Chapter 18: Recruitment and Hina
Chapter 18: Recruitment and Hina
_________ POV Narration_________
After an hour, the marine fleet was already surrounding the island, with marines pouring out of their ships to scout out the city.
They were quick to find all of the pirates strewn on the ground, hundreds upon hundreds of pirates with varying bounties all piled up in different mounds.
In the middle of it all, they could see a tall and well-dressed man with blonde hair and long earlobes. He was sitting on a golden chair, by his side rested a golden staff as he seemed to be contemplating some things.
The marines were startled at first, especially by the fact that there was simply no blood on him. He was standing in the middle of what was essentially a massacre, and his clothes weren't even slightly stained.
Most of the marine soldiers were rather scared of that person, no one dared to show even a hint of greed towards the golden accessories that adorned the stranger.
Enel stood up from his chair with a calm smile, further scaring the marines that had gathered around him.
Enel raised an eyebrow as he easily noticed their reactions.
"Sorry if I come off a bit scarier than intended. I was the one to call you all here." The marines became quite a bit calmer when hearing that, many of them even took a sigh of relief.
"C-captain Hina!" One of the marines said as someone started approaching Enel.
Out of the crowd walked a well-dressed woman wearing a red two-piece suit and with a marine coat draped over her shoulders.
She was tall and slim and her long pink hair ran all the way to her lower back. With a cigar in her mouth, she looked around the site with a blank gaze.
"Hina is quite impressed..." She stood in front of Enel, a small smirk almost rising on her lips. Her third-person speech managed to weird Enel out a bit, but not by much.
Although she was tall, Enel was still towering over her easily, being almost a meter taller than her. So she was looking up at him through that interaction.
"Well, I do aim to impress," Enel said as he tapped the chair behind him with his staff. The chair was then swiftly absorbed by the golden staff.
'A devil fruit, huh?' Hina thought to herself as she was getting more and more interested in the person standing in front of her. Although she didn't let that change her stoic facade.
"So you are the one responsible for cleaning up this island?" She said while looking Enel in the eyes, studying him for a bit.
"Yes, I was passing by, on my way to the nearest marine base, and decided to do my good deed for the week..." Enel said with the same calm smile plastered on his face.
There was no trace of the coldness he had displayed to Doflamingo earlier, it was as if he was an entirely new man.
"Good deed for the week? Hina is curious... Why were you heading for a marine base?"
She had already decided that Enel wasn't an enemy, so she gave her subordinates a hand sign to start collecting the pirates while she continued her conversation uninterrupted.
"I was planning to join it, of course! Why else would someone like me go there anyway?"
"Hina doesn't know... But you would make for quite a good marine. Hina doesn't think going through the normal recruitment process would work for someone like you... It wouldn't be fair to the other cadets..."
Hina stroked her chin as she looked around her, studying the sight of Enel's handiwork.
"That's understandable... But I still want to join the marines. I've been training for quite a while in order to do this." Enel said with a wry smile as he scratched the back of his head.
"Hina is sure Fleet Admiral Sengoku will know what to do with you! You can travel with us! Hina is also heading for Marineford soon. Well... We have to now considering the number of reports we need to file in this case..." Hina said as she turned around and started walking.
Enel didn't shy around and simply started following her.
The two of them continued to speak for a while, as the rest of the cadets and recruits cleaned up the place and dragged all of the pirates towards the ships, either dead or not.
Some that were pretending to be unconscious or dead tried to make a run for it. One such pirate was Kord Kaltrop, Captain of the Kaltrop pirates with a bounty of 50 million Berry, one of the highest on the island.
He was quick to throw himself on the ground when seeing how Enel trashed an entire island filled with pirates in mere minutes.
He had eaten a devil fruit that allowed him to turn everything he touched into a caltrop, and he was quick to get up and start trying to run when he saw the marines had encircled the island.
He quickly used his ability to turn a few rocks into caltrops as he ran away.
Unfortunately for him, panic had blinded him quite a bit, as he ran directly in the path of Hina and Enel.
The two of them looked at each other, for a bit, as they noticed the pirate running straight towards them.
'Is this guy serious?'
Hina extended her arm and swung it at the charging pirate, it connected right at his midsection, entrapping him in a cage that caught both of his arms.
He tripped, losing his balance and falling down right near Hina and Enel. He quickly scrambled to get up, only for Enel to tap his staff on the pirate's head and knock him out completely, creating a crater using his head.
"... That was stupid. And quite unexpected..." Enel said with a blank face.
"Indeed..." Hina responded much the same.
The marines nearby also didn't seem to know how to react properly. They only continued doing their jobs after staring for a bit.
Hina and Enel then continued making their way back to Hina's ship, they continued talking again, pretending that nothing had happened at all.
------- Time Skip Two Weeks Later -------
_________ POV Enel_________
Hina has been weirdly accommodating throughout this whole journey, she actually spent most of her time with me throughout the entire journey.
The marines needed only two or three to collect all of the pirates and capture any stragglers that were still on the island. They also seized all of the pirate ships that were docked at the port. Including all of the riches in them.
Most of the fleet parted ways and went for the 'Gates of Justice' making their way to Impel Down. Hina's ship and a few others started heading towards Marineford.
We are now an hour or two away from the marine base, and I've not actually spoken to anyone besides Hina this whole time, she was the one to handle all of the conversations and arrange the meeting with Sengoku...
He will apparently need to assess what type of person I am and give me a test of sorts.
Now, I am not exactly excited to meet Sengoku, but the fact that I can escape at any time does give me some peace of mind.
I am also rather concerned about what his test is going to be. Hina did tell me not to worry about it, but I can't exactly help it.
I don't remember much about the history of the marines, I can easily face a psychological analysis, just like I could easily fake it in my past life, but I won't be able to pass many written tests.
It's an actual miracle of god that Enel even knew how to write now that I think about it...
Hina doesn't seem all that worried though, currently, we are just sitting on the railing of the ship and looking at Marineford as it gets closer and closer.
"So... Nervous?" Hina asked without much of a shift in expression. Throughout all of our interactions, she remained completely stoic, despite the fact that she genuinely speaks as a child would.
Not that it's a bad thing, I even find it somewhat cute... But it's rather odd. I tried to make her laugh plenty of times, and she always suppresses her smile when around people.
"Not really nervous... Although I don't really know what to expect." I am a bit nervous, but that's not because of the reasons she thinks.
"Don't worry! Hina ist telling you that everything will be fine. You are strong after all, and you are a good person..." Hina trailed off a bit there and looked a bit to the side. A bit of a confusing reaction if I do say so myself.
Right now I do have quite a few worries...
If I fail to join the marines, then I will have to rethink my entire plan, and that would be a really big hassle, I would also have a more difficult time learning the 6 powers.
Some of them seemed rather easy, cut and dry. Things like Geppo (Moon Walk) and Soru (Shave) for example (Which I don't even really need to be honest).
But the actually difficult ones are the ones I care about. Things like Kami-e (Paper art), Tekkai (Iron Body), Shigan (Finger Gun) and even Rankyaku (Tempest Kick) and the mastering of Seimei Kikan (Life Return).
They are the more important ones, especially the last one, as having absolute control over my body is a must.
And armament haki is even more difficult than the rest. I have no way to actually train it, I have a basic understanding of what it is (like most One Piece fans do), but that won't be enough to practice and put it into action.
If I fail to join the marines and gain a better understanding of these techniques, then my plans of getting stronger will be completely derailed and delayed.
To the point where getting involved in Marineford would even be dangerous for me.
So this is an extremely important step... I better not fuck this up.
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