Author's notes: Hey everyone this is chapter two of my story I hope you all like it. Please give some good reviews :D
Chapter 2: Thief at market! The mysterious Taon!
The day broke and the sea was choppy but calm enough to not worry too much about it. there was a light breeze on the open sea, something appears faded in the distance gradually getting closer. Sharuda notices this and climbs the mast and grabs the binoculars. "Woo! We made it it's the island." Sharuda saw a port town really quite large; Sharuda dropped the binoculars and slid down the sail. "Wow thanks Aniki this looks like a really nice town." Sharuda commented "Well there's not many marines situated here it's just a rest point and a stock up I'm afraid but you can look around if you want?" Sharuda ran to each side of the ship checking off into the distance for anything unusual. "Yeah I'd love to see if any famous pirates came through here."
They approach and dock into the port at a steady pace and step off into the town, they walk by a few townspeople looking at there boat and mocking the retarded unicorn as the figure head by sniggering and whispering to each other. Sharuda laughed and shrugged it off "Why did you have to use that figure head?" Aniki mentions to Sharuda "hey it's alright for now; it's a long story." Aniki sighs and they both move in towards the centre of town, there is a lot of stalls out offering various different types of materials: weapons, food, clothes as far as the eye could see. "Oh this is so cool! There are so many people here!" Sharuda was all excited he weaved his way through a large crowd of people to get to a stall with everything related to skulls: hats, gloves, shirts and basically about anything.
As he was about to get to the stand one of the members of the crowd walks into him, a simple sorry was issued and the guy walked on, Sharuda gave him a glace the guy wore a very distinctive green coat and red hair. "Hmm let me see this." Sharuda walks up to Aniki "I'm off to the pub for a bit, you better find a change of clothes." Aniki Nodded "Alright then I'll come find you later." Aniki walks towards the 'Skulls stand' and Sharuda walks toward the pub.
The pub was lively as a few pirates were just generally having a good time drinking up all the alcohol music was playing in the background with a genuinely happy tone. Sharuda pulls forward the doors and steps in, the pirates closest to him and seemingly the drunkest out of the lot stopped and looked at him for a second. Sharuda opens his hands and raises them high into the air towards them in a V shape and shouts "weyhey lads woo! Don't drink all the booze before I get there!" The other pirates hold up there drinks in the air "Waaaaay you gotta be quick me lad Yohahaha" Sharuda smiled and walked on as they cheered and settled down a bit, he seemed to fit in well with people even though they just meet, people seem to like Sharuda within the first few minutes of seeing him.
Sharuda pulls up to the bar and places himself on the seat next to a familiar face, Sharuda looks at the barman and nods he stops wiping the glass he was drying and steps up. "Hello there, what can I get ye sir?" Sharuda pulls out his wallet from under the table and hands the barman a few Belli "I'll have what he is having." He points to the very distinctive guy, his red hair and scar on his left check made him the most interesting looking guy there, than the average pirates scattered all over the place.
Red hair looks at the wallet in shock then looks back down too the bottom of his glass. "Hey there, I noticed you got some very quick hands if you hadn't of mugged that marine I wouldn't have noticed." Still looking into his glass he smirks and gave a sly laugh which sounded more like a grunt. "Did you come to patronise me?" the barman hands Sharuda his drink and he takes a mouthful before carrying on. "Wow you have some strong booze you better not have spent all my Belli on this, why would I come to patronise you? You seem like an interesting guy I want you to join my crew."
"Haha your crew? What are you a pirate?" the mysterious guy says. Sharuda looks at him with a giant smile. "Yep I'm a pirate." The mysterious guy laughs harder, "You're a funny guy, how many crew members you have?" Sharuda downs another mouthful of booze and gives a brief moment of silence. "Two including myself." The guy bangs his fist against the table and laughs constantly for a good 30 seconds. "Oh you must have all the navy of the west blue after you then?" after the guy had stopped laughing a few second later Sharuda and the guy finish off the drink. "Actually yes we do." A look of confusion befalls the guy. "You're weird, what's your name?" Asks the guy, Sharuda looked at his empty glass thinking about if he had another one "Oh I'm Sharuda and you are?" the guy looked stunned at him. "You're Sharuda?! A pirate who sailed into a marine base just to find your Nakama?!" Sharuda looks back at him and nods "My brother actually".
"So you went in announcing you're a pirate, you managed to get your Nakama and get out of one of the most secure and impenetrable Navy fortresses on the west blue? Sorry if I find that hard to believe." Sharuda sat there for a moment thinking of what to say, it does sound unlikely but that's what happened, a story for another day. "Oh and by the way my name is…" His introduction is cut briefly short by someone walking in, in which the guy went serious in his eyes and stopped talking. "I'm sorry Sharuda or whoever you claim to be I got a bounty to collect." Sharuda nods at him they both turn around on there bar stool but the guy was the only one to get off it.
Sharuda watches the guy carefully assessing different body movements and facial expressions, he felt like he can get on with this character even though he knew nothing about him, Maybe because he can stand out or maybe he can sense what is about to happen. The guy who walked in was currently being talked to by the red haired guy, but after only a brief minute with the guy who just walked in, his lackeys pounced at the red haired guy attacking him with there right fist.
Sharuda walked into the newly formed crowd circle just around the edge of it, he watched this guy fight off the people attacking him. You can barely make out his movements when looking but Sharuda sees two direct and powerful punches at a ninety degree angle of his body hitting the guys in the chest sending them flying, he pulled back into a martial arts stance and a few more guys tried to rush him. They were knocked away like toys with a barrage of well executed punches and kicks which smashes up the bar a little, the guy that the red haired stranger was after pulled a gun on him. "Right you stop this right now." Red hair smirked at him and moves lightning quick and smashes the gun up with the left side of his left hand before the guy had time to react. The guy blinked and dropped the shattered remains of his gun in shock. "Okay time for you to come with me now." Red hair says to the guy, the guy looks at him nervously.
"Okay Okay, I give I give, I'll hand myself in you win" he appeared to be screwed but then his eyes are jittery and appear to have looked behind red hair a few times, realising this he turns around to see another gunman within seconds of firing. With no time to react Red hair attempted to shield himself, "Oh crap." The guy's finger was just about to pull the trigger when a hand lands on the gun. It was Sharuda's left hand; the guy looks down at his big hand on the gun and looks back up at him. "You don't want to do that I hate people who don't put up a fair fight." Sharuda seemed offended by the guy's actions and crushed the gun with his brute strength leaving the guy with just the handle to hold onto and nothing more. "What's your name damn it?" Sharuda shouts to the red hair. "It's Taon and don't you forget it." Sharuda nods then punches the gunman in the face knocking him out, where as Taon turns around to look at the guy with a bounty. "Goodnight….. Subconscious crush!" Taon performs a lightning fast head but to the bridge of the nose of the guy, the guys eyes went white and had his mouth open blood dripping from his nose, he wasn't even twitching.
Taon moved over to him and hoisted him onto his shoulder and headed towards the door, "Hey Sharuda?" Taon turned his head to look at him. "Yeah?" He replied "Why did you go to that navy base?" Sharuda smiled. "To get my Nakama," Taon looked shocked. "Why would you go to a place that dangerous just to get a Nakama back?" Sharuda walked up to Taon. "A captain is nothing without his crew." Taon did a single laugh, "Can you take me off this island? Once I bring this guy in there gonna want my head." Sharuda nodded. "There's one thing I gotta ask you first." "Oh yeah and what's that?" Sharuda's face turned serious. "What is your dream?" A brief moment of silence was held; Taon turned away and started to walk out. "I want to be the best and to prove my strength to the whole world." Sharuda smiled yet again. "Good, welcome aboard, don't worry about finding the ship you can't miss it." Taon lifted his right arm which was free into a fist as a sign of acceptance.
Sharuda looked around and noticed the awkward silence that had befallen the bar due to the fight; Sharuda raises a full pint glass and drinks it all in one. "Carry on me hearties Hooorraaahhh!" Sharuda slams the pint down and cheering is heard from the pirates as he walked out of the bar. "Right I'd better get back it's getting kind of late." Sharuda heads towards the docks which smelled a lot like fish, he realised he hadn't eaten in at least four hours and went straight to a food stall, and massacred every piece of meat they had to offer into his non stop stomach.
The sun was setting and the seagulls stopped squawking and started to head to there nests, the sky was red and orange over the horizon and the sea crashed calmly against the rocks, Sharuda waited in his ship in the usual position asleep on the figure head. "What the hell!" a voice was heard and Sharuda woke up suddenly and almost fell straight into the sea. "What?! What happened where is everyone?" Sharuda looked around a bit dazed and noticed Taon stood outside of the ship looking at the figure head and the name 'The horny unicorn' Labelled on the back. "Where the hell did you get a boat like this?! Why is there a demented unicorn on the front of this? I'm not getting in this." Sharuda laughed. "Don't worry its only temporary until I find a big ship" Sharuda brushed himself off. "Uhh I dazed off on the figure head the sun is going down already, I wonder where Aniki is?" Aniki then came up to the boat with a bag full of shopping.
"Hey Sharuda I got some new gear to wear." Sharuda looked at him and scratched the back of his head. "Oh cool can't wait to see." Taon's face turned serious with an angry look on his face. "Oh hey who's this?" Aniki asked "Oh right this is Taon he is a part of crew for a while now." Aniki hold out his right hand. "Oh hello Taon well by the looks of you, you belong to the crew Hahahaha." Taon gritted his teeth, "Sharuda? Why is there a marine sailing with you?" Sharuda looked confused "What?" "I hate marines everything about them I just hate." Aniki looked offended "Well just because I'm wearing the uniform makes me a marine?" Aniki throws his bag of shopping up onto the ship and it slides to the other end. "Don't patronise me!" Taon Goes to punch Aniki with a right jab to the face, Aniki avoids the attack and tries to left hook Taon in the ribs but Taon grabbed it just in time. They were both knocked back, they went in for another charge but Sharuda stood between them and stopped them with his arms.
."Come on guys you can't fight as soon as you see them, you don't have any idea of what there like." Sharuda pushes them back. "He's a marine I can't sail with a marine." Sharuda laughed "Stop whining, why you think I went into a marine base on my own to get him?" Taon looked shocked at Aniki in his marine clothes "That's right I'm no longer a marine." Aniki jumps up and onto the ship, Taon grabs Sharuda and brings him towards him. "What does he mean not a marine?" Sharuda smirked and took Taon's hands of him. "He now shares the same hatred you do." Sharuda climbs onboard the ship, "Hey Taon you coming or what?" Taon turns back and forth a few times before finally deciding to jump on board. "You two certainly are interesting, but still losers compared to me." Aniki and Sharuda laugh at him "don't underestimate us coz you have shanks red hair." Taon ran his fingers through his hair, "well I guess I'll stick around then."
A few hours later on the open sea the crew were having there time to themselves for a while to soak up the sun and the wind, Sharuda stands up "Yahoo! Second crew member! Come on guys theres plenty of booze here lets have a little party!" Sharuda cheers loudly as there ship sets sail off the harbour, Sharuda cracks open some drinks and they cheer and celebrate Taon the newest edition to Sharuda's crew is already starting to feel at home with them. Sharuda tries to balance a jug of Rum on the base of his foot while doing a handstand, resulting in him falling and the bottle smashing over Aniki's head. "Ow! Ha-ha nice I bet Taon couldn't do it." Taon stands up to meet this challenge he picks the bottle up and smashes it over Aniki's head, "Ow what the hell I meant the balancing" Taon then quickly flipped over and tried balancing although he was quite drunk he balanced the jug around on his foot with ease and laughed at Aniki, Sharuda uses a feather to tickle Taon's neck resulting in Taon falling on his head and the bottle smashing over his own head. "Ha-ha not so smart now are you?" Taon stands up and hold his knife at Sharuda "I'll cut you!" he says in a very unrealistic humorous way, but then falls on the deck and passes out. Aniki goes inside intending to go to his hammock on the lower deck but falls on the captains table, while the captain crawls to the front of the ship and starts talking to the unicorn "Hey you think we have a good member now?...i like think umm its cool.." Sharuda is very drunk hands the bottle to the figure head, "here have a glass on me old chap." He pours the rum on the figure head and falls down unconscious on the top of the figure head.
They all woke up in the middle of the night by the ship crashing into something, Sharuda quickly gained his footing and ran to the source of the noise, there was a bright light coming from somewhere it was an orangey light that flickers, It was a fire a fire from a burning ship, wooden parts were torn off and were floating around the ship, "What the hell happened here?" says Aniki. "It looks like a pirate ship." Taon pulls in a jolly Rodger that had been torn to shreds.
"Seems like it was ignited just before sundown if we pass quickly whatever ripped this boat apart mighty not be able to see us." Aniki whispers quietly, the crew was all quiet an eerie draft passed over them like something was watching them pass, without being able to see anything in front or behind Aniki and Taon got nervous, Sharuda looked stern towards the starboard side of the boat. "Sharuda you see something?" Aniki asks him as quietly as possible. Sharuda grits his teeth, "Yeah!" he shouts as a loud roaring sound and a gust of wind came at a frightening speed, Sharuda hold his arms in the bracing position looking as if he is about to stop something all of a sudden a giant shadow is cast above them falling on Sharuda he stopped it dead. "What is that?!" Taon shouts as the fire from the boat fades in the appearance of a giant tentacle, "Half squid half eel with large teeth!" Sharuda says while struggling with the tentacle, Aniki and Taon nod there head and start attacking it, its red eyes pierced the black night. "You won't take us down so easily!" Sharuda shouts to it.
Its roar is heard loud as it attempts to pull the tentacle back into the water. But is unable to move it due to Sharuda holding onto it, "Come on guys I'm waiting." Aniki Jumps onto the tentacle and into the darkness, a loud cracking sound is head and the tentacle flies away with Aniki back flipping back onto the ship. "Right between that eyes that was." He smirks and helps Sharuda up. "Cool nice one Aniki." Taon starts to get excited he bares his blades ready to take it on, "Where is it Sharuda?" Aniki asks, "You can see in this darkness?!" Exclaims Taon, "Yep I can," Taon is left confused but just accepts it. "It's underneath us." All three run to each side of the boat and looks under, a shadow is cast under the boat and large teeth sprout out of the water grabbing the boat like a clamp in its mouth slowly crushing it. "My boat Get off it!" Sharuda shouts as it attacks the inside of its mouth. "I got it Sharuda move!" Sharuda hits the deck and Taon throws three consecutive knives at the inside of its mouth, it roars sending the crew up a few feet and the releases its grip and slowly sinks back in the water. They spend the next couple of seconds back to back looking in all directions, "I can't see, I can't see, where is it?!" Sharuda narrows his eyes in better hope of seeing it then they shoot open. "It's gonna ram us Taon Aniki Port side, try and stop it I'll finish it off." Sharuda holds onto the starboard side as Aniki and Taon get into bracing position. The monster rams against the side of the ship and Taon and Aniki grab it and just stop the boat from capsizing. Sharuda runs up a near vertical side of the ship and jumps into the darkness, "Raar!" A large slicing sound is heard, and then it all went silent the ship slowly went back down, the monster yelps and howls in pain and moves back, Sharuda flips back onto the boat.
"I had to use it Aniki I'm sorry." Aniki nods, "It's alright." They all reside to the Crews quarters ready for a fresh new day.
Day breaks and Sharuda's eyes shoot open, "Yay another day for adventure!" He jumps out of bed. Aniki rolls over forgetting he is in a hammock and lands on the floor. "Uhh you still say that every morning?" Sharuda giggled but Taon is still asleep even through the ruckus they just made. "Man he is a heavy sleeper, I know TeeHee." Sharuda grabs his hammock and spins it around really fasts wrapping him up in it, Aniki and Sharuda laugh really loud which wakes up Taon, "what the hell?!" Sharuda and Aniki are in stitches on the floor laughing. Two blade rip out of the hammock and it rips open completely as he does a stylish flip in the air landing firmly on his feet, although one of his legs give way as he had been sleeping on it, making him fall on the floor. "I'm gonna kill you guys!" He shouts as Sharuda and Aniki looked shocked seeing Taon's blade being aimed at them. "Ahh!" They both shout narrowly dodging the thrown blades. They run onto the deck still giggling, Taon wakes his leg up and gets up on deck too.
"Morning sleepy head" Sharuda says, as Aniki got the map out. "uhh thanks for the nice morning wake up!" Taon says with spite, "Right we are here and the next town which is the closest is here at least another day at sea." Aniki says as he pointed to the co-ordinates on the map. "So another day huh? Hmm any idea what the island is?" Sharuda says briefly, Aniki looked at the island on the map which appears rather large.
"Well according to the sea charts and my knowledge of the west blue I'd say it is Halberd Island." Sharuda's Eyes lit up "woo! A big island I wonder if we can find another new Nakama." Taon stands up "well I'm off on this island so you'll lose a member." Sharuda glares at him "What?! Your our Nakama we celebrated by drinkin' together!" Taon Walked to the edge of the boat. "How can I resist free drink?" Sharuda punches him and he falls to the ground "Hey that's no fair! You're our Nakama coz you said." Taon rubs his head. "Ow I only said till the next island and you accepted." Sharuda pulled a serious face and turned his head "I didn't agree to that." Taon jumps up "YES YOU DID BAKA!" Taon shouts at Sharuda, "nope." Sharuda turns away from Taon more; Taon jumps on Sharuda "Baka!" Aniki puts his hand on his face and shakes his head as Sharuda and Taon tussle around the ship.
"So Halberd island huh? I heard it's known for some famous bounty hunters." Aniki walks to the front of the ship next to the figure head. "I wonder what's here." The ship comes closer to port and the captain has been scrapping with Taon for half an hour, they eventually stop fighting and start drinking some tea and eating what's left of the fish reserves. The Horny unicorn docks at port naturally with people close to the ship laughing at the figurehead. Taon walks out all embarrassed Sharuda then follows shortly after all happy and smiley. "You better not be thinking of leaving!" Sharuda says to Taon as he walks past him and heads towards the centre of the town.
Not much in the town except for the odd shop and bar and a lot of dodgy looks. "Hmm I wonder what's up with this town." Doors slammed and windows closed the street became scarce, Aniki caught up to Sharuda "hey Sharuda I think this place has bad vibes, we should get out of here." Sharuda glances back at him. "We can't we need supplies four ship before the next voyage and plus I wanna see what's up there." Sharuda points upwards to an absolutely huge tower its structure reaches really far up you can't see it from outside the village as it is coated in mist.
Aniki looks towards the bar he pulls a rather devilish smirk. "Shall we?" says Aniki and an excited tone. Sharuda nods and kicks the door open to the bar, "Booozzze!" Sharuda shouts as he enters the bar. Noticing that not a single soul that was sitting there were doing anything they sat quietly buried in there pint glasses murmuring to themselves, Sharuda and Aniki sat at the bar. "Man Brother this place is quieter than a graveyard haahaa." Sharuda turns to the barman, who was turned away and wiping a glass with a towel. "Hey barmen, can me and my brother have two pints please?" The Barman shuddered as if shocked by fear as he turned around; he hurried and got him and Aniki a pint. "Here you go." Sharuda hands the guy some Belli but the barman refused "K-k-keep your money, drink fast and get out of here before anyone sees you." Sharuda stood up and grabbed the barman "What you mean by that?" he holds his fist pulled back. "N-n-no don't hurt me, I don't want any trouble." The guy points to the wall with a load of wanted signs posted up. "Hmm wanted posters?" Sharuda happens to glance at a familiar face. He rips the poster off the wall and examines it, Aniki also grabs one.
"No way!" Sharuda face lit up a giant smile streaked across his face. "30 million Belli," Sharuda says placing the poster down "28 million." Aniki follows moments after placing the one Sharuda had placed down. "Aniki you know what that means?" he stands up out of the stool with excitement. "Yeah!?" he shouts back, "We are wanted by the world government! Our first true step to becoming a renowned pirate!" Sharuda's eyes shot open and lowered his arms. "Umm Aniki didn't you mention this island is full of bounty hunters?" They turned and faced the people in the bar who were currently staring at them.
"Oh no my bar is gonna be ruined again." The barman cries as he hides under the bar, Sharuda and Aniki are seen running out as about 20-30 bounty hunters are chasing them down the town as they run past people the bounty hunter count goes up to 50.
"You with 30 million wait up!" they shout as there relentlessly chasing them down the street. "Aniki you see any sense in fighting?" Aniki laughs. "Well running can also keep a guy fit." They both sneak into an alleyway without being seen as their speed loses the bounty hunters. "Phew we made it," says Aniki holding his knees and catching his breath. "You seriously thinking about climbing that tower, do you even know what's in there?" Sharuda shakes his head "nope I have no idea which is why I wanna find out." Aniki scratches the back of his head, "Fair enough captain." Sharuda peeks out of the alleyway, everybody had run past them.
"Right Aniki let's head to the Tower while everyo..." Suddenly a roar of people is heard and a thunderous voice shouted. "It's Shanks! Everybody red haired Shanks is in the village!" At that moment Sharuda's heart pounded, and a chill came into his stomach not from fear but from excitement. "Aniki…" Aniki walks out next to all the people who are running back. "I know let's go." Aniki holds out his hand and pulls Sharuda too his feet, they both run as fast as they can towards a circle of people who have gathered around. Sharuda and Aniki Started pushing to get a glimpse of Shanks, they get to the front of the line and a silhouette with red hair grabbed someone from the crowd with his left arm, The guy he grabbed looked nervous a few moments later he pulls him towards his face. The shadow around him vanished and people moves aside, "I'm telling you I'm not Shanks! I'm Teon, look I have both my arms! Get it?" Teon pushes the guy back. Someone from the crowd stepped forwards, "This guy isn't Shanks he's just some loser that looks like him." Taon pouted and pushes down the people in front of him and walks towards the bar.
"Hey Taon wait up." Shouts Sharuda, Taon looked at him in an annoyed but emotionless face. "Hmm what's up with him?" Sharuda thought to himself, Sharuda tried to catch up to Taon but a load of people cut across his path. "Hey move it!" Sharuda pleaded to catch up to Taon. "Can't let such a big fish get away now can we?" He lifted his sword high in an angle of a cross slash, Sharuda's eyes changed so he looked serious. "You don't want to do that." The guy flexes his muscles to put strength into the swing. "The poster says dead or alive I just need your head!" The sword plunges down, Aniki doesn't even twitch he could only smirk as he watched his brother stop the blade with his bare right arm. Blood did seep down his arm and drip onto the floor but the blade didn't cut as deep as it should have, it should have sliced it off.
The crowd stepped back and started talking amongst themselves; Sharuda pulled his arm forward pushing the guys arm back the guy looked in shock questioning his own strength therefore losing it, the guy went off balance and had to stop himself from falling by stepping back. "W-what are you?" the guys says with fear in his eyes, Sharuda looked at him straight in the eye, "A pirate, now move." The guy stepped out of the way the other bounty hunters captivated in awe, Sharuda pursued Taon with Aniki following closely behind. The bounty hunter fell to the floor panting, "A pirate? ...there's something about him that chills me to the core." Meanwhile in pursuit of Taon, Sharuda looked up towards the giant monument noticing that it has windows and is in actual fact a huge castle he gazes upon one of the windows in which a shadowy figure stood too high up to see properly watching them.
"Wow there's another pirate." A mysterious women says looking out the window; she presses her hand against it "I wonder if they are free?" A voice suddenly bellowed into the room, "Get your ass back to work!" She shrieked and tripped and brought the curtain down which in turn landed on a pan located on top of a table which fell onto some glass test tubes filled with power which then knocked over a Bunsen burner and Boom the room was on fire. "Damn it not again women sort this out and keep making that medicine! I won't ask you twice!" She was frantically trying to put out the fire. "Yes sir I'm sorry, I'm so sorry this wont take long I uh-" A pan landed on her head. "owiieees" she rubbed her head and kept working.