November 11, 1500, Age of the Sea Circle
Four days had passed since Orion left Windmill Village, and now he was traveling toward the Eastern Branch base of the Revolutionary Army.
At first, Orion had thought of returning immediately to Pacific Kingdom after bidding farewell to Makino, but in the end, he changed his mind because of an unforeseen situation.
During the time Orion had spent in Windmill Village, he had not devoted every moment solely to Makino. No matter how smitten he was, he still had responsibilities and ambitious goals, so he never neglected his daily training nor lost contact with the people back in Pacific Kingdom.
Furthermore, after the mountain bandits' attack on Makino and her family, Orion had decided it was far too dangerous to allow those bandits to remain, since while he and Shanks were away, they could very well seize the chance to strike again.
For that reason, Orion began a thorough "cleansing" of all the bandits in the area, though he did not approach the other side of the island, where the capital was located, since the bandits from that region never ventured into the desolate half where Windmill Village lay.
Orion wiped out a large number of bandits, earning a decent amount of SP in the process. However, he did not exterminate every single mountain bandit group. There was one that survived, and it happened to include several Named Characters!
Orion had been rather surprised to encounter a group of Named Characters in this place, but considering the clues about the possible presence of the Main Character Luffy in this area, he quickly drew some fairly accurate conclusions.
Especially because these Named Characters he had come across were very weak and possessed no particularly noteworthy talents in any field. They were clearly the kind of secondary characters in a story, the type who existed only as part of the daily life of a more important Character.
Orion had used his ability "Prism Eyes," which after the last activation of "Berserk Mode" had inexplicably risen one level and now stood at Level 2. By focusing Observation Haki in his eyes while activating the skill, he could estimate a person's morality, power, and talent.
It was a rather strange sensation, with several colors appearing chaotically all at once, and Orion still struggled to control this new feature of his ability, though with practice he was slowly improving.
Unlike the "all-powerful" state his Prism Eyes entered during Berserk Mode, in their natural state they were far less useful in battle, though they were particularly effective for certain complementary tasks such as quickly evaluating people.
Obviously, Orion could not know everything about a person with just a glance—not yet at least—but the ability did help him decide whether to eliminate a criminal or not, or to find possible recruits with decent potential.
In this case, he had seen that the mountain bandits under the command of a Named Character called Dadan were simply trash in terms of power and talent, and their leader's morality was in a gray zone, which was noteworthy and confirmed his suspicion that these people were secondary characters orbiting around the protagonist Luffy.
It is worth mentioning that the bandits he had eliminated earlier had all, without exception, shown negative morality, displayed as a deep red color. The redder the hue, the more immoral the person. Thus, upon finding the bandit leader Dadan with a neutral morality, Orion decided not to eliminate her group.
Still, Orion warned Dadan that if she tried anything in Windmill Village, he would return to finish her off! To which the nervous leader replied that they would never attempt anything there again.
Even so, Orion's cautious nature would not let him simply walk away, trusting entirely in her word, so he decided to contact the Eastern Revolutionary Army to request their help.
The Revolutionary Army had been growing in leaps and bounds, with the number of members in its ranks increasing by the day. Little by little, it was becoming an organization capable of influencing the world order, though for now it did not yet have the strength or reputation to do so.
Still, the revolutionaries under Dragon's command were scattered across the globe, carrying out all sorts of missions to strengthen their power, help people in need, and undermine the World Government.
Orion did not intend to ask much of them; it would be enough if they sent a couple of mid-ranking agents to protect Makino and her family. Moreover, those agents could infiltrate this kingdom plagued by bandits and investigate the situation in detail. Yet, given that Orion had received a notification related to Dragon's son in this place, he suspected that the revolutionary leader probably already knew everything there was to know about this kingdom.
After his adult mind awakened, Orion reviewed the information he had gathered before, now adding the knowledge from his previous life. He had never known much about the One Piece series, since he had avoided spoilers as much as he could, even going so far as to use his brain chip to block perceptions related to One Piece.
However, he knew that the Main Character's name was Luffy. That was why, when he saw the name Monkey D. Luffy in the system notification after killing that sea beast weeks earlier, Orion began to speculate about a great number of possible theories.
Luffy was probably Dragon's son. This wasn't explained by normal logic, but rather by the logic of fictional stories. A hero and protagonist with an incredible lineage was something very common, and what better lineage than being Dragon's son and Garp's grandson? Perhaps the only thing narratively stronger would be to be Roger's son.
Once the idea that Luffy was Dragon's son settled in his head, it was difficult for him to get rid of that thought, and he continued theorizing with that as the base. Still, he had not seen the marker indicating Luffy's presence in this place, so it was likely that he would come here in the future, or that he hadn't even been born yet.
Orion didn't know what age Luffy was in One Piece, but he assumed he would at least have to be a teenager. The problem was that he also didn't know when the story began. If it started ten years in the future then he would already have to be born, but if it began thirty years in the future perhaps Dragon hadn't even met his son's mother yet.
Orion didn't have enough information to draw conclusions, and the more he thought about it the more his head hurt, so he decided simply not to think about it, and of course he had no intention of mentioning anything about it to Dragon.
After all, his actions had visible effects in the world—what if his words led to the disappearance of the Main Character Luffy or something like that? He didn't want to be responsible for erasing one of the most beloved fictional characters in the world from his past life.
Before leaving Windmill Village, Orion contacted the eastern branch of the Revolutionary Army, which was under the command of a stern woman named Lara, and requested her help with Makino's protection.
The woman agreed immediately, since Orion was one of the founding members of the Revolutionary Army, and although his status was not as high as Dragon's, he was certainly above that of a commander like her.
Lara indicated that she would send a group of revolutionaries to settle on the island and turn it into their infiltration point in the Goa Kingdom, while at the same time ensuring the safety of the person important to Orion.
Orion planned to simply say goodbye after thanking her for her help, but she stopped him, telling him that Dragon wanted to speak with him. Orion was surprised for a moment, but immediately agreed to talk to Dragon. Lara simply connected the call that was already in progress to the Den Den Mushi of the Revolutionary leader, and Dragon's voice resonated with his usual charisma.
"Orion, how are you? I was planning to call you after finishing my talk with Lara, but since you just called her I took the chance to speak with you, I hope you don't mind," said Dragon.
"Hey Dragon, no problem. Tell me, what's going on?" Orion asked with great curiosity.
Normally, Orion didn't communicate with Dragon unless there was a specific situation. Their relationship wasn't close enough to have casual chats, and in general they only communicated when they had something to report.
"We're about to begin a mission in the North Blue, and your abilities would be useful this time. Do you think you can come help us? If you accept I'll send Kuma to pick you up," replied Dragon, getting straight to the point.
This was the first time Dragon had specifically requested his assistance for a mission, since usually, with Orion's current power, his participation didn't change things much. The Revolutionary Army hadn't yet carried out major moves, and the operations it usually conducted didn't require a great strike force. Generally, the presence of one of the commanders was enough.
However, clearly this occasion was special, since not only would Dragon be there in person, but Kuma would be there as well, and Orion had even been invited.
Orion didn't hesitate for an instant, and answered directly:
"Of course I'll participate. After all, I'm also part of the Revolutionary Army. I can't just ignore your call when you need my help, or the other members will start resenting me," said Orion with a small smile at the end of his words.
"Very well, Kuma will arrive in a couple of days. Can you make it to the eastern branch base? That way it'll be easier for him to find you," continued Dragon, whose voice seemed to sound a little gentler after Orion's affirmative response.
"Alright, no problem. I'm not very far from the base, so I'll probably be able to get there in about a week."
"Perfect, I'll let Kuma know. We'll see each other soon in the North Blue. I'll send Lara information about our operation this time, so you can learn about the situation before you arrive," concluded Dragon.
Orion agreed, and after a few formal words they said their farewells.
With Dragon's call asking him to participate in an operation in the North Blue, Orion had to change his plans of returning home, and instead set out toward the base of the eastern Army, under Lara's command.
Now, four days had passed since he had left Windmill Village, and he was still halfway to the Revolutionary Army base. On the deck of the small sailboat, Orion was training his Tekkai, trying to maintain it while performing light movements.
After focusing on this for almost an hour, Orion relaxed his muscles, ready to take a break. He sighed, a little tired, and stretched lazily, pulling some snacks from his inventory and sitting down to eat something.
"Soon I'll be able to see Kuma again. I wonder how he's been these past few months," Orion said, thinking out loud.
He had seen the gentle revolutionary earlier that year, when Kuma had gone to Pacific Kingdom to celebrate Orion's birthday. After becoming the commander of the western branch of the Revolutionary Army, Kuma had matured a lot as a person.
Now he was not only much stronger physically, but he had also turned into a charismatic leader. Still, in private with his friends, Kuma remained the same gentle giant as always, and Orion enjoyed his company a lot whenever he saw him, even if it wasn't very often.
In addition, he had a system mission related to Kuma that he had not yet completed, and honestly he had no idea how to complete it. The mission required him to "free" Kuma, and it offered no other information.
Perhaps during this occasion he could try to make more progress on the matter, and see what kind of chains his good friend needed to be freed from.
"Mmm?" Orion murmured suddenly, looking toward the horizon.
He activated his Prism Eyes, zooming into the distance, and was able to identify a small pirate ship sailing not too far from him. Immediately, Orion finished the snack in his hand and stood up. It was time to take a look at the situation.
It was a habit for Orion that every time he sailed the seas of this world he would encounter all kinds of people along the way. Pirates were one of the most common sights, and each time Orion came across a crew, he would approach to inspect the situation.
The vast majority of the time he ended up annihilating the pirates and gaining a large amount of SP, although on rare occasions he encountered "benign pirates," in which case he simply let them go, since these pirates were more like simple navigators in search of freedom than criminals, though their morality was usually in gray areas.
Even so, if he decided to eliminate them, he wouldn't gain any SP at all.
Orion stored his sailboat inside the system inventory, then advanced at full speed using Geppo + Pocket Dimension.
Meanwhile, on the distant pirate ship, the pirates were enjoying a good drink after some delicious rum, while cheerfully singing songs along with the crew's musician.
Journeys at sea for long periods became unbearable without entertainments like music and alcohol, which was why generally even the smallest crews had at least one musician among their ranks.
"Yo-hohoho! Yo-Hohoho! Going to deliver Binks' Sake!"
While the majority of the pirates on the ship were singing the classic song that had been passed down through generations, two of the youngest members stood to the side of the deck, watching the others have fun.
They were two new recruits in this pirate crew, and they had just ventured out to sea for the first time to enjoy freedom and make a name for themselves in this area of the East Blue.
However, after only half a month sailing with this crew, the two ambitious youths realized that they had made a bad decision by joining this group of pirates.
The reason for their disappointment was that these two rookies had discovered that the crew they were now a part of was far too weak to accomplish anything in the long run. They had joined without thinking too much, with the idea that any beginning as a pirate was better than staying on their home island wasting time, but now they were somewhat regretful of their decision.
In the past month, they had had only one success as pirates, and that had been stealing chickens from an old farmer in a small village. Other than that, they had had to flee several battles with other pirates, and one of the two youngsters had almost been violated by an enemy pirate, although she had ultimately managed to defeat him and thus preserve her chastity.
Now, what this pair of young pirates wanted was simply to find an island where they could abandon this crew and look for a new one. They were even willing to start from scratch and create their own pirate band if necessary.
The two youths were named Reira and Garride. They had been childhood friends and had dreamed of running away from home and becoming pirates for as long as they could remember. Now they had finally achieved it, but had ended up with a pathetic band of disappointing pirates.
Perhaps the only good thing about this group was that they were rather carefree and friendly, and there were no conflicts within the small crew. Reira, who was very beautiful, had feared she would have to suffer constant harassment in her life as a pirate, and was even prepared for the worst, but the situation after becoming a pirate had not been as dramatic as she had imagined.
Although the members of this crew enjoyed looking at Reira's curvaceous body and tirelessly invited her to have sexual encounters whenever they had the chance, they had never tried to force her, which was at least one positive point of being in such a mediocre crew.
In any case, even if these pirates had attempted to violate her, Reira could have taken them down without any trouble, since she was the strongest person on this ship. She and Garride had been training since childhood to set out to sea and become pirates, and without a doubt their power was on a different level from the rest of the crew.
"Looks like we're in for another day of doing nothing," Reira said with a hint of resignation.
"Well, at least there's good booze!" Garride replied from the side, taking a swig of his rum.
For some strange reason, Garride insisted on always carrying a red rose in his mouth, and even while drinking his rum he wouldn't remove it. Because of that, the scene looked rather bizarre, but Reira was used to the eccentricities of her childhood friend, so she didn't pay it much attention.
Staring at the distant horizon, Reira sighed once more and thought to herself:
"How I wish a strong man would appear and subdue me right here, forcing me to serve him in front of all these pirates watching…"
If anyone had been able to hear her thoughts, they surely would have been completely shocked, for Reira had a strong personality and always carried herself with arrogance, never bowing her head to anyone.
However, what no one knew—not even her childhood friend Garride—was that she had masochistic tendencies!
The reason she had decided to set out to sea and become a pirate was because she was searching for someone powerful who could subdue her and make her his personal bitch. She had dreamed about this many times, though she would never admit it, not even if threatened with death.
She didn't quite know the origin of these thoughts. She had grown up in an aristocratic family, trained to be a powerful woman who would always dominate the situation, but one day those strange ideas began to invade her mind during her teenage years, and they had never left since.
At first she rejected them, feeling deep shame and humiliation at the mere idea of being treated in such a way. Yet as time went on, she had no choice but to embrace her true nature and accept her thoughts, since the more she denied them, the more excited she became when she thought about them!
Perhaps it was also because of these obscene desires that she felt so dissatisfied being part of this crew of weak pirates. Indeed, there was no one here who could subdue her and give her the sensation she craved so much.
Reira returned from her thoughts, shaking her head, then sighed once more and continued gazing at the horizon with boredom. However, today would not be just another day in her life, because something was approaching her ship at full speed—or rather, someone!
...
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