(Location: Windmill Village)
(General POV)
Jack had arrived back in Windmill Village the following day after having dealt with the nobles of the Goa Kingdom, and since then he had been doing a little bit of training, however for the most part he was playing around the [Customize Settings] of his [STORE]. It had been a bit of a surprise to him when not even a week after posting his bounty, Jack was notified that Iron Fist Fullbody had been killed and that someone had claimed his bounty, and sure enough, after checking his [Inventory], he saw the guy's dead body.
He probably should have felt guilty over it, but in truth, he simply didn't care. On the contrary, he wanted to know more about his [STORE]. He had gone into the [Ships] page and had gone over the list of things he could build for himself. He had even spent a few million berries on ship blueprint designs, and had spent a great deal of time going over them, finding the best things about each and every ship and taking those qualities and putting them in his own design. He was able to choose the size, make, model, and everything else down to the last nail in the deck.
For over a week Jack put nearly all of his time into designing a ship that he considered to be his masterpiece, however by the time he was done designing it, he almost choked at the price in the bottom right corner of the page. [$3,666,666,666 Berries] It was enough money that Nami would have probably died of shock had someone told her that was how much a ship cost. Jack might have thought the price too much had he not designed the ship and had known of everything that went into it, but considering he did, he realized that there was probably no getting out of it. Besides, even before he raided the nobles he had a little over $7.5 Billion berries, and after raiding them, he definitely wasn't hurting for funds. Closing his eyes, Jack mentally confirmed the purchase before he opened his eyes and saw that his new ship was safely tucked away inside of his [Inventory].
After that, Jack felt a rumbling in his stomach, so with that he left his room atop Makino's Bar and headed downstairs to grab some food, and it was there he saw Mayor Woop sitting at the bar talking to Makino. "Good evening." Jack said in greeting to the two people. "I take it you lost track of time again, because it's actually morning." Makino said with a small laugh. Pausing, Jack looked outside the window, and sure enough, the sun was just beginning to come over the horizon.
It wasn't the first time he had gotten so caught up in his [STORE] that he had failed to realize the time, but he honestly thought only a few hours had passed since he last saw Makino, but as it turns out it was almost an entire day. He had gone upstairs just after lunch yesterday, and the fact that it was already morning was a little concerning. 'Oh well, at least I finished the ship.' Jack told himself. "That would explain why I'm so hungry. Could you please bring me some food. Anything will do, thanks." Jack said with a small smile before he took a seat at a nearby table.
Makino was quick to bring him out a large tray of food, to which Jack thanked her again for, then he began to dig into his food like a ravenous beast. "So what are you going to do now?" Mayor Woop asked once Jack had cleaned up his tray of food. He had told them yesterday that he was thinking about taking off, but he hadn't told them what he was doing or where he was going.
"I'll still stick around the East Blue for a bit, but I'll make my way to the neighboring islands and check and see how things are going there before I come back here." Jack said, thinking he still had some time to go and look around at a few of the islands before the Marines showed up here, and he knew now that they would be coming sooner than later.
Dragon had informed him the day before yesterday that the Marines had already set out from Marineford and to expect them in the coming weeks. He wasn't sure where they would go first, but seeing as how it had been here on Dawn Island where he attacked the nobles then it was probably here that they would show up.
The Mayor just nodded at his words, having already expected as much, though he himself didn't know the reason for Jack wanting to stick around for a bit longer. "When are you leaving?" Makino asked curiously from behind the bar. Jack gave her a big smile before saying, "Just as soon as I can get a few dozen more premade meals and some cases of your rum and whiskey. And could I please get some of those drinks you made for me the other day? Those were awesome." Makino let out a small laugh before telling him she could have everything ready in a little over an hour.
Sure enough, just as she had said, Makino had everything prepared for him, and after storing it all away inside of his [Inventory], Jack made his way down to the docks with Makino and Mayor Woop in tow. They wanted to see him off, and he was obliged to let them. "Where's your boat?" Mayor Woop asked curiously as he looked around and only saw the little fishing boats that belonged to the people of the town.
In answer to his question, Jack walked over to the edge of the docks and held out his arm. An instant later and a decent-sized little ship appeared out of seemingly nowhere and splashed down into the water causing a huge splash to rain down over Makino and the mayor. Their facial expressions were both priceless, and Jack couldn't help himself when he burst out laughing. They had seen him store things away enough that they should have figured he had stored his ship away too, but then again, they probably didn't think he could store things that big. 'If only they knew.' He thought inwardly while still outwardly laughing.
"I must say, that is an impressive power you have there. It probably comes in handy a lot." Mayor Woop said, clearly impressed as he began to wring the water out of his hat. "You have no idea. It's helped me a lot." Jack said, knowing he couldn't have gotten even a fraction as far as he had in this world without the help of his [Inventory] or his [STORE]. "Good-bye, Jack. Be safe." Makino told him as he climbed aboard the little ship. "I will. And just remember, you two can call me anytime you need to, so if you need help, don't hesitate." Jack reminded them. He had given them each a Transponder Snail with his number, so they should be fine. It wasn't like he expected them to need his help on anything, but it couldn't hurt for them to have it if they needed it.
With that, Jack released the sails and began moving away from Dawn Island. It was only after he was far enough away that he decided now was as good a time as any to test out something he had wanted to try. Going to the back of the ship, he unleashed a wave of fire to act as a propulsion to speed himself up like Ace did with his power on his little surf-board thing. Granted, Ace's surf-board was made of metal and was custom-made for his power, but Jack figured he could achieve the same thing by simply extending his hand, and low and behold, it worked. The speed was many times faster than the ship could normally go on its own, and reminded Jack of a speed-boat back in his previous world, but that was only after he rolled the sails back up because they were catching too much wind.
He kept up the speed for a while before another thought occurred to him. 'What if I created an explosion to shoot myself like a rocket like the Thousand Sunny could do?' He wondered to himself. The principal was simple, and with his powers he should be able to accomplish it with relative ease. Not needing any more incentive than that, Jack began to charge up a ball of power at the rear of the ship, and once he figured he had put enough power into it, he unleashed it all at once. The effect was instant.
The little boat shot off into the sky as if shot from a giant slingshot, only he was going about a hundred times faster than he could ever go from a slingshot. The distance he covered in the time he was in the air could not even begin to be compared to sailing on the water, and landing even wasn't so bad. When he was nearing the ocean, he let off another much smaller propulsion that skipped him across the water until he eventually stopped moving.
He found he rather liked travelling this way, and so proceeded to do it a few more times until around the fourth or fifth time he saw an island coming into view, then he passed the island and was still flying through the air. 'God damn-it! How do I stop this thing?!' He grumbled to himself as he looked for a way to stop. When he couldn't find anything, he shrugged before putting the ship into his Inventory and then used Moonwalk to backtrack back to where the island had been.
When he finally got back to where the island was, he saw that it was a place he had been before after a few months of training. 'Holy shit, I covered a lot of distance by flying! I remember it taking more than a week to cover that amount of distance by sailing regularly.' Jack thought, quite pleased with his new mode of travel.
Shells Town looked about the same as it had when he first was there, only now the place was more quiet. Come to think of it, Jack didn't see anyone around, which was kind of puzzling. 'Is Morgan around yet, or is he even going to be a thing after everything I've done?' Jack wondered, thinking maybe someone like Captain Axe-hand Morgan might be the cause as to why the whole place was quiet.
He had no idea when in the story Morgan first came to Shells Town, but he definitely wasn't there the last time Jack was there. 'Come to think of it, how long has it been since I've come to this world?' He questioned himself as he tried to mentally tally up the time. He had lost track of the days somewhere around the end of his second year here, but that wasn't that long ago, a month or two maybe, three at the most. Deciding to not dwell on something that didn't really matter anymore, Jack began making his way up the street trying to find someone.
After a few minutes of not finding anyone, Jack spread out his Haki to try and sense someone, and it was only then that he realized there were a few people hiding away in their homes, but for some reason most of the town's occupants were gathered at the Marine base at the top of the island. Having a bad feeling he shot towards the base, arriving there in just a few seconds, and only then did he see the figures of people tied to the crosses in the crucifixion yard.
He was puzzled because as he looked around, he saw that the people tied to the crosses were the Marines themselves, and those who were gathered by the gates were actually the townsfolk. Looking around for what the hell was going on, Jack saw a giant man with an axe for a hand laying dead by the building, and next to him tied to a cross was a kid with an ugly blonde haircut wearing a purple suit. 'Okay, what the fuck is going on here? What did I do that would cause all of this?' Jack wondered, trying to think which of his actions could have caused such a massive change to the story.
The answer to that question came when he spotted a familiar white-haired man with red eyes, only unlike the first time he saw him, the guy wasn't so skinny and frail. He looked to have put on some muscle, and now wore two swords on his back and had two pistols strapped to his hips, which was a far cry from when Jack had first seen him locked in a cell.
When the white-haired man saw him, his eyes went wide as a smile appeared on his face. "I found you!" He shouted, and it was only then that Jack realized he didn't remember the guy's name. It must have showed on his face because the guy started again after he neared him. "My name is Luke Strauss. You saved my life from-" "From the Marines. I remember you." Jack said, interrupting him before he could finish. Luke smiled at that, glad that Jack remembered him. "So, Luke, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on here, would you?" Jack asked as he gestured towards the Marines tied up around them.
Without being phased in the slightest, Luke began the sordid tale. "It all started this morning when I got into town. There I was, minding my own business and walking around the stalls when that little cunt over there (Points to Helmeppo) started trashing the market with his dog. The Marines with him wouldn't let anyone try and stop the dog, so I killed it and told them to fuck off, then the little shit ordered one of the Marines with him to shoot me, so I killed him. After that the little shit went running to his 'daddy' and told him some lies about me apparently bad-mouthing him, and I'll be honest, I've never even heard of his father. Anyway, after that the big brute over there (Points to Morgan's Corpse) came to find me so I could be tortured and executed, so I killed him too. I was going to kill the Marines with him, but then these people knelt down and begged me not to, so I figured a bit of torture would at least suffice." Luke finished, explaining everything quite simply. 'Makes perfect sense if you consider Morgan's personality. He was a bit fucked up.' Jack thought, finding everything checked out, at least if his cannon knowledge could be believed.
"Okay, well I'm glad you have everything taken care of here. I was just coming to check up on the people and make sure everything was fine here, so now that I know everyone is good, I think I'll move on. There's still quite a bit of daylight left, and I think I can cover some ground before the sun sets, so I'll be off then." Jack told Luke before he waved at the villagers, some of whom recognized him as the man who killed Goat-man Gates.
Before Jack could even turn to leave, Luke hurriedly got his attention. "The first time I asked you if I could go with you, you told me I was too weak. I've trained every single day since then, and I'm stronger now, so please. Let me come with you." Luke asked, and Jack could tell if he didn't say yes, Luke was probably headed down a much darker path. He could see it in his eyes that Luke wanted vengeance, and one way or another, he would get it.
"For better or worse, I am going to change the world. If you can live with whatever outcome we get, then by all means, come along." Jack said as he extended his hand towards the man. With a grin, Luke shook it. Before he let go, Jack couldn't help but ask, "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
*****
Before leaving Luke informed the citizens of Shells Town to wait until the sun had set before they untied the Marines, but wait for three more days before they untied Helmeppo. If he was still alive, then fine, but if he was dead, then great. After that, both he and Jack made their way to the docks where they boarded Jack's little ship. Jack had offered to put Luke's little rowboat into his Inventory, but Luke told him not to worry about it, and that the people in the town could have it.
"Alright, hang onto something." Jack warned once they were far enough away from the shore for him to use the propulsion move without causing problems for the residents. Luke wasn't sure what Jack was getting at, but decided to heed the warning regardless, figuring it better safe than sorry. Getting a firm grip on the tiny mast, Luke waited for what Jack was going to do. He didn't have to wait long, as within a few seconds of the warning he could see a sphere of black forming behind the ship, and when Jack unleashed the power they were launched into the sky at an unbelievable speed.
Jack looked over and saw that Luke had a broad grin on his face as he looked over the edge of the ship to take in the view of the sea down below them. "This is amazing!" Luke roared excitedly over the wind that was making it hard to hear. "I know it is, but the landing is a bit rough so you might want to brace yourself in a minute!" Jack shouted back at him, which earned him a blank stare from the white-haired man. It took a few minutes for the ship to finally begin its descent, and then Jack was able to land it a bit more gracefully than he had the first few times. He felt he was getting better at it. They repeated the process nearly a dozen times before they spotted land, however to Jack's dismay it appeared as if he was going to overshoot the mark again.
"I hate when this happens!" He called out to Luke, who realized too late that they were not going to be landing into the ocean. "You mean this has happened before?!" Luke called out, trying not to look as panicked as he felt. "Just once!" Jack answered simply as he thought about how best to handle the situation. He could store the ship and grab Luke out of the air, but he didn't always want that to be the only option if they overshot the mark, so he tried to think of something else. "Can't you just steer the boat away from the island?!" Luke called out to him, but Jack just gave him a look. If he could steer the thing mid-air then that would be pretty cool, but sadly he couldn't.
As he was thinking up ideas, he thought of a parachute, which in turn drew his eyes towards the sails and gave him an idea. Quickly untying the ropes, he let the sails fall, and almost immediately they began to slow as the sails caught the wind. Going a bit further, Jack actually did go into the [STORE] and bought two parachutes before he gave one to Luke and told him to latch it to the front end of the ship while he did the same thing at the rear end. It was only when they had considerably slowed down that he gave Luke the signal to pull the ripcord, and as one both parachutes opened up into the air.
"Huh, I didn't even begin to think this was an option." Jack said calmly as the ship slowly began its descent downwards. "I think we're going to land in the middle of town." Luke said while looking over the edge of the ship. "I'm sure it'll be fine." Jack told him as he leaned back in a chair and munched on an apple. "I will admit, I don't think there's a better way to travel than this." Luke said after Jack handed him a beer and leaned back against the railing. Jack couldn't help but agree.
Their landing had drawn the attention of most of the townsfolk, and everyone gathered to see the ship that had fallen from the sky. Jack didn't bother to explain things to the people, choosing instead to just make the ship disappear before he asked one of the people in the townsfolk where they were, and it was then he found out they were in Orange Town. Opening his map, Jack saw that he had indeed covered a stupid amount of ground, or in this case, open ocean.
They decided to stay at a hotel for the night and then start again the following day, and sure enough, the sun was just coming over the horizon when they shot off into the sky. They flew for a while, and when after the fifteenth or so time they landed, Luke spotted land off in the distance. It was far enough away that it would take them a bit to sail to it, but near enough that if they used the propulsion on the ship again then they would overshoot it by a good margin, so they opted to simply go the normal way. Or as normal as it could be for Jack. Instead of rowing or using the wind to push the ship along, he stuck out his hand behind the boat and made a stream of fire that pushed them along the water like a speedboat.
Upon arriving at the island they both jumped onto the beach before Jack put the ship back into his Inventory. "You know, your powers are probably the most convenient powers I've ever seen." Luke said, feeling a touch envious at Jack. "I know, but fear not, for we will also find you a cool power too. If you want one, that is." Jack said, and right away Luke nodded his head in agreement. He didn't know what kind of powers there were out there, but he knew it couldn't hurt to have one.
Without saying anything further, the two began walking towards a road that was indented between the cliffs that surrounded the island. Jack had an idea based on the map and by the layout of the island that he knew where they were, but his suspicions were confirmed when they saw flags begin to pop up from some bushes on the side of the road, followed shortly by the sound of someone yelling, "You have entered the domain of the great Captain Usopp! I have eighty-thousand men under my command, so if you want to live, I suggest you go back from where you came from!"
Both of them ignored the warning and continued on without even regarding the flags, though inwardly Jack was complaining, 'Of course I run into this little cunt within the first five seconds of being here! Fuck!' Even as they continued down the road they heard yelling behind them, but again they paid it no mind.
Eventually they arrived at a small town called Syrup village, a place which Jack knew well from watching the anime. "Any particular reason why we're here?" Luke asked curiously, not seeing the need for the stop. As far as he could tell, there were no nobles, Marines, or even pirates, so he didn't understand why they were here. "According to my source, there is a pirate pretending to be a butler in this town, but the end goal of this pirate's plan is to kill a little girl and her family so he can take all of their money. I figured we could get rid of him before we move on somewhere else." Jack explained, his words immediately causing Luke's expression to turn serious. Jack thought they might have to stop and ask around for directions, but after looking around, there could be only one place that had the potential to have a butler.
They walked to the mansion just outside of town, and after being stopped at the gates by two guards with guns, Jack said he had business with the owner. One of the guards remained watching them while the other went inside to inform whoever was in charge about their arrival. A few minutes later the guard returned, following behind a man and a woman. The couple wasn't super old, but they weren't young by any means. 'Huh, I didn't even think Kaya's parents might still be alive.' Jack thought as he looked at the couple, figuring they could be no one else.
The man with a well-trimmed beard walked over to him before extending his hand. "Greetings, my name is Henry Von Shultz and this is my wife, Layla. How can we help you two gentlemen?" Henry said respectfully with a kind smile plastered on his face. Shaking the man's hand, Jack began, "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. My name is Jack Sparrow, and this is my friend, Luke Strauss. If you don't mind, I would like to show you something. I could be wrong about it, but I don't think I am. Once you see it, you'll understand why we're here." Saying this, Jack pretended to fumble inside of his shirt when in reality he was quickly going through the [STORE] to purchase a copy of Kuro's WANTED poster, then pulled it out and handed it over to Henry.
To his credit, it only took a second for Henry's face to drain of all color after seeing who was on the WANTED poster. It was the same man he had hired a few weeks ago to be his daughter's personal butler, the butler that was with her right this very minute. Henry was about to run into the house where the man was with his daughter, but a hand held him firmly in place. "Not yet. If he realizes you know, he will kill her. Send one of your guards to call him out of the house to the gardens or somewhere more secluded. We'll deal with him there." Jack said calmly, getting a handle on the situation before it could escalate into something worse.
Realizing that was indeed the best course of action, Henry did just as Jack suggested and called for one of the guards to have Klahadore meet him in the gardens out behind the house. The man's wife, Layla, looked confused as to what was going on, and when she asked about it, Henry simply told her to go and check on their daughter and to not come out of the house for any reason.
A few short minutes later Jack, Luke, and Henry were in the garden sitting at a small table when a tall man with well-combed hair and wearing a nice suit came walking towards them. "You called for me, sir?" The man known as Klahadore asked respectfully as he gave a slight bow of his head. "You know, for supposedly being famous for your plans, this plan you cooked up, sucks." Jack said mockingly as he held up the WANTED poster for Kuro, the captain of the Black Cat Pirates. Realizing that his plan had been foiled, Kuro's face immediately darkened, however before he could make a move or try to flee, Jack appeared in front of him and thrust his sword into Kuro's heart.
Kuro remained frozen in place until Jack pulled the sword from his chest, at which point he fell to his knees and looked up at Jack with confusion in his eyes. "H-How? How did you find out about me and my plan?" Kuro wheezed out slowly. Jack didn't bother to answer or make a snarky remark, instead he simply stared into Kuro's eyes as the life slowly left them.
When Kuro finally died, Jack saw the horrified look on Henry's face after realizing just how close he and his family had come to possibly dying. Jack honestly wasn't sure what words of comfort he could give to the man, so without saying anything he reached down and made Kuro's body disappear. There was of course a small pool of blood, but there was bound to be someone else who could clean it up. Worst case, they just throw a bit of dirt on it and forget about it.
"I'm sorry, but it had to be done, Sir. We'll take our leave." Jack said as he moved to walk past the man. "T-Thank you." He heard Henry say to him, which was enough for him, all things considered. Figuring the man probably didn't want to have to force himself to deal with bounty hunters like them, Jack decided that now they could leave the island. They were there for less than an hour, but that was all they needed to get rid of Kuro. After that, they made their way towards the beach where they boarded the little boat and shot off once more into the sky.
They had only just landed after their first launch from Syrup Village when Jack noticed a tiny dot off in the distance. "What do you suppose it is?" Luke asked after Jack pointed it out. "You're not going to believe this, but it's the crew of that guy we just killed. The Black Cat Pirates." Jack said with a bit of a laugh. He felt as though the timing was too good, especially because it hadn't even been an hour since they killed Kuro, so to have these guys be served up to them on a silver platter was almost too good to be true.
Jack used his flames to boost their speed and got right next to the pirate ship, however the Black Cats weren't just laying around as their name would suggest, and the alarm had sounded about their approach and now all of them were waiting on board at the ready. Not wanting to be at a disadvantage, Jack grabbed Luke by the back of his shirt and jumped aboard the pirate ship, clearing the deck and landing near the bow. When Jack let go of Luke he expected the guy to immediately charge in, but instead he turned to him and shot him a glare.
"I could have made that jump on my own, I'm not a little kid." Luke said seriously. "Fine, fine. Next time I'll let you try and do it on your own." Jack told him as he put his hands up in a placating manor. Their attention was diverted back to the pirates when a man with heart-shaped glasses appeared and began laughing at them, which in turn caused the rest of the pirates to begin laughing at them. Even as he moved to cut them apart, Jack had no idea what the pirates had found so funny, but he shrugged it off as people laughing in the face of death, for he planned to kill each and every one of them.
It took less than a minute before all of the pirates were dead, at which point the two of them began throwing the bodies overboard, save for the guy with heart-shaped glasses. Conveniently there was a WANTED poster near the door leading into the ship with the guy's face on it, showing that he was worth $6,000,000 berries, and though it was chump-change compared to how much money he had now, Jack wasn't about to toss it away into the ocean.
After clearing the ship of the dead, the two of them moved to look for anything of value. They only managed to find about $700,000 berries worth of stuff, but at least it was something. Not to mention there was the ship itself which Jack knew he could sell for around $40-$50 million berries. "What exactly is your power?" Luke asked after seeing the Black Cat Pirate ship disappear before his eyes. "I rule over darkness." Jack answered simply while he looked at a compass to make sure they were going in the correct direction.
With that, Jack charged up his power at the rear of the little ship like normal and launched them through the skies once more. They launched themselves a few more times, when after one time they landed right in the middle of an armada of pirate ships. "Depending on how you look at it, this is either really lucky or really unlucky." Jack said to Luke who seemed a little shocked at the number of pirate ships around them.
"I count fifty ships. And the flags are all the same. These are the Krieg Pirates." Luke said, his voice a little dry. "Don't tell me you're scared of a few lowly little pirates?" Jack asked with a smile. "If they were Marines this would be one thing, but I don't want to die fighting pirates!" Luke hissed, a little annoyed that Jack seemed so calm despite the situation. He of course knew Jack was strong, but Luke didn't think even Jack could take on the entire fleet all by himself.
"Don't worry, we're not going to die. I'll keep you safe, my young padawan." Jack said, his smile never faltering. Then as if to prove his point, he disappeared from view and killed all of the pirates on ten of the ships in just a few seconds, with each of the ships disappearing into thin air as he moved on to the next. "Time!" Jack shouted as he appeared back beside Luke, who could only look on in shock. He had never seen Jack move like that before, and it was only then he realized how much of a monster Jack truly was.
"See, no sweat. Now before you piss yourself, I'll handle most of the remaining forty ships, and Don Kreig too. You should be able to handle the small fry no problem." Jack told him, and then without warning like before, Jack grabbed hold of Luke and threw him at one of the ships furthest from Kreig's main flagship.
Jumping on the nearest ship to himself, Jack began clearing out the pirates while making sure to keep a close eye on Luke with his Haki, and he had to say, Luke was rather impressive with his swords. With every swing a pirate fell dead, and when they shot at him he was able to redirect the bullets away from himself with the flat of his blades. The only time Jack really had to say something is when Luke moved on to the next ship, but rather than fight all of the pirates on it, he threw a small explosive he pulled from inside of his shirt and threw it at a few kegs of black-powder before he jumped to the next ship.
"Don't blow up the ships, damn it! I can't sell those!" Jack shouted at Luke, who looked surprised by the sudden shout. "Seriously?! I'm fighting for my life, and you care about how much money you can get for the ships?! How greedy are you?!" Luke shouted back, finding that Jack needed to get his priorities straight.
Not wanting to risk Luke blowing up any more of the floating piles of money, Jack quickly cleared most of the remaining ships, leaving just the one Luke was currently working his way through and the main flagship where Don Kreig himself was watching them in shock. Jack didn't hesitate to kill everyone else on the ship around them, including the big bastard covered in shields that he recognized from the anime, though for the life of him he couldn't remember his name.
He had just finished killing Gin, Kreig's Vice-Captain when Luke finally climbed aboard the side of the ship looking dead tired. He had a few little cuts here and there, but for the most part he looked perfectly fine. "You cleared four ships all by yourself, not bad. And look at that, you're still breathing." Jack said to Luke in a mocking sort of way. "Don't patronize me." Luke wheezed out as he tried to catch his breath.
"I'm not. It wasn't that long ago when you couldn't even handle a few lowly Marines, and now you took out four ships all by yourself. That's impressive." Jack told him, sounding a bit more sincere. "Yeah, but I'm still nowhere near your level. You took out so many all by yourself, and you're not even winded." Luke said, realizing he was so much further behind Jack than he had thought he was. "You'll get there. After we go back to Windmill Village, I'll show you a few secrets that will blow your mind." Jack promised, getting a thumbs up in agreement from Luke as he closed his eyes.
It was only then that Jack turned his attention back to Don Kreig, who was just standing there like an idiot the whole time Jack and Luke were talking. Before when Jack was killing his men he couldn't stop shouting as he fired short metal spikes at him, but Jack had ignored him as he let the spikes fly harmlessly through him. Seeing that his attacks hadn't been able to cause Jack any harm, Kreig was probably trying to think up how best he could make it out of this situation.
Not one to mince words with the people he was going to kill, Jack made a gun appear and shot Kreig in the leg with a Haki infused bullet. The effects were brutal as Kreig's leg was blown away as he fell to the ground, which for some reason made Jack wonder about something. 'The armor is only on his arms and torso, so how come no one has ever just targeted his head or legs? Isn't that what sharpshooters are for?' He questioned internally before simply shrugging the question off.
Without further delay, he walked forward and shot Kreig point blank between the eyes, ending the life of the pirate commodore. Not one to pass up on loot, Jack took Kreig's armor, then of course Kreig's body as it was worth $17,000,000 berries, and also Gin's corpse as it too was worth $8,500,000 berries, after all, every bit helped. After that, Jack quickly jumped to the ships Luke had cleared and put them into his Inventory before he returned to the flagship and began searching it for anything of value. When he was done he went back up on deck where Luke was still laying down, only now he was no longer out of breath.
Without saying anything, Jack put some water and food down next to Luke and then sat down next to him before he began to eat as well. "Got any rum?" Luke asked once he sat up. In answer to his question, Jack put a bottle of rum he had gotten from Makino in front of Luke, who drank it down with a smile on his face. Seeing his clear enjoyment, Jack smiled before saying, "There's a little bar in the place where we're going to train after this where the owner sells these. She actually does a lot of the mixing herself, so it's the only place you can find that stuff. She was also the one who cooked the food."
"We should bring her with us. Good cooks are hard to find, and I can't cook to save my life." Luke suggested, getting a thoughtful look from Jack. He'd like it if Makino came with them to be their cook, but he doubted she'd want to.
The two didn't bother to rush anywhere after that, choosing instead to sleep on beds that Jack made appear right there on deck. With how nice it was out that night, they figured it wouldn't be the worst thing. Come the following morning he changed his course, deciding to head back in the direction towards Dawn Island. 'The Marines should be arriving any day now.' He told himself, knowing he was going to have to confront them sooner than later.
Jack and Luke sailed back in the direction towards Dawn Island at a slow and steady pace for the next few days, not really in any sort of hurry to get there. As they were calmly going about their day, they spotted one of the ugliest ships either of them had ever seen sailing towards them, though Jack thought Buggy's ship was a little worse. It was a pink ship with four sails, each with a pink heart painted on it, and there were also hearts painted on the sides of the ship as well. Even the figurehead, which was a white duck that had hearts in its eyes.
"What an ugly ship." Luke said, voicing what they were both thinking. "It suits the fat blob who captain's it. For some reason she thinks she's the most beautiful woman in the world." Jack said as he visibly shuddered at the thought of Alvida and the word 'beautiful' being in the same sentence. "I take it you know about her because she's worth something?" Luke asked, feeling as though Jack knew every person with a pulse who was worth something. "$5 million berries and a few therapy appointments. But don't worry, she isn't that strong." Jack stated bluntly.
They waited until the ship was right next to them, then before the pirates could try boarding their little ship, Luke leapt onto the pink ship, drawing his swords mid-air, and upon landing he immediately began cutting pirates down as a farmer would with stocks of wheat. After only a few minutes, Luke walked over to the railing as he dragged the corpse of Alvida behind him. "Want to do your thing and get rid of the bodies so we can search for anything of value?" Luke asked him, getting a smirk from Jack. He very much liked that idea.
When they were finished looting everything and Alvida's ship was safely tucked away into his [Inventory] with all of the others, Jack turned his attention to Luke before saying, "You know, that took you a few minutes longer than it should have. You cleared Kreig's first ship faster than that." "Oh, fuck you. There were more people on this ship then there were on that one." Luke said calmly, not rising to the bait. Instead they decided to cover a bit of distance today and shot themselves off into the sky.
They continued on this way for the next few hours when Luke got Jack's attention and pointed towards the south. Looking where Luke was pointing, Jack saw three Marine Battleships. 'They're finally here.' Jack thought as he cracked his neck. It was finally time to deal with the Marines.