One Piece: Gold And Fire

[Ragna's POV]

Sailing rule 101, the exact one which I forgot because I'm a dumbass, is that one shouldn't leave one ship empty on an unknown Island alone.

But it's not my fault either, I'm all alone, how I'm supposed to even enter an Island without worrying about it.

Sigh.

Now my ship is gone, I spend quite some beli on it to even renovate it, but I'm not letting it go without a fight.

"Oi, you there…" I looked around and quickly found an old man who was fishing nearby.

"Me ?" he raised his finger and pointed at himself with confusion.

"Do you see anyone else besides us here ?"

"What you want ?" the man sighed like he didn't want to get involved in this and asked with a dejected tone.

"My ship, did you see who took my ship. It was a medium-sized ship with a red flag and red sails with golden colour, newly painted and all…" I pointed at the direction the ship was and the man hmm to himself like he was thinking.

"Yes, I saw it, it was quite a stand out for its new paint, no wonder it got stolen…"

This… now that I think about it, I shouldn't have made it that attractive looking in the first place, sigh, I still need to learn a lot of things to stop making rookie mistakes.

"Do you know where it went or who took it. ?" I asked while gritting my teeth. Once I found who the bloody hell stole my ship, they would be in a lot of pain.

"I don't know, I'm just an old man with bad eyesight, young man you really can't expect my old self to remember those things now do you ?" Said the man, and it would have been a whole lot more convincing if not for the man rubbing his hands together like those greedy merchants do while talking.

'Can't see my foot, if you can't see then how come saw my ship had a new paint job.' You just won't open your mouth for free…

But since the old man wanted money, this means that he knew who took the ship and where it went, at least I hoped so.

Taking out 3 bills from my side pocket, I wave it in front of him. "Now can you remember anything…"

"Ahem, young man you sure are convincing, well I know who stole your ship," said the old man, I felt like punching him, he saw the money waving in front of him just fine.

I just gave the money and hurried to get back to the ship.

" It was a pirate ship…" said the old man.

"Pirates !... Which pirates, do you know them, anything ?" Pirates stealing ships is a little strange, usually, they don't do that, until they are expanding or their own ship is not in condition to sail.

Of course, they could always steal it to sell it later but not many pirates do that because no one wants to buy from pirates.

"Yes, I don't know which pirate group it was but I do know their flag…"

"Flag huh, say what the flag was like ?" I don't know much about the flags I can always contact some other bounty hunters or small-time pirates for that matter and get information from them.

"It was a jolly roger with a big red nose… that was the only thing which differentiated it from the rest of the pirate flags." Replied the old man nodded. That was easy enough, I just had to find relevant information about it.

"Where did they go ?" If they took the ship then they most likely would take it back to their base if they got one, if it's a new pirate group then finding them will be hard as they are most likely wanderers but if they are old then they certainly will have a base of operation.

"Ah, I can't seem to remember…sigh, I'm too old, my memory is not what it used to be…"

'IF SO THEN STOP RUBBING YOUR HANDS LIKE THAT…' I wanted to shout, but I calmed myself.

'Calm down, the ship is more valuable than few beli.' I repeated in my head, this shameless old man… I would have beat him to get the information long ago but I have my limits.

'No harming people who are not Pirates or don't do something bad." That was one of the few rules I created for myself to keep my bottom line from evaporating in this lawless world.

"Here take this and tell me already." I took out another bill and shoved it in his hand.

"Hehe… you are really an intelligent young man. There… they went in that direction. That's all I know." Maybe smiled, his almost nonexistent teeth showing.

I just turn around and walk off before I completely eradicate them.

Taking out a map and compass I quickly determine where they are going. It's a good thing I learned Navigation and about the geographical landmarks of East Blue from Toll.

"They are moving North-East. With my current location if I'm not wrong then they should be heading towards the Organ Island.

That is the most likely place? I need to catch up to them."

Looking around I only found a single small boat, this was not a harbour but a small island, and getting a boat here was hard as it was.

But then I realized whose boat this was and a grin appeared on my face.

"Hey old man…" I turned around and took out more bills from my pocket.

"Huh ?" He was surprised that turn back and was coming to him, maybe panicked by my sudden charge at him that he stood up and was ready to run away, however, I was faster and caught him in time.

"You know what, you can have this money." I didn't care, just shoved the money to him like earlier and ran past him, leaving him confused about what suddenly happened.

He thought that I would harm him or maybe take the money back, but why give him more money?

That was beyond him until see saw what I was doing.

"Hey you bastard, what are you doing ?" He shouted as he started to run, have to say for an old man he runs quite fast.

"I'm taking your boat, old man, hope that much money is enough for this broken thing…" Sgkuting I gave my best grin to him.

"Not enough, not enough, what do you mean enough. This is not even one-third of the price I would usually get if I sell that boat, give it back you rascal.

The old man, no, the kind uncle who gave me his boat, shouted and ran after me, surprised at how I had picked up his boat with two hands above me and still was able to run faster than him.

"Wawaawawa…..What are you talking about, I gave you more than that, exactly three times as much…" I shouted, leaving him behind the dust.

"That was for the information, for the intel you scoundrel. Young men now have no shame, in looting an old man like me in broad daylight.

"Wawawawa…nice to do business with ya…

---

After hours of paddling and moving towards the northeast with the help of my compass and map, I could finally see land.

Took me 6 hours of paddling to reach this place, but finally, I was here on the Organ Island. I all but ramp my boat directly to the island. After less than ideal docking, I jumped out of the worn-out boat that that old uncle sold to me at a fairly good price and ran inside the Island to find who took my boat.

I in a hurry didn't even realise that this place had its own docking station, I didn't even bother about rotating the island to see if there was one on the other side of the island, just ramp my boat to the shore and shoot off.

Only by the time I reached a height where I could see the entire area that I realise the place had one docking station, however, who care about that.

I don't see my ship anywhere? If this place has a dock then the ship should be there right, so why it's not here…

I didn't even realise that I was breathing heavily, my temperate was high and sweat had completely drenched me from top to bottom.

Suddenly I felt my body heavy, finally the hard toil of 6 hours of continuously paddling the boat at the best of my speed catching up to me. My hands felt like they were burning and once the adrenaline wore off and disappointed in not getting my ship to sink in.

Blackness appeared in front of me but I kept on going, couldn't leave that ship, ship was expensive and that ship was worth easily 15 to 20 million beli.

But I had no more energy in me to go on anymore. Looking around I suddenly found something and my eyes widen. It was a flag.

But that was the extent of what my extremely tired body could handle before I succumbed to sleep with only one word out of my mouth.

"RED NOSE…

xxx

[Word Count: 1560]

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