Voyage Chapter 21: Rough Seas (Patreon)

Next Up - Highschool DxD: Crawling x Chaos

~Nami~

Nami felt... very conflicted. About a lot of things at the moment.

She needed to leave as soon as possible and she knew that Logue Town was her best bet. As so many ships stopped by there to resupply, she could simply steal a small pirate ship and disappear with the valuables while Alice and Yuji were in town.

But for some reason, she was feeling conflicted despite knowing she shouldn't be. Yuji was a pirate and she needed to free her village and sister.

It was simple, yet why did she feel so conflicted about it?

Sure, she could admit Yuji was dangerously attractive, and he was definitely different from other pirates, she hadn't seen him steal from anyone innocent for one. It was like he was everything Arlong wasn't. Even if he were a bit stupid.

And... weirdly enough, her time on his ship was... fun. Their newest Companion Alice was a godsend at cooking. She made the best meals she had ever eaten, and despite her facade, she actually enjoyed bantering with Yuji, although he made her frustrated very often, his stupid jokes somehow found their way into her heart and attacked her unexpectedly.

He never forced her to do anything she didn't want to do, respected her boundaries, was enjoyable to be around and it was all so... frustrating!

Why was he such a roguish heartthrob!? Why did he have to make everything so complex for her? If only he were like any other pirate she could just steal his treasure and skip town while leaving behind a mocking note but she just... couldn't.

She couldn't help but recall his determined gaze when he talked about doing whatever he wanted and how he wanted to save Kaya and her village. A man who couldn't stand to see pretty girls suffering.

She couldn't help but dream about that herself, how nice it would be if a hero swept her off of her feet and defeated Arlong but that was not possible.

Yuji was built different than regular people that was apparent, but people just couldn't win against fishemen. Especially not Arlong.

The thought of Arlong crushing Yuji's skull like a grape sent shudders down her body. She had no choice but to admit it.

She really did care about Yuji.

So that was why it was best for her to leave.

If Arlong knew... he'd probably kill him and Alice too just to make a point.

She had truly grown attached to them as they sailed towards Loguetown, Alice's honest attitude and Yuji's roguish demeanour. And his gleaming muscles as he did pushups on the deck...

Nami shook her head. She was not attracted to him(that much).

It wasn't like she couldn't get the image of Alice sucking on his... his... thing when she walked in on them that one time. Why should she care? Whatever Alice and Yuji did was on them despite how fervently he flirted with her.

No, she was not jealous. That was preposterous.

Being jealous meant she would be the one wanting his attention which was the height of foolishness.

Ignoring her face heating up like a furnace Nami silently adjusted the sails of their ship.

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏𓊝﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

~Yuji Liberio~

I have to say, sailing to Loguetown was actually fairly enjoyable with an actual simulacrum of a crew by my side. Oh how time opened up when you didn't have to sail or cook yourself.

Alice and Nami were godsends and firmly affirmed the route I was taking. Not like I was having second thoughts about what I was doing but sailing around the world with two beautiful girls by my side definitely felt heavenly.

I wanted more of this world and I was not letting anyone stand in my way of it.

Using my free time I focused on working out, but since there weren't many weights on my ship I made do with sitting cross-legged and using Cellular Overdrive. It is essentially a full-body workout with cardio anyway with how much strain it places on my body. And the side effects were minimal if you just ignored all of the side effects of using it over and over again.

And I made sure to strategically place myself in spots where my state of working out could be seen clearly, as a subtle method of advanced seduction by yours truly.

Yes, for me seduction was just being handsome and working out, but hey, it worked if the longing glances that Nami threw me were any indication.

Other than that, I considered us pretty lucky that we hadn't encountered any Sea Kings until now.

The operative words were "Until now".

Sometimes I feel my luck with women was firmly balanced out by my lack thereof with Mommy Ocean. Unfortunately, Gaia did not seem affected by my Lady Killer charms and rock-hard abs that Alice seemed to appreciate.

It was morning when I was interrupted by the boat shaking like there was an earthquake, a seaquake, rousing Alice and I from our sleep as Nami threw the door open with a panicked face.

"YUJI! A SEA KING IS ATTACKING US!"

Of course, I responded with the casual ease and smoothness of a seasoned pirate and lady killer.

"Oh shit! Both of you stay in my room!"

I ran out of the room in a panic with only boxers on, struggling to stay on my feet as the ship got thrown around by the thrashing waves. It was not difficult to see the large sea snake looming over the deck of my ship, with its blue scales and red eyes gleaming under the sunlight, its maw large enough to swallow a raft whole dripping with acidic saliva onto my deck.

"Roaaaaaarrrrr!!!!"

I did not know why the hell a monster that breathes in the water had lungs strong enough to blow my damn eardrums out but it hardly mattered when it bared its person-sized teeth at me. In response, I pushed my inkling of fear down as I slotted in [Ozone Baby] and [Gale] while mentally commanding Nue.

"Kieeekh!!!"

The monster was blinded by the packhorse-sized demon lightning bird divebombing the back of its head, making it stagger heavily and get stunned enough for me to rev my Aerokinesis.

I have mentioned before that it was hard to form blades with Gale. Simply compressing wind to such a narrow edge was hard without a lot of practice for me. And that still held true.

But Ozone Baby and Gale have a wonderful synergy between them where it turns the air Gale uses into High-Pressure Wind. Packing a lot more pain with every move I made with it.

"Gale Slicers!"

I swept a hand and sent a wave of high-pressure violent winds that naturally curved into the shape of razor blade wind currents due to their high pressure and the wave hit the sea king right in the face, opening dozens of lacerations across and making it howl in anger and trash about before it lunged at me with its maw wide open with surprising speed for its size.

'It's not very fast.'

I pointed my palms downwards before jumping, releasing wind currents underneath myself to propel myself into the air above the Sea King, making its lunge miss me and thankfully not hit the cabin but still put a sizeable dent in the deck.

Staring down from above it, I righted myself and landed on Nue's back before unleashing another wave of Gale Slicers towards the large creature's back, despite opening gashes and lacerations they were not very deep due to its sheer size and toughness, not only that but it was spilling Sea King blood all over my shiny new deck.

So I made Nue carry me away from the ship to avoid it trashing my mobile home, since the Sea King's attention was firmly on me it abandoned my ship and lunged towards us, reaching a scary height despite leaping from the water, so I had to make Nue dive to the side to dodge.

Nue played keep away with the large sea snake while I held my concentration to use an attack that I could use to land a lethal blow on the oversized amphibian. It took me about a minute to charge it and I could feel the sheer strain it put on me with how the veins on my arms bulged, it was like holding onto a dumbell that just a bit too heavy to lift.

But that was a good thing, if I could barely hold onto it, there was a good chance that this attack would send that thing back to the sea floor where it belonged.

"Nue, dive!"

Nue listened to my command and dove towards the Sea King, but just as it braced for impact, Nue tilted itself upwards, we were not diving, we were instead dropping off a package. Just as we passed by the Sea King's head I threw a small white ball towards its head.

Do you know what happens when you forcefully compress incredible amounts of high-pressure air into a small ball and unleash it at once?

I'll tell you what happens.

A poor man's Ursus Shock.

BOOOOOOM!!!!

I couldn't help but stare wide eyes as I was knocked off Nue's back and had to be caught again from the shockwave alone. My ears rang and my hair was swept back. That attack was certainly something alright, considering I had just blown away a solid three-fourths of a Sea King's skull in one attack. Leaving behind only a bloodied jawbone.

My jaw hung down from shock, I couldn't help but watch the Sea King's now mostly headless body sink back into the sea bed. I admit, while I expected some heavy firepower, I did not expect it to be that heavy.

Feat Achieved! Slay a Small Sea King

+1x Silver Ability Gacha Ticket

Rolling Silver Ability Gacha...

An Uncommon Ability!

[Ember]

|Rarity: Uncommon| |Class: Emitter|

Allows you to produce and control moderate flames that can be shaped into a variety of attacks like fireballs and fire arrows.

Seeing no reason not to roll it now, I gave the ticket a spin and looked over the result with some amount of humour.

I had a feeling the gacha was trying to turn me into the avatar. First Air, then Ice and now Fire? All I had left was Earth to bring balance to all 4 nations.

But I was more than fine with this, Fire and Wind worked wonderfully after all. With these, I basically had an answer to every Logia before I even attained Haki.

Having felled the Sea King that had decided to harass us I had Nue ride me back home, I had really gotten used to riding him over time that it just felt natural now.

As I landed back on the ship Nami looked at me with awe while Alice held a look more of curiosity and disappointment.

"Aww, I really wanted to try Sea King meat..."

"How...?"

Alice groaned at the prospect of losing Sea King meat while Nami seemed to be way too impressed by my sweet friggin moves to speak. So I patted Alice's shoulder.

"Don't worry Alice, I'll try to land at least a chunk of their body on the ship next time."

Alice smiled at my promise and poked my chest.

"You better, and if you do, I've got a reward in my mind. The kind you like too~."

"I'll hold you on that."

I knew what that expression on Alice meant and I smiled. We have had a few more dalliances on the ship so far on the road, mostly oral stuff with a bit more foreplay as Alice wanted a bit more buildup before the real thing.

Turning from the giddy Alice rambling about what she could make with Seak King to the shellshocked Nami I poked her cheek, getting her back to the real world.

"So, Miss Navigator, how far are we from Loguetown? I think this ship needs a bit of cleaning and a touchup that none of us can give it."

I had repair powder but that won't fix the giant blood smears and such. And I needed to add a little overhauling to the ship anyway. Nami turned to me, now seeming calmer as if having gotten over her small episode.

"Oh yeah, we should reach there in a few hours at most. Let me adjust everything that the Sea King messed up."

I smirked at the news. I had plenty of stuff to do over in ol' Loguetown.

Loguetown better prepare itself because the Liberio Pirates are coming to town!

All 3 of them!

A/N: Yep, Nami has made up her mind. Yuji is pretty damn impressive but he is not as strong as her trauma instilled by Arlong. For Nami, opposing Arlong is a death sentence to everything she loves so it clouds her judgement. But that only means Yuji will have to put on his stomping boots next arc.

Yuji takes down his first Sea King which are basically everywhere in One Piece, this was mostly to show Yuji's sheer combat prowess now. He is really flip-flopping between elemental and pugilist build. But it is a build that is really effective in One Piece, regardless, get ready for Loguetown and the shenanigans that will ensure there!