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"We've been heading south for a day, and we need to go here…"

I pointed at the map that Paulie and I were huddled around, showing him our next destination. It wasn't that far from Shells Town actually, and would only take us another couple of days or so to reach it. I was hoping that a certain pirate was still stashing their loot there.

Nothing like robbing a pirate blind…

"Looks like our course is east, southeast." Paulie responded as he saw me do the calculations on scratch paper underneath the map.

It took us no time to turn the rudder, and adjust the sails to optimize our speed. I made sure to pocket the compass though, so that I could make sure we weren't deviating throughout the day. Both of us stood on the deck once we were done.

"Now what?" Paulie asked as he looked up to the sails. He looked as if he was inspecting them to make sure they were still positioned properly.

"I'm glad you asked." I told him as I unclasped the cloak from my neck and took it off before folding it. I shoved it into the Captain's Quarters before I finished my sentence. "It's time to continue our training." I finished with a devious grin on my face.

Paulie groaned, as I was known for my grueling training sessions while I was stationed at Shells Town.

"Don't give me that. We're not ready for some of the more dangerous threats in East Blue, let alone the Grand Line." I told him as I dropped to the deck and began stretching. Paulie knew that I always started my training with a bit of yoga, even if he didn't know it was called that.

"THE GRAND LINE!?" Paulie repeated once he realized what I said. "I didn't sign up for that!"

My eyebrows raised, as I expected the Grand Line to be our obvious destination.

"The longer we stay in East Blue, the smaller it's going to become for us. The Marine's have a stranglehold on this place. There is a reason every pirate worth their salt heads to the Grand Line. Eventually, it becomes the safest place for them." I explained as I moved into another yoga position.

Paulie mimicked me, but his face was grim.

"What did you think we were going to do?" I asked as I saw his face.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead, to be honest…" Paulie muttered his response. He was holding his face down to his legs, with good form.

I sighed, as I realized what problems Paulie might have in the future. He didn't realize what he was getting himself into, and that could lead to a whole host of problems.

"Look Paulie, you need to do some thinking as we travel to our destination. I need you to understand our situation. We're pirates now. Everything we do will have to be outside of the bounds of the law. Marine's will attack on sight, other vessels will attack or flee on sight, and townsfolk will run away when they see our ship. Life is about to get a whole hell of a lot harder for us." I told him before shifting into another position.

He didn't respond, but I could see the gears in his head turning. I decided that was enough doom and gloom though.

"But to be honest, we're about to be more free than we ever have been. You can't imagine the places we'll be able to see with our own eyes. You can't imagine the adventure and stories we'll be able to tell when we're older." I continued with a big smile on my face. I was starting to remember some of the places I watched Luffy and crew travel to.

They are going to look even more beautiful and fun in real life.

"Sure it'll be hard and we'll have to fight for our lives, that's why we need to train. But at the end of it all, we'll have a life truly lived and not wasted. I can't imagine anything else I'd rather do…"

I finished my last position and stood up. Paulie held his just a little bit longer before following me and standing up. His face was in a permanent state of thinking. He wasn't convinced with my speech, and that was ok.

I put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. His hazel eyes met my green. "Think about it. If you want, I'll drop you off far away from Shells Town and you can start over with a new name. Hell, I'll even take you to another Blue if you want." I told him as I let go of him and stepped back.

"But until then we're going to work on a fighting style for you." I said, breaking him out of his thoughts and causing him to frown again.

"What do you mean?" Paulie asked.

"Well it's simple. Do you want to be a front line fighter, or do you want to use that rifle and fight at a distance?" I asked, remembering how he told me he was really good with the rifle.

I knew what answer I would go with if I was him. Paulie was shorter than me, only being about 6 feet tall. He also had a thin frame, despite his broad shoulders. He excelled at nimble tasks in the marines. If I was him, I would be the sniper of the crew and pick off enemies before they ever knew what was happening to them.

"At a distance." Paulie answered, rather swiftly. I was happy with the answer. "I'll let you handle the front line." He said as his eyes dropped to the cutlass on my waist and my bare torso.

I couldn't help my pride at hearing that. I wasn't the biggest guy in this world, but I was broad and strong. My body looked close to Ace's in musculature, although it wasn't an exact copy.

"I agree. So that means you need to be able to gain distance from enemies, and not get hit when they eventually close the distance." I told him, although my thoughts went deeper than that.

We'll also need to develop Observation Haki as soon as possible.

"Ok so what does that mean? I can't move as fast as you." Paulie asked, as he gestured to me.

I smiled at his mistake. "Not yet you can't. When I got promoted, I got access to some new Marine techniques that you don't know about." I told a little white lie before continuing. "The reason I can move so fast is because of one of those techniques, Soru."

I stomped on the deck underneath me ten times in the blink of an eye, and the world blurred past me as I appeared on the other end of the ship. I used Soru again as soon as Paulie looked at me, and then I was standing in front of him once more.

The wind from my movement caused his closely cut hair to blow around slightly.

"Shit!" Paulie jumped once he realized I was back in front of him. He took a moment and brought his palm to his forehead. "I'm going to regret asking this, but how did you do that?"

I smiled in a way that only someone who is about to physically break another person could.

"Oh it's simple really…"

"Found you…" I muttered as I peered through the telescope in my hands.

At the other end of my telescope was a ship, wider than normal and bigger than the ship I was currently on. The sails were folded up on the mast, but I could make out a pink heart near the center of one of them.

"Who is that?" Paulie asked by my side at the bow of the ship. I handed my first crew member the telescope so that he could look into it.

"Captain Alvida and her pirate crew. Marines have had intel of her operations near this island for some time now. She's bound to have a decent treasure buried somewhere around here." I answered with a grin.

"What's the plan? Wait for them to leave, track down the treasure, and then steal it?" Paulie asked as he scanned the ship and beach for the pirate crew.

That would be smart…

"Hell no!" I told him, refusing to be a coward of a pirate. I was strong, and Alvida was not a good person. "We're going to sail straight there, kick their ass and then take their treasure!"

Paulie's shoulders slumped slightly, and the telescope in his hands trembled slightly. "I had a feeling you were going to say something like that!" He exclaimed.

I smiled as excitement began to flood my veins. This would be my first pirate battle, and I was determined to win it. I bounced in position for a moment as I stared down the island we were rapidly approaching.

"They've spotted us!" Paulie said as he pointed to a position right where the beach and the forest met.

I had to squint, but eventually I saw movement in the trees. My smile widened even further.

No turning back now.

"Great, they think we're marines!" Paulie told me, and it took me a moment to realize that we were sailing with marine sails on the ship. That would make them go into battle mode immediately.

"Nothing for it, it'll be a fight." I told him. Of course, that's what I wanted in the first place.

That's when her crew decided it would be a good idea to get to their ship before we arrived. I knew it wasn't because they were planning on running. They probably meant to blow us out of the water before we became a threat.

Can't have this ship be damaged on my first fight…

I made a decision then that they wouldn't get the opportunity to fire a single cannon. My hands came up to the clasp on my cloak and I quickly untied it before handing it to Paulie. "Don't let this get damaged!" I commanded as I took a step and jumped on the railing of the ship.

Been a while since I did this…

I mentally prepared myself for the difficult maneuver I was about to pull off.

"Where are you going?!" Paulie asked, just as I prepared myself to jump.

We were only about a hundred yards off of the enemy ship when he asked that. I didn't bother to answer him directly. Instead, I wanted him to be shocked by my actions.

"Watch and learn!" I called out as I crouched and jumped hard off of my ship. With my enhanced strength, I peaked at around thirty feet in the air. But that was just the start of my trick.

123456789… Geppo!

I used Soru and kicked off of the air ten times in a row, but on the last kick I gave much more effort, and it felt like I kicked off of the ground instead of the air that I was actually floating on. This was the only other Rokushiki I had mastered besides Soru. I had a decent grasp on Kami-e, but not mastery as I did Soru and Geppo.

Thankfully, the technique that Rob Lucci used to jump around the air succeeded and I was immediately launched forward in the air towards Alvida's ship. Once I began to slow down in the air, I repeated the process with my other leg.

And just like that, I was literally running in the air and closing the distance between our ships faster than they could on land. It only took me another 7 'Kamisori' (The name of the technique of using both Soru and Geppo together) to reach the deck of Alvida's ship.

'Thud'

I landed on the ship with steady legs and a quick look around told me that there was only one pirate on the ship. He was staring at me with wide eyes and was obviously one of the weaker of the crew. Who else would get stuck with guarding the ship?

"Who are you!?" He roared as he fumbled with a pistol on his waist.

Soru

I sped towards the grunt before he could get the pistol leveled at where I used to be. I punched him right on the jaw, and even had the piece of mind to pull the punch a little bit. Even still, he dropped to the deck of the ship unconscious. With a quick movement, I kicked his pistol down the ship and away from him.

"Captain Robert Hood, Pirate. Nice to meet you." I answered the unconscious man.

"He's on the deck!"

I turned to see another pirate climbing onto the deck of the ship, via a ladder on the railing. This one had a sword in his hand and was pointing it at me threateningly.

"Surrender Marine, and Captain Alvida might let you live!" The grunt demanded.

This is what passes for Pirate's on the East Blue…

Another 3 men climbed onto the deck of the ship. All of them held cutlasses of varying designs in their hands. All of them pointed their swords at me. I drew my own cutlass, and decided to repeat myself so that they would know I was not a marine.

"I am a pirate, not a marine!" I yelled at the man as I pointed to where my ship was closing the distance. Paulie was already raising the sails to slow the vessel down.

"I stole that ship from Shells Town! You're looking at Captain Robert Hood, the man that is here to steal your treasure!"

I smiled wide once I told them of my intentions. I was really having way too much fun being a pirate, and I could already tell that I would have to watch myself in the future. Of course, the confidence in my strength and the prospect of a good fight was enough to get my blood pumping.

"Hehe…"

"Haha!"

"Hahahahahahah!"

My smile faded as the men in front of me laughed at me. I wasn't sure why they were laughing at me, but I was sure that I wanted them to lose a few teeth because of it. I was about to Soru towards them and teach them a lesson, when I saw movement in the corner of my eye.

I turned to find Alvida in the air, with her massive spiked club in her hand. In that short moment of less than a second, I realized a couple of things. One, she was a fucking smoke show and that meant that she had already ate her Devil Fruit, considering she was a whale of a woman at the beginning of the series when Luffy originally fought her. Naturally, her new devil fruit removing the excess fat off of her body didn't affect her raw strength.

She brought her club down, and had I not seen her I would have been pulp on the deck of her ship.

Kami-e

I turned and my body seemed to fold around the spiked club as it passed through the air where I used to be and crashed into the deck of the ship. It crushed the planks beneath my feet and sent splinters flying everywhere. I moved my feet to more stable planks before I counter attacked.

She was not prepared for the kick that connected with her neck and lower jaw. In fact, she was so unprepared that she let go of her club when the kick sent her flying backwards into the mast of her own ship.

"Gah!" She wavered on her feet as she grunted from the force of the blow.

I was surprised to feel my kick connect. Her slip-slip devil fruit gave her the ability to make her skin smooth and slippery, to the extent that physical attacks slide right off of her without doing any damage. Obviously this is a conscious act she has to do because she took the full force of my kick.

Not used to your devil fruit yet, are you?

"Captain!"

"How did he dodge that?!"

"Who is this guy!?"

"Nobody touches my captain…Rah!"

One of the grunts charged me with an overhead slash of his sword. It was child's play to deflect it and hit him with a roundhouse kick to the side of his head. He suffered the same treatment as his captain, except he didn't stay conscious after the blow.

"How dare you…"

I turned my attention back to the captain of this rag-tag group of pirates. Alvida was breathing heavily but she was no longer pressed up against the mast of her ship. At one point during her attack, or maybe it was my retaliation, her white hat had fallen off of her head and was laying on the deck.

Her black hair was either naturally wavy, or she somehow found time to keep up with it on the open seas. The lack of make-up on her surprisingly good bone structure hinted that her devil fruit could be the culprit for her naturally good looks. Her dark green eyes bored into mine with hate, and a healthy dose of surprise.

I was surprised to find that she was only wearing a bra underneath her obviously too big trench coat. It was so big and loose fitting that I was convinced she ate her devil fruit extremely recently. As in, perhaps the night before. It would have been so soon that she wouldn't have been able to shop for new clothes to fit her completely different frame.

"Alvida, I presume?" I asked, trying to get the introductions out of the way. She would be the one to lead me to where her treasure was buried. Even though I was convinced that I could find it given enough time on the island. No way she was clever enough to hide it far inland and bury it deep. It was most likely in a relatively obvious place.

"Yes and you should be bowing before me!" Alvida answered with a yell. She pointed at herself with her thumb and smiled cockily.

It's always odd to find people acting like this is an anime…

I decided to ignore her comment. "You know, you look nothing like your wanted posters." I said as I adopted a thinking pose. "Shouldn't you be close to 500 pounds?" My face contorted into a mocking smirk once I said that.

"Oh shit, he called the Captain fat…"

"He's a dead man…"

Alvida's face turned red with anger and her eyes narrowed. "You're extremely rude!" She replied as she set her feet and jumped at me. Apparently, I made her mad enough to attack without her broadcasting how perfect and beautiful she was, as she normally did during her fights.

Her attack was telegraphed and easy to dodge. I turned to my left, and watched the fist she threw with her left hand pass where my face used to be. I couldn't help but think that I could have tanked the hit without any damage.

My counterattack was natural. All I had to do was lift my left leg, and I knew my knee would smack into her ribs, most likely putting her down for the count. Except, right as my knee hit her body, it didn't find purchase. Without a better way of explaining it, it just seemed to slide right off of her skin doing no damage.

It was then that I realized her left hook to start this engagement was all a ploy.

Because she had grabbed her massive club right beside me with her right hand and it was on course for my back. I was surprised and off balance. I made a mistake during my very first pirate battle, and it did not feel good.

Kami-e

My hasty attempt to dodge the strike was too late, but it did lessen the damage a little bit. The club impacted my hip and sent me skidding a couple of yards away from Alvida.

"Don't underestimate me!" Alvida roared as she realized she had gotten a hit off on me.

Despite the throbbing pain in my left hip, I couldn't help the smile that split my face. Alvida had her massive club pointing at me, and the rage from earlier hadn't died down at all. Her crew cheered, behind her.

I lifted my cutlass towards her and mimicked her stance. "Oh don't worry, I won't. You can avoid blunt damage it seems, but what about a blade?" I asked as my smile turned slightly sinister.

"You won't touch her!"

'POW'

I have to admit, the willingness of Alvida's crew to attack me, with cowardly ways or not, was admirable. It almost made me wonder if she was actually a bad pirate captain like Koby and the anime made her out to be.

Unfortunately for the pirate that attacked me, Paulie and my ship had arrived parallel beside Alvida's ship. In fact, Paulie was already in the Crows Nest with his rifle aimed down at them. His barrel was smoking from the bullet he just fired into the back of the pirate who tried to sneak attack me.

I turned to see the man rolling on the ground behind me, groaning at the wound.

You won't do that again, will you?

"Bastard!" Alvida yelled at Paulie. He sent her a cheeky wave as he reloaded his rifle.

"Appreciate that Paulie!" I yelled out. Once again, I was reminded of the fact that I was not as aware of my surroundings as I should be. Observation Haki would be a priority for the near future. The sooner I start training it, the better.

"We stole this treasure fair and square Hood! I won't let you waltz in and take it." Alvida stated, in a way that only pirate's could.

"You don't have a choice. You, big fish, stole the treasure from some poor village in the East Blue, little fish. Now I, big fish, will steal from you, little fish." I told her, with the most simple and understandable explanation possible.

"I did not! We found one of Don Krieg's stash spots and have been moving it to another location! The only other vessel's we have robbed are the marines that come after us!" Alvida denied my accusation with passion.

I frowned at the information. I wasn't sure if I could believe the woman or not. During the anime, it showed her robbing a civilian vessel, and that was when Luffy kicked her ass. Of course, I wasn't sure if that was accurate to the manga or not.

It changes things, if it's true.

The way Alvida said it, made me think that she wasn't lying. She was passionate with her response, almost disgusted that I would accuse her of such a thing. Even her facial structure made me want to believe her. She was frowning, and the rage had fallen from her face.

"Prove it." The words slipped out. I believed her, but there was no way to be naive when it came to pirate's.

She lowered her club, but did not immediately move. "Why should I have to prove anything to you?!" She asked. She was probably thinking that she still had a chance to defeat me. She didn't realize I could have ended the fight immediately, if I was willing to be lethal.

Soru.

Alvida didn't even realize that I had moved until my blade was resting underneath her chin. Her face turned from angry and defiant to shocked immediately. I wanted her to know that I could take her life at any moment, only that I didn't. She got the message at that moment.

"I believe that answers your question, does it not?" I asked rhetorically as I lowered my blade and in one motion, sheathed it on my waist once more.

Alvida's eyes narrowed once more, and I saw them trail my cutlass. I could tell she was pondering whether or not to attack me while I didn't have my sword in my hand.

"If you prove to me that it is Don Krieg's loot, then we might come to an arrangement without any more fighting. I can respect someone who steals from pirate's." I told her. Somehow, the logic made sense to me even if I could recognize that it wasn't very sound from the outside looking in.

Alvida took another few moments to think the proposal over. Even taking the time to pace up and down her ship. I leaned up against the mast of her ship, and looked up to Paulie who gave me a questioning look. I just shrugged at him.

"Fine." Alvida said as she snapped her fingers and turned to one of the grunts on the ship. "Bring me the map!"

I smiled as it was finally confirmed that she wasn't lying. I would wait until the map got here and was authentic before I acted off of the information however. If she was lying, she wouldn't have let it get this far. She would have attacked me already, or denied my proposal.

Sure enough, her grunt wasn't gone for that long before he returned with a rolled up piece of parchment. He handed it to her, and she unrolled it where she stood before showing it to me. She didn't give me the map, for obvious reasons. She didn't want me to take it and kill them anyway. That would be a natural thing for most pirate's to do.

I barely glanced at it before I made my decision. One that I hadn't even considered before our battle and subsequent talk. It was so ludicrous that I was convinced it was the right thing to do. After all, I am in One Piece now. Ludicrous means you're doing the right thing.

"You weren't lying…" I admitted as I stared at the map.

Alvida shook her head. "Of course not! I told you I stole this fair and square!" She exclaimed.

I smiled as I realized what I was about to say. "Well then I have a couple proposals. First proposal, I take everything you have on the island and let you keep the map for the future loot. We go our separate ways, and you pray I never come back to restock my supplies."

Alvida's face soured immediately, as I knew it would. Nobody wanted to part with their hard earned work. Nor would they want me as a threat hanging over their head. I had tracked her down once, and I could do it again.

"Or…" I paused as I saw her face brighten at another prospect.

"...You join my crew."

A/N: Boom!

Bet you didn't expect that! Neither did I to be honest. Stream can attest to that! This was something that presented itself as an option to me in the middle of the fight actually. I'm not sure if she'll even accept yet to be honest. We'll see.

Robert and Paulie start their adventure on the East Blue. And his first target was Alvida, big surprise there. Easy fight and easy haul in his mind. A good way to get some starting money to fund their adventures. But with the prospect of robbing a bigger fish, and getting a competent crew member (I say that loosely when talking about Alvida)... It just kind of happened.

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