Zrocker119: Don't be expecting every chapter to come out this fast. I just had some more time to myself than usual, so I was able to nail this out really quick. It's a bit shorter than the others but it is what it is. Anyway enjoy.
A True Devil on the High Seas
-Start-
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Dante awoke to the sight of a blue sky above him. Blinking a couple times in confusion it took a few moments before it all came back to him and smirked. It was gonna take awhile for him to get used to not being in hell anymore. Not that he would complain. Though his mood would improve infinity once he got some pizza.
Yawning, Dante rubbed the crust from his eyes and sat up. Judging from the position of the sun, he had only been asleep for a few hours, maybe less. Over all he would say that it was a good nap since he wasn't attacked by a lord of hell this time around.
His stretching ended prematurely when the sound of footsteps reached his ears. Judging from the amount of noise he was hearing, there are a lot of people and they were very close. As in right on the other side of his tree kind of close. Stealing a quick peek Dante was greeted by the sight of several dozens of men in matching uniforms, all of which looked to be armed with either swords or muskets.
Dante continued to observe them as they passed him by, seemingly oblivious to his existence. Once they passed by, he noticed the symbol on their backs and the word Marines printed in blue underneath it.
His eyes narrowed in suspicion when he noticed that they were heading in the same direction he had come from. And from what he knew, that their current path would take them to only one place, Nami and Nojiko's home. For some odd reason he couldn't stop a knot from forming in his stomach.
'If those guys are apart of some sort of military force, shouldn't they be heading towards Arlong and his crew to deal with them?' Now infinitely more curious, Dante decided to tail the group from a safe distance.
A few minutes later Dante stood on a small hill that gave him a good overview of Nami's home, but was far enough back to remain undetected. And people thought that he was incapable of stealth(cough) Lady and Trish(cough).
Anyway, while the distance between himself and the group of Marines that was confronting Nami would normally be too great for a normal human to glean any information from, Dante was anything but normal. With his devil genes, everything about him was enhanced, including eyesight and hearing, letting him eavesdrop with ease.
"Now to sit back and watch what happens."
"Hello," The mouse-looking Marine spoke as he stepped forward, "I'm Cpt. Nezumi of the Marines 16th branch...and we've come for you miss criminal."
Nami merely raised a brow at that statement. "Well I'm a pirate, so I guess that makes sense." She pushed off the post that she had been leaning against and crossed her arms under her chest. "But I happen to be an officer for the Arlong Pirates."
A smirk found its way to her lips, "So unless you want to piss off my captain, I would recommend not messing with me."
"Oh, I do believe that you are confused. We have no idea what you mean about you being a pirate." He placed a hand upon his hat, sending her a condescending smile. "We're simply here on the accounts of your thievery, and are here to collect everything that you have stolen over the course of the last several years."
Nami's face went pale with shock. "W-what did you say?" She had to have misheard him. There's no way they should know of her other than her connection to Arlong.
"It's quite simple really. Even though our information says you only steal from pirates, thieving is thieving and is thus a crime. Now we've come to return the stolen goods to their true owners."
Before Nami could even react several of the lowly grunts had shouldered past her and into her home and began to tear the place apart. The home that Nami's mother had raised her and Nojiko in.
"STOP IT!" Assembling her staff, Nami smacked the marine nearest to her into the dirt. "For years this island has waited for the Marines to free them from Arlong's rule, and when you do finally show up, you come to home of a petty thief!? What kind sick and twisted sense of justices is that!?"
"Chichichi!" The Cpt. laughed, "Criminals should speak like they know the law. Continue with the search!"
"Sir," A lone marine approached with a salute, "The house has been searched yet they are no signs of the stolen goods, but the orange fields look rather suspicious. Seems like someone dug through them recently."
Nezumi sneered, "Then dig them up. Search the entire area, leave no stone unturned!"
Nami quickly lashed out at any marine that dared to approach her mother's fields. "I won't let you bastards touch a single cent. That money-"
"THAT MONEY IS IMPORTANT TO THE SURVIVAL OF OUR VILLAGE!" Nami stopped what she was doing to turn to Genzo, who had been the one that led the Marines to her home and was silent up till this point. "WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT!?"
"H-how?" Nami barely managed to speak as she looked to her father figure.
The heavily scarred man merely tipped his hat to shield his eyes in shame. "...I've always known Nami...we've all known since shortly after you joined Arlong's crew."
"Oh," Nezumi listened to this revelation with interest. "So the whole town knew of this young ladies thievery and did absolutely nothing to stop it. Does this mean that I now have to arrest everyone else? This day just keeps getting better and better."
"It means that we've had no choice but to solve this problem ourselves!" Everyone turned to see that Nojiko had arrived as well, looking equally pissed as her sister. "SO UNLESS YOU'RE HERE TO DEAL WITH ARLONG, THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Take too long and he'll have your ship destroyed before you can even get the chance to leave."
"Hmmm, I wonder about that." Nezumi said knowingly before turning to his crew, seeing that they were still searching for the bloody treasure. "What the hell it taking so long. This is 100 million berries were talking about! How many places could one lone girl store that much money!?"
For Nami it seemed like the world had frozen over as a chill crept down her spine. How could he have known about the exact amount of money she had stashed away? She never spoke of it to anyone except to her sister, and she wouldn't have ratted her out, let along to the Marines of all people. The only way it was possible was if Arlo-!
And just like that, everything clicked into place and Nami's anger soared to new heights. "WAS THIS ALL ARLONG'S IDEA!?"
The marine captain just smiled evilly at them all, "Careful girl. To accuse us marines of working with pirates is quite the offence. One that comes with a hefty punishment."
"Y-YOU CORRUPT BASTARDS!" Genzo roared, him and Nojiko moving to stand beside Nami. The orangette meanwhile found herself biting her lip in pure rage at the revelation of Arlong's betrayal, and right after all that talk of always honoring deals that involved money!
Having had enough of this, Nezumi signaled his men to line up with their rifles loaded and at the ready. "These people are directly interfering with the requisition of stolen good, deal with them."
"Yes sir!"
The marines took aim and fired.
There was a slight breeze...and the three were completely fine.
"Well I've seen enough." Came a voice, one that only the sisters recognized.
Everyone present glanced up to see Dante, now seated on the roof of the house, one leg laid across the other with his head resting on his palm.
"D-Dante/You?" Nojiko and Nami questioned respectively, wondering how the red themed man ended up on their roof. Nami then looked at her sister, confusion apparent at how she knew the man.
"Me," Dante responded with a carefree smile. Shifting his gaze to the Marines, Dante held up his unoccupied fist. Relaxing his grip, several round objects fell from his hand. Everyone's eyes widened when they realized that those objects were the bullets that had just been fired at the trio.
'But how did-when did he!?' That was the thought that passed through everyone's mind at that moment.
While they were still trying to process how he managed to do what he had done, Dante dropped from his perch and walked until he stood in front Nami, Nojiko, and scar face, placing himself between them and the marines.
"Now I've dealt with corrupt cops before but you sir," Dante pointed a finger at the mousie captain, "You take the cake."
Having none of this Nezumi ordered his men to fire again saying that it was just a trick. Choosing to believe in their captains words, the firing squad fired another volley of lead, an action that had put many a pirate into the ground.
But for one such as the youngest son of Sparda, who was used to dodging attacks that moved at much faster speeds, the bullets from the primitive rifles may as well have been moving through syrup. With movements that no one but himself could track, Dante waved his hand in front of him, something that was barely more than a blur for the others, and caught every bullet between his fingers.
While the marines looked on with gobsmacked expressions, the devil slayer laid the bullets in a line on the ground, drew his sword, and then used the very tip of his blade to launch the balls of lead back into the barrels from which they came.
Upon reentry the rifles exploded, causing the marines to drop the now useless weapons before they were seriously injured from shrapnel. Turning to their captain for orders, the grunts hadn't the slightest idea of how to deal with the new threat that had appeared from literally nowhere.
Nezumi meanwhile looked ready to soil his trousers as he looked at the man, no monster before him. 'T-this man isn't human!' Biting his lip he was able to speak but it was with barely concealed fear, "Don't just stand there! Draw your swords and att-"
"Clean through or souvenir?" The marine captain paused to look at the white-haired man in confusion.
"What?"
"Ah Souvenir it is then." Before anyone could blink, Dante had drawn Ebony and fired a single shot into Nezumi's shoulder.
"Gaaaaaaahhhhh!" The Captain cried in agony as he dropped to the ground, his shoulder bleeding from the bullet currently lodged deep in the bone.
CLICK!
The marines turned to see that Dante had drawn the black pistols twin and now had both zeroed in on them. "You guys like to dance?" Not waiting for a response, Dante unleashed an unprecedented amount lead at their feet, missing on purpose as the marines started hopping about to avoid a similar fate to their captain.
After a solid minute of sustained gunfire, Dante engaged the safeties and holstered his guns. "Now take your pathetic excuse of a captain," he stomped his foot hard enough to crater the ground beneath it, "AND SCRAM!"
Reeling back with a frightful scream, the Marines quickly got the hell out of there, nearly forgetting their still bleeding superior in the process.
"I-I'll see you executed for this!" Roared Nezumi, trying to regain some form of superiority while being carried away. "I'll make sure the wrath of the marines comes down and crushes you into a bloody pulp!"
Rather than being frightened like he intended, the man in red placed his sword on his back and gave him a mocking two finger salute along with a smirk.
"Well they were pleasant," joked Dante once they were out of sight. Turning to the others he found them staring at him in with expressions of pure shock. "You guys alright?"
"H-how-h-how did you do that!?" Nami managed to stutter out. She had seen Luffy do crazy thing in the short amount of time she had traveled with him but that was all do to him having eaten a devil fruit. Did Dante eat one as well? Or was he just a monstrously skilled human like Zoro.
"What that?" Dante just gave them a shrug, "That was nothing. You should've been there the first time I fought my nephew. Got impaled and everything. Now that was a fun fight!"
Her brain having thoroughly scrambled by this point, Nami felt a wave of dizziness hit her and dropped to her knees. Ignoring the worried looks sent by Nojiko and Genzo, she focused solely on Dante, "I don't know how you knew what was going on...but thank you."
"How did you know to show up?" Nojiko asked wearily, both glad and suspicious of the man's timely intervention. His timing had been perfect, almost too perfect.
This was something that Dante was able to pick up on. "...Really?" He asked, "Didn't I already tell you Nami? Of all my titles, private detective was one of them. Did you really think, with all of the clues you and your sister gave me, that I wouldn't be able to piece together what's going on?"
He jerked a thumb in the direction of the partially dug up garden where the stash of treasure was just barely visible. "It was childsplay for me to figure out that you were collecting money for a ransom."
"But how did you know to come," Genzo finally asked the question that was on their minds. He didn't know who this stranger was, but the girls obviously did so he would trust their judgment...for now anyway.
"Oh I saw them as they passed the spot where I took a nap. Had a gut feeling that something was going to go down so I listened in from the hill over there." The three turned to said hill and nearly bugged out when they realized just how far away it was from the house.
"Did you eat a devil fruit?" Nami blurted out before she could stop herself.
"...The devils what?"
"Devil fruit." Nami repeated. "You eat a weird looking fruit and gain incredible power but forever lose the ability to swim."
Dante merely rose a brow. If he hadn't dealt with hellish fiends and demons all of his life, he would've asked if she had smoked any strange plants lately. But given the amount of weird things he has seen and heard since arriving in this world, he was just going to accept the existence of these "devil fruits" as the norm.
"Nope, never heard of them."
"Then how did you listen in from that distance."
"I have really good eyesight and hearing." That earned Dante blank stares from the trio. Giving an obviously fake cough he gestured to Nami. "We should probably get that hand of yours looked at."
Nami seemed confused until she looked at her bandaged hand, now red with blood. She had been so caught up in what was going on that she hadn't even noticed that her self inflicted wound from before had reopened and now bled through the bandages.
"Lets get her to town and have Nako take a look at that." Not really in the mood to argue, Nami didn't fight as Genzo helped her up and started escorting her to town.
As they were about to leave the property though she looked back to the orchard. "What about the treasure?"
"Leave it," Genzo ordered without hesitation. "It clear to us now that Arlong never intended to go through with his end of the deal. You're just too important for his goal of conquering the East blue to just let go."
Nojiko folded her arms beneath her chest and frowned, "What option does that leave us with then. The Marines obviously can't be trus-"
"Then fight back," Dante stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That's literally the only choice left for you."
"We know," Genzo spoke calmly as they entered into the village, but everyone could hear the rage that boiled beneath. As they moved on, they noticed that the whole town had gathered around the center fountain. "We've waited and hoped that this nightmare would end, but now we have not choice!"
"Genzo," Nako, the villages only doctor spoke as he approached the group. "The Marines passed through a few minutes ago, carrying their Captain who looked injured. Did something happened?"
"ARLONG HAS GONE AGAINST THE BARGAIN!" Genzo's accusation sent waves through the villagers. "He sent those Marines to confiscate all of the money that Nami has spent the last eight years collecting...and they would have succeeded if it weren't for this man here." He pointed to Dante who just leaned against a nearby building.
"ARM YOURSELVES!" Genzo ordered, "Anything will do! The time for us to fight for our freedom has come!"
"STOP!" A voice cried out. Everyone turned to see that Nami had place herself between them and Arlong Park, brandishing a dagger at them. "I-I can't let you go through with this. I have the money," tears streamed down her cheeks, "Just let me deliver it and this can all finally be over."
Genzo walked forward until he stood right in front of her. The stared at each other for several tense moment before Genzo pulled her into a hug. "I'm so sorry Nami. For so long we let the burden of saving our home rest solely on your shoulders."
Her grip on the dagger loosened, allowing it to clatter to the ground. "But it's time for you to rest...and let us fight for ourselves."
"You'll all die though." She said weakly, no longer having the strength to so much as stand up, but remained so do to Genzo's hold on her. "Arlong and his crew are too strong."
"We know," Genzo pulled back, allowing her to see the cold determination in his eyes. Letting her go he took hold of a sword that was passed to him, "But it's our choice to make." He turned to the crowd and raised his blade. "WE KNOW THAT DEATH IS ALL BUT GUARANTEED, BUT LET'S SHOW THEM OUR SPIRIT!"
Those gathered let out a roar of agreement and rushed forward. With nothing keeping her up Nami fell to her knees.
"Run Nami," Nojiko spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder as she passed. "Get to the boat you arrived on and put as much distance between you and this place as possible. Fulfill your dream!" With those words, Nojiko ran to join catch up with the rest of the town.
Nami was now truly alone.
With a shaky hand Nami gripped the shoulder so hard that her nails drew blood. Everyone she loved and cared about was going to die, and she couldn't do anything to stop them. Her gaze slowly shifted to the tattoo that marred the skin on her shoulder as the past eight years of her life flashed before her eyes. All of the struggle and hardship that she had endured, all ruined due to one monsters greed and lust for dominance.
It was too much for her. "ARLONG!" With a cry of rage, Nami grabbed her fallen dagger and began to repeatedly stab the symbol of her imprisonment. "ARLONG!" She didn't care of what the action did to her, so long as this damn thing was no longer there! Her shoulder was nearly cut to the bone when a hand caught her by the wrist in a firm grip.
When Dante realized what Nami was doing to herself he was a split second from intervening, but stopped when someone beat him to it. The kid looked around Nami's age and was only slightly taller than her. He had short, messy black hair and dark eyes. He wore short, blue trousers with cuffs, sandals, a sleeveless red vest and a straw hat. The last thing Dante noted about him was the scar beneath his left eye.
"Luffy...what is it!?" Nami tossed her weapon aside as she vented her anger out on the kid, "You don't even know the first thing about me or what's even going on!"
"Your right." The kid, apparently named Luffy, agreed with no argument whatsoever. "I don't know anything." Dante rose a brow at that. This wasn't exactly the best pep talk he had ever heard.
"Why are you still here? This has nothing to do with you!" Straw Hat's expression remained blank even as dirt was thrown at him by the distraught woman. "Didn't I already tell you to leave this island!?"
"Yep, you did."
"...Luffy..." Nami turned to looked the boy who's trust she had betrayed in the eye. Her tears were impossible to hold back and fell without restraint. "Please help me..."
The rim of the hat concealed Luffy's eyes with shadows, making it impossible for her, or Dante for that matter, to tell what was going through his head. The devil slayer though quirked a brow when Luffy took off his hat and placed it on Nami's head.
Dante didn't understand the importance behind the gesture, but Nami seemed to as her eyes widened in shock. She sat in stunned silence as Luffy stood with his back to her.
"OF COURSE I WILL!" Luffy shouted, his fists raised to the sky. Walking forward he passed the rest of his crew, who Dante hadn't even noticed till now, and gave them a single order.
"Let's go."
Dante watched as the guy with green hair and katana stood up with his hand at the handle, the blonde take a drag of his cigarette, and the one with the long nose adjust his goggles. All three turned towards Straw Hat and said as one.
"Roger!"
Nami brought a hand to her mouth as the four of them marched off for her. 'E-even after everything I've done.' She didn't noticed the red themed devil hunter until he stood beside her.
"Dante..."
The son of sparda looked down at her. "Yeah?"
There was a moment of silence before she looked up at him with her tear stained face. "Please...please don't let any of them die." She pleaded.
With a smirk on his lips Dante began to follow after the others, the wind picking up to catch his coat with a dramatic flare.
"Like I would sit out on this party!"
Nami would later play it off as a trick caused by the heat and her emotional turmoil messing with her eyes, but she swore that as Dante walked away from her she saw his shadow take on a different shape. It wasn't anything that she recognized, but it was almost that of a humanoid demon.
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-End-
