Chapter 19 - 19

Over the following months Azul travelled through the south blue, though he got kind of disappointed by a few things, but mainly from the lack of strong opponents. There even was an island called Karate-island, which would give you the impression that it was filled with mighty warriors right? Ye, fat chance! What he found there was unbelivably disappointing. Those people didn't even know what haki was, let alone had trained their bodies to the stage where they were qualified to awaken their spirits through fusion of body and soul, though nearly nobody alive apart from Azul knew how haki actually came to be, which wasn't much of a surprise to Azul, who had read through the archives of the island of 'warriors', and from what he found there came to the conclusion that the world government erased all traces in the hopes to quench future threats.

After leaving Karate-island, Azul had travelled to Torino, an island that was habitated by giant birds. It had been an exciting experience to observe how those giant birds became like shadows when they were hunting, despite there enormous size. And so, enjoying the serenity of the island, Azul had decided to spend some time on said island, to train and improve his devilfruit, which he had found out by accident possessed an ability he had not seen coming.

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Torino island, flashback approximately 10 months

As Azul was training his breath he sunk into a trance he hadn't had experienced since his breakthrough into the stage of the journeyman and thus was unprepared for what transpired outside his body. On the inside his soul and body had reached a new point in the fusion with each other and thus his spirits power billowed out, causing mayhem amongst the islands residents, which lead to a giant bird, the leader of the swarm, to fly over to Azul, buckling under the young mans haki and its pressure, after which he simply grabbed Azul into its talons, which said young man didn't register due to his trance and, flying high into the sky with him, dropping him right over the ocean, as if to throw away a piece of garbage.

Azuls spirit, having reached the limit of its evolution for the moment, and sensing the impending doom, forced Azuls body to open its eyes which caused Azul to widen his eyes in horror. And why wouldn't he? He was dropped hundreds of meters from the sky, above the sea no less!

Knowing he had to do something, anything to escape this situation he did what he had learned all those years ago and trusted his insticts. And oh was he surprised when his feet cracked open, literally and fire billowed out with tremendous heat, just like it had happened with his arms, but this time the flames on his feet seemed to enable him to come into contact with the air below them, as if it was a solid path he could travel on, and he did just that. And so he had solved another puzzle that was his devilfruit. He could now f.u.c.k.i.n.g run on air as if it was solid matter. Lucky bugger that he was he grinned and swore he would gut whoever dropped him from the sky, which caused the elderly bird to grow a sweat of terror as if having a premonition that soon he would be grilled chicken and how right its premonition proved to be! One of the best chickens Azul had ever had no less...

(flashback end)

And so his time on Torino had come to an end after 10 months of continuous training which resulted in Azul growing leaps and bounds. Soon he would be ready for the grandline, but first he had two more oceans to visit!

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East blue, inside a one man ship, somewhere on the ocean

"Damn it, I'm all out of food again, even though I packed so much this time. Must be somehow connected with my growing metabolism. Hmmm..." Azul said while scratching his head in thought while browsing through the book on medicine for idiots his master had given him last year before... well you know, the shitshow.

"Guess I'll have to find an island nearby. Lets seeeee, taking the winds direction and my former position into consideration and multiplying that with the time and distance I've traveled since... alright, seems I'm not far away from Cocoyashi village on Konomi island, which seems to house some pirates at that! What a lucky coincidence hehe" Azul said to himself, since the day had become so much better with those news, as he was riffling through the bounty posters he had grabbed from a marine outpost in the south blue on his way to the east blue.

Soon after the island came into view and through his telescop, that Azul carried on his belt at all times, checked where to best land on the island, until something rocketed his boat slightly. Thinking he may have rammed a rock or something Azul linsed over the side of the ship to check for any damage but found none and no rocks were in sight. Frowning slightly Azul came upon an idea and rechecked the bounty poster for Arlong and, just as he suspected, his target seemed to belong to the fishman race, which he normally wouldn't really give a crap about but in this case it lead him to believe that some ennoying fly was messing with the control over his ship.

"Oh no, you won't!" Closing his eyes Azul focus inwards and try something he still had dificulties with, his conquerors haki. Embracing his inner flame and bringing its dominering spirit to the front of his mind, Azul let out a burst of slightly concentrated conquerors haki, which was alright for the moment when facing weak opponents, but when it came to stronger ones he still had alot of room to grow into. As if in response to his invisible command the body of a fishman floated to the oceans surface which, turning his feet into flames which billowed and yet still physically remained in the form of his feet, he picked up by the gruff of his neck and threw him onboard after which he followed the fishman.

'Now, time to talk, fishy' Azul thought and smacked the fishman into the face which caused said fishman to promptly wake up.

"Where am... who the hell are you?" the fishman asked, rubbing his swollen face, obviously in pain.

"Who the hell am I? Who the hell are YOU? You little shit tried to sabotage my ship so what makes you think I'll tell you anything? No buddy, you'll tell me what I want to know, afterwards I'll decide if you'll keep your life or not." Azul said to the fishman who frowned, clearly not believing that he would loose to a mere human, which he promptly tried to proof but was smacked so hard in the face that he flew 20 meters into the air before falling back down into the waiting hand of Azul who asked the fishman in an ennoyed voice: "You ready to talk yet fishy or do you want another serving?"

"I-I'll tell you what you want to know! Please, just don't kill me..." The fishman said in growing horror, now understanding that he kinda f.u.c.k.e.d up.

"So where does your boss, this 'Arlong' stay?" Azul asked while checking the bounty again for the dudes name since he didn't seem important enough for Azul to remember him.

"A-Arlong, the captain I mean, stays in Arlong Park. The big building over there with the shark-flag ontop of it."

"You guys have a park? The f.u.c.k do you have a park for? Are you selling rides on a rollercoasters there or something?" Azul asked with confusion written all over his face.

"Nono, you misunderstand. We have been here at Cokoyashi village for nearly a six years now and the inhabitants have to pay us money as tribute..." The fishman said while rubbing his hands together.

"Seriously? And why don't the marines sack you guys then? I mean you aren't really strong for that matter." Azul said, not really getting how that would be possible in a small blue, outside of the grandline where pirates took sometimes islands as their teritories and for a tribute protected the inhabitants from other pirates. Though Arlong wasn't nearly strong enough to be able to do something like that.

"Ye, well, Arlong made a deal with the marines and for a procentage of said tribute we are left to our own devices, you see."

"Ahhh, now it makes sense..." Azul said, now fully understanding the whole story. Truly, not only humans were possessed by greed.

'What a pity' Azul thought, 'could have been such a nice smackdown, but now they had to go and become that what I dislike so much. No matter, lets end this so I can find some worthy opponents at the very least, if there even are any on this god forsaken ocean...' Azul thought with increasingly darkening thoughts, which the fishman seemed to feel judging by the pressure you could see pressing the fishman into his place.

"P-Please, I ca-" *crack* *pshhh*, the fishman tried to say in his growing horror, before Azul snapped his neck with one fluid motion and threw the fishmans lifeless body over board.

'Alright, time to kill some fish...' Azul thought to himself while stearing his little ship before the gates of Arlong Park, breaking them into splinters with nothing but smash of his hand and entering to join the party...