Chapter 7: Henry Pirates

'Ah, she's beautiful and strong,' Ethan thought as he watched Akame skillfully steer the boat. 'She can cook, sail a boat, and has all sorts of survival skills. Akame is practically...'

'Wait, isn't Akame basically a one-person crew? What's the point of me?' Ethan suddenly realized he was essentially a walking burden and was utterly shocked.

"Akame, do you need any help?" Ethan asked, trying to be helpful as he moved closer to her. Akame unconsciously shivered.

"Oh, go watch the fishing rod and make sure the fish don't get away," Akame replied, assigning him the most basic task.

While keeping an eye on the fishing rod, Ethan studied Akame's sailing techniques and opened their status panels.

[Ethan's Swordsmanship: ★]

[Akame's Swordsmanship: ★★★★ (Current state: ★★★)]

"Akame, can you do flying slashes?"

"What's that?"

"You know—launching sword beams to cut stuff from a distance."

"No, I can't."

'That's strange. Her swordsmanship is at the level of a master, but she can't use flying slashes. Is it because she's from a different world?' Ethan thought, noticing that Akame's current state was only 3 stars. 'Why is her full state 4 stars but her current state 3 stars? Does she need to meet some condition to regain her full state?' 

'Maybe we should go to Shimotsuki Village,' Ethan thought. 'We could learn some local swordsmanship techniques and meet Zoro and his childhood friend, Kuina.'

"What about Observation Haki?" Ethan asked, despite not having it himself.

"Observation Haki?"

"Have you ever experienced a sudden sharpening of your senses, where you can detect the presence and movements of enemies around you, predict their attacks, and dodge them?"

"Yes, after I completed my undercover mission at the Sabatini Circus, I started having that feeling during missions."

'Probably her killer instincts honed from years of assassination work. When she came to this world, it turned into Observation Haki,' Ethan speculated.

"Akame, let's head to Shimotsuki Village first. Are there any pirate crews along this route?"

"Last month, two merchant ships and one passenger ship were attacked by the Henry Pirates. Only one merchant ship was captured. The total bounty for the Henry Pirates is 4.6 million berries."

"Great! Then our Dawn Pirates' first target is them! I'll show you the captain's strength!" Ethan, declared, naming their crew after his love for the Akatsuki from Naruto but tweaking it slightly.

[Ding... You have a new message.]

[Side Quest: The best way to understand your companion and deepen your bond is to defeat a strong enemy together! Defeat (eliminate) the entire Henry Pirates.]

[Reward: 1,000,000 berries and 2 bond points.]

Bored, Ethan checked the new message and began studying his system.

His stats were a bit low, but they could be improved through training. If he used his achievement points now, he might not have enough later when his stats became harder to improve. It was better to save his achievement and bond points for the time being.

'Huh, why didn't the Sandai Kitetsu disappear after I used it for summoning? Instead, it's still in my inventory,' Ethan thought, looking at the sword in his inventory, which now had the note [Cannot be used as a summoning medium again.]

[Additional Rules]

[19. Items used as summoning mediums will not disappear. However, if a recently deceased Devil Fruit user's body or a Devil Fruit itself is used as a medium, the newly summoned companion will gain that Devil Fruit's powers.]

'I see. Ah, but that means they won't have to experience how awful Devil Fruits taste!!' Ethan, who had already decided which Devil Fruit he wanted to eat, felt this was unfair. Shouldn't they all suffer together?

After two boring days at sea...

They finally encountered the Henry Pirates, who were busy pillaging. "Look, there's a small boat over there!" shouted Pirate A from the crow's nest.

"A single-masted sailboat? Not much loot there," Pirate B said, uninterested in a ship that probably wasn't worth the cost of the cannonballs they'd need to fire.

"But there's a hot chick on board!" said the lecherous Pirate C.

"I'll go call the captain!" said the loyal Pirate D.

"Men, get closer! Capture the man and woman and sell them as slaves!" ordered Captain Henry, proving just how ruthless pirates could be by doubling as slave traders.

When the two ships were about 10 meters apart, Ethan and Akame furled the sails to prevent the boat from drifting away and jumped across the slightly wide gap between the ships.

"Well, aren't you brave, jumping onto our ship like that," Captain Henry sneered.