Chapter 4: The Fishman

I barely dodges the strike before I took a few steps back, my bamboo sword facing forward as I try to catch my breath. Sen stood opposite of me with the same practice weapon which he held slack on his side with his free hand on his hip along with that stupid grin on his face, "Tired already? We barely started."

Well, I have several bruises under my shirt that indicates otherwise…

It has been at least a week since the Silver Fang left Loguetown and began its voyage on the open waters on a course to Port Riza. From what I gathered from the other sailors and have read on my guidebook, Port Riza is a fishing village turned port located on what was considered the geographical center of the entire East blue, where its main industry is… fishing, duh. My guess is that Silvia is heading there via a contract from them, something about being able to ship their seafood.

Maybe that's what all those crates below deck were for. I was wondering why they smell so fishy…

That aside, the first day out in sea is also the official start of my training with Sen. He didn't show me the sword he got for me just yet, explaining that I need to at least learn some basic moves as well as increase my overall physique to better learn said moves.

And that started a regime of spartan exercising and combat training.

On the very first day, he has been run all around the deck ragged all morning until breakfast which is then followed up by making me run all over the deck again but this time in my half-dragon form that ends with training my TAIL of all things till lunchtime, and then after that it's a quick sparring match which leads to bruises all over and a proper shiner on my right eye followed by several cardio workouts while still bruised until dinner, then it ends with another sparring match but with my fists instead, before I just fell unconscious either from sheer exhaustion or a good hit from him.

Rinse and repeat for the rest of the week with a few exceptions during my night shifts.

Trust me, it is not something I want anyone to experience. I never thought it would be possible to get sore muscles on muscles that do not exist! It is exhausting to a point during meal times I nearly vomited everything out the moment I ate a spoonful, which is a real shame considering that the cook on this ship is pretty good with the job. Not a five-star chef, but good enough to not feel like army food.

Trust me. Service food aren't the worst, but they aren't that good either.

I am knocked out of my musing, literally, when Sen somehow cross the distance between us and slams the tip of his sword into my nose hard, so hard that I actually hear it break with a disgusting crunch. Not a good sound to hear, I tell you that…

"Oohh…" I moaned in pain as I lay on the ground crutching my now bent nose.

"Keep your head in the fight, Rein." He scolded me as he taps the tip of his bamboo sword on my temple, "If this is a real blade, you'll get worse than a broken nose."

"Yeuh, I can siu tuat…"

"Ten minutes break, then its push-ups. Hundred." He explained, as he walks off.

I groaned out as I sat up, the feeling of my aching bones and bruises still dominating my senses along with the overpowering smell of blood. Damn it, the nose again?! He keeps aiming there! I can deal with a black eye, but broken noses are a pain to fix, not to mention really painful.

"Need a hand?"

I blinked out a few tears from my eyes as Kris enters my vision. I visibly flinched from his sudden appearance, before I let out a small cough and nodded in reply. The fishman's webbed hand held onto my nose and with a firm pull, cracks my nose back into place with a whine of pain from me.

"T-Thanks…"

"…No problem…" He stated before walking away.

You know, when I heard that I'm going to be helping Sen on a merchant ship, I was half-expecting to get at least one sexist sailor scoffing and messing with me. Obviously, that is not the case with how friendly they have been if a little pervy with their catcalls and peeking incidents during the week, which all were settled immediately by the female staff on board. I never thought an arm could bend so far before breaking until now…

But of all the things I expect, I would have never expected to meet a fishman before Arlong.

Kris is a Moray Eel fishman, with greyish scale-like skin and sharp teeth, dark green hair styled like a bundle of seaweed and sharp white eyes (and no, he is not blind.). He is often seen shirtless with an exception of a shoulder pad that covers the entire right shoulder along with yellow spotted shorts and leather sandals.

He's… strange…

From what I can see, he is pretty friendly with the others, I even see him crack a smile a few times when he talks to Sen. But when it comes to me, he almost never tries to engage a conversation with me. He usually just greets me and then walks away. I mean, he didn't even give me a chance to greet him back! Who does that?

He doesn't seem to hate me though… He had given me a helping hand a few times, but left once I thanked him.

Remember when I said I knocked out on the first day of training? Well, when I came to the next morning, I was in my own room. Next to the bed on the floor is a cup of weird liquid along with a note that is saying to drink the juice, that it is good for me. Being the gullible idiot that I am, I drank it and regretted it immediately. If Devil Fruit is the most horrible thing I have the displeasure of tasting, that 'juice' is a close second.

Later I found out that it was Kris who brought me to my room, and apparently, he also made that juice for me as well.

After that, he seems to always be around whenever I am training, just there in the background in the corner of my vision. And then after training, he would then walk off again. Or at times he would offer a helping hand, usually with bruises and injuries all that.

So yeah, his stand on me is a complete mystery.

"All right! Break time is over! Back to training!"

I decide to think about it later as I prepare for the next set spartan exercises.

That night at dinner-time, I barely manage to made it to the mess hall, or galley as Sen has politely corrected me a few times but I'm sticking with mess hall as it feels right. My arms are sore from all the push-ups and head is pounding like a jackhammer at my brain and my throat feels like the Sahara from how dry it is. It has been a full week, and I'm already sick of his training.

Although, I am getting better at it now. Used to faint right after. Now I can actually feel the soreness in my limps.

I collapsed right on the first open table I come across, dropping my head on to the wooden top with a loud thud. I am completely exhausted! When I thought of training, this spartan hell isn't exactly what I had in mind…

"Hey there lass. Sen still working you to the bone, eh?"

I raised my head up lazily, Gord came to view with a smile and two bowls of steaming stew at hand.

Gord is a rather slim middle-aged man with a shaved head and a nasty burnt scar on the right side of his face above his dark brown eyes, often seen wearing a white button-up shirt with short sleeves tucked into a pair of faded blue slacks and brown leather shoes with a bandana tied to his left wrist. He is this ship's cook, and a mighty good one at that.

He is also one of the first people I befriended on this ship.

It was the second morning of the voyage, I have just fainted from the hell training Sen has brought up and woke up back in my own room. Ivan immediately enters with a plate of hot steaming food (With that 'juice' that Kris made for me), greeting me and serving me my breakfast in bed. As I ate, me and him chatted up quite a bit and hit off quite well.

Apparently, Gord here is actually an ex-marine, one who was discharged for treason. According to him, the Captain in-charge of the marine base is rotten to the core, to the point that he has accepted bribes from pirate captains to keep quiet about them, and then using said money for his own pleasure and consumption.

He, being a humble Petty Officer at the time, decided to file a report of said corruption to the higher-ups. But he was caught writing said report, which then the Captain re-wrote it to one that inducts him as a traitor that sold patrol plans and even private marine codes to pirates and bandits for cash.

He got the discharge letter the very next day.

Out of the service, he later found out about the Silver Fang, who was hiring a cook at the time, which he applied immediately. And the rest is history.

When I asked if he wanted payback at the marine captain, he just laughed and told me that he has moved on from it all. He doesn't care about revenge, as he knows that that stupid captain would get karmic punishment soon enough. Though, when I asked for the captain's name out of pure curiosity, I was shocked to find out it was fucking Nezumi of all people.

I mentally noted to remind myself to get involved into the Arlong arc, just to have the pleasure of beating that rat up.

After that morning, he and I often meet during mealtimes, as I usually the last one to arrive, where we just talked about the random topics, often about a few past shenanigans the crew has encountered in the past. I even asked for a cooking lesson from him, which he declined as he didn't want to add to my already full schedule.

"Yup. But the good news is that I didn't faint this time." I points out with a tired thumbs-up, "Now I just have to get used to the sores…"

He chuckles as he places the two bowls down, "Here you go. Today is fish and vegetables stew." I took the bowl and starts eating one spoonful at a time. Yup, as delicious as always!

"So," He sits opposite me and starts eating too, "Saw you up there. That was one heck of a bruiser you got."

"That it was…" I swallowed before continuing, "I could still feel the pain too. Thank the heavens I was able to pull it back in place before it set."

"Yeah, thank god for that." He noted, "Although, a broken nose would put a stop to Sam's flirting."

"It would, but at the cost of not breathing too well…? Not a good trade-off."

Sam is referring to the ship's Helmsman, Samerson Butler; a rather flirty individual. He is always with one of the few ladies on board, the ones that worked in the kitchen as well as the medical ward, and often or not is sleeping with any one of them. He even pulled a few moves at me, which I gladly ignored due to either to tired from training to bother with him or that the lines he chooses are so goddamn cheesy that I have to walk away to laugh to save him some dignity. Could never figure out what the women on this boat sees in him.

Might be due to the fact that he is actually quite good-looking, with a face that screams prince-charming as well as flowing locks of black hair. Or that he seems to have quite a libido that drove all the women wet just thinking about it, as the gossips go anyway…

But honestly, for a flirty person, he actually not a bad person. He is a competent helmsman, one of the damn best if his boasting contains any truth in it, and for all that flirting he actually cares for the women he slept with, if the gossips of him being a sexy therapist hold water anyway…

Still damn cheesy with his pick-up lines though.

"You know, mentioning broken noses…" Gord starts just as I place another spoonful into my mouth, "How are things with Kris?"

"As much as you expect, I'm afraid…"

"So, quiet and awkward."

"Yes."

The cook chuckles at that as I let out a small sigh, "I just don't get it! It feels like he hates me, but then he helps me so it can't be it. Then he mostly ignores me all the damn time or just stand there not saying anything before disappearing again! Like, what gives?!"

"Kris has always been awkward, even with the captain." He points out to me, "Give it time, he'll open up to you."

"It's just…" I grumbles as I took another spoonful of stew into my mouth, "He's always around me, you know?"

"Trust me, everyone on the crew is awkward around him at first. It's the usual for newcomers, even if said newcomer is a… well, you know."

That actually has been swirling in my head for a while now. WHY is Kris on this ship in the first place? From what I remember from the manga, the only fishmen in the East Blue to anyone knowledge are the Arlong Pirates, but they are currently holed up in the Conomi Islands being evil dictators. So why is one on a merchant ship like this one?

"Oh, hey, Kris."

And speak of the devil, here he is.

I glanced over to another table, where Kris is just sitting down with his own bowl of steaming stew.

Hm… Maybe I should…

"Rein?"

"Be right back."

I pick up my bowl and walks over to the lone fishman eating his meal. Okay, Rein, time to break the ice. It should be easy, just sit down and struck a conversation. Just remember to not stare at his scales.

Or fins.

Or gills.

Or sharp teeth that looks like it can tear my flesh asunder-

"Do you need something?"

I blinked in confusion before realizing that I am already sitting down at the same table directly opposite of him, Kris staring right at me in a raised eyebrow. Wait, did I just walked here and sit down while in my thoughts…? That is… peculiar…

"Oh! J-Just… well… I just want to sit here, that's all…"

He seems to buy my excuse, giving me a shrug before resuming his meal. Great job, Rein. Now it's all awkward between us again. You had one job!

Sighing, resume back my meal, the stew not as tasty as before.

"…Also, despite their appearance, I cannot tear into your flesh with my teeth."

…Yup. Awkward…

The lookout let out yawn as he stares into the horizon in the crow's nest, his short brown undercut hair blowing in the salty sea wind.

He originally is glad that he ended up on the first watch of the day as that means he doesn't get cleaning duty that morning, but after the first hour, he is starting to regret it. The crow's nest isn't that big for much leg movement, so he has to bent his knees real close if he wants to sit down, which isn't very comfortable.

He's starting to feel his legs getting numb when it past the first thirty minutes mark.

Not to mention, there isn't much to keep a lookout for. Of course, pirates are everywhere for the past decade or so, but they haven't encountered one whole week. And he doubted that they would encounter one now, especially with them closing in to one of the few marine patrol routes in the area.

"I'm starting to think of volunteering for toilet duty might have been a better option…"

It was right when he mutters that out that he saw something in the distance. A dot at first, but being the proper lookout that he is, he takes out his trusty binoculars to take a better look. A slight zoom in at it reveals its identity.

A ship, one that looks armed to the teeth with cannons on each side. It even looks like it has a cannon at its bow, which kind of looks like a large snake's head. And its sails look-

He nearly dropped the binoculars in horror when he saw the black sail and flag, not to mention the infamous skull-and-crossbones that decorated them. And he knows exactly who that is! Of all the pirate crews, why it has to the one which a bounty?!

"PIRATES! PIRATES OFF THE STARBOARD SIDE!"

With his loud scream, the entire crew below burst into action. Those that are not combat trained flee below deck to the designated saferoom. Those that are, immediately armed themselves. Rifles, pistols and muskets are all issued out, those who are at least decent with it are wielding cutlasses among the assortment of swords they have.

Even Silvia is armed and ready, in her hand is a long wooden rod with metal fittings at the end along with leather wrappings in the middle of it covering a good third of the entire thing.

"Are they named?" She asked.

"Yes. Galley Pirates, led by the infamous Crescent-Moon Galley of 5 million bounty fame." Lee addresses, twirling two flintlock pistols in his hands.

"Great, we have a million on our tail…" She groaned, "Sam! Keep the ship on its course!"

"Aye-aye, captain!" He called out from the helm.

Cannon-fire is head and an explosion soon rang out into the ocean dangerously close to them, blasting out seawater into the air that rains down on them. That is soon followed by another, and another, and soon it is raining cannonballs all around them.

"If we're lucky, we'll run into one of the marine patrol ships before they reach us. Where's Sen?"

"No idea! I last saw him running for the bathroom before any of this!"

"Damn it! Just when we need him the most!"

Cannon-fire can be heard as I rush through the corridor with my bamboo sword at hand. I nearly lost my balance when the boat suddenly rocks from the aftereffect of the cannon shot coming really close to smashing into the side of it.

I was stupid to have forgotten this little tip-bit of this world. That it is in the era in which blood-thirty pirates roam the seas, plundering ships and slaughtering people left and right! So, OF COURSE we are going to get under attack by some random pirate in the open sea!

And it HAS to happen during breakfast!

I know Sen can take care of them no problem, but he left with an upset stomach and is never seen again for a long while. Which in turn leaves this ship utterly defenceless. I know that there are people who are trained to fight on this ship, if the armoury Lee shows us on the first day indicates anything at all, but I'm not confident that they could deal with pirates, especially with how tough even the weaker ones are in the manga.

And if that's the case, there is no way I'm running and hiding! I'm the part of the ship's guard too, damn it! No way I'm abandoning my duty now!

I slam the door open as every armed sailor on the deck to face me in either surprised shock or horror.

"What are you doing up here?!" Lee yelled at me, "You should be in the saferoom!"

"Well, you're not making me hide!" I shouted back as I stomps onto the deck, "Remember, I'm the ship's guard too!"

"But-"

"Leave it for now." Silvia tells him, "They caught up."

Everyone shut their mouth as we soon saw the large ship coming close to us, a familiar looking ship that seems to ring some bells. I know that ship, didn't it belong to that one-off pirate from that one shot? What was his name again…? Something moustache…? It has something to do with the moon, if I recall correctly…

"Ahoy there!" A loud boisterous voice shouts out, we all taking the figure that stood on the railing with a cutlass at hand and a very arrogant smirk on his weird moustache's face, "We are the Galley Pirates! I am the great Crescent Moon Galley, and I'm here for your precious loot!"

Oh yeah! I remember now! Galley, from that OVA!

Man, he has a really weird moustache…

Then, silence suddenly filled the air to my confusion. I looked at each of my crewmates to see their pale faces or just plain shocked expressions as well as the gaping mouth of Galley on the opposite ship. I think I saw Gord face-palming somewhere in there.

Wait, did I say that out loud?

…Oops.

"Who has a weird moustache, huh?!" Galley shouts out angrily, "That's it! For that, we aren't taking any prisoners today! We're slaughtering everyone here today!" The pirates around him cheers with murderous glee.

"Thanks a lot, Rein." I hear Lee groan as I nervously chuckled to it. I really need to remember to not voice out my thoughts…

"MEN! KILL THEM ALL!"

"RAAAAHH!"

"Don't die, everyone!" Silvia commanded, "We are in the patrol route now, so we just have to stall until the marines show up!"

"Right!"

The fight begins as the pirates from the other ship leaped and swing onto the deck with sabers and cutlasses drawn to kill, our group rushing to meet them mid-point with those with firearms providing cover fire from behind.

I'm left stuck frozen on the spot when the firearms fired at the pirates, some manages to hit a few that were swinging over to them with blood spurting out of the bullet wounds before dropping down to the watery abyss below. Blades spark when they collide, blood flew when one struck their target. I was completely lost on what to do.

I came up on deck wanting to help, and here I am stuck frozen not knowing what to do! Come on, Rein! Move! Do something! Anything!

"You're wide-opened!"

I turned to see a cutlass swinging down at me, I reacting by blocking it with my bamboo sword which it cuts into its fake blade. My eyes reflect off the pirate's hungry eyes as he pushes forward towards me with me trying to push him away, but that is futile as he seems to have a more strength that I do.

With a great huff, I manages to twist my body a bit and with a new leverage got out of the blade lock I had with him. I took a breath when the pirate come back towards me and slashes at me, I barely able to move out of the way before his hand reaches out and grab me by my jacket's collar. "You're not going anywhere, young lady." He snickers as he raises his sword up to slice at me.

That's when a large splash from behind me and a wet fist smashes right into the man's face, sending him flying across the deck and hitting the mast where he lays slack at the bottom of it.

I blinked for a moment, before turning my head to meet my saviour, one eel fishman who had his fist outstretched before he reels it back to his side. He turned to face me with a nod with a small smile before rushing back into the fray. I blinked before remembering what I was supposed to be doing before rushing back to the fight.

I paused when I saw the cutlass from the pirate before on the floor, looking back at my bamboo sword that has two thick grooves embedded into the round blade that looks flimsy from it before making up my mind and tossing it aside, picking up the fallen weapon before rushing back in.

There wasn't much for me to do, to be honest. Most of the pirates seem to be heavily wounded from the conflict, but we have equally bad casualties. I saw Lee nursing a bullet wound to his arm while Gord has part of his clothes sliced open with a few cuts decorating his body. However, luck seems to be on our side as the pirates seem to be getting pushed back. Silvia is currently going toe-to-toe with Galley himself, which basically means he is getting his shit wrecked as he barely is fighting back.

Silvia is practically toying with him at this point as she spins her pole around her and keeps smacking and poking into the pirate captain who could only take the blows once I saw her disarmed him in one smooth swoop of her weapon. Looks like Silvia is up there in badass-status along with Luffy, Zoro and Sanji.

"You know, I was almost afraid of you guys." Silvia mocks the wanted man with a smile, "But I guess the bounty doesn't really mean much now, is it?"

"Damn you…" The captain growls before getting the tip of the pole smashed into his nose hard.

I nearly feel sorry for him with how brutal he is getting beaten. Silvia really knows how to beat people up without killing them.

Then, I saw something that prompts me to move into action immediately. One of the pirates has a gun pointed at her and she is none the wiser. Doesn't looked like anyone else notices it besides me, so I decided to act. Before I know it, I have my sword's tip aimed at him and I thrusted. A sudden explosion from the pirate's ship rocks both vessels, which causes me to tumble a bit instead of thrusting into him, I instead stab into his thigh instead.

He let out a loud scream in pain as I let go of the weapon and stumbles a bit backward with the ship still rocking and all. I fall on my butt while my victim is clutching his wound with the sword sticking out of it. The blade has gone right through, the tip is poking out of the other side.

"D-Damn bitch!" He growls as he raises his flintlock and aims his barrel right towards me, "Die!"

I felt my heart stop for a moment as the trigger is pulled, a loud bang is heard as I saw the black lead round is speeding right towards me. Time seems to slow to a halt as my past week speeds through my mind. The training, the interactions with the crew, all of it I recollected before I felt a sharp pain on my forehead.

"REIN!"

I heard the other scream my name as I felt my head jerked upwards and I fall onto the deck. Ah, I'm dead again, aren't I? Well, this is anti-climactic. To die just a week after reincarnation, must be a new record somewhere. But unlike last time, I can still hear the sounds of gunfire, of screaming and people just shouting out my name.

"Rein, lass. Don't you dare die on me!"

Huh? Was that Gord?

"Give it up, Gord! She is dead!"

"No way! She is not dead!"

"She got shot in the head! No one can survive that!"

Wait, something's not right. I'm dead, right? So why can I still hear people talking? Why can I still feel the wooden deck on my back? Not only that, why isn't my vision darkening or something? I twitch my finger, still feeling a connection to my body to my surprise, and probably Gord's as well from the gasp I just heard.

"Rein…?"

"Hm…" I slowly got back up, blinked a few times at the cook's dumbfounded face, "Huh? I'm… okay…?"

"Holy mother of all oysters!" The guy next to Gord scream out in shock, "How did you survive that?! You were shot between the eyes!"

I blinked at his question, before feeling something ledged on my forehead. Scratching that area, something pops out and a small lead ball drops and rolls about in front of me. Wait, did the bullet just got lodged in my skull?!

"Oh my god, are bones made of steel or something?!"

I ignored that question as I feel my forehead, the area that got hit by the bullet is still dent in, still bleeding from the blood on my fingertips. Okay, this is… something. Did the reincarnation did something else to my body?

"Hey, you got horns now! Like when you are in your dragon mode." Gord pointed out.

Horns? I feel the top of my head, sure enough the horns are present. Did I… change form without even realizing it? If that's the case, then my dragon skin must have been super strong to withstand a gunshot like that! Good to know that I'm essentially bulletproof in my half-dragon form now!

Then I remember our predicament, "Wait, the pirates! What happened to them?!"

"Glad to see you are well."

Sen's voice calls out, he walking up to me with hands on his hips, "Scared me there for a bit, you know. I wasn't sure if your dragon skin could be penetrated by bullets. Now we know."

"Where were you?!" I shouted at him, "We needed you minutes ago!"

"Toilet." He explained, "I really had to go."

"Seriously?!"

"But you can reassure about the pirates." He stated pointing behind him. I followed his finger to see a marine warship coming into view. Looks like me made it! Thank god for that!

I can see the pirates all standing there in pure horror with what is going to happen, before some of them start booking it back to their ship. Galley tries to tell them to stop, only to be interrupted when a figure lands on the railing of his ship.

It is a lone man, one with a marine cap over his well-combed black hair and is wearing a white jacket left open to show his bandaged chest with a pair of standard marine uniform pants and boots. In his hand is long spear, its long blade shaped like a harpoon's tip with bandages the middle of the rod and at the end is a sharp metal bulb.

"You guys aren't leaving anywhere." He tells them as he readies his spear.

The pirates all froze, his words all spoke of truth as the tip of his weapon is dangerously close to one of their comrade's neck. They all raises their hands up in surrender as weapons and guns are all dropped onto the deck. Galley is stunned silent, with Silvia took full advantage of and slams her weapon onto his head, knocking him out.

With that, my first fight at sea is over.

"Well, it looks okay…"

I am looked over by our ship's doctor, one Dr Justin; a tall albino woman with long ash-white hair that has black highlights on the bangs and red eyes in a purple blouse and black skirt under her white lab coat. And yes, Justin is a man's name.

She is currently on deck with her nurses who are busy treating the other wounded sailors, Lee and Silvia included. The marines that arrived just a few moments ago are busy rounding up the pirates and escorting them to the brig. Got to say, the East Blue's marines are often depicted in the manga as corrupt or just cannon fodder for either the Straw Hats or the villains. Seeing them actually doing what they are meant to do really opened my eyes about this world. That this world is not a manga, but real life. Although nearly dying the third time really hammer that fact in real tight.

Justin raises two fingers in front of me and ask, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"…Two…?"

"Ah, so no brain damage then." She noted, "Good. Then you are perfectly fine. God to admit, this is the first time I've seen someone survive a gunshot to the head like this before."

"I'm as surprised as you are." I stated, "But how did I transform without meaning to?"

"Survival instinct, I suppose."

I shrugged at the remark before getting up and looking. None of us are dead, thank the gods for that, but the injured are numerous and their wounds are pretty serious for the most part.

Gunshot wounds, slashes, there's this one guy that is practically holding his intestines in, and missing fingers, a whole lot of missing fingers.

All of this really hit me hard, the fact that the pirate threats are a lot dangerous than I originally thought. If this is because of some low ranked bounty pirate… I'm afraid to think about those who are considered the top like Arlong and even Buggy. Would I even survive meeting them?

"You doing okay?"

I nearly jump when Kris of all people came to talk to me. Oh yeah, he saved me back there, didn't he?

"Yeah. I'm fine, for the most part…" I tell him, "And… thanks for the save back there."

"Don't mention it." He stated before walking off. Oh no! Not this time!

"Kris, wait!" I call out to him, he stopping and turning back towards me, "Why did you save me? I mean, you and I, we aren't exactly…"

"You are a member on this ship's crew." He explains, "And crewmates help each other out."

"Ooookay…?" I raised my eyebrow a little, "But why aren't you talking to me much then? You seem to talk to the others fine."

"You seem scared of me."

Wait, what? "What makes you think that?"

"When we first met." He stated, "You seems uncomfortable when you saw me."

Hold on! You mean he thinks that I'm afraid of him from that?! Oh my god, did I really seem that insensitive?!

"Kris, I'm not afraid of you!" I tell him, his eyes widen a little, "Sure, you aren't… well… I was going somewhere with this but now I'm not sure… But! I'm not scared of you! Never have been, never will! So stop distancing yourself from me! Okay?"

"…Of course." He smiled as he walks up to me, raising his hand up in a good gesture for a handshake, "I'm Kris."

"…Rein." I smiled as I grabbed onto his hand.

I think this might be a start of a new friendship.

…

To be continued…

Yes! Finally! I finished it! God, it took forever to write this… But here I am, finished!

So yes. Kris, the Moray Eel Fishman. To be honest, I wasn't actually planning for a fishman to be part of the crew, but the more I think about it, more opportunity for story development came up so I went with it!

And for Galley, I originally wanted to have another random one-off pirate to fight, but I remember him and the rest is history. Got to admit, he made for a great cannon fodder.

For those who might not have known, I have made another fic that I would be working on parallel to this fic.

It is a BNHA fic by the name of [Fastest Hero Academia], another SIOC story but reincarnation this time. This is the fic that I have spent most of my time on recently and nearly neglected this one. But don't worry! I'm returning to this as well and will be updating soon.

With that, I thank you all for reading this!