"Where the hell am I?"
[How many damn times are you going to ask the same questions?]
"Huh?"
Soon, the memories of his last encounter resurfaced. Light grew tense and jerked up to sit upright. He was covered in a warm blanket and slept on a thin bed inside a small room.
Behind him was a window, and ahead to the right was a door. Sunlight shone through the half-open curtain, illuminating the crowded room. Many tools and open briefcases were lying around, but surprisingly, no weapons or people were present.
He cautiously got out of bed, after making a cursory observation of the room, he opened the curtains and looked beyond the glass of the window.
At first, the sudden burst of light blinded him, but as his vision recovered, he saw what was out there. Shimmering in the sun was an infinite expanse of azure blue ocean and cloudless sky.
For a few seconds, he kept staring at the mesmerising sight.
'So I was right, this is a ship that's travelling through the ocean after all…'
Click!
A sudden sound jolted him out of his reverie. He swiftly turned around and posed in a battle stance. He looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. All he found was a mop, so he wielded it like a spear.
The knob of the room's door rotated and the door swung back. A middle-aged man revealed himself from the opening in the door and paused. While the door was half open, he coughed and asked in a rough voice. "Not trying to attack me again, are you?!"
Somehow, Light understood him.
Light lingered for a bit, then shook his head. "Depends, are you trying to attack me?"
The middle-aged man laughed and slowly pushed open the door. Light was wary of him but didn't make any sudden moves. As he walked in, his attire was in view.
He wore a white shirt with badges and medals adorned on his shoulder cuffs. His pants were blue and with a revolver cuffed on his belt. On his back was another gun, a long double-barrelled shotgun strapped on his vest.
There was a badge attached to the top of his left breast pocket with his name written on top.
'Lieutenant: Jangwar Scarn'
Looking at the silly sight of an adolescent soldier holding a mop as a weapon against him, the middle-aged lieutenant laughed again. He slowly walked forward and confidently sat on the bed. His bright, dark blue eyes carried a playful vibe.
When Light noticed the long double-barreled shotgun, he shivered and asked with a stutter. "Were you the one who hit me with a gun, and then shot at me?"
"Of course I was, who else could it be? You and I are the only humans alive on this ship after all." Scarn's voice made the small room a bit colder.
"What!?" Light retorted in surprise. He had expected that a tragedy had befallen this ship. So he wasn't too surprised but had to play the part of the new body he was inhabiting.
Scarn answered, "Yes, our entire fleet of a dozen ships was ravaged by that savage pirate. We did our job and stalled his escape as long as possible, but after he sank 11 ships and almost killed everyone on the last, our ship. There was no one to stop him."
Light replied, this time his surprise was real, "TWELVE! 12 ships?! What kind of monster is that guy?"
The lieutenant answered without a change in tone, "Obviously, the kind that ate a devil fruit. We thought a rookie pirate like Ter wouldn't have been a Devil Fruit user because he was only on the outskirts of Blackbeard's alliance. But I guess we greatly underestimated him, and that cost us 11 ships and hundreds of men."
'Devil fruit user? What the hell is that? It does sound a bit familiar for some reason, though… And Blackbeard, that's like the most pirate name a pirate could have.'
Lieutenant Scarn looked forward and continued, "Our orders were to keep following him until we reach the next naval base, so we are still on his trail. His ship was the victor in the end, but a fleet of 12 ships loaded to the brim with cannons left it in a sorry state, so he is far slower than usual."
'Naval base, huh? So I was right, I was reincarnated in the body of a Navy soldier, a heroic one at that! Glad to not be a dirty pirate, that's for sure.'
Scarn turned to the window and looked beyond it. "He seems to have an eternal pose for some unknown island and is heading east to reach it. We are to follow him until we reach the nearest naval base before disembarking and letting another ship replace us as the hunters."
Finally, a dark expression appeared on his face: "But it is all for nothing."
Light furrowed his brows and thought about what his reaction should be. He pretended to be depressed and looked down at the floor while leaning on the wall. Then he said in a cautious tone, "Why do you say that, sir? Isn't our living and following our duty the symbol of making all of the fallen soldiers' sacrifices count?"
Lieutenant Scarn looked at Light with a contemplative expression; the emotions hidden behind his eyes were impossible to decipher. He replied, "I would love nothing more than to be able to believe that. But realistically, we have already lost. It's impossible to stay on Ter's track. His ship may be mangled, but he still has a crew to repair and manage it. Whereas we are just going by the wind. In just a few days, his ship will be out of reach of my monocular. No matter how hard we try, we could never match his pace."
Light frowned, but he was also internally delighted. If they kept following the monstrous pirate, the monster might have turned back and come back to finish off the last remaining ship from his last battle.
Silence veiled the room for a while, then he asked a question to change the subject from such a dark topic. "If you knew I was a Navy soldier, why did you attack me with your gun? Or wait, did you think I was a pirate because of the shirt I am wearing? But if you thought that, why didn't you just shoot me instead of using your gun as a stick and bonking me in the head?"
Scarn looked at him with narrowed eyes, "You ask a lot of questions, boy."
…