Alex, Benezia, Tereza, nchi, and Jewel quickly begin adapting to their new life in Water 7.
After a quick visit from one of Iceburg’s associates, the group now has a reliable, local contact they can approach for their ‘business’ activities.
While nchi is more or less forced to spend most of her ti outside, it’s a role she ends up embracing. Every day, she visits restaurants, shops, fisheries, markets, and pretty much any location remotely related to food. At the sa ti, she keeps an eye out for pirates and potential players across every part of the city—even in the more questionable districts and shady alleys—her experience as a Hunter allows her to easily blend in.
The rest of the group chooses to stick together, mostly for safety... and partly because they actually have the rare opportunity to do so, as they don’t have any pressing issues and need to focus on their recovery.
Alex has truly enjoyed Benezia, who is slowly warming up to the group and, from ti to ti, talks about her personal interests, which include history, religion, philosophy, and, surprisingly, politics.
She always gently teaches Alex, Tereza, and Jewel, while not being too forceful or overwhelming them, rely telling them a few argunts and her reasoning.
They spend their days fishing and browsing through various shops. However, they ultimately decide not to purchase any of the Gray, White, or Green Quality items they co across, preferring instead to save all their money for the mysterious Secret store they recently discovered.
Still, despite catching a handful of Gray and White Quality fish—along with countless common ones—they only manage to turn into a few thousand Belly, while keeping the fish the system recognizes, handing them over to nchi, who gratefully accepts them. It’s so inco, but not exactly significant progress.
nchi, apart from her busy schedule, always makes ti to cook healthy and nutritious als for the group, sothing Alex, Tereza, and even Benezia are grateful for. Despite her stern talking, Benezia does not hold back on her praise for nchi’s cooking, always comnting in great detail on what she thought about each dish, giving her useful and detailed feedback.
Tereza occasionally joins nchi on her patrols, using the Disillusionnt Charm to fly over her and scout from the air. While it doesn’t fully conceal her, it does make her significantly harder to spot. She watches from above, scanning for pirates, but to no avail.
But Water 7 is massive. A sprawling, crowded, vertical labyrinth of canals, people, shops, and alleys. The city’s sheer size and population density make it nearly impossible to track down the specific targets they’re after.
Refusing to commit cris or engage in any forbidden activity, the group spends its ti quietly.
Three days pass like this—until finally, nchi calls them for a morning eting.
She walks in proudly, her chin slightly raised.
“I found so targets... finally!” she announces, full of pride.
“Took you long enough,” Benezia says, arms crossed. “Alex and Jewel are now as good as fully healed, and I’ve mostly recovered as well. In a city this large, I would have expected it wouldn’t be too hard to find soone. There must be hundreds of wanted pirates here.”
nchi’s arrogance fades instantly. She grins sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.
“Anyway...” she says. “Alex gave the tip about Rocky Cape—you know, the place where the Straw Hats docked during their visit in the story? To be precise, where they will dock, if things follow their natural path. Alex suggested to that pirates who want to stay low-profile might dock there.”
“I flew over that cape a couple of tis! I didn’t spot a thing!” Tereza snaps, flustered, defending herself.
“Hehe,” nchi laughs. “Sohow, they dragged their ship onto the cape—which is just a big chunk of exposed rock. Then they covered it with actual rocks and so kind of massive cape... or maybe painted sails? I’m not sure. I only discovered it after I started shadowing the pirates from the market, and shadowed them for a while. They were acting suspicious—buying weapons and supplies and strutting around like they owned the place.”
“Did you identify them?” Benezia asks.
“Yes,” nchi nods, sliding over a stack of bounty posters. Exactly seven of them.
Six of the posters show pirates with bounties between 1 million and 10 million Belly. The seventh is for the captain: Roshio, nicknad the Executioner, carrying a bounty of 42 million Belly.
Alex studies the posters carefully. All of them are wearing the sa distinctive headband—clearly so sort of crew symbol.
Roshio himself is tall, muscular, and stands out even on paper. He has long white dreadlocks that hang past his shoulders, and a wild, confident expression on his face.
His crewmates with bounties on them consist of average-looking pirates—nothing particularly impressive about them. Most are likely experienced in combat, but they don’t appear to possess any special abilities.
“Isn’t that the guy who gets beaten up by Bellamy?” Alex wonders aloud. “Roshio the Executioneer, right? I rember him—we studied all the characters, even the minor ones, before we entered this world. I guess we managed to catch him in his place... is this Karma? Eventually, he’ll end up in Mock Town, on Jaya... I guess during this mission, he won’t....”
He grins and nods toward nchi. “You did a great job. Not only does this guy have a sizable bounty, but he’s also quite weak, so the risk is basically negligible if that schmuck Bellamy could beat him that easily.”
Alex, now drifting deeper into thought, continues, “He probably racked up that bounty because he liked to kill people—hence the nickna. Unlike , who definitely doesn’t deserve his cruel nickna, this guy must be actual trash. Let’s get him and take his boat! Fishing hasn’t worked out because we’ve only been casting lines from the shore. We’ve caught nothing but trash. With a real boat we can aim for the real prizes the sea has to offer.”
Yes! Soulmate is correct! ❤️❤️❤️
“Let’s do this then,” Tereza says, her expression growing cold. “We’re doing sothing charitable, and we’re profiting from it. Let’s take everything—their bounties, their possessions, their ship... and their lives.”
Princess Jewel wants to take their gems as well!
“I doubt they have any...” Alex whispers. “But if they do, you can play with them before we sell them off.”
Soulmate... that’s a rather small reward!
“We need the money, little one,” Benezia says as she gently pets Jewel. “Let’s take action then, children.”
“Children?” Tereza repeats, looking slightly confused.
“I think that’s a fair description of our dynamic. You need soone to help you get your act together, so I may as well accept my tragic fate,” Benezia says with a subtle, amused smirk.
“Age-wise, it’s not like I can disagree...” Alex mutters, clearly unbothered by the remark.
The group wastes no ti and heads straight for their bulls, riding quickly toward Rocky Cape.
They park the bulls just inside the small part of the outer city, surrounding Water 7, before sneaking onto the Cape, which is positioned outside the small, unremarkable district.
Using the larger rocks as cover, they approach slowly. The ship is indeed resting atop the rocky surface, just like nchi had said. It's partially draped in a massive gray-brown cape, giving it the illusion of being a large boulder. From a distance, the disguise might actually fool soone. But now, seeing it up close, it’s obvious the illusion wouldn’t hold up against anyone with half a functioning pair of eyes.
They spot a few crew mbers strolling around on the upper deck.
As Alex inches closer, he activates En.
He senses six pirates above deck and three more clustered together on the lower deck, all in a single room.
“They’re not all on board,” he mutters. “Three are in a small room under the deck... are they gay, or what the fuck are they doing so close together in a tiny room? Anyway, who cares, let’s fucking take them down.”
“These are Executioners,” Benezia explains, glancing toward Alex.
“I know,” Alex replies coolly. “I’ve got no issue dealing with people like them. Don’t go thinking I’m too soft. Rember what I did back in your world? My hands are bloodier than theirs... combined.”
But at least I’ve got a sowhat clean conscience...!
“Jewel! Your job is to target the three people below deck. Can you handle it?!” Alex calls out.
Yes, Soulmate!
Affirming Alex’s command, Jewel imdiately darts off the ship and vanishes into it, slipping through one of the cannon openings as her entry point.
Now fully approaching the vessel, Alex leaps up onto the deck in one smooth motion, while Tereza transforms into her Hybrid form and carries Benezia up with her, lifting her effortlessly onto the ship.
The pirates onboard instantly panic at the sudden assault—but Alex wastes no ti. He draws his [Executioner’s Blade R2] and slashes forward without hesitation, cleaving one of the pirates clean in half.
You have dealt 181 damage to Pirate
You have killed Pirate
In the sa mont, Alex conjures Thorian’s Domination, the nostalgic plant-looking helt appearing on his head, and without pause, casts Unleash Spores—a wide cone of mind-altering toxins bursts from the grotesque feelers extending from his conjured helt, flooding the part of the deck with the remaining pirates on it.
The spores hit their mark instantly. The remaining pirates freeze, unable to scream, move, or even think. They collapse where they stand, staring vacantly into space as confusion clouds their minds.
Tereza steps forward, her daggers already drawn. Alex catches a glimpse of the terrifying, yet strangely elegant [Ben’s Knife], its curved, crescent blade shaped like a half-moon, alongside her [Poison Enchanted Dagger], the one she’d acquired in her first visit to the wizarding world—before they ever t.
One by one, she finishes off the incapacitated pirates with cold efficiency, only sparing a single man.
Still dazed from the spores, the last pirate is pulled forward by Benezia’s Biotics, his body floating helplessly until he drops at her feet.
With her abilities still active, it takes a few monts, but eventually the man begins answering her questions.
“Your purpose here?” she demands to know.
“Resupplying... robbing... kidnapping won... selling them to pirates...” he mutters in a broken, stunned tone.
“You intended to kidnap won?” Benezia asks again, her expression growing dark, dangerously cold.
“Yes... we already kidnapped so... we are trying to catch more...” The pirate responds.
“I spotted three more people below deck... they haven’t moved yet,” Alex notes, suddenly a bit concerned. “They are probably kidnapped won, locked into one of the rooms. I hope Jewel doesn’t do anything bad to them.”
Princess Jewel did not, Soulmate. The three individuals are all female and appear to be prisoners. They are locked in a room and look frightened.
Alex hears Jewel’s voice in his mind as she reappears, scuttling back up onto the top deck.
“Good job!” he says, reaching out to pet her affectionately before lifting her and placing her back on his head.
“I believe so punishnt is due,” Benezia says coldly. With an expression like ice, she snaps the man’s neck effortlessly with her Biotics, killing the man instantly.
“Let’s free the prisoners, take anything useful, and then wait for the lowlives to return,” she orders, calm and composed.
Guess Benezia doesn’t like kidnappers very much. Can’t say I bla her. I guess I can relate...
Ti to take care of their captain!
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