"Officer candidates! At last, the moment you've all been waiting for—your first battle!"
That ship was one of the Navy's training vessels.
Though called a training ship, there were only 5 officer candidates receiving that training. The remaining crew were elite veterans who had been tested in the West Blue where the 5 Great Families ran rampant.
"According to reports from citizens, hiding in the town are bounty heads and their crew—three people total!"
And it was the single ship that happened to be conducting training nearby when the summons came.
As befitting officer candidates, the 5 recruits here had undergone harsh training despite lacking real combat experience. The instructors who had imposed that very training and witnessed its results had expectations for these future leaders of the Navy.
The problem is... "Silent Step."
From the Navy's perspective, while the abilities of the two crew members were unknown, the greatest threat was recognized as the ringleader, "Silent Step" Kuro.
The beginning may seem pitiable, but... forgive us, "Silent Step."
Numerous bandits and bounty hunters had been crushed by Kuro alone. Among the captured bandits and pirates, or the East Blue Marines who had fought him, all spoke uniformly about Kuro's abilities:
--I couldn't see anything.
--I thought he disappeared, then half our crew was blown away.
--Before I knew it, everyone in the unit had fallen.
--I thought I had taken a village woman hostage, then my jaw was kicked to pieces and I was down.
...Has he mastered footwork closely resembling Soru? The higher-ups seem to think "Silent Step" is just a rookie who escaped slavery, but...
His bounty kept rising due to hunting bandits and bounty hunters at a tremendous pace, even crushing Mafia funding sources, but from what the Marine heard, he thought the amount could be raised even higher. He was clearly not at the average level of East Blue natives.
Honestly, he didn't think this was the kind of bounty head to handle in training.
But, but! With these elites, capture isn't impossible!
"The ringleader 'Silent Step' Kuro is a bounty head who has defeated many bandits and bounty hunters from the East Blue! Though his crew numbers only three, do not let your guard down!!"
"Sorry to interrupt while you're raising morale, but might I have a moment?"
Just as the man was thinking this, he heard an unfamiliar voice from behind him.
"!!? You bastard!?"
"My apologies. Though you're an enemy ship, I apologize for the rudeness of boarding without greeting."
A boy in a black suit had boarded the Navy ship still at sea.
–
"From the encouragement you were giving, I take it you're the captain of this ship."
Using the MoonWalk I'd accidentally mastered for practice—and as intimidation and restraint for those villagers who probably weren't watching properly—I came to the warship. From what I could see, their combat strength was indeed higher level compared to the guys I'd fought several times in the East Blue. No openings, or rather, they were focused.
"How did you board this ship!?"
"I think the Marines standing behind you saw... I just ran over."
"...Impossible, surely not."
I suppose you could call it MoonWalk, but since it's self-taught, it might look unsightly to a professional, so maybe I should give it an original name. As opposed to "Silent Step"... "Stealthy Step"?
"What did you come here for? Surrender?"
"In my case, what follows is slavery or death. I'm not pessimistic about life yet."
"Then what did you come for!?"
"...To petition your officers for the retraction of false charges against a certain girl."
This is the borderline. I really don't know how Perona became Moria's companion in the original, but you can tell just by looking. Of course she'd easily become Moria's companion and swear that much loyalty.
But leaving that situation as is would be too much.
I'll leave the choice of path to Perona, but I want to formally retract the fact that she was 'falsely accused by her hometown neighbors.'
"We received reports from residents that the girl is also part of your crew."
"That's wrong. That girl is..."
Now, how should I explain this?
"I don't completely understand the situation myself, but she was simply isolated due to conflicts within the island. My crew consists only of myself and one other. She's just a civilian who helped capture the pirates who were here."
I don't know how much conflict there was between the woman who took in Perona and the village, but this probably isn't wrong.
"...That cannot be done. Even if what you say is true, we must arrest her once."
"She's a girl of only four or five years old."
"Even so, as long as there's a possibility of evil, we must arrest her!"
"Do you understand what being arrested means!? Do you understand what it means to be treated as a criminal when you've done nothing!?"
Well, I did invite her to be a pirate! But this isn't right when she's still considering her answer!? She only attacked those villagers because it was their own fault!
"Even so!!"
The captain draws his sword. Following his lead, the others behind him point rifles and swords at me.
"We must nip even the slightest possibility! So that we never again produce threats like you!"
"It was the government that made me a threat! You officers can't possibly not know that!"
"If you had been captured, that would have been the end of it!"
You bastard!? I'll go around shattering every last one of your jawbones!? I absolutely refuse a future of being tamed by that gorilla woman!!
"At least currently, that's how the world operates! So citizens achieve stability by following it! It must be so!"
Honestly, I thought this would happen 99% of the time, but negotiations have broken down after all. Let me catch my breath a bit. I got too heated.
...No, I'll kick this man in particular with full force. His groin, collarbone, and jaw.
"--I understand your officers' position."
Still, this guy probably has his own thoughts. He didn't immediately say something like "Arrest him without question!"
...Yeah, as a man, I'll forgive him the groin.
"Though we've reached an impasse, I'm grateful you took the time. ...Sorry for the trouble."
I'll bow my head for now. Despite the current exchange potentially affecting troop morale, he handled it properly.
"That said--I'll force my way through!!"
Well, I'm about to attack anyway!
"--Come! 'Silent Step' Kuro!! All hands! Begin combat!!"
–
For that recruit, their first naval battle could only be called unlucky.
The comrades who had endured harsh training alongside them were sprawled across the deck before they knew it.
Senior Marines with more experience, but whom they thought they were stronger than, were being cut down by invisible slashes or felled by invisible kicks.
And the recruit themselves, the moment the dialogue with the branch vice admiral ended, was suddenly kicked away by a pirate about the same age who appeared before them, barely maintaining consciousness.
"Damn, to think our ship's elite can do nothing!"
"No, you were strong. In the East Blue, there wasn't a single Marine who could see through my kicks."
Only the pirate and captain remained standing on the deck.
Until then, other soldiers had fired rifles and slashed with swords, but none could land even a scratch. That's how fast "Silent Step" Kuro was.
--CLANG!
"And fast! To think it was to this extent!!"
"Not something the man who stopped it should say."
The pirate who seemed to disappear appeared behind the vice admiral, and the vice admiral blocked the roundhouse kick aimed at his temple with his saber.
Whether he had iron in his shoes, a metallic sound rang between the two.
"Ah, I see! Certainly a shame! How good it would have been if a man like you--like yourself--were a Marine!"
"You look constrained yourself. How about becoming a pirate?"
"Impossible!!"
While blocking the foot, the vice admiral swung his saber to slam Kuro into the wall. But in leg techniques, Kuro was still one step ahead.
"Cat Claw!"
Spinning in the air and deflecting the momentum, an invisible slash was released from his foot in that position. The vice admiral tried to block it with his saber--but couldn't.
The vice admiral's eyes widened the moment he blocked it, and the next moment his saber was knocked away. He tried to counter barehanded in that instant, but "Silent Step" wouldn't miss such an opening.
This time directly in front--"Silent Step" appeared suddenly before the vice admiral's eyes, his sharp kick piercing the vice admiral's abdomen.
"...Regrettable...!"
"...Yes, it is."
As the vice admiral's consciousness faded and he began to collapse, the pirate surprisingly supported him.
"...If you could accept your way of life, you'd be much stronger, wouldn't you?"
The sight of a 12 or 13-year-old boy supporting a large man looked at first glance like a peaceful scene of a child supporting a parent... but in reality, it was a strange scene between enemies.
Afterward, the pirate who had been walking around the mast noticed the recruit glaring at him.
"You were awake? I should have kicked you hard enough to stay unconscious until this was over..."
At those words, the recruit felt blood rush to her head.
"You... weren't trying to kill me...?"
"Right."
"Because I'm... a woman!? Because I'm just a child by age!?"
The recruit, a girl Marine about the same age as the pirate boy, glared at "Silent Step."
"No, I wasn't trying to kill anyone from the start. ...Having deaths over reports from people like that would stain the name of 'Silent Step.'"
At the pirate's words, when the girl looked around, she could see the shoulders and chests of her fallen colleagues and classmates rising and falling slightly. They were breathing--alive.
No, they had been spared.
"Humiliation..."
"Hina... humiliated..."
As the girl's consciousness began to fade from physical pain and exhaustion, for some reason the face of "Silent Step" looking at her with surprise entered her vision.
--
Patreon is 5 Chapters ahead!