What do you live for?
As K'ron turned towards Isaac, he was met by a stiff haymaker that sent him flailing across the ground.
"Finally decided to let me see one comin', eh?" K'ron wore a pleased smirk from his kneeled position even as he soothed his obviously sore jaw. "A'ight then, I'll play with ya."
"Wait! Where were you going?"
"Into the forest to get me something to eat. I'm hungry," K'ron answered with a nonchalant shrug. "But, I'm always up for a good throwdown."
"You can't just wander in there; their base is in that forest."
"Whose base?"
"The Steel Trap Pirates."
"Hmm. . . nope never heard of 'em."
Isaac would've been floored by K'ron's absentmindedness if he wasn't still fuming over Mrs. Toosan's ruined cake. Sensing no actual intention to fight, K'ron resumed walking away, claymore still dripping blood from its perch atop his shoulder, but was once again stopped by Isaac's yelling.
"Hold up! The Steel Trap Pirates are the pirates that control this island. Their entire fleet consists of 20 galleon class ships plus the captain's personal ship."
"So."
Isaac sweatdropped at that. He simply couldn't believe K'ron's blasé attitude; the stranger obviously didn't understand how bad this was.
"There are five Fleet Commanders, each controls four ships and that portion of the crew. Worse yet, the captain and his lieutenants all came from the New World," Isaac tried to explain.
"So, they're cowards who ran from the greatest sea; so what?"
"Ugh, listen you baka, the captain has a bounty of over 100 million beli and each lieutenant has a bounty between 40 and 60 million. But, they have the nearby Marines in their pocket, so their bounties haven't increased since they arrived here and they've been placed as low priority."
"Hmph," K'ron scoffed, unimpressed but no longer heading toward the forest.
Isaac breathed a sigh of relief thinking he'd finally broken through K'ron's thick head, but fell back and hit the tree so hard it finally broke in half when K'ron spoke the next line.
"Sounds like fun."
"Fun? Are you crazy? Do you have a death wish? You can't beat them."
Isaac was frantic, ignoring the steadily growing lump on his head. Sure K'ron deserved to be punished for destroying the cake, but this was too much no matter how mouthwateringly delicious the tantalizing, rich molten chocolate cake with that sweet vanilla cream. After seeing his dad, the strongest person he knew, beaten by the combined forces of the pirates and the head of the Marine base at such a young age, he felt a deep, internalized sense of dread regarding facing those two entities. He was just biding his time until he could sneak off and join the Marines so that he could acquire the power and backing necessary to take them both down. But, K'ron viewed the situation completely different.
"What do you live for?"
The out of the blue question threw Isaac for a momentary loop and paused every thought that was running through his head.
"Life's boring if you just always play it safe. It's more fun to attempt the impossible."
Silence hung between them as the weight of his words got Isaac thinking.
"Besides, I can't die; I'm going to be Pirate King."
With that, K'ron strolled off into the forest, leaving Isaac dumbfounded.
Isaac had gone back to his house with the ingredients that survived his run in with those pirates and methodically, almost absentmindedly, put everything up. He'd decided that if K'ron wanted to get himself killed it was none of his business; he was going to head home and go to sleep. But, he couldn't get K'ron's words out of his head – 'What do you live for?' – That question resonated within him like a throbbing headache as he walked home, and even still as he moved about his house. Isaac walked to his room, intent to smother the badgering question out of his head once he laid down, but he made a wrong turn somewhere ending up instead in the backyard.
The area was extremely spacious with a few sparse trees on the edges and a line of boulders, the size of small mountains, forming a perimeter at the far outskirts. Looking at the cut marks that had been made into some of the thicker trees and the jagged stumps of trees that were broken in two, Isaac knew what he had to do.
"That bastard took my sword. . . And, he owes me a cake."
Isaac walked to the boulder right next to the only opening in the line of stones. It was the smallest of the boulders by a small margin and it had a few small indents into the same spot of its side. Isaac slid his right foot back and prepared to throw a punch. Twisting his hips and turning his wrist at just the right moment, he threw a perfect form punch that cleanly hit the boulder in the same area as the other indents. The punch left a crater in the rock about three times bigger than Isaac himself with enough room to literally walk almost halfway into the stone. Looking to the empty space next to him, which was actually covered with numerous tiny pebbles and hand size rocks, a single thought entered his mind before he walked through the opening and toward the forest and the pirates' base.
'I'm still not as strong as you, dad, but I'll get there. . . someday.'
K'ron had wandered aimlessly into the forest; he had no clue where the pirate base was so he just walked around humming a tune to himself. He actually walked out of the forest a few times only to turn around and repeat the process. After his stomach grumbled for the umpteenth time, he decided the pirates could wait and he'd find himself something to eat first. So, he returned to simply meandering through the vast forest. After a while, fortune smiled upon him as five drunk and boisterous pirates crossed his path. They didn't initially notice him, so he called out to get their attention.
"Hey, you guys! Got any food on ya!?"
The pirates just stood there confused for a moment before one with a scar running through his ear and across the side of his face stepped forth.
"Huh? Who are you; what are you doing here?"
"Name's K'ron. I'm just looking for some food. Got any," he answered casually.
"No; not right now," a second pirate answered before being admonished with a smack to his head.
"You idiot; we have no reason to answer him."
"Oh, a'ight. See ya, then," K'ron shrugged, ready to resume his search.
"Hold up! Do you think we're stupid?"
"Don't you know who we are?"
It was now K'ron's turn to be confused. To that extent, K'ron turned around with a questioning expression on his face while cleaning his ear with his extended pinky finger.
"Eh; what are you talkin' about?"
"Don't play dumb with us."
"We're members of the Steel Trap Pirates."
The pirates all started chuckling as the expression on K'ron's face changed from questioning to pensive, prompting them to boast of their strength.
"Seems you understand the trouble you're in."
"Get on our bad side, you're dead meat."
"You don't stand a chance against us"
"Now run away while you still have a chance"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Ha! I think he's too scared to mo~ve."
"Shut up. I'm trying to think," K'ron demanded, his fist lodged deep into the torso of the closest pirate. "I know I've heard of the Whatchamacallit Pirates somewhere before."
The other four stepped back, mouths agape, while their partner fell to the ground. After regaining their wits, the group reached for their weapons as K'ron kept trying to remember where he'd heard that name before. Before any of them could attack, though, they were stopped in their tracks by something behind K'ron that scared them stiff.
"Now I remember," he exclaimed only now noticing the fearful expressions on the pirate's faces, he turned around to see what was behind him, and spotted a Big Kodiak Bear, approximately six times the size of a normal bear. Stars shined in K'ron's eyes as a line of drool escaped from his open mouth at the sight of the gigantic, fierce creature. However, he became annoyed when the bear came down on all fours and unleashed a threatening roar right in his face, splattering spittle all over his body.
Frowning at being covered in spit, K'ron used the bandages wrapped around his forearms to wipe it away while the terrifying creature moved to devour him. K'ron, though, threw a single overhead right, the form reminiscent of a baseball pitching motion, that sent the huge animal crashing into the ground, unconscious. K'ron then turned to the pirates, smirking.
"Okay, now that food's taken care of, what's next?. . . Oh yeah, the sumthin-or-other pirates; the cap'n s'posed to be crazy strong."
Intimidated by the fact that he'd already taken out one of them as well as one-shotting that Big Bear, the pirates started whispering amongst themselves that he must be talking about their captain, earning an excited smile from K'ron as he popped up in the midst of the pirates' conversation.
"So, you know him? Great; take me to him!"
"Not. . . so. . . fast. I won't. . . just let. . . you see the captain," one of the braver pirates spoke up, his voice shaky even as he tried to appear tough.
The downed member of the small group had regained consciousness and was struggling to stand up. This and his insistence to stand in K'ron's way made the young pirate frown, presumably at the fact that he held back before, but possibly due to regretting having to step it up this time. Ignoring all of that, K'ron turned his back to him and focused on figuring out how to cook the bear. The pirate, though, pulled a pistol from his nearest crewmate and fired a shot at K'ron's back.
His hands, however, were too shaky and the bullet whizzed straight through K'ron's messy, disheveled hair, upsetting the young pirate to the point that he immediately turned around, appearing in front of the pirate almost instantly before delivering yet another bone breaking uppercut to the pirate's midsection followed by a simultaneous elbow and knee to opposite sides of the helpless man's head, crushing his skull and leaving him a bleeding mess on the rough forest ground. Not wasting any time, K'ron swung the huge claymore he was still carrying around and aimed it at the remaining pirates.
"Anybody else wanna bring up opposing arguments or are you all willing to take me to your leader? . . . Wow that sounded cheesy."
Despite what K'ron may have thought of the line, the pirates were too scared to critique, fearfully nodding their ascent to the question.
"Good; then hand over your weapons."
"A'ight then; one of you lead the way. The rest of you, drag that bear with us; hopefully ya got a way to make a big fire at your hideout so we can cook it," he commanded further once all weapons had been handed over.
While K'ron was getting lost and making new 'friends', Isaac had entered the forest as well, and since it was common knowledge among all the island's villages where the Steel Trap Pirates' stronghold was - and he didn't have K'ron's horrible sense of direction -, he made good time in getting to the area. The base didn't even attempt to be hidden. They had fires lit, large wooden structures and a high, wooden fence surrounding the entire complex. On top of that, it was situated in the middle of a huge clearing that no animals dared go near; it was impossible to miss if you ventured far enough into the forest. Isaac climbed a tree about fifty yards away from the pirates' fort and looked over the complex to see if he could find K'ron, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The fact that K'ron hadn't arrived, made Isaac happy, but, at the same time, filled him with a sense of dread. So, he decided to wait around for a bit to see if anything happened, but hours passed and nothing did.
"Ugh, it's almost midnight and he still hasn't shown up. This was a waste," Isaac complained as his stomach grumbled heartily. "I didn't even get to eat anything since I came after that baka; I guess I'll wait a little longer and steal some food . . . and some more money while I'm at it."
That thought brought a contented smile to Isaac's face as he drifted to sleep high up on the tree branch. But, he was rudely roused from his nap by a loud noise at the pirate base down below.
K'ron had smashed open the front gate using a tree trunk he'd punched down, and was now sauntering into the fort with the others struggling to pull the bear behind him. Once inside they dropped the bear, scared looks on their faces as the two hundred or so men swarmed around the group, closing and securing the gate to trap them within.
'Ba~ka,' Isaac thought, his jaw wide in disbelief.
K'ron looked around the base with an interested gaze while the four pirates pled for mercy. On the inside, the base looked like a fairly typical pirate haunt minus an abundance of loose women. But, one thing primarily stood out to K'ron: barrels scattered around the perimeter of the complex for no apparentreason.
"Either ya'll are planning some sort of attack, or you knew I was coming," K'ron commented with a smile and a shrug. "Either way, why don't we make some fireworks?"
Pulling out a pistol, K'ron took aim at a barrel and shot a hole in it, causing a dark liquid to start pouring out. While all the pirates started panicking, K'ron just smirked as he shot another barrel before setting off a chain of explosions along the perimeter with a final shot. Oil and gunpowder ignited, a great blaze ripped through most of the lodgings in the complex. The roaring inferno rocked the camp, engulfing everything along the fort's edge, on its way to lighting up the night sky, but was quickly contained by the steel walls along the inner lining of the perimeter, creating a deadly furnace within the designated bounds. Still though, the fire crackled menacingly as a backdrop to the commotion, setting the scene to come.
"This is the worst way to proceed; I knew I should've just gone to sleep and forgot about this mess," Isaac's complaints continued. "Ugh, but I have to get my sword back."
He was about to leap into the middle of the disturbance, but was stopped by a loud voice emanating from within the largest building of the pirate base.
"Who did this? It's not nearly time yet."
Behind the thin, beaded curtain that acted as a door to the building, an imposing silhouette was visible. Thanks to the illumination provided by the fire, even Isaac could see, and he audibly gulped at the sight, though, within the walls of the base, K'ron, who had recently tossed the bear to roast whole in the raging fire, grinned in anticipation.