[i]So, that’s where that Devil Fruit ended up.[/i]

Shigeuchi watched as Kuroda left the ship, disappearing in a flash of light as he reappeared by the young woman on the docks. He began to distract her, by which he meant drawing his swords and attacking the other Logia-user with a half-hearted swing, engaging the water-manipulating woman in combat. The older pirate watched as the youngster fought with the clear intent to delay rather than actually hurt his opponent, while the girl dodged and spent more time talking than trying to fight back. He let out a sigh; the fact the upstart had managed to get his hands on [i]that[/i] fruit of all things was a bit concerning given his attitude so far. If he tried anything, like trying to oust either himself or the captain for example, then it wouldn’t be as simple as throwing him overboard and letting him cool off on his way back to shore, they’d have to kill him.

He’d have to give the kid The Speech soon and hope that it sank in. Power didn’t automatically mean authority, but if he didn’t realise that himself and accept it then there would be problems.

Nikko gave the order to depart, breaking away from the docks in a more literal sense than normal. The Golden Lion MKII would head out to sea first, gaining some distance from their attackers before deploying their balloons and taking to the skies; they didn’t need to win this fight after all, just escape, and the longer they spent tethered to the dock the more time the Royal family or the marines would have to mount a rescue. It meant leaving Kuroda behind, which Shigeuchi would be fine with, but unfortunately the upstart could fly back to the ship before they got too far away.

A gunshot rang out on the docks and Shigeuchi turned his attention back to the fight between the light and the water to see the former take a bullet through the shoulder. That the bullets drew blood either meant that Kuroda still wasn’t used to his Devil Fruit power and hadn’t turned intangible in response to the attack or that the shooter had imbued the shots with Haki before firing. Shigeuchi scanned the dock for the gunman, expecting to see the white uniform of a marine or another crew involving themselves in the fight; he saw nothing of the sort however, nothing but a panicked crowd of bystanders running for cover. It was perhaps a lone gunman, but a one gunman that could use Haki was a problem he didn’t want to deal with.

It was a kind of rule that Logia-users who were new to their powers thought themselves invincible until they had their first run-in with a Haki user, at which point they either learned a harsh lesson in life or died. Kuroda may have just learned that lesson, Haki was a rare skill even in Paradise after all, but judging from the way he continued to attack rather than panic or freeze up suggested he was familiar with it already.

A commotion on the deck dragged his attention back to the ship. Turning his head he saw the assassin, the young captain’s so far only confirmed crewmember, holding one of their own crewmembers hostage. She had made it aboard somehow, sneaking onto the boat before they could leave the docks and now holding a knife to someone’s throat.

With an exasperated, drawn out breath Shigeuchi drew his sword and pulled a nearby crewmember in front of himself, lining the two of them up so that he could see both the pirate and Lexi at the same time. Raising the sword above his head and placing both hands on the hilt, Shigeuchi prepared to cleave through the crewmember before him with one stroke. [color=gray]“Don’t move.”[/color] He reached out with his Devil Fruit ability, attempting to wrap both the pirate and Lexi with his power and swap their positions and cut the assassin down before she knew what hit her.

He tensed his muscles and drew power into his arms, the blade of his sword turning black as he imbued the weapon with Armament Haki just in case, and made the switch.

The power fizzled out and Shigeuchi stopped the blade a millimetre above the pirate’s collarbone before he could cleave his own crewmember in half. With a huff he sheathed his sword and pushed the somewhat shaken crewmember aside, forcing his way through the disgruntled pirates until he stood at the front of the circle of guns and swords surrounding Lexi. [color=gray]“Nice trick, whatever it is. Captain’s busy, so you get me instead; what do you want?”[/color]

[@ladyonyx04]