The fish problem was over but now the prospect of distance was definitely a problem. The entire crew watched as the least few fish finished eating each other. There was only one left standing but it was in such bad condition that it couldn't do anything to the ship so they ignored it. The crew watched as the fish tried to push the ship, which was actually pitiful when you thought about it. Reyoto and Anzu watched for a few seconds before turning back to the crew and nodding.
"That problem's been solved. What we need to figure out now is how to get over there in time before they get him on the ship. If we don't make it in time they'll take him away and that's obviously the worst case scenario." Anzu explained to the crew. Reyoto nodded and walked to the center of the ship's deck with a frown.
"Luna, is there anything that we can do now that would help us get to the island?" he asked. Luna nodded.
"We can do the idea that we were using before by using our devil fruits to get there faster than we normally would. But, now we're really close to getting to the shore. It should be less than a few minutes before we reach the land. That's not that much time and I feel that we should save our energy because there's somebody on that island who could potentially be extremely strong." Luna explained. Reyoto looked at her for a few seconds before nodding.
"Ok, since we should be getting their sooner than later you guys need to be prepared for battle. When we touch down we won't have enough time to get throw anything else on." Reyoto ordered. The entire crewed nodded at him and rushed around the ship, looking for the things that they needed for the fight that was coming up. The two girls ran away into the different directions to get the things they needed while Anzu stayed behind to talk to Reyoto, who had walked back to the front of the ship and was leaning on the railings of the ship. Anzu walked up behind him and stood up straight next to him.
"You're confusing me right now. This isn't like you." Anzu said to his friend, who stood up and looked at him in confusion.
"What do you mean? What did I do?" Reyoto asked. Anzu shook his head and pointed to the island.
"Sure you care about the kid a lot but this is out of character for you. When we were kids you would leave hurt animals to die and when you were about to get in trouble you let the other kids in town take the blame. So why now? That boy is just some random kid we just so happened to pick up on a random island. What's so different about this one?" Anzu asked. Reyoto looked at him with a blank stare, as if he was thinking of a good answer before smirking and pointing to the island.
"This kid is a part of our crew now so it's our duty as captain and vice captain to retrieve him. But…" Reyoto said as he grabbed his sword's hilt, "now that we're an actual pirate crew we need to put the crew on our backs and make chess moves from here on out. And considering that new way of thinking, what would be the benefits of us taking something so important from the marines?" Anzu looked at him for a few seconds before shrugging. Reyoto smiled.
"If we can take someone as important as a kid who can make the most important on the planet right now then we would have bounties higher than the moon itself and then we could get another boost by defeating a high ranking official who was trusted to be strong enough to come and retrieve something so precious from a group of pirates." Reyoto explained. Anzu looked at him with a smirk for a second before chuckling.
"You became a captain and decided to go all out didn't you. I knew you were smart but I didn't know that you could think so far ahead. That's fairly impressive for you." Anzu complimented. Reyoto smiled and patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, but it's not good enough. We're trying to become the objectively best pirate crew so we have to get serious from now on since we're about to come into contact with Marine soldiers for the first time. So now we're going to be some big hitters in the world." Reyoto said to his friend. Anzu smiled and nodded.
"You've matured a lot since I gave you the captain position. Maybe it was needed." Anzu said as he turned and walked away. Reyoto smiled after his friend with a blank stare before turning back to the island to see how far they had to go. From where they were now it would only be about 10 to 15 minutes before they made contact with the land. The captain looked at the ships on the docking and shook his head.
'Kid, you better not leave that island before we get there to save you, because if you do… we'll definitely be in a pickle there.' Reyoto thought to himself as he watched the water sway through the lands.
On the island Hoshi was sitting on one of the ships in front of one of the men who were dressed in military attire, except that this man's appearance was much different from the average officer. This man was fairly young compared to the other men. He was only about 18 or 19 by the looks of it. His skin was a very smooth and lightly tanned, probably from being in the sun. His hair was a bright blonde and fell all the way to the end of his neck, which was covered by his marine cape. He had freckles all around his face that was very slim with a gothic and rebel type look. His ears were pierced with blue earrings. He was wearing a huge bright and white grin on his face.
His attire was what was most different about him. His marine jacket was the standard jacket for any man but he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath. His stomach had a flat six pack. He was tall and skinny. He was wearing by red pants that were nearly skin tight. His boots were long and black.
The man was lookin at Hoshi. The star boy was leaning back into his chair and wasn't trying to make eye contact by keeping his head down and looking at the floor.
"Welcome to my ship Hoshizora. I heard that you were trying to run away from your job." The man said quietly as he was met with silence. The man sat back in his chair and sighed.
"Well, in case you wanted to know, my name is Commodore Ward D. Zack. But you can call me Zack." The man, now known as Zack said. Hoshi simply ignored the talking once again. The boy continued to talk to Hoshizora.
"You're the first one in the while that tried to run away from their duty as the man who creates Tungsoy. It's amazing that someone would think that they could leave the world government but it makes sense for a kid like you. Wanting to leave that little island and go out to sea and meet the world." He taunted before getting into his face and smiling.
"I'm sorry but that dream is over now. We're taking you to the marine base in the New World. It'll be better since you won't be able to leave their without permission. Which was the smart decision from the beginning but the people at the top aren't too smart when it comes to things like that. That's why I deserve to be up there, to make sure that they can't make mistakes like this." He said in Hoshi's face. Hoshi grumbled to himself and tried to keep his cool. Zack could tell he wasn't getting to the kid good enough and chuckled. He stood up and cleared his throat and walked to the door.
"Well, you're cooperation with us was appreciated. It made things much easier, considering that you had the chance to get away but decided to give yourself up. But, unfortunately, you don't get anything for free in this world. There's a pirate ship headed straight to this dock to recover something they've lost. Within the next ten minutes they'll be landing on the shores of this island. Impressive yet annoying. We'll crush them and sending a message that the Marines are still up and kicking." Zack said as he walked through the door. Hoshi held his silence in the room but he did sigh when he hear that.
'I'm sorry guys… but I just had to know for myself…" He thought to himself as he braced for the upcoming invasion of his friends.
The group was standing on the deck with their respective game faces on and waiting for the time to fight. They were close enough to the shore to see the people on the shore in detail. Even though they were obviously headed for the marine ships they didn't look as if they noticed or simply didn't care. A few marines had turned their heads but it didn't look like they were in the right mind of warning the authorities even though they had raised their pirate flag proudly. Reyoto watched the scene with a slight look of concern. He turned to his crewmates and started to speak on last time before they hit the scene.
"Alright guys. We're almost on the bay. Be prepared," he said as the group nodded, "When we land on the ground be on the watch out for a planned attack." Anzu pointed at the pirate flag.
"We have a pirate flag flying so either they're really ignorant group of Marines or they're geniuses. It's kind of scary when you think about it." Anzu said. The two girls nodded and waited for another comment but the two boys simply looked at each other and walked towards the two women.
"Let's make a new routine before we go into fights." Reyoto said with a smile on his face. Anzu raised his fist, locked arms with Reyoto, and waited for the others to follow.
"We made this up when we were kids. We knew that we were going to have a lot of fight so we came up with this little thing. Come on Ansi and Luna. Lock arms with us." Anzu said. The girls looked at each other with a confused look before sighing and walking forward.
"If it's anything stupid then I'm going to beat both of you up." Luna threatened. Reyoto and Anzu chuckled and started speaking in unison.
"Before the first and After the last, We lock arms to fight all opposition, Until we come to the end of the road, The strongest in the world…" They paused and smiled. They let off a huge grin and became slightly devious looking, "And destroy any obstacles that dare stand before us." They both unlocked armed and hugged each other. The girls watched them for a few seconds. Luna was the first one to speak on the little jig that they just did.
"I enjoy the fact that you guys came up with that when you were kids but there's no way that I'm doing that." She said. Ansi smiled and nodded.
"I'm sorry but I'm not doing that either. Maybe we could do a handshake or something like that." She said as she unlocked arms with Luna and walked forward.
"But that'll have to work for now because we're here." She said, which caught the group's attention. The group watched as they were literally within jumping distance of the ground. Reyoto grinned wildly and ran to the edge of the deck and jumped over.
"Remember the mission and come back in one piece. SAVE HOSHIZORA!" Reyoto yelled back to the crew. The three other members ran and jumped after him.
"IS THIS THE NEW THING?! JUMPING BEFORE EVERYBODY ELSE!" Luna yelled. The other two smiled and ran through the Marines. Before they could land on the ground they heard explosions coming from Reyoto from the front. There were Marines running towards them yelling and calling for the higher ups to come and tell them what to do. Ansi and Luna ignored this and thought that the Marines had just overlooked their pirate ship, thinking that they wouldn't expect people so ignorant to fight them. They simply winded away or punched officers as they came. They stayed together because Ansi was more on the strong side while Ansi would eventually struggle to fight off the trained men. Anzu and Reyoto were running through the battlefield and taking down the men easily but they noticed that it probably shouldn't be this easy to get through. The problem was that they were missing what the regular soldiers were yelling for.
'Where are they? If they weren't prepared for an attack like this then they should be rushing out here to get ahold of the situation. Where's the boss?' Reyoto thought to himself as he punch hit him on the side of the face and sent him flying to the ground. He looked in the direction that the punch had come from. He didn't see anyone who looked different from the rest of the crowd but there was a cold feeling in the air. He was stagnant for a second and dozens of marines rushed towards him.
"Bomu Bomu no Disperse!" He yelled as he set off explosions alll around his body and send everyone near him flying back. They landed a few feet away, which gave Reyoto enough tmie to stand up and create an explosion that propelled him into the sky so he could look over the battle. He was yards into the air and watched for anything irregular, to avail.
"Damn it! I know that couldn't have been a normal soldier, but who was it?!" He yelled in the air. As he started to fall back to the ground another punch came out of nowhere and sent him flying to the ground. He crashed into the dirt and sent him into a small crater. Reyoto sat there for a few seconds and became more annoyed before jumping out and looking around. He had been punched away from the other Marines. A few had come running towards him but the majority changed their intentions to his crew mates. Reyoto noticed and rushed back over there before he was now kicked to the ground. Reyoto slid across the ground for a few feet before managing to stop himself. He looked up in front of him and was able to see Zack standing in front of him. Reyoto frowned and started clapping his clothes, trying to get the dirt off.
"So you're the ring leader of this shit show." Reyoto said as he prepared himself for a fight. The man nodded pointed his finger.
"And you're most likely the captain of the rag tag group of kids you call a crew." Zack said. Reyoto nodded and gripped one of his swords.
"My name's Reyoto. What would yours be?" Reyoto asked. Zack looked at him with a smile and flicked his finger. There was a moment where Reyoto waited for something to happen but looked in cofusion when he didn't feel anything happen. Zack shook his head and then began to talk.
"My name is Ward D. Zack. But you can call me Zack for short." He answered. Reyoto nodded and started walking forward. Zack put his hand out.
"Stop. As much as I want to stop you in right now you have more important things to take care of," he said as he pointed back at the huge group of marines and his friends, "there are four of you who hopped off of the ship. There are 300 marines who were simply standing around when you made it here. That means if you stay here to fight me then you leave each of your crewmates with 100 opponents and I don't think even your strongest could do that by himself." Zack was looking at Reyoto with a smirk, who looked over Zack's shoulder with a concerned look. Reyoto locked eyes with the man before sighing.
"So you didn't even need to create a back up plan. You knew what you were dealing with before we even got here." Reyoto said before sighing. Zack smiled and turned.
"I never go into battle without knowing what I'm going to do during the fight. You have to know at least a little about your opponent. Don't you?" He asked before turning into a type of gas and going away into the distance. Reyoto stood there for a few seconds before letting go of his sword and jumped into the air and started propelling his self back towards his crew and readied to start fighting the marines.
"You have to be kidding me. Anzu, you should be able to handle at least half of these guys before I got there." He said to himself as he switced from his hands to the bottoms of his feet. He flew into the sky to inspect what was going on on the ground. He could see that there were multiple men who were laid out on the ground but hundreds were still running at his friends.
Luna and Ansi were able to make decent progress through the men but they were being bombarded and nearly cornered by the men. He wanted to run down there to help his female crewates but the more important thing wasn't the women who were struggling but was actually Anzu. He wasn't being fought by the men surrounding him. Instead, Anzu was lying on the ground with something that looked white covering left leg. Reyoto was completely take off guard and in a burst of instinct he bolted for the ground.
"I'M COMING!"