Marksman

[ 3/25/1482- Couple Of Hours After The Battle ]

[ Word Count 1400 ]

" Hello" - Speech

' Hello' - Thoughts

*Boom* - Sounds

<<<<<<>>>>>>

( 3rd Person Pov )

" Hey, Achilles, get some more wood," Bullet said to Achilles since he was helping him patch up the holes in the ship. They had already fixed the ship's bow thanks to Bullet's devil fruit; now all that was left to patch up were the remaining holes.

It took Achilles about an hour to throw away the dead bodies, clean the blood from the deck and remove the smell as well. Fortunately for him, the rest of the crew helped once they recovered somewhat.

It was an audacious task, but a necessary one so Achilles and the Crew worked extra hard to ensure the cleansing and maintenance of their ship.

" Do we even have any more wood?" Achilles asked since he thought Marco and Masterson brought all of the wood they had in the storage room.

" There should be more, if not we can just some once we reach an island. The ship can sail fine for now." Bullet replied before Achilles got up from the deck.

" I'll go check then, just in case."

" Hey, Marco you're gonna get cut off someone's head if you keep swinging that sword like that." Achilles said noticing Marco randomly swinging that sword he got from one of the Marines. Masterson was also pretty close to him as well, he was checking up on his guns.

" It will be fine, nothing's gonna go wrong," Marco said after he stopped swinging that's in his hand which is clearly too big for him.

Achilles sighed, annoyed at how Marco had just blatantly tempted Murphy.

" Why did you even keep the sword?" Achilles asked as he was kind of confused since he doesn't remember Marco ever showing interest or using a sword before.

" I wanna use it since you said I can't use my devil fruit powers in front of others yet. So I wanna use a sword to protect myself." Marco answered Achilles after thinking for a few seconds since Marco didn't want to say swords are cool.

" Hmm, I guess that works for you. Maybe you can even use it in combination with your flames. But we have to get a sword that you can carry."Achilles said chuckling a little before he turned his attention towards Masterson.

" Yo Masterson, there's something I gotta talk to you about." Achilles said walking away from the duo towards the lower level of the ship before Masterson could reply.

" What's he gotta talk to me about? I'm gonna get dropped off anyway, it doesn't really matter." Masterson said with a sigh knowing his dream of an adventure would need to be put to a halt for quite some more time.

" I wouldn't say quit yet. Achilles doesn't seem to be that upset with you anymore, and I'm just guessing from his tone, but he may even invite you to join the crew." Marco said after a little bit, surprising Masterson.

" Are you sure?" Masterson asked in a shaky voice since he didn't want to get his hopes up prematurely.

" Pretty sure since he didn't drop you off off the island we passed 40 minutes ago. If Achilles didn't want to recruit you, he would have dropped off you on the island."

" Yo, Bullet am I right?" Marco asked the Vice-Captain since Achilles conveyed everything that held some semblance of importance to the man. Not that Marco was annoyed, he knew Bullet's position outclassed his.

" Hmm, guess it's not that hard to guess. Achilles told me about it around an hour ago. Though it shouldn't prove to be that surprising, especially with the skills Masterson has shown. I'd be weirder if Achilles wasn't going to recruit him." Bullet said stretching his arms.

" You serious?" Masterson asked Bullet, still in disbelief. Bullet just nodded, which made Masterson smile in excitement.

" Way to go and ruin the fun for me, Bullet, Marco." Achilles walked out of the door which led to the kitchen and all the other rooms on the ship.

" I was going to surprise but still, I would like to invite you to the crew officially. So how about it, how does joining the Spade Pirates sound to you?" Achilles asked offering his right hand for a handshake to confirm it even though he knew what the answer would be.

" Glady," Masterson said shaking Achilles' hand.

" Welcome to the crew, Masterson," Bullet congratulated him in a much more welcoming demeanor as compared to before.

" Finally a new crew member to talk to. I'm sure you'll end up liking the crew." Marco said sounding more excited than Masterson himself.

He was extremely glad that he could finally talk to someone that wasn't a brick wall, or that would punish him for doing a light prank.

" I'll go cook us a feast to celebrate a new member joining us. Bullet dock the ship at the port that's about 20 minutes away straight in front of us. So don't change the direction of the ship." Achilles before he started walking towards the kitchen.

[ Four Hours Later ]

" So Achilles, what's our next move?" Masterson asked as he along with Bullet and Marco all sit down at the dinner table.

" We aren't sure yet." Achilles as he put a massive amount of food on the table ranging from sandwiches to salads, lobsters, pasta, large pizzas, and other dishes. Enough food to be able to feed Luffy and maybe even Goku.

" Our current objective right now is to take down the Hutt organization. But we have no clue where to find their headquarters." Bullet replied to Masterson annoyed at that, as he started eating along with the rest of the crew.

" Wait a second, I remember you guys saying the Hutts have a connection with everyone in these seas. So using that logic, the Helix Pirates that we are going to eventually fight might know something about the Hutts." Marco said to the crew making them stop eating.

" Huh, that's a pretty good idea, Marco." Achilles said as he started thinking about that.

" Yeah you're right, we are going to eventually fight them but after we defeated the Hutts. But if we defeat them first, we might manage to get some information on them. Good thinking, Marco." Bullet said to Marco rubbing his chin in deep thoughts.

" But do we know where the Helix Pirates are?" Masterson asked as he took a bite into a chicken sandwich. Both Achilles and Marco immediately looked at Bullet as he knew the most about the North Blue, and subsequently the things happening in it.

" They have their main base on an island called Red Sand island. From what I've heard, most of the time they stay on the island. So our best chance of catching them is attacking them head-on."

" I don't know the exact location of the island, but it shouldn't be that hard to find since the island is mapped on the updated map of the North Blue," Bullet said after a while remembering everything he knew about the Helix Pirates.

" Hmm, I got it. Once we know the location of it the island, we attack it soon as possible. That's fine with everyone?" Achilles asked everyone for an objection.

" I'm fine with that," Marco said to Achilles as the other two nodded.

" Good."

After coming to a general consensus everybody ate and then went to bed. Achilles however stayed up, he was contemplating the plan to attack the Helix Pirates.

He wanted to make sure it was the right one, and that he knew when and how they would be doing it. He didn't want to put the crew in harm's way unnecessarily.

<<<<<<>>>>>>

I know the chapter is short but I wanted to set up the next couple of chapters as they are pretty important. And those chapters will be much longer, probably around 2k words. Anyway, we are nearing the end of the North Blue arc, probably in 15 or fewer chapters.

With all that said, I hope you guys liked the chapter

If you liked the chapter, drop some power stones, would appreciate it.

Also, leave some comments as well if you want. You can leave a review as well on what I can improve on.

Join the discord server if you want to as well

Server Link: https://discord.gg/NMmtDbwHVQ

Cya.