Loguetown - The Town's Plaza.
Back to the present, on the town's plaza, officer Mashikaku has just finished the call with Lieutenant Lazan, who told him about what occurred at the port.
Mashikaku couldn't help but look with apparent fear at the Black Storm pirates and their Captain, who was now strolling toward the Execution platform.
Austin walked toward the Execution's platform with steady steps, like a king walking toward his throne.
He stopped before the platform and used 'Geppo' coupled with his wind ability to appear directly on top of the platform.
On top of the platform, Austin took a good look at his surroundings and momentarily enjoyed the magnificent view from above.
He quickly noticed the people below looking at him with fear and anxiety in their eyes.
' Maybe I should say something since everyone is looking at me like that.' - Austin thought for a moment and smiled.
" Since I'm standing where the late Pirate King died ... I will take this wonderful opportunity to declare ..." Austin grinned widely, adding, " That I will be the next one after him to be crowned as Pirate King!"
The citizens listening below were shocked and dumbfounded at this bold and unexpected proclamation.
Austin smirked at their reaction and declared in a loud and powerful voice," Remember my face and name carefully ... For I'm Ray D Austin ... The Future Pirate King!"
There was total silence in the plaza as everyone looked at the man on top of the execution platform with shocked expressions.
No one thought that someone would have the guts to boldly declare something like that, especially in this place of all the places, in the same place where the late pirate king was executed.
On the other hand, and contrary to the mass reaction, Brain, Zero, Sebas, Erya, and Emilia were smiling excitedly and proudly at their lord's declaration.
Satisfied with the crowd's reaction and his words' impact, Austin jumped to the ground. He took a last look at Smoker and said.
" Pray that I don't find anything happening to my home ..." Austin narrowed his eyes, adding, " Otherwise, I will be coming back soon ... to send you all to the afterlife."
The soldiers flinched when they heard his words. They gritted their teeth, feeling waves of rage and humiliation drowning them.
But in the end, they all had helpless expressions on their faces because everyone knew they couldn't do anything to him.
Austin walked past the citizens and the injured Navy soldiers, and soon everyone gave away for him, forming a long path forward.
He stepped forward while raising his head proudly, not showing the slightest weakness as he strolled graciously along the path created by the parted citizens.
Soon his crew member, alongside the over-excited Alvida, followed behind.
The group headed towards the port, with no one stopping them along the way. Actually, no one dared to even look at them, let alone stop them.
After Austin's overwhelming display of strength previously, everything became easy afterward!
.....
Later on, the crew arrived at the shore and found a strange scene waiting for them there.
Dozens of Navy soldiers surrounded their ship, but no one was attacking or moving toward 'Black Star'.
Austin noticed a line drowned by bullets on the ground, separating on one side the soldiers and on the other side, 'Black Star' and Azuth.
Looking at Azuth casually leaning on 'Black Star' in a bored manner, Austin couldn't help but smirk in amusement.
Just from the 19 corpses on the ground and the looks of hatred and fear the soldiers gave him when he appeared here, he could guess what may have occurred in this place previously.
Austin shook his head and said to the soldiers blocking his way.
" Move away! I have already split enough blood for today." Austin added while activating his 'Predator Mode' Skill slightly, " If you don't want to be added to the list ... then get the fuck out of my way!"
The soldiers, overwhelmed by his pressure and fear, gave away reluctantly.
Austin simply walked by them and jumped onto 'Black Star', and soon the rest of his crew got on the ship as well, with Azuth being the last one.
Before jumping onto the ship, Azuth bowed in an exaggerated manner with his left arm behind his back, clearly mocking the soldiers, as he said with a fake sad expression.
" Gentlemen, we had a truly good time together, but sadly ... I must leave, so take care of yourself."
Right after Azuth jumped onto the ship, 'Black Star' started moving fast with the help of the wind, departing from Loguetown toward their next destination.
.....
On the shore, the soldiers watched the departing ship with mixed emotions, such as relief, fear, shame, and rage.
Suddenly, one of the soldiers who couldn't endure the humiliation anymore took his gun and pointed at the ship, yelling, " Bastards!"
" Stop it, you idiot!" Lieutenant Lazan saw this and yelled, trying to stop the soldier.
But alas, it was too late as the soldier had already pulled the trigger and fired toward the ship!
Moments later, everyone in the unit was injured in their legs and fell to the ground.
As for the soldier who pulled the trigger previously, he was the only one with a missing head, as his body fell to the floor while his head flew into the air.
The soldiers were frightened to death by what transpired, and no one even dared to look again in the ship's direction.
All the soldiers who were on the edge of doing the same thing before started trembling with fear seeing the headless corpse of their comrade and their own injuries.
" I told you to control yourself, you fools!" Lieutenant Lazan yelled while gritting his teeth in pain from his injuries.
Lazan felt utter humiliation as he glanced at the distant ship, which started fading on the horizon.
.....
On Loguetown, the news of what happened in the town's plaza was circulating fast, which resulted in waves of fear and uneasiness from the citizens.
Smoker was taken to the doctor of the Navy base to get treated since he was the most injured and was barely conscious.
On the way to the doctor, he looked at the sky and sighed while recalling what had occurred before.
Smoker regretted the way he handled today's event. From the moment he knew he wasn't that man's opponent, he should have behaved differently and sought a more peaceful outcome.
Yet because of his ego and for a little meanless mental victory and slap to that man's face, he provoked that monster and caused a disaster for his soldiers and the base. They could have been butchered easily but ended up with only dozens of death and the rest injured.
Smoker knew this was just the attacker showing them mercy, which made him feel even more conflicted.
In the end, he shook his head and decided to honestly report what happened here to the main HQ so that they could accurately evaluate that man's power. Or at least what he has shown so far because he could tell that man hadn't even used his full strength, which only made Smoker more ashamed because he couldn't even make him go all out.
Sighing, he shook his head again to get these thoughts out of his mind and closed his eyes while being carried to the medic.
.....
Back to 'Black Star', all the crew members were sitting in the meeting room.
Alvida was clearly shocked by the previous events as she kept stealing glances at Austin with different emotions in her eyes, such as admiration, surprise, gratitude, and tremendous, tremendous lust.
She was utterly aroused by Austin at the town's plaza as he was so savage and manly.
She could feel something wet down there, between her legs, just from recalling his previous spectacular. But she controlled herself because she remembered her promise to him not to show open affection in front of the crew members.
" Now, since everyone is present, I should officially welcome our newest member to the family ... " Austin raised his glass of fine wine and added, " Alvida, welcome to the Black Storm Family."
The others did the same, lifting their cups high while smiling, saying, " Welcome to the family! "
" Thank you, everyone!" Alvida replied, while lifting her glass, " My name is Alvida! From now on, I will be in your care."
Everyone drank and began introducing themselves, starting with Brain.
" My name is Brain. I'm the right hand of our lord!" Brain said while drinking casually from his glass.
" It's good to be on the same ship with the famous Brain Unglaus," Alvida replied politely.
She was surprised by the way Brain called Austin, but she didn't comment on it and just smiled, to which Brain smiled back while nodding in approval.
" I'm Zero, the left hand of our lord. Welcome to the family!" Zero stated, puffing his chest and lifting his head proudly.
" Thank you ... I have also heard of your great name before, mister Zero," Alvida responded politely, earning a nod of satisfaction from Zero, who eyed Brain afterward with a smug look on his face. The latter simply scoffed and ignored the big bald man as he continued to drink his wine.
" I'm Sebas, the ship's chef ... I welcome you to the family, Miss Alvida." Sebas gently said while bowing slithy as a gentleman.
" Oh! Thank you, mister Sebas." Alvida smiled at his gesture.
" Name is Erya ..." Erya said blatantly, with no emotion on his face, " Welcome to the family."
" Thank you, mister Erya," Alvida responded with a simple smile.
" My name is Azuth. Welcome to the family, lady!" Azuth grinned while enjoying the high-quality drinks Austin brought back.
" Thank you, mister Azuth," Alvida replied while maintaining her polite smile.
" I'm Emilia. It's good to have a beautiful woman in the family!" Emilia smiled excitedly.
" Thank you, you are also so beautiful, Miss Emilia," Alvida replied with a lovely smile.
Standing on the side, watching the previous exchanges, Austin was quite surprised by the way Alvida interacted with his crew.
' Huh? It seems Alvida did change after she got her devil fruit ... She became more coolheaded and diplomatic.' - Austin smiled, thinking. - ' Well, that's not a bad change.'
Since the greeting and introductions passed without a problem, Austin decided to move on to another important topic.
" Alright ... Next, we will talk about our next destination," Austin stated, earning the attention of the rest.
" It's the Grand Line, right, my lord?" Brain asked.
" Yes," Austin smiled as he looked at the map spread on the table.
" We are finally approaching the Grand line," Sebas pointed at a specific location, saying, " It looks like the only way into it is through Reverse Mountain here. "
" What a pain!" Zero added as he pointed at the 'Calm Belt'. " Can't we just sail straight into it from here?"
" Nope," Austin replied simply.
" Huh? Why is that?" Alvida questioned curiosly.
" If we sail straight, we will enter the Calm Belt. " Austin explained, " It's an area with no ocean currents or winds blowing, which makes it impossible for non-self-propelled ships to travel through." Austin added, "
They are also nesting grounds for the world's largest Sea Kings."
" I see ... So it's impossible to pass through that area, " Emilia interjected.
" Not entirely," Austin stated.
" How so, my lord?" Brain asked curiously.
" The Navy has developed a technology which consists of wrapping the bottom of the ship with sea stones that gives an energy similar to the sea ..." Austin paused before explaining further, " The result is the ship will turn pseudo-invisible to the Sea Kings! ... Of course, not all of them will be tricked by this, but many don't notice it. Which makes it safer for the Navy to pass the Calm belt with the help of their self-propelled ships."
Austin finished his explanation by telling them everything he knew about this subject from the anime.
Remembering the net she was trapped in before, Alvida couldn't help but exclaim, " Sea stones?! ... Were those the same things that net back then was made of?"
" Umu!" Austin nodded and explained, " Sea stones can release energy similar to the sea, making it effective against Devil fruit users."
Bringing back the initial issue to the table again, Emilia pointed at Reverse Mountain, saying. " Then there is no other way other than this road,"
" Actually, our ship 'Black Star' is a battleship built based on the same technology as the Navy Battleships," Austin smirked, stating.
" Then it has sea stones at the bottom?!" Azuth exclaimed in surprise.
" Yeah." Austin nodded, feeling proud of his ship.
" But there's still the problem of the ocean currents and the winds," Alvida added. But shortly after, she felt everyone staring at her with strange looks.
Austin smiled slightly and decided to intervene and break the awkward situation as he said, " She is still new. So she doesn't know about my power yet."
" Huh?!" Alvida exclaimed, clearly confused by their unexpected reactions
" The lord is a Logia-type Devil fruit user who ate the Wind Wind fruit!" the silent Erya explained with no change in his expression.
" So that's how it is! ... I remember back then, all our attacks passed through you. " Alvida scratched her head, embarrassed, " I should have known you had a logia-type devil fruit."
" Anyway, with the problem of the Sea Kings solved, we can pass by the 'Calm belt' without problems ..." Brain smiled, adding," ... But it appears you still want to pass by Reverse Mountain, my lord!"
" As expected of you, Brain ..." Austin smiled approvingly at the sharp intuitions of his right-hand man, saying, " Indeed, there's someone I want to see at Reverse Mountain. "
" There are also other reasons related to the nature of the Grand Line, but we will talk about them later when we arrive there," Austin added.
" It's decided then." Sebas smiled.
" Yeah ... To Reverse Mountain!" Zero interjected excitedly.
" Alright, this meeting is over." Austin looked at Emilia and added, " Take Alvida on a ship's tour and show her her room afterward."
" Yes, my lord," Emilia replied, smiling, to which Alvida smiled back politely in response. But the latter was actually more interested in knowing the location of Austin's room than the rest of the ship.
Alvida was just waiting for the night to fall so that she could sneak into Austin's room and fuck him up all night long, especially since she was holding herself back from all the 'excitement' she had witnessed early on.
" I will be leaving to take a rest. See you later when dinner is ready." Austin stated before departing to his room.
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