"Officer candidates! At last, the moment you've all been waiting for—your first battle!" a voice boomed from the ship.
That ship was one of the Navy's training vessels.
Though called a training ship, there were only 5 officer candidates receiving that training. The remaining crew were elite veterans who had been tested in the West Blue where the 5 Great Families ran rampant.
"According to reports from citizens," the voice continued, "hiding in the town are bounty heads and their crew—three people total!"
And it was the single ship that happened to be conducting training nearby when the summons came.
As befitting officer candidates, the 5 recruits here had undergone harsh training despite lacking real combat experience. The instructors who had imposed that very training and witnessed its results had expectations for these future leaders of the Navy.
The problem is... "Silent Step."
From the Navy's perspective, while the abilities of the two crew members were unknown, the greatest threat was recognized as the ringleader, "Silent Step" Kuro.
Numerous bandits and bounty hunters had been crushed by Kuro alone. Among the captured bandits and pirates, or the East Blue Marines who had fought him, all spoke uniformly about Kuro's abilities:
--I couldn't see anything.
--I thought he disappeared, then half our crew was blown away.
--Before I knew it, everyone in the unit had fallen.
--I thought I had taken a village woman hostage, then my jaw was kicked to pieces and I was down.
...Has he mastered footwork closely resembling Soru? The higher-ups seem to think "Silent Step" is just a rookie who escaped slavery, but...
His bounty kept rising due to hunting bandits and bounty hunters at a tremendous pace, even crushing Mafia funding sources, but from what the Marine heard, he thought the amount could be raised even higher. He was clearly not at the average level of East Blue natives.
Honestly, he didn't think this was the kind of bounty to be handled as training.
But, but! With these elites, capture isn't impossible!
"The ringleader 'Silent Step' Kuro is a bounty head who has defeated many bandits and bounty hunters from the East Blue!" the instructor shouted to his crew. "Though his crew numbers only three, do not let your guard down!!"
"Sorry to interrupt while you're raising morale, but might I have a moment?"
Just as the man was thinking this, he heard an unfamiliar voice from behind him.
"You bastard!?", the instructor gasped, spinning around.
"My apologies. Though you're an enemy ship, I apologize for the rudeness of boarding without greeting."
A boy in a black suit had boarded the Navy ship still at sea.
–
"From the encouragement you were giving, I take it you're the captain of this ship."
Using the Geppo I'd accidentally mastered for practice—and as intimidation and restraint for those villagers who probably weren't watching properly—I came to the navy ship. From what I could see, their combat strength was indeed higher level compared to the guys I'd fought several times in the East Blue. No openings, or rather, they were focused.
"How did you board this ship!?"
"I think the Marines standing behind you saw... I just ran over."
"...Impossible, surely not," he muttered.
I suppose you could call it Geppo, but since it's self-taught, it might look unsightly to a professional, so maybe I should give it an original name. As opposed to "Silent Step"... "Stealthy Step"?
"What did you come here for?" the captain asked. "Surrender?"
"In my case, what follows is slavery or death. I'm not pessimistic about life yet."
"Then what did you come for!?"
"...To petition you for the retraction of false charges against a certain girl."
This is the borderline. I really don't know how Perona became Moria's companion in the original, but you can tell just by looking. Of course she'd easily become Moria's companion and swear that much loyalty.
But leaving that situation as is would be too much.
I'll leave the choice of path to Perona, but I want to formally retract the fact that she was 'falsely accused by her hometown neighbors.'
"We received reports from residents that the girl is also part of your crew."
"That's wrong. That girl is..."
Now, how should I explain this?
"I don't completely understand the situation myself," I began carefully, "but she was simply isolated due to conflicts within the island. My crew consists only of myself and one other. She's just a civilian who helped capture the pirates who were here."
I don't know how much conflict there was between the woman who took in Perona and the village, but this probably isn't wrong.
"...That cannot be done," the captain stated firmly. "Even if what you say is true, we must arrest her once."
"She's a girl of only four or five years old," I pointed out.
"Even so," he insisted, "as long as there's a possibility of evil, we must arrest her!"
"Do you understand what being arrested means!?" I demanded, my voice rising. "Do you understand what it means to be treated as a criminal when you've done nothing!?"
Well, I did invite her to be a pirate! But this isn't right when she's still considering her answer!? She only attacked those villagers because it was their own fault!
"Even so!!", the captain shouted, drawing his sword.
Following his lead, the others behind him point rifles and swords at me.
"We must nip even the slightest possibility! So that we never again produce threats like you!"
"It was the government that made me a threat!" I shot back. "You officers can't possibly not know that!"
"If you had been captured," he retorted, "that would have been the end of it!"
You bastard!? I'll go around shattering every last one of your jawbones!? I absolutely refuse a future of being tamed by that gorilla woman!!
"At least currently, that's how the world operates!" the captain declared. "So citizens achieve stability by following it! It must be so!"
Honestly, I thought this would happen 99% of the time, but negotiations have broken down after all. Let me catch my breath a bit. I got too heated.
...No, I'll kick this man in particular with full force. His groin, collarbone, and jaw.
"--I understand your officers' position."
Still, this guy probably has his own thoughts. He didn't immediately say something like "Arrest him without question!"
...Yeah, as a man, I'll forgive him the groin.
"Though we've reached an impasse, I'm grateful you took the time," I said, bowing my head slightly. "...Sorry for the trouble."
Despite the current exchange potentially affecting troop morale, he handled it properly.
"That said--" I straightened up, a sharp glint in my eyes. "I'll force my way through!!"
Well, I'm about to attack anyway!
"--Come! 'Silent Step' Kuro!!" the captain roared. "All hands! Begin combat!!"
–
For that recruit, their first naval battle could only be called unlucky.
The comrades who had endured harsh training alongside them were sprawled across the deck before they knew it.
Senior Marines with more experience, but whom they thought they were stronger than, were being cut down by invisible slashes or felled by invisible kicks.
And the recruit themselves, the moment the dialogue with the captain ended, were suddenly kicked away by a pirate about the same age who appeared before them, barely maintaining consciousness.
"Damn," the captain cursed, watching his men fall, "to think our ship's elite can do nothing!"
"No, you were strong," I commented, reappearing. "In the East Blue, there wasn't a single Marine who could see through my kicks."
--
Only the pirate and captain remained standing on the deck.
Until then, other soldiers had fired rifles and slashed with swords, but none could land even a scratch. That's how fast "Silent Step" Kuro was.
--CLANG!
"And fast!", the captain exclaimed, "To think it was to this extent!!"
"Not something the man who stopped it should say."
The pirate who seemed to disappear appeared behind the captain, and the captain blocked the roundhouse kick aimed at his temple with his saber.
He had iron in his shoes, so a metallic sound rang between the two.
"Ah, I see!" the captain said, pushing back. "Certainly a shame! How good it would have been if a man like you--like yourself--were a Marine!"
"You look constrained yourself. How about becoming a pirate?"
"Impossible!!"
While blocking the foot, the captain swung his saber to slam Kuro into the wall. But in leg techniques, Kuro was still one step ahead.
"Cat Claw!"
Spinning in the air and deflecting the momentum, an invisible slash was released from his foot in that position. The captain tried to block it with his saber--but couldn't.
The captain's eyes widened the moment he blocked it, and the next moment his saber was knocked away. He tried to counter barehanded in that instant, but "Silent Step" wouldn't miss such an opening.
This time directly in front--"Silent Step" appeared suddenly before the captain's eyes, his sharp kick piercing the captain's abdomen.
"...Regrettable...!"
"...Yes, it is."
As the captain's consciousness faded and he began to collapse, the pirate surprisingly supported him.
"...If you could accept your way of life, you'd be much stronger, wouldn't you?"
The sight of a 12 or 13-year-old boy supporting a large man looked at first glance like a peaceful scene of a child supporting a parent... but in reality, it was a strange scene between enemies.
--
Afterward, the pirate who had been walking around the mast noticed a recruit glaring at him.
"You were awake? I should have kicked you hard enough to stay unconscious until this was over..."
At those words, the recruit felt blood rush to her head.
"You... weren't trying to kill me...?", she asked weakly.
"Yes."
"Because I'm... a woman!?" she accused. "Because I'm just a child by age!?"
The recruit, a girl Marine about the same age as the pirate boy, glared at "Silent Step."
"No, I wasn't trying to kill anyone from the start. ...Having deaths over reports from people like that would stain the name of 'Silent Step.'"
At the pirate's words, when the girl looked around, she could see the shoulders and chests of her fallen colleagues and classmates rising and falling slightly. They were breathing--alive.
No, they had been spared.
"Humiliation..." she whispered.
"Hina... humiliated..."
As the girl's consciousness began to fade from physical pain and exhaustion, for some reason the face of "Silent Step" looking at her with surprise entered her vision.