“Land, ho!” a scout sitting on top of the tallest seat on the ship declared. Soon all twenty five crewmen gathered around and Read, wearing her Bonny hiding captain’s coat, appeared to scope the island ahead.
“Get the girl” she ordered turning at one of her pirates who began rushing to Mana’s room only to meet the girl halfway there as Mana darted onto the main deck to observe the island by herself. The pirate nodded his head and gently lead the young ex-kunoichi to his captain.
“Is this the island?” Read inquired coldly, she wore no smiles and appeared to have taken a professional almost business like attitude towards this whole event.
“It appears to be… What are the coordinates?” Mana asked before observing a number of incredibly familiar murals and mosaics on a pyramid far ahead in the distance, right in the middle of the incredibly overgrown with vegetation island. “Never mind…” she stopped the squirming little man desperately trying to write down the exact coordinates.
Meiko, Kouta and Shimo gathered nearby Mana. They’ve reached island a whole day early, the four had not precisely coordinated their plan. The three young ninja kept on squinting at Mana trying to determine if the magician would proceed with her defiant plan or if this change finally made her reconsider.
“Well, I suppose we’ll pay up and be on our way…” Mana smiled looking at Read, “I’d appreciate if for pleasant goodbye’s sake you’d give us lifeboats to get to the island…” the young lady asked.
“No… We’re going with you. Whatever you’re looking for here, for pleasant goodbyes’ sake, we’ll help you with that for no extra pay” Read smiled back at Mana which made the magician’s eyes sink in suspicion and a little bit of fear. What kind of game was Read playing? Did she wish to find out what Mana wanted of this island and then snag the Box away from them and bring it to l’Ollonais? That most definitely fit the description of what a pirate would do, helping a bunch of kids for no pay at all however did not.
“That will not be necessary, I do not wish to trouble you any more than we already have” Mana attempted to politely refuse the woman’s offer, “Our quest here is dangerous and might cost you men, I would feel terrible if you lost valuable crewmen in a charity job”
Read scratched her chin and nodded. “Fair enough” she waved for the small chubby grandpa like looking pirate “Long Smith, please ready lifeboats for fifteen men, me and the kids. We won’t trouble the kids any longer but we can make sure they land ashore successfully at the very least…” the woman ordered. The short elder began running around and ordering the men to prepare the ordered lifeboats.
Soon enough the young teens were placed in lifeboats and rowed to the luscious island. After setting their foot ashore everyone sized up and evaluated the island with their eyes. It was a relatively small but incredibly overgrown island with thick forests of ancient looking sky reaching trees. The jungles inside and past the thick layers of leaves appeared to contain their own hidden dimension of shade and mysterious evening glow at every point in time. It looked oh so very similarly to the Forest of Death except with much more mystery and charm and a thousand times less death.
“Strange… I’ve never seen this island or known of its existence, did you, Long Smith?” Read finally broke the silence.
“Well… No, it doesn’t appear to be on any of our maps, I assumed the kids wanted to be let go in a random patch of the ocean. I never thought for a moment that there’d be an island here. Maybe the villages have some sort of knowledge of the seas we do not have?” the old man mumbled out in a strangely dazing and sleepy jingling tone.
“Well, anyways, we’ll just have to issue an order for Maximillian to nail this island on our maps. We may just get some sweet piece of land for l’Ollonais. Something like that could nail us some sweet booty, maybe we should pick up paying hitchhikers more often. That bastard Flint kept on adventuring and discovering all those new islands, serves him right to be behind at least once” Read wondered out loud speaking to herself but the entire crew ashore shared a laugh after that last sentence.
“So, is our mission objective in that pyramid?” Shimo whispered to Mana’s ear.
“There’s no way Flint would help us now, this is bad…” Kouta joined in making a mumbling cacophony of whispering as the voices of both young men got mixed up and began confusing the young magician in her mind.
“The crew is split right now, maybe we can take this many?” Meiko managed to slip in a pretty violent and risky but an alluring idea.
“OK, let’s get the rest of our men here, Smith, order our cartographers and scientists down here. I want every man exploring every nook and cranny but not getting in the kids’ way” Read ordered, Mana saw Smith reaching up to his torn up denim trousers and pulling out a scroll which he opened up. An inky stream of chakra guided black goo fired off into the sky and formed a heart with two rapiers crossed beneath it. Must’ve been the signal for the crew to get down there and judging from the sight of men throwing themselves overboard and swimming to the island with blades in their teeth, thinking they’ve been bamboozled, it was an effective signal.
“Now… How about we get down to business?” Read turned at Mana. The pirate looked pretty happy about the whole situation, it was just about time for that control of Read’s to begin slipping.
“We won’t give you those shards, Read, even more, we’ll take what we gave you to begin with” Mana calmly revealed her plan.
A deafening tirade of laughter echoed throughout the growing crowd of pirates as the crew that was left on the ship soon rejoined the crew present on the small strip of sandy beach before the mysterious green realm of unexplored jungles started.
“Oh? That’s a good one, now give us the…” Read smiled through tears but then a loud clang emanated from her two sabers clashing with Shimo’s drawn sword as the boy dashed in unimaginable speed at the woman with a jumping slash aimed right at her neck.
“Don’t make fun of Mana or her word. She explained the deal to you, now follow it up!” the young man shouted out clashing with Read’s twin sabers a couple of more times.
The pirates surrounding Read tried to surround and skewer the insolent young man but Meiko and Kouta made a bunch of hand seals in sync to each other. It was astonishing to see how well the team began to work with each other over those months they’ve spent travelling around the world looking for the Box.
“Earth Style: Mud Wall!” the young man exclaimed as a powerful rocky structure rose from each side of Shimo creating a canyon of sorts from the side and making it impossible for the lowlifes to surround the young swordsman.
“Pimple Blast!” Meiko yelled out stomping the ground beneath her feet as the jet seals on her boots blasted a powerful burst of chakra through the fissure her stomp made and sent it behind the mud walls blowing every single pirate, Read included off their feet.
“Pimple Blast?” Kouta looked at Meiko questioningly.
“I’m still working on the name, I just made this technique up recently and it reminded me of pimples. It builds up and then pops after a while just like a pimple” Meiko grinned scratching the back of her head a bit ashamed of the association she made.
Shimo blocked a couple more of Read’s attacks before taking a wild leap back because he’d have skipped a pretty nasty cut at his chest which may have sent him down. The Yuki grunted just how much more skilled and experienced the woman was compared to him, it may not have been a good idea to challenge these pirates.
The lowlife crew of pirates began picking themselves up off the ground, looking dirty, slightly scratched up and wearing several small but evident scars and beatings but mostly just pissed to no end. With a single blow the two walls of chakra erected by Shimo were brought down.
“The people in the port town were right, these aren’t some lowlife thugs…” Meiko suddenly got serious and took a fighting stance getting ready for a brawl of her life.
“Yeah, any unaugmented thug would’ve stayed down after a blast like that” the medical ninja by her side agreed. He then looked back at Mana.
“Mana-chan, please sit this one out. These guys may be too fast and strong for you to handle” Kouta advised but Mana shook her head and stepped forward between the two teammates.
“I got you into this mess. We’re already overmatched and we don’t have the luxury to have people sitting this out” she admitted.
The pirates began a mad rush onwards, faster than a greased lightning bolt, Meiko and Kouta blocked the first strikes, doing their best to defend against the flood of fists, boots and blades coming their way. Each single thug pirate was capable by their own, each one would’ve been able to beat down an unexperienced ninja who just dabbled at chakra augmentation.
An unexpected uppercut Meiko couldn’t even see opened her defenses up and a rushing in pirate hit her with an elbow strike from the side while five others rushed at her punching and kicking the blacksmith wildly and while Meiko was definitely feeling those hits she didn’t go down. The redhead pushed her feet back and tried regaining some footing and pushing the offensive back but it was just too intense. Each single pirate hit with the force needed to blow up a large mountain and each of them moved at least a couple of times faster than a strike of lightning. Their strengths and speeds weren’t the same, some hit harder, some moved faster and some attacked slower and weaker but this many opponents of this level pushed Meiko back too hard. A barrage of knife slashes with some bouncing off her armor and some leaving shallow gashes sent Meiko on her knees and a direct strike sent her down.
The blacksmith pushed her body off letting her augmentations burn as wildly as they could, Meiko knew she was pushed beyond her limits and had moments before burning out but she did her best to keep up. Right as she was beaten down the girl flipped back and on her feet only to receive another beatdown, sometimes tagging one or more pirates, sometimes even sending one or two down for good but the blacksmith fostered no false hopes of victory.
Kouta’s legs shifted into jet boots and blasted off the ground, his fists shifted into giant fists that looked more like hammers than human fists which he used to punch madly at this one persistent pirate but the vulture of the seas just put up a daring block and withstood his assault. Two others leaped over their comrade and kicked Kouta in the chest cancelling his body morphs and sending him rolling back. The boy felt his chest crack even through his augments so while he was sent rolling through the waves he placed his palm against his cracked ribs and quickly patched them up as well as battlefield conditions let him.
Battlefield healing was dangerous and not generally advised, it could’ve done a sloppy enough job that surgery was required and could’ve left cracks of bones in one’s system that needed to be removed. The usual Mystical Palm treatment usually disintegrated those wild bone pieces which was why it was superior in every way to the sloppy healing technique for beginners that Kouta used on himself.
Using his morphed jet feet Kouta quickly travelled the water surface he was sent piercing back through and rejoined his assailants in the whirlwind of battle. He used wide swings and kicks, pounded the ground with shots of his chakra cannons which let out wide arcing explosions that kept those scumbags away from his back but the medical ninja knew that he had little chance of surviving all those pirates constantly attacking him back. A single one of them would’ve made a moderate challenge to his abilities. When facing almost half of the crew at once he could only keep them away from overwhelming him and killing him fast. He prioritized avoiding the armed ones while quickly doing his best to patch up injuries that would’ve kept him down or held him back too much. This was a losing battle and everyone knew that.
Five pirates branched off of the group that fought Meiko and Kouta and dashed at Mana. The magician couldn’t react to their impossible speed all at once, they surpassed her limit by a good couple of times. The first couple of strikes almost finished her off alone sending Mana down to the ground. The magician didn’t see where she was attacked from or whom she was attacked by. These guys just blurred as they moved almost completely invisible.
“I can strike and move just a bit slower than lightning in battle… These guys have to be able to fight at least four times faster than my peak.” Mana calculated their approximate speed. There was no use fighting back, there was no use using her physical chakra as it’d just burn her out faster, unless of course she could trick them into evening the odds for her. These men by now were fully aware how massively they overpowered Mana, they knew she was just the client to begin with so they didn’t try too hard. A quick but shallow slash here and there, a quick and weak punch to her gut to drive the air out or to her lower legs to send her down and reduce what little defensive abilities she had.
“Enough toying around, just take her head and lets go aid the others” one of the pirates suggested ramming Mana to a tall and thick tree with his elbow. By that point the magician had no air in her chest already so her vision was instantly getting blurry and she felt blacking out not too far in the distance.
“Now…” she ordered herself exploding with all the physical chakra she had at once. At the moment when her opponents guard was at its lowest Mana decided to just go wild with her full one hundred and then see what the future held. Mana’s thrust palms slammed wildly into the pirate’s ribs at the moment when the pirate was commanding his body to hold his strength back. Usually the body instinctually augmented one’s abilities to protect their life but such was not the case when the opposite was the intention and the order. With a crushed chest the man collapsed with whited out eyes after throwing out some blood.
The remaining four attacked Mana with their abilities amped up. Now that the speed of her opponents surpassed her only four times instead of the immeasurable difference there was between them before she was able to use the combined style of evasion and redirection to her aid. Gentle taps to redirect the strike of one pirate to their comrade. Acrobatic rolls and flips, tapping their opponent’s open weak points just like she was taught in the Sun Disc arena.
Mana gripped her burning chest and coughed out some blood as her physical chakra augmentations ended prematurely. Her body was breaking down because she was unreasonably pushing it again. The magician collapsed on her knees, she was short of air, injured and her vision was fading, her head was getting dizzy. Luckily enough her opponents collapsed, one with a stab wound in his gut left by his own comrade, the other one with a twisted leg that he unsuspectingly placed so much weight on that it turned off his consciousness with sheer unrelenting pain. The third and fourth ones had their faces busted and their noses broken and decided to tactically retreat. Mana played it smart, played it as skillfully as she could but she broke past her limits long ago. Her subconscious was right, she was dumb and reckless…
Farther away Shimo did his best to keep up with Read’s wild swings. He had little downtime to as much as weave a hand seal, the pirate’s technique and moveset was well put-together. She didn’t give him many chances to catch his breath, always wildly attacking and always on his back. Augmenting his speed more than it was smart to Shimo dashed back and sheathed his blade taking a wild leap of faith onwards to his opponent preparing to draw his blade at the last second.
Read’s style was an all-out offensive one. She had two sabers both of which she used to press on advantage which left many openings but while close in and overwhelmed with her offensive Shimo had few chances to exploit it. Using his Audra blade made a fat lot of nothing “ Read’s blade was coated with chakra imbuements and glew as if it was magically enchanted. Such blades would’ve cut through common steel and lesser chakra augmentations like paper and Shimo imagined his own sword would’ve broken soon enough if he tried to block all of her endless attack strings.
“White Wolf Slash!” Shimo roared out attempting to strike at an opening he spotted at Read’s lower body as she made a wild diagonal strike aiming at his shoulders. It would’ve made no sense to attack him that way, she must’ve been less skilled than the Yuki gave her credit for. Drawing techniques were simply faster than simple naked blade slashes. He had the green light, he had the advantage, he could’ve won this fight quickly and went in to aid his friends! Even if Flint’s intervention plan failed, they could still win!
Shimo’s attack stopped in mid-air right at Read’s face and the young man’s face changed into an expression of surprise and pain. A roaring headache matching the pain coming from his chest soon joined Shimo’s list of problems. The Yuki looked down with his slowly fading out trembling eyes and saw two smaller sabers piercing his body from Read’s sides. That blasted sister of hers…
Read’s diagonal slash reached its goal and opened a wide X shaped gash on Shimo’s chest. Bonny’s small and frail arms resheathed the two extra sabers she wielded and clapped. The way in which the little sister wielded those sabers like daggers, holding them backwards made it seem like Read had four arms. Truthfully it was two separate bodies fighting with two separate minds “ a real nightmare for any swordsman to face. With an angry unintelligible grunt Bonny slipped the captain’s coat down and giggled like a little child as sunlight danced across her cheeks.
“What a newbie mistake…” Read grinned to herself.
A loud clang with immense force made the woman bend on forward “ she was attacked from the back but luckily enough Bonny’s deceitfully fast frail arms managed to pull the extra set of swords and block the attack. Further away by the edge of the shore laid an unconscious pirate dreaming in a Sharingan induced genjutsu while Hachiro Uchiha joined in on the offensive after shamefully being left in the ship all by himself. A polished puppet arm was present in the place of the one he had lost before, one found on the pirate ship likely indicating that the man intended to need both arms for this scuffle.
Bonny’s clenching blades cut through the simply uncoated blade like scissors through a lean twig but Hachiro was long since gone. As two pairs broke off of the pirate groups beating down Kouta and Meiko and went on to finish off slowly losing her consciousness Mana, Hachiro butt right in and jumped in front of the four. With a single flare of his crimson Sharingan the man sent the pirates down after placing them in a powerful illusion of being impaled with large stakes.
“You’re so foolish to ignore the danger of fighting these men in your state… Didn’t you know attacks of people stronger than you can kill you?” Hachiro asked in a sarcastic tone.
Mana did her best to smile but the burning muscle pain and bone fractures she had kept her from doing so. The girl just looked up at the man who decided to butt into their business despite wishing nothing more but to get to Archipelago, a collection of islands under Kirigakure’s control thousands of kilometers away. A rogue ninja stepping out of their path to do something so selfless… It was not a bad sight to die seeing. Mana just hoped that she wouldn’t die of injuries so close to the pyramid that had the Box she sought to find for so long.
“I must’ve skipped that one…” Mana replied playing down her injuries and fatigue.
“Sit tight, I’ll free the hands of the medical ninja so he can help you and Shimo, we’ll need everyone to take on Read and Bonny” the man carelessly explained.
“But… Why?” Mana asked as one passing question before Hachiro began doing what he did.
“Because you were nice to me and helped me out, also if they kill you they’ll take all the shards and my sword. I can deal with Shimo wielding it but some lowlife pirate is a bit too much for me to worry about” Hachiro gave her a small rise of his cheekbone that reminded of a smile.
“Right… The whole world’s a danger” Mana smiled. A Pirate Lord having all those Audra shards in their possession must’ve threatened the peaceful life Hachiro imagined in the Archipelago. There may have been some selfish and fear triggered motives in the man’s action but at the very least he had some care for their lives. Selfless acts like that was the source of Mana’s strength, it was why she stood up to do what had to be done despite her injuries.
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