Chapter 16: A power in the shadows fails?!

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The day was very much like any other, the blue sky with just a few clouds floating above us, the sun warming my skin, and the seemingly infinite sea surrounding us. And I, of course, kept reading the book about blacksmithing because I actually didn't have anything else to do.

"Hmm... So, how much heat does the sea stone need to melt...? No, first how heck do the marines even get sea stone, and from where in the world...?" I moved through the pages of the book in search for some information about this material, unfortunately, the world government really didn't seem to want this information to get to the public, as the only information the book had about sea stone was about its hardness, and some of its properties it had, nothing more.

"Has a hardness similar to that of the diamond, and it strongly resembles the sea itself, thus the name of Sea stone..."

What the heck is just this little information? Even the One Piece Wiki had more information about the Sea stone than this book!

"C-Could you stay s-silent?... I'm trying to focus here...!!"

"No can do."

Kuina, that was currently doing the same training as me by taking a sitting position a few centimeters above the chair while holding a book on her hands, had an expression of pain and exhaustion on her face. She was gritting her teeth while her eyes concentrated deeply trying their hardest to read and understand a kids book that I lent her so that she could read it while doing the exercise.

Also, I was just asking her to read only one chapter of the book, otherwise reading the whole book while doing the training could be too much for her legs to withstand, and something bad may happen. Even though the kids book was pretty short.

"How c-can you do this every day at every single hour without batting an e-eye...?!" Kuina looked at me while trying her hardest to pronounce proper words without wasting any air.

"I've just been doing this since I was a kid, besides, if you do the same for some time then your legs will get used to it eventually"

"I h-hope so...!"

"Hmm... I think you're doing pretty well today... Maybe I should add to your training one more chapter to read?"

"D-do whatever you w-want...!"

As expected of an ex-main character, such willpower is not seen everywhere!

"Very well, now continue readi- oh...?"

While I was still glancing at Kuina doing her training, I noticed a very tiny spot in the distance at the corner of my eyes, and it was an island...

Well... many islands to be precise...

"What was the name again...? Cocoyashi islands...? No, that's the name of the village... Ah right, it was Conami islands, Cocoyashi village should be there... You can stop now Kuina, we need to prepare before arriving there..."

Kuina, that heard me telling her to rest, fell on the chair and started breathing roughly while looking at the beautiful blue sky with a blank look on her eyes.

"Huff... Huff... alright..."

"Come here, let me change your face so that no one recognizes you in the future"

"Huff... Puff... Yea- I mean no!"

"It's too late to refuse now"

I touched her face with my finger and soon her face appearance changed to that of a red haired girl with a similar face structure, but with a more mob like appearance. Two small eyes, big nose, sightly wide head... It reminded me from when certain artists from the internet drew anime girls in a "realist style" by taking away all their beauty and adding a lot of defects to the face. Though I only modified her hair and her facial structure, nothing too radical.

"Voilà, there you go, the perfect mob girl! No need to thank me by the way" I started looking at her mob like face from every angle possible to continue admiring my great piece of art. After some seconds, I gave her a mirror so that she could witness my incredible abilities as well.

"What is this?! What did you do to me?!" Kuina looked at her face for a few seconds before she exploded in rage and grabbed me from the collar while she shook me from side to side.

"And what's up with you now?!"

"Fix my appearance right now, I don't want to look like this!!"

"What the heck do you want me to fix?! It's the perfect disguise!!"

"Aaaaarghhhhh!!!!"

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A few hours later...

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Alright, we should be arriving in just a few minutes more...

This time I was sitting calmly at the end of the ship while glancing at Conami islands that seemed to get bigger and bigger, as our ship approached.

As the ship seemed to be getting closer, I noticed a certain ship with a very particular flag attached to its mast stationed at the dock of Cocoyashi village.

"Hmm? Isn't that Arlong's ship...?!"

"Who...?" Kuina, now with red hair and facial features barely different from her original face, asked me from the side in curiosity at the name I pronounced. Since she kept making a tantrum about her appearance along the way, I ended up making her face more similar to her original appearance. Though I still preferred my previous modification as it could make us more unnoticeable, but I guess I couldn't just force her to look as I wanted...

... Well I mean, I could... but that couldn't be worthy of a Shadow eminence, just worthy of a tyrant.

"Arlong the saw, a sawshark fish-man pirate that believes firmly in the fish-men superiority over humans, he has a deep hatred over the human race due to something that happened in the past, and he is also the man that is supposed to kill the person I told you about. The problem is that if he has already arrived at this village then it may be too late for me to save her..."

"What?! Then we must hurry up!"

"Indeed, It seems like I will need to use the propellers for this occasion..."

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!*

Please don't tell me we arrived too late...!

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Once we entered the village, I used my observation Haki to explore the whole island and saw that the whole village was completely empty, which meant that something that was not shown in the anime was happening, or that Bell-mere death was about to happen...

So I expanded a bit more my observation Haki, and managed to locate a crowd of people in the distance. 

"Shit!"

*Bang!*

The next scene I saw was Bell-mere getting shot in the heart by Arlong. Even with my speed I probably couldn't have made it in time before he shot her.

"Hurry up Kuina, we must get there immediately!" I dashed forward with great speed towards where all the people were, and now I had to decide what to do in this situation or else my trip towards here would have been all in vain.

"O-oh!" Kuina just nodded and followed me from behind, although it still seemed to be hard for her to keep up with me.

For fuck’s sake, destiny... at least let me do something to fix this situation...

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