it wasn't hard to find them, though what was hard, tedious, and annoying was the fact that, no matter how many shops we entered, none seemed to have pistols up to Trenza's standard. Which ultimately forced us to walk around the entire city while stopping at every blacksmith shop we came across, yet even after searching through fifty different shops, Trenza still left empty-handed.

I personally didn't mind all this walking around, mainly because I was just waiting for the sky to darken so I could begin causing a ruckus under the cover of darkness. Still, that didn't mean I found this enjoyable; it is still rather annoying. The only reason I was putting up with it was because it's not like I had anything better to do, at least not yet.

'I'm eternally grateful I didn't have a girlfriend in my last life; if I were forced to experience this every time we went shopping, I would've ended myself.' Thought Diddy while his eye constantly twitched as he walked behind Trenza, following her footsteps.

"Ugh, I've visited nearly every blacksmith shop in the freaking city, so why don't they have a single decent pair of pistols!" Yelled Trenza in anger as she punched a nearby try, which only ended up with her grabbing her fist while hissing in pain.

"Tch, well, what do you expect? When you're forced to supply thousands of men with weapons, you're not able to focus on forging quality weapons. Besides, how good do you need your pistols to be? Don't they just need to shoot some lead spheres?" Remarked Diddy with a raised eyebrow while looking at Trenza as he leaned against the tree she had just punched.

"I need them to do more than simply shoot bullets; they need to be able to work underwater, they need to hold a large amount of ammo, and most importantly, they need to be durable enough where I can fire hundreds of times in a sequence without worrying about damaging the barrel." Replied Trenza calmly as she listed her requirements, though Diddy was hardly paying attention.

"It just sounds to me like you're being very picky." Said Diddy dryly as he yawned while looking at the night sky.

"Well, think about it like this: how would you like it if you broke your bo-staff and needed a replacement? You wouldn't just choose your average wooden bo-staff; it wouldn't last for more than a second in your hands." Stated Trenza with a raised eyebrow as she looked at Diddy while resting her hands on her hips.

"Tch, touché." Muttered Diddy as he closed his eyes, though that wasn't for long; a couple of seconds later, he suddenly snapped his eyes open while looking in a certain direction.

"Haa, don't tell me I won't be able to find a pair of quality pistols on this island?" Said Trenza with a depressed sigh as she looked at the ground, only to spot Diddy's feet walking past her.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Hmm? Is something the matter, Captain?" Asked Trenza with furrowed brows when she noticed Diddy grab Naga-sa from his holster.

"Hehehe, someone strong is approaching; it must be the Vice-Admiral Sebas spoke of." Replied Diddy with a feral grin as he looked north, deep into the night sky, prompting Trenza to do the same.

"Well, I can't see-wait, is that him?" Remarked Trenza as she followed Diddy's line of sight while squinting her eyes, only to see a small figure seemingly flying through the sky.

"Hehe, what does he look like?" Asked Diddy as he glanced at Trenza, who was doing her best to view the man's appearance, though the darkness wasn't helping.

"Umm, he does seem to be wearing marine clothes, so your assumption is most likely correct, Captain; from how he keeps moving his legs, he also seems to be able to fly through the sky the same as you. Lastly, he seems to be pretty small in stature, even shorter than me, it looks like." Replied Trenza with a frown as the man became clearer by second.

"Heh, geppo, he must know about the Rokushiki techniques. I hope he's gotten a good mastery over them; he'll need it." Said Diddy with a smirk while Trenza, who listened to his interview with Janet, knew of the Rokushiki techniques, though they were only briefly mentioned, so she doesn't have a detailed understanding of them.

"Trenza, you stay here; I'm going to go fight him." Stated Diddy as he didn't bother waiting for Trenza's response as he blasted off into the sky, using geppo to quickly approach the incoming marine.

"-And there he goes." Muttered Trenza as she watched Diddy head straight for the Vice-Admiral while she, herself, started feeling vulnerable without his presence.

"Dammit! I didn't want to have to use them, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Said Trenza with a frown as she entered the nearest blacksmith shop and stole two pistols to use as protection, at least until Diddy returned.

___

___

While propelling myself through the sky, it didn't take long until we encountered one another, stopping in the air just a few meters from each other; hovering in place, I scrutinized him, and as I did that, he was doing the same to me.

"So, you're the pirate who has been making a name for himself within the South Blue, Diddy D. Kong." Said Mini as he observed Diddy while his eyes lingered on his bo-staff for a little longer, getting a dangerous feeling from it.

"Hehe, and you're the Vice-Admiral who is leading the war against the rebellion?" Said Diddy with a feral grin as he looked at Mini, who was much smaller than him.

"Vice-Admiral Mini, that is me; however, I'm surprised a dumb pirate such as yourself figured out I'm a Vice-Admiral." Replied Mini with furrowed brows as he re-evaluated Diddy's intelligence, though his next set of words greatly surprised him.

"Heh, it wasn't hard; after destroying that large fleet of reinforcement you probably requested, I had one of my crewmates get information out of one of the Rear-Admirals. Granted, we didn't learn much, but we learned enough to realize this entire civil war was a ruse the Marines used to cover up something larger." Stated Diddy with a smirk, his words causing Mini to squint his eyes while frowning as he stared at Diddy.

"Seems I'm greatly underestimating you, Frenzy pirates; I didn't imagine a newly formed pirate crew would already be this capable. This is even more reason to snuff you out before you grow into something dangerous; there is no prison for you; it's best for you to truly disappear from this world." Remarked Mini as he went silent and suddenly propelled himself through the sky toward Diddy, who merely smirked.

Seeing Mini approaching, I grinned and brandished Naga-sa as I also launched myself toward him; when we neared each other, I swung my bo-staff while Mini punched toward me. The instant my bo-staff and his punch connected, we got locked in a slight struggle as we attempted to overpower the other; eventually, I managed to win and push him away; however, I'll admit, I was forced to use nearly all of my strength.

"Haha, this is just what I was looking for: someone who can give me an actual fight!" Yelled Diddy with excitement as he lunged toward Mini, who had just regained his bearings.

As we engaged in battle, we traded blow for blow while maneuvering through the night sky; neither of us was actually able to successfully land an attack on each other. Then again, while I may have nearly been using my full strength, I was still holding back as I hadn't incorporated a single technique, yet sometimes such barbaric fighting was what I needed.

"Tch, you're powerful, I'll give you that, Kong; even I, someone who is confident of my strength among Vice-Admirals, is on the losing end." Said Mini as he punched Diddy's bow-staff away before closing in on him.

Seeing him approaching me, I used that chance to retract Naga-sa to block his attack, but all of a sudden, he used geppo and soru together, causing him to swiftly appear directly in front of me before I could position my bo-staff to block his attack. Though I wasn't too worried, I just used tekkai to harden my body, but although it was hard to perceive, I sensed something ethereal covering his arms as he punched me in the abdomen, breaking right through my defenses and flinging me to the ground below.