The Den Den Mushi took on a feminine appearance and a cigarette appeared in its mouth. As soon as the transformation finished, the voice of a woman came out of the snail's mouth/

"Rayleigh! We need some help. I am nearing that island you're training your boy on. We have 3 marine ships following us under the orders of world nobles! We are coming from the north. Get here soon!"

It was easy to hear the panic in the woman's voice.

"Don't worry, darling. We are on our way!"

Rayleigh set down the Den Den Mushi as soon as he finished speaking and made his way toward the entrance to the cave. Hearing that Rayleigh had said 'we', Kisame knew he had been told to come along so followed behind Rayleigh.

The pair were able to leave the cave with no issue. All the animals had learned that the area around the cave was the territory of one of the most dangerous predators in the forest. But after moving more than 50 meters away from the cave, several of the giant animals began to stalk the pair.

Knowing that his teacher was in a bad mood, Kisame decided to deal with the creatures around them. Using his Conqueror's Haki: Incapacitation, he knocked out all the animals on the island. Rayleigh looked back and nodded at Kisame with a look of appreciation. Even if he could do it himself, it was the thought that counted to Rayleigh.

With no animals trying to stand in their way, the pair made their way to the boat that Rayleigh usually rode. It was a small thing but useful for small crews or even going solo as Rayleigh did. Stepping into the boat, Kisame started setting up the sails and undoing all the knots on the boat. Rayleigh helped before standing at the wheel. Just as Kisame was about to ask what the old man was doing without pushing off, the boat shot forward over 20 meters.

'What the heck was that? Is that sea king asking for a beating?'

Another burst sent the boat forward once more. Kisame was confused until he felt where the burst was coming from. He felt that they were occurring under Rayleigh who kept shooting the boat forward at a rapid pace.

'He must be using Haki. Emission?'

"So... who was that woman? Another one of your playmates?"

Kisame was curious. He had never seen Rayleigh so serious over a woman before. During their travels, the man, for lack of a better term, was a whore. He would go after anything in a skirt.

Rayleigh touched his face with one of his hands. He was embarrassed but knew he had to say it before they joined up with Shakuyaku or more issues would occur.

"She... she's my wife."

Kisame's jaw dropped. There were dozens of questions floating across his mind only to be replaced by different questions with nano-seconds.

'He got married? When? What is her name? How pretty is she to seduce him? Is it the sex? Is it true love? Is she an old geezer like him? Did he trick a young woman into marrying him?'

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Kisame did not dare to ask most of his questions though. Most of them would end up with him being thrown off the boat. So he settled for the first 3.

"Yes, I got married. It was last year. Her name is Shakuyaku. I'm sure you will like her."

Kisame saw a trace of tenderness that he had never seen in his teacher before. He had seen his teacher be nice and gentle before but never spoke with such reverence and tenderness in his eyes.

"Hmm. Anyone who can catch Teacher's eyes is surely very good."

'And also must have some sort of hidden weapon or danger about her if she can tame such a damn whore like yourself,' Kisame silently added on in his mind.

Rayleigh nodded with a proud expression on his face as the small ship charged through the water. The pair were soon able to see a small ship being closely followed by 3 marine vessels. Each of them had opened fire and were trying to sink the smaller ship which had sustained a decent amount of damage.

"Kisame, go handle those 3 ships. I need to make sure my wife is alright."

The pair pulled up beside the smaller ship. While Rayleigh climbed up the ship, Kisame jumped off the boat and went into the water. As soon as he touched the water, he kicked off towards the 3 approaching vessels.

Once he neared them, Kisame pulled out his blade and used Armament Haki: Imbuement on his sword before cutting through the hull of the closest one. Once he made several large holes and the ship began taking on water, Kisame moved to the next one.

After going from ship to ship and ensuring that each one would sink, Kisame continued to attack them in order to speed up their descent in the hell they knew nothing about. Once the ship's marines left their ship and tried to swim or get on one of their lifeboats, Kisame was ready for them.

As a fish-man shark in the water and combatant trained by Rayleigh, the marines were helpless to Kisame's assault. The teen would dive underwater and slice up the marines with his sword or tear them apart with his claws and teeth. Even the 2 captains and the Commodore who were leading the marines could not resist Kisame's might when he was in the water.

Kisame made sure that every marine was killed and there were no survivors. As much as he wanted credit for killing all those marines, they might have seen Rayleigh and he did not want anyone to pursue his teacher just so he could have a small bounty. Kisame swam back to the ship that Rayleigh had boarded before climbing up the side.

Once he reached the deck, Kisame saw that he and Rayleigh were the only 2 men on board. As they saw Kisame board, everyone's eyes switched between him and a large amount of blood in the water behind them. Besides the crew who were doing their jobs, there were 5 women near Rayleigh.

Kisame walked over and joined their group. As he made his way over, he looked through the different members to try and guess his teacher's wife. He wanted to put on a good first impression.

'She is way too old and ugly for the old man's taste.'

'This one has too large of a head.'

'While she is alright, I remember the old man saying that he does not like redheads. She's also a bit young.'

'This one is very pretty but too young as well. No matter how much of a pervert this old man is, he won't go for a 16-year-old, right?'

Each of the women had a unique air about them but none of them seemed like they were suitable for his teacher. One was too old while the others were too young. All except for one.

'That leaves only her then.'

"Nice to meet you, Teacher's Wife."

Shakuyaku was surprised that Kisame could recognize her without ever meeting her before but gave him a soft smile in return and greeted him politely.

"Hello, there. Rayleigh has told me much about you. He is always praising how you have the potential to match up to his former captain."

Kisame smiled at the woman and said his thanks. Although he was no longer as arrogant as he was before he came to the island, he could never be the type to be humble.

'She is nice. I should kiss up to her so that she can help me out whenever Teacher bullies me.'

With that thought, Kisame's smile became even sweeter in his eyes. To all the crew and the girls that were in front of him, his smile was terrifying, especially since it still had some flesh stuck in between some of his teeth.

Shakuyaku let out a small laugh at the boy trying to act sweet and innocent in front of her. She had already heard about him through Rayleigh and knew what he was thinking but did not mind it. The woman decided to introduce Kisame to the other women behind her.

"This lady here can be called Elder Nyon. She is from a kingdom that has no men but left several years ago. We met coincidentally and have become good friends over the years."

She then pointed towards the 3 girls standing behind Elder Nyon and looking at Kisame with faces full of wariness but also reverence. Before Shakuyaku could introduce them, the oldest and prettiest among the group decided to ask Kisame a question.

"You're a fish-man? Do you know Fisher Tiger?"

Kisame was surprised to hear that name. He had not heard of the fish-man who was his first teacher for almost 5 years now.

"Yeah! He used to teach me karate. How do you know him?"

The girl looked relieved when she heard that and her defenses towards Kisame got lowered by about 50%. Even though she was grateful for him saving them and had been a student under the fish-man that saved her, she was still not fully trusting of another man after what she had gone through for the past 4 years. She still decided to introduce herself.

"My name is Boa Hancock. Me and my sisters were captured by the World Nobles and made slaves before Fisher Tiger saved us."

Hancock did not mention that Fisher Tiger was also a fellow slave since she did not know if wanted others to know about his status as a slave. As the man who saved her, she would not damage his reputation doing something like that.