Voyage Chapter 24: Betrayal... Again? (Patreon)

Next Up(Sunday) - Highschool DxD: Crawling x Chaos

~Yuji Liberio~

"Stop right there, criminal!"

I turned towards the feminine voice shouting at me only to be met with a girl with blue hair and brown eyes that I recognised quite quickly. She wore a floral shirt with a jacket over it as well as jeans. Braced in her hands was a katana, her figure was not bad, but not exactly my type.

Tashigi.

The thing that caught my attention more was the Katana in her hands than the girl herself. Not a lot of offense intended but Tashigi was... not that big of a threat. I doubted that she would be able to cut through my hide considering she couldn't even get Zoro out of breath.

I raised a hand towards her, making the swordsgirl flinch.

"Wait just a sec."

Tashigi blinked, as if stupefied at my request, lowering her guard out of sheer confusion as she let out a noise of befuddlement.

"Eh? What?"

Using the moment Tashigi had either knowingly or unknowingly given me, I pulled up the interface and rolled my latest gacha ticket.

Depending on what I rolled, I would either trash Tashigi or go easy on her.

Rolling Gold Ability Gacha...

An Elite Gacha!

[Call Greater Thunder]

|Rarity: Elite|

Allows you to call down very powerful lightning that strikes from the sky to strike any location in your sensory range, not very effective indoors. With training, you can call down multiple at once or even charge it to send down a concentrated spear of thunder.

Wow.

Only water and earth remain on the elemental wheel before I actually become the avatar.

But an Elite and a great one at that, made me a happy man. Hell, with this alone, I could smite most of the East Blue without problems. Let alone Tashigi. An ability at the speed of lightning basically couldn't be dodged by anyone before the second half of the grandline and got past most Logia Weaknesses.

It felt... a bit scary, actually knowing that I could take her life by just slotting this in and snapping my finger to smite her with a powerful bolt of lightning faster than she could recognise she died. Like playing god with her life.

"Alright, it's your lucky day girl. Mind giving me your name before you try and arrest me?"

Tashigi regained her wits and clenched her sword as she gave me a solid stare. She was many things, but a coward was not one of them. I could respect that. That alone bumped up my impression of her to acceptable levels.

"It's Tashigi! Now brace yourself! Hyaa!"

With her battle scream, Tashigi charged at me with her blade poised, while she wasn't that big of a threat, that was still a graded sword in her hands. And in the hands of a competent swordsmaster like her, it could easily take off my hand. So I was going to be careful.

Stomp!

I stomped on the ground, digging my foot into the ground before kicking debris towards her, making her stop in her tracks to parry and slice the debris flying at her. But a few pieces still managed to hit her, making her back away slightly. I took this opportunity to switch out my ability slots that had finally gone off cooldown.

Gale and Impulse.

Mimicking what I learned from the combination of Gale and Ozone Baby, I unleashed powerful streams of air towards Tashigi, like a ripping force of nature flying towards her. She braced with her sword in response but neither of us expected what happened next.

"Kyah! W-what----!!!"

"Well, that's a pleasant surprise."

Instead of blowing her away, the winds somehow managed to tear away Tashigi's clothes. Shredding her jeans and top, leaving her in a cute pair of striped white and cyan panties and bra.

"Y-You deviant!"

"I thought the pirate part made it quite apparent? Still, cute choice in underwear."

Tashigi flushed a bright red as she gritted her teeth and ran towards me with her sword while still trying to cover her body. Which did not go well for her.

"Beh!"

She tripped because of her ruined jeans and compsoure causing her to faceplant straight into the ground with her ass in the air. I couldn't help but scratch my head watching it all go down in real time.

Lucky Sukebe... aren't you being a bit too mean to her?

"Are... are youuu okay...?"

"Sniff Shut up! I'll t-take you in!"

Aaaand now she was crying.

Great.

"Look, you aren't doing a bad job, okay? You just got unlucky. Anyway, I'll be taking this now if you don't mind."

I walked over and used Cellular Overdrive and impulse to reach down and grab her sword faster than she could react in her current state, making her look on blankly before she registered what happened.

"W-wait please don't take my sword! It's a Meito!"

"Isn't that even more reason for me to take it? Look, lady, you are definitely cute, but not cute enough for me to not rob you."

Tashigi bit her lip at my words. Her cheeks blushed crimson before she lowered her head.

"P-please?"

I looked at the sword in my hands and the crying girl on the ground before sighing and placing the sword on the ground.

It felt too much like taking candy from a baby, no feeling of conquest. She looked at the sword I put down on the ground in surprise.

"Fine, fine, stop crying, I'm weak to pretty ladies. I've got two Meito myself, so I'm not starving for another one."

Tashigi's eyes widened at the swords tied around my waist before she lowered her head.

"T-thank you, but I will eventually take you in and bring your swords back to where they belong!" I could tell she was saying that to regain some of her pride that was just shattered and stomped into the dirt.

I craned my neck and gave her a roguish smile that made her go beet red again.

"Well, I'll look forward to it, Tashigi. Maybe we can have an actual battle next time."

With that, I turned around and started walking without even hearing Tashigi's response.

Feat Achieved! Make Tashigi Chase after you

+1x Silver Skill Gacha Ticket

Rolling Silver Skill Gacha...

A Rare Skill!

[Adept Interfacing]

|Rarity: Rare|

You are one dextrous fellow with slippery fingers. You can easily pick the most mundane locks, empty people's pockets without them noticing, perform magic tricks(performance, not actual magic), feel your way around the kinks in mechanics, and all around have some very dextrous fingers best at knowing their way around things, few barriers can keep you out, good luck keeping you in jail.

Huh, that is actually a very useful one, good job, Tashigi. You were useful for once.

Ending up in jail was not an impossibility or an improbability. Besides, the overall experience this provided with the dexterity I felt at the moment I got it was definitely worth its rarity.

Reaching into my pocket infirmary I pulled out a pen and started spinning it around my fingers like an expert trickster as I thought about what to do.

Obviously, I couldn't stay in Logue Town for much longer, whether that be because Smoker calls in allies or my infamy spreads and no one is willing to serve without coercion. So it would be best for me to get back to my ship soon.

But before grabbing Alice and Nami, I had one thing I wanted to see here.

The crowd naturally parted around me as I walked; it was not hard to find where I was headed.

"So this is the place, huh? Damn, I'm getting kinda emotional."

I looked up at the execution platform upon which Gol D. Roger was executed. It was a scene I was familiar with, very familiar with. It basically started my childhood after all.

'You want my treasure?'

'You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place! Now you just have to find it!'

A speech that I had never heard in this world rang in my ears.

Since I never got to see the ending of One Piece back in my own world...

Maybe finding the One Piece and seeing what the actual hell it is could be fun.

I stood there for a few minutes, just taking it all in before I turned around and started heading back.

Simply, I had just wanted to see the scene I had constantly seen over a hundred times before with my very own eyes this time.

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏𓊝﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

~Yuji Liberio~

It hadn't taken me long to find Alice, I just asked around about the location of several fish and food shops until I caught scent of Alice's trail. Not with my Bull Powers, I meant that metaphorically.

When I caught her, the very first thing she did was make me carry her ludicrously large bag of groceries like a pack mule, but since she was the chef, my crewmate and my lover, I had no reason to complain all that much.

"Huh? Where's Nami?"

Alice voiced her confusion as she looked around the ship after we boarded it. Indeed, Nami was nowhere to be found despite our rendezvous time already passing. And I had an inkling of a feeling of where she might be.

I made my way over to the captain's quarters and opened the treasury inside, and it looked about as I expected.

Empty.

In place of the empty treasury where the jewellery and berries would be, there was a single note. I picked it up with Alice leaning over my shoulder and read it.

'Sorry and thanks for the treasure -Nami'

"But why would Nami do that? I don't understand. I thought we were friends? Was that why she was looking so down lately?"

Alice crossed her arms and pursed her lips in serious contemplation as I cracked my neck.

"Whelp, looks like Miss. Thief really made it out with our bounty, didn't she? Well, I expected this to happen somewhat."

Alice looked at me in shock and disbelief.

"Wait, what? Really? Why didn't you stop her then?"

I scratched my head.

"Hmm, how should I say it? I could tell she was desperate about something and that she would do something stupid. And let's just say... I recognise that tattoo on her arm."

"Then why did you let her stay with us?"

Alice voiced her question in a non-judgmental, curious tone after hearing me out. She always had a rather open mind.

"Because I had a good feeling about her. Don't tell me you think I'm wrong. Do you really think Nami actually wanted to betray us? Does she seem like that kind of person to you? Do you really think she didn't think of you as a friend?"

Alice furrowed her brows and rubbed her chin in contemplation before arriving at her own conclısion and shaking her head.

"No, Nami isn't the type of person to do that. I'll believe in her."

I smiled at Alice. I really did not make the wrong choice when I took her into my crew. She was precisely the kind of person I wanted in my crew.

"That's the right answer. Always believe in your crewmates. And if you can't believe in them anymore, then they are not your crewmate anymore."

Alice nodded at my words with a serious face, assenting with my words with her utmost seriousness.

"Alright, Captain, what are we doing about Nami then?"

I put on my most confident smile and grinned.

"Isn't it obvious? We are getting our navigator back!"

[New Quest: Old World Blues]

A/N: The Gacha really wants Yuji to turn into the avatar, doesn't it? I wonder if this pattern will continue. I don't think anyone is surprised by Tashigi getting beaten, which is why I wanted to put a funny twist on it. What did you guys think about the Tashigi scene? She won't be too important to the story, but she might pop up here and there.

We are leaving Loguetown to go somewhere we were destined to go for a long time! That's right people, there is blue fishman ass to kick and a pair of sisters to grab. Time to head over to Arlong Park!