At the top of the Sky Tower, city of Awkland. The largest city in Zealandia in terms of population and area.
"Sir! Sir! There was an attack on our Sped lab in Russel!" a frantic Yakuza member said after catching his breath.
A large office chair spins around. On it, a fat man with a scar on his cheek, stroking a black and white cat.
"What? Who would be crazy enough to take us on? I OWN this country." The fat man said.
"It was Jinzo, Kazaki sir. It seems he took his exile rather harshly."
"Jinzo?" Kazaki started stroking the cat so hard that it meowed and scurried away.
Kazaki stood, looking out his office window from high in the Sky Tower.
'Jinzo, you bastard. After everything your aunt and I did for you?'
Then he spoke to the Yakuza lackey.
"I'll make some calls. That brat won't get away with this."
Swiss and Jinzo had been sailing northwest for a few days now.
The only thing that broke the silence of the open ocean was the odd merchant's ship.
Our duo spent most of their time going through the fighting motions that Lockett had taught Swiss.
"Where the heck did you learn to fight?" Swiss asked through heavy breathing.
"I had to get sword and karate lessons ever since my mother died and I moved in with my aunt." He shook his head, disappointed "No, your footwork is all wrong…"
Jinzo had been doing his best to sharpen up Swiss' skills, but this was hard to do considering Swiss was drunk most of the time.
All they had in terms of food was a barrel of apples. All the rest of the supplies were bottles of sake. Both of which were running low.
Swiss and Jinzo sat at a small table inside the boats cabin, inspecting a map of the south blue.
"Trololol. I thought we would have encountered one of these islands by now." Swiss said while swigging his sake.
"It's probably taking because we don't want to risk sailing at night and going off course." Jinzo theorized.
"Welp. At least we got each other, amirite? Trololol"
That's when the cracking sound of thunder could be heard in the distance.
They stood at attention, catching sight of a dark storm cloud coming their way through the window.
At the same time, they cursed under their breath.
"Fuck!"
On a shore with black sand, a small fishing boat had found itself beached.
Laying on the deck was Swiss, exhausted from the stress of enduring the storm.
"Holy tits. I didn't think the boat was gonna hold up there.." Swiss sighed in relief.
"Yeah, but where are we?" Jinzo peered out, leaning on the railing.
"Trololol. We could be in Davy Jones locker for all we know. We should look around and try to find civilization for supplies and directions."
So that's what they did, taking a few apples and bottles of sake with them and leaving the ship behind.
The island they found themselves on was quite large, with not a tree or town in sight. Instead, all they could see were vast fields of grass and hills.
"Any ideas?" asked Jinzo.
"Hmm. Would be kinda retarded for us to head inland. Makes more sense that if we followed the coast we would eventually find a town. Let's just go north along the beach."
They walked for a while, finding nothing. Soon it was the late afternoon.
"Crap. We should probably head back to the ship to camp for the night. We can begin the search tomorrow when we have more daylight. Besides, I'm all out of Sake." Swiss said, holding his tongue out to catch the remaining droplets.
They trudged their way back before sundown. Only something was waiting for them at the boat…
"Nani?!"
Swiss and Jinzo spied a group of men surrounding the ship, unloading the supplies they had stored.
"Oh hell naw!" Swiss took out his cutlass and made a sprint towards them.
"Swissan, wai- Eh, who am I kidding?" Jinzo followed in tow.
"Oiiiiii! You bastards!" Swiss irately shouted.
There must have been 20 or so men, all armed with blades and spears, who prepared themselves against the charging duo.
Yet it mattered not how many of them there were. Swiss and Jinzo started cutting down the fodder like it was nothing.
"Shit! Where the hell is the captain?!" one of the men worriedly touted.
Swiss was upon him, swinging his sword towards his neck. Then-
"I'm right here."
A massive sword intercepted the sword of Swiss and powerfully flung him back. The swing had so much force that a gust of wind kicked up the sand.
"BRUH!" Swiss was shocked, his hands shaking after having to take the grunt of that blow.
Jinzo joined Swiss at his side. Together they looked at the culprit.
There, standing firm in front of his men, was a tall young man, around 2 meters tall, holding a sword almost as long as him.
His tanned skin, thick eyebrows, short black hair, muscular body, all made this man look menacing.
"Dafuq? How the heck does he even swing that thing?" Swiss said with amazement.
Jinzo took one look into the murderous eyes of the captain and felt the hairs on his arms stand on end. "Swissan, we should both take this one on, just in case."
"Agreed. Lezgeddit."
They both circled the captain, Jinzo on the left and Swiss on the right. They pounced on him together.
But the ferocious swordplay of the captain would always manage to keep them at a distance.
The 2v1 wasn't getting anywhere without either side taking a risk. That's when Swiss, in his drunkenness, decided to yolo it.
Jinzo saw this and cringed. He knew he couldn't let Swiss do this alone.
["HASH SLINGING-"]
Swiss took hold of his cutlass with both hands.
["CRIMSON-"]
Jinzo dashed, low to the ground.
["SLAS-"]
["KOMBUCH-"]
"Cease this at once!"
A loud gunshot fired into the air. A saber clashed against the sword of Swiss, effortlessly parrying and causing Swiss to fall, unbalanced.
Jinzo skidded in the sand as he stopped his momentum, landing just outside of the captain's strike range.
"*hic*… nani?" Swiss glanced upwards at the figure who stopped him like it was nothing.
Sitting on top of a white horse was a man so beautiful that Swiss could almost fuck him, were it not for his shining armor indicating his manhood.
Long white hair flowed in the sea breeze, deep blue eyes and god-like facial features basked in the sunset.
"Hmph. Gurifis, what are you doing here?" The captain eased himself, storing his massive sword on his back.
"At ease, Grit. I had a bad feeling. What's going on here?" Gurifis put away his saber and scanned the dead bodies littering the beach, blowing the smoke from his pistol.
"I'll tell you what!" Swiss sprung himself to his feet, "These bastards were trying to jack our stuff! Are you the one responsible for these assholes?!"
"Yes. But that man over there is the cause of this." Gurifis giggled and pointed towards the tall captain.
"Don't pin this on me. You're the one that ordered us to scout for supplies." Grit barked at his leader.
"In any case," Gurifis waved his hands at Grit, then looked down at Swiss, "I apologize. We try not to take anything from civilians. I guarantee you my men just thought your boat was abandoned."
The sincere eyes of Gurifis were so pure that they pacified Swiss immediately.
"Oh, in that case, it's fine." The words came out of Swiss' mouth without him even thinking.
'Eh? Why did I just accept that apology so easily? Is this the power of kings haki?' A wide range of emotions smelted inside of Swiss.
"Who are you people?" Jinzo's soft voice asked.
"We're the Band of Accipiter, mercenaries. You?" replied Gurifis.
"Jinzo and Swiss. I guess you could say we are sailors." Jinzo answered.
"Not many sailors can take out this many men with just two people. Your skills are impressive." Gurifis praised them with a relaxed tone.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever cunt. We need to find a town. Know where?" Swiss shook off the beauty of Gurifis and went back into verbal attack mode.
Grit chuckled internally upon hearing his leader being insulted.
Gurifis ignored the provocation and spoke, "Hahaha, yes, I know the way. We can show you if you'd like."
"Really?" Swiss was chilled once again. His flip-flop of emotions could only be explained by the alcohol. "In that case, thank you very much!"
"You go on ahead. I'll catch up later. Got bodies to bury." Grit took the remainder of his men and got to work.
Gurifis smiled, "There is a stronghold about a day and a half's march from here. You are welcome to join us. But on one condition."
"And what might that be?" Jinzo curiously asked.
"This is the Kingdom of Midland, a country with factions constantly at war. We Band of Accipiter are taking part. All I ask is that if we encounter an enemy army, you help us against them. We could use your skills."
The praise from Gurifis warmed the hearts of both Jinzo and Swiss.
"Trololol. Sounds fair to me. What about you Jinzo?"
Jinzo simply nodded in response.
"Excellent." The sly smirk of Gurifis portrayed that of a man who was used to getting what he wants.
Swiss and Jinzo took all the apples and sake they could carry and followed Gurifis back to his camp.
From the top of a grassy hill, Swiss saw nearly a hundred camp fires burning brightly. The aurora of soldiers enjoying their evening hummed at the feet of our dynamic duo.
A large group gathered and cheered at the return of their leader.
Gurifis waved to them casually.
Jinzo and Swiss glanced at each other with peculiar expressions.
They had no idea what they got themselves into.