Chapter 59: First Steps in the Pirate World

Chapter 59: First Steps in the Pirate World

*Author's Note*

To those who asked the completely understandable question of, Why even learn from Mihawk at this point? The answer is that there is a difference between Human Swordsmanship and Anime Swordsmanship. The reason his style doesn't have a name yet is that it is not complete. He still has much to learn. Feel free to guess the name of his style. (It will be obvious in hindsight.)

Chapter 59 First Steps in the Pirate World

There were a great many benefits to having your own trailer in a carnival. In addition to having a private space to be alone, you also had a private space to not be alone.

Rayleigh rose from his bed as the morning light spilled through the trailer's windows in the crack between the curtains. The sixteen year old red-headed girl at his side stirred a bit but remained asleep, a lazy smile gracing her lips as her lithe form hid beneath the warm covers.

She was the ringmaster's daughter and she considered Rayleigh her stress relief partner. Such blatant objectification didn't stop him from playing her instrument like a concert violinist and eliciting a symphony of rapturous melodies from her with his bowstring. He still hadn't told her that the music she made when he played her was hidden with Force Muffle, so she always tried to remain silent, and each and every time she succeeded in failing, much to her own gratification.

Rayleigh did not use Force Muffle when beautiful local girls came to him after a show and asked to see his sword, nor did he hide the music their duets often generated from the surroundings. This usually caused stares of envy and admiration which were fine, but the stares of the bearded lady spoke of more which all eighteen of his Wills didn't want to think about.

Even knowing her inevitable fate didn't stop the fiery heir of the carnival from a weekly visitation. The best part was that because she assumed that everyone heard the music he played off her, when they didn't give her knowing looks or judgmental stares, she thought that they were playing ignorant for her sake, creating a little conspiracy that she'd never figure out.

It had been a few months since Rayleigh started the Swordsman Act and ticket sales had never been better. Rayleigh however declined any and all concessions since he did not intend to continue. He knew that his future absence would cause a drop in ticket sales, so the funds he refused to take would be used to hold the carnival over and could be saved up and used for the down payment of another Carnival Ride or attraction to balance it out. They were thinking about getting a merry-go-round or bumper car rink. New novel chapters are published on

Everyone knew that Rayleigh would be leaving soon, but the fact that he was basically donating what should have been his income to the future of the Carnival made it hard for anyone to dissuade him. Rayleigh considered more than once if the redhead's weekly visitations were her own idea or someone else's to allow him to form stronger ties to keep him here. Alas, they all knew that he only joined the Circus to learn from Swordsman, and as far as they knew, he was not getting out of Federal Prison anytime soon.

Rayleigh had in fact paid for Jacques' family heirloom to be reforged by a professional blacksmith that specialized in swords. The Cavalier's Sword was in a special container, along with the rest of Jacques' collection in a long term storage unit that took its monthly payment directly out of the account Book worm setup for his royalties from the books he'd written. Plenty of the books he wrote sold great, so the royalties from those alone would set him up for a long while.

After ensuring that Jacques' collection was well taken care of, he sent a letter to his imprisoned former teacher to inform him that everything would be well preserved and rust free when he got out. Rayleigh had no idea when or if Jacques would get out, but he had given the storage place specific instructions to turn the contents over to Jacques should he ask for it.

After getting up, Rayleigh got dressed and started his morning workout. It didn't take too long for his bedside partner to wake up and greet him with a sleepy, "Good morning."

Rayleigh replied back with a smirk, "Hungry?"

"Umm, yes. You cooking?"

"Not today. Too busy."

The redhead's pout was decidedly cuter than her father's, but still ineffective as he really was quite busy. Today was his last day here after all, so the pair made do with some toaster heated frozen waffles from his mini-fridge before he opened the door, confirmed the coast was clear, and sent her off silently back to her own trailer.

Like always, Rayleigh still assisted with the cleanup of the carnival while going to each carny and saying goodbye. When the bearded lady tried to give him an all encompassing hug, Rayleigh declined and vanished before her and went to visit everyone else. He even said his goodbyes, in public, to the ringmaster and his daughter after visiting their trailer.

The last goodbye was to Clint.

Understandably, Clint pointed out, "You know, you never did tell me where you were going. You told everyone else you were going to New York, but you never said that to me."

Rayleigh nodded, "I didn't want to lie to you. For the next couple of years, I'll be wandering around, and not just in the States. You know how easily I can pick up languages, so I can go anywhere."

At the mention of languages, Clint could only nod with a sigh. One of the reasons the Ringmaster let him do his own act was that it was a reward for the fact that Clint had successfully gotten his G.E.D. and Rayleigh had taught him more than just that. He was even able to teach him three languages with ease.

Clint asked, "Will anyone be able to contact you?"

"I've paid to set up a permanent P.O. Box and someone to look at it for me. Every once in a while I'll call that guy and ask him if I got any mail, but I doubt I'll even check more than once every couple of months." Rayleigh could pay for something like that to be set up by the Tavern, but he'd rather put the effort into doing it himself so he could spend his points on something better.

"What about your trailer?"

"On paper, I'm selling it to Rosaline and Bryce for $5000. But I'm actually just giving it to them."

Clint agreed that was a good idea. Clint got Jacques' trailer since the man never came back and Rosaline and Bryce, the acrobats, just had some kids and needed more room than their current trailer could afford. Their income had taken a hit since she couldn't perform while pregnant and needing more money while having a lower income makes everything worse, so few if any would complain about his decision.

The pair talked about big and small topics for two hours, deciding to continue until they ran out of things to say.

Clint stated, "I'll probably leave myself after a few more months."

"Oh? You gonna get a desk job?"

Clint snorted. "No way. But there are a lot of Archery competitions. The money won't be enough to live off, but if I show off enough, I'll get noticed and might be able to get some sponsors."

"You mean like Nascar? You'll get famous and companies will pay you to wear a patch or something in public, advertising their brand?"

"Yep. Think it'll work?"

Rayleigh felt a twitch in the Force and smiled. "Well, I think someone will notice you. Yeah, go for it." He didn't get any images or details, but he did get a distinctly good impression so he figured something would happen eventually.

After exhausting every subject they could think of, Rayleigh got up and walked away. Unlike with the other carnies, Rayleigh never said goodbye. He knew he'd meet back up with his friend one day.

Once every little detail had been taken care of, Rayleigh hopped on a bus to New York City. When he did finally return, he'd be coming back to the same location he left, and since Book worm technically paid for his training for him to be her bodyguard, he'd at least need to be able to return to New York quickly if it was required.

After a day and night of bus travel, Rayleigh found a spot near the edge of the city without witnesses and physically entered the Tavern. As usual, he looked around for some familiar faces and actually spotted a few sitting down at one of the wall side booths. The two noticed him and motioned for him to come over. He wasn't in a hurry, so he walked over and took a seat next to Miracle and Lord of Madness.

"Hey guys, how's life?" After he sat down, a bar maiden handed him his free glass of beer.

Miracle answered, "Well, it's not boring. I joined the Order of the Phoenix."

Lord of Madness snorted and asked, "Does membership come with a discount at Kentucky Fried Chicken?"

Rather than look insulted, Miracle answered with a smile, "No, but I was able to learn the Fidelius Charm."

That brought the pair up short. That ridiculous spell was perhaps the most broken piece of magic in the series.

Lord of Madness asked incredulously, "How? I heard no one could find that spell, no matter where they looked." They all heard about it in their third year when they learned how the Wizard MC's parents were killed.

Miracle nodded before answering, "Apparently, it's a Black Family Spell. Sirius was the caster for the Potters, that's why everyone thought he betrayed them, since he was both the spell's caster and secret keeper. At the time, he couldn't teach anyone else the spell without the Head of House Black's permission, but after he got out of Azkaban, he was the head, so he could teach it to whoever he wanted."

Rayleigh looked thoughtful for a few moments on that. Besides being the most broken spell, that spell also had the most plot holes of almost anything in the series, second only to Time Turners which Players could not use. There had always been questions on why it wasn't used to hide the Philosopher's Stone in the first book, yet Dumbledore could teach it to Mr. Weasley in the sixth book. It seemed that after Sirius died, Dumbledore could teach it to whoever he wanted.

Lord of Madness asked, "But why did he teach it to you?"

Rayleigh reminded him, "She did say she helped him in the 3rd year."

Miracle nodded, "Yeah, I helped him quite a bit before learning that the shaggy dog was a mass murderer, so when he asked what he could do to repay me, I asked for the Fidelius Charm. I can't teach it to anyone else, but I think I might be the only one who learned it. As long as none of the other Players ask for it, I might have a monopoly on that spell."

Rayleigh asked, "Got anything good to hide?"

"Just my garden," was her swift reply. It made the pair wonder what kind of treasures she grew in such a garden.

Rayleigh asked, "Did Ninja Lord join up before getting killed?"

Miracle rolled her eyes, "No, that dumbass set up a trap for Voldemort and tried to solo him. From what I heard, he learned the hard way that Magic Shields work on Jutsus."

Lord of Madness asked, "So that's it? That's how he died?"

Includes unlocking of Haki Talent

Cost: 23,110

Purchase

Yes|No]

Rayleigh wasn't the slightest bit surprised that the Identity would cost just about every Mission Point he'd accumulated in the last few years. Rayleigh had been doing 250~350 Point Missions every week over the last few years. Minus his daily food expenses and fighting Pitou monthly, he had saved 24,095 points. Red originally quoted that getting Mihawk as a teacher would cost 50,000 points, but since Rayleigh had some skill and he was only purchasing an identity that had conditions he needed to complete in order to get lessons, it was less than half the price.

Rayleigh asked, "How much will that money get me?"

Red answered, "A ship ride to the South Blue's equivalent of Logue Town and then some. You'll need to figure the rest out yourself."

"So I have to head to the Grand Line?"

Red smiled, "What, you think Mihawk reads news from the South Blue?"

Rayleigh accepted that this was a good point and clicked the Yes icon.

After confirming the purchase, Rayleigh turned back to smile at Miracle and Lord of Madness, with the latter responding with a bright smile of his own. With his curiosity getting the better of him, Rayleigh headed out of the Tavern toward his new life and stepped out the door.

After experiencing the ever familiar feeling of his senses whiting out and coming back once more, Rayleigh found himself on a bench, looking out at an open space with three boxing rings on the inside of a Gym. Men of various ages stood around either practicing, exercising, or watching the bouts from the gym members inside the rings.

The first thing Rayleigh did was try and use Haki. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. Entering the Hunter World unlocked the potential for Nen, but it didn't give it to him right away. The same was true for Haki. He unlocked the potential for it, but he still needed to turn it on. He wasn't concerned though. If willpower was the key, he had nothing to worry about.

Thinking over his willpower, Rayleigh did a mental check on his Wills and couldn't help but smile. Yep. His guess was correct. The eighteen Wills he formed all received a boost. He felt like it would be far easier to split them and reach thirty-two or more Wills in the future. He'd have to do a few more tests though to see the effect this would have overall and find out how much his physical strength had increased by.

"Hey, Billy. Check out who's smiling like a retard?"

Rayleigh looked over at a pair of teens approaching him. He recognized them both from his memories. The one who spoke was so fat that his neck could not be seen between his chin and his chest. His name was Tommy, and he was a Yes Man. His skinny friend/future boss was the son of a dirty merchant and something of a big shot. This teen had a bit of skill as a boxer and used it to break everyone he knew was below him to make himself feel bigger and better. He was Billy, and it seemed that Ray's smile had offended them both.

Rayleigh got up and asked amicably, "How can I help you two gentlemen out today?"

Billy sneered, "Well since you asked, I know exactly how you can help me. I heard you borrowed some money from Donny the other day. It just so happens that my wallet is a little light, so fork it over!"

That reminded Rayleigh of his backstory in this place. It seemed that his identity had a few problems.

The first was that he lived in a small space that belonged to this Boxing Gym. He practiced Boxing in public and swordsmanship in private, but to live and eat here, he basically worked on the premise as a punching bag. If someone wanted a sparring partner to punch, it was his job. Besides food and a roof, it didn't exactly pay well. The 2500 Berries he had weren't his savings, they were what he borrowed from a guy everyone knew was not the nicest fellow. Donny gave him the money and knew Rayleigh would never be able to pay it off with the compounded interest. He just assumed that Rayleigh would lose the money and be forced to work for him for free for the rest of his life.

Only Rayleigh knew that today was his last day here. He had trained enough and it was time to leave this island. The money he borrowed would never be returned, and there wasn't a thing Donny could do about it. No one expected Rayleigh to do a runner.

The reason that the previous Rayleigh intended to leave was that Karate Island was actually a terrible place to learn the sword. He could only learn the sword in private and no one openly taught or used a sword in public. Even in the streets, gangs and thugs used martial arts and fists, not swords or guns. This was encouraged as it made the people of this island hard and strong. If you couldn't keep up, you'd die. Even these punks in front of him were skilled enough to be ranked in national tournaments in the MCU. They were only a little better than average here, but that was still a lot better than being average.

Since the character he inherited spent most of his time practicing the sword, the former him was actually not that skilled at Boxing, so his prior self was used as a punching bag and measuring stick by the regulars.

Of course, that was before. Compared to what stood there now, he was a completely different person.

It was at this point that Tommy shouted, "Are you deaf or something you idiot? Why haven't you given Billy his money yet!?"

Rayleigh ended his recollection and looked over the pair of scrubs again, a slow smile forming once more on his face. Now he understood why the Pirate Players had so much fun here. The Tavern didn't care what you did to assholes, and this world was filled with them. The only problem was that Rayleigh couldn't think of what to do with these guys. There were just so many choices. He put all 18 of his newly strengthened Wills to the task and found the best answer.

Rayleigh replied, "Well, I can't just hand it to you, there's something I need to use it for. But there is something you can help me get, and I'd definitely be willing to give you everything I have for it."

Billy didn't expect a negotiation, but as the son of a merchant, his curiosity was strong enough to ask, "Oh, and what would that be?"

"Well, if you can deliver your mother's fine ass to my bed so I can make her call me daddy, I'd be willing to pay you a premium for pimping her out."

His father chose a trophy wife and though Billy had not inherited anything but her scrawny limbs, she was considered the number one Milf in the northern port of Karate Island for a reason.

Seeing the blank look on Billy's face, Rayleigh wondered if Billy .EXE had crashed. His lackey looked appropriately horrified though, so there was that. Still, Billy's brain did eventually reboot. The moment it did, he shouted, "YOU'RE DEAD!"

Billy reeled his fist back and launched a haymaker at Rayleigh's face. Rayleigh walked past him with a lazy half step and kicked Billy's foot out from under him, throwing him off his balance and causing him to crash into the bench Rayleigh had just been sitting on.

Billy's exclamation got the Gym's undivided attention, so every eye was on Rayleigh when he calmly walked over to the only empty Boxing Ring and said, "I've got a thousand Berries on me. Anyone can bet up to that amount and challenge me. If they win, they get what they bet. If they lose, I get their bet. Today's first taker is our very own, Billy."

By the time Rayleigh finished narrating his version of events, Billy had gotten up and ran over to the ring. He wasn't foolish enough not to hear Rayleigh's declaration, but he didn't plan to give any money even if he lost so it didn't matter. Not that he thought he'd lose.

Billy got into the ring and didn't even bother with any Boxing etiquette and directly slid forward to deal the heaviest body blow he could.

Rayleigh dodged with a little twist and delivered a slow looking uppercut which sent Billy a few feet off the ground before he landed on his back, unconscious.

Rayleigh looked over at the crowd and asked, "Who is next?"

One of the bulkier looking boxers, a dark skinned veteran in the gym said, "I'll play."

Rayleigh asked, "How much are you gonna bet?"

"One thousand of course. You got it on you?"

"Yep. What about you? Do you really have a thousand berries on you? If you don't let someone else come up."

The boxer glared harshly at Rayleigh and asked threateningly, "Are you saying I'm not good for it?"

Rayleigh looked at the unconscious Billy and said, "He hasn't paid me yet either. So to prevent losers like him from challenging me, pay up first. If you beat me, it's not like I can run away."

The boxer was dumbfounded at Rayleigh's use of logic. It was the weakness of muscle headed brutes, and it didn't hurt that Rayleigh implied that those who couldn't bring out the money first were losers. That caused the man to go back and speak with a few others, borrowing some money before returning to the ring and handing it to Rayleigh. It wasn't actually a thousand berries, but 800. Still, it was better than nothing.

Ray pocketed the cash and stood in a boxer's stance. A moment later, the man swung out a lightning like left hook, aiming precisely for Rayleigh's jaw. Rayleigh lifted his chin to dodge it and rushed forward, delivering another uppercut. Despite the fact that this guy was three times heavier than Rayleigh was, this uppercut neatly knocked him out too.

Rayleigh then looked out over the crowd, "Who is next? I have 2000 Berries now, so you can bet that much if you have it."

Ten minutes later, Rayleigh had five thousand berries in hand and the boss of the gym was lying unconscious on the mat in front of him. The man was far stronger than most boxers in the MCU, but his actual skill was worthless in comparison, so Rayleigh had nothing to learn by using Psychometry on his gloves. This Gym was far from the best on the island after all.

Seeing that Rayleigh had wiped out every one of the strongest members of the gym without breaking a sweat, no one stood in his way as he left the gym, cash in hand. Even the greedier members held back and plotted to ambush him at night or the next day. None of them even considered that Rayleigh would not be returning.

After hustling enough money to last a while without needing to commit any crimes, Rayleigh headed for the docks to get a ride off this island. On the way, he picked up a newspaper and looked over the front page. Unsurprisingly, it was a familiar face. The sixteen year old captain of the Wonder Pirates, Wonder Woman, had raided a merchant ship that had been protected by a small fleet of Marine Vessels.

Seeing the picture gave Rayleigh an idea that was accompanied by an unstoppable smile. Since these guys were famous enough to get on the front page, could he make the news if he played with them a bit? After all, a number of these guys still owed Rayleigh a debt, didn't they?

*Author's Note*

Rayleigh will not be joining the Strawhats. We had enough chapters of Rayleigh following the MC and going along with the plot. Now he'll do his own thing and get to play with the other Players.

After a lot of discussions about Haki, it was decided that it will share properties with Aura in the sense that skills that use it cannot be seen without awakening it. So if you have not awakened Haki, you will not see a guy's arm or sword turn black if he uses Armament Haki. If a sword attack uses Haki to cut at a distance, you won't see the energy wave of the attack unless you have awakened Haki. Also, those who have awakened Haki can see Aura, and those who have awakened aura can see Haki. Weapons that have undergone permanent 'blackening' are an exception. Anyone can see that those are black.