"So you think it is time for you to leave our village, and go on a journey?"
Sear had finally told Dojo Master Koushirou what had been in his mind for a long time.
He Went on to Say, "Naturally, I have never wanted to stay my whole life in the village. The world is huge and I want to explore."
"Hmmm.." Koushirou locked eyes with the young man sitting next to him.
Honestly, he knew it would come to this one day. "You are also probably having trouble improving your skills, so indeed leaving and doing some exploring could be a good idea.. fine, do as you wish."
"Thank you!.. Thank you for always taking care of me and showing me how a sword is supposed to be swung. I promise I will properly use those skills and not shame you."
Sear couldn't hold back his emotions after his conversation with his sensei. He ran back to the cabin, where he had all the memories with his late father.
As he wouldn't be returning to this place for the foreseeable future, he tidied up the place, cleaning all the dust.
Evening came, and he slept that night, a deep and peaceful sleep.
The next day, he woke up early and arrived at the shores.
He hadn't expected many people to show up, as only a few knew of his departure today, at least from him directly.
Yet opposite to his expectation, many people indeed came to see him off.
The aunty that raised him when he was very young, her entire family, the old shopkeeper, Zoro, Kuina, Kyoushirou, his fellow trainees and people from the dojo, old man Kozaboro and so many others too.
'Zoro that rascal couldn't keep his mouth shut' Sear awkwardly waved his hands as he hopped onto the boat tied to a stake at the small harbour.
This boat, about the size that's enough to accommodate half a dozen people, was bought with the money, he earned by loaning the allowances he received from the government after Jacob's passing.
After cutting the rope and completing the final preparations, he shouted, "Everyone let's meet again, someday."
And from there he set out for the grand journey to the unknown seas.
—In the unknown sea, Sear wasn't clueless regarding his destination. He had all the supplies he needed for the next few months; including food, water and clothes for different weathers.
Naturally, he also had the most important things to have for a voyage in the vast oceans, those were of course a compass and maps.
Sear had taken out his map and was looking carefully at it at the moment.
"Now that I have left the island, I have many things I want to do, but how do I even go about starting this adventure?.. Right!, Master Kyoushirou!!, he gave me the location of a branch of the revolutionaries. I should probably set out for there first. It's also nearby."
Sear attempted to sail the ship in the right direction, "sigh! no amount of practice is enough to steer the ship for hours on end. doing this alone is exhausting. man, I need to recruit a helmsman, a cook and especially a navigator."
While one of his hands was on the steering wheel adjusting the rudder at the back of the ship, he constantly looked back and forth between his compass and the sails, trying to gauge the wind speed and direction.
(A/N- Ships aren't exactly my speciality, so I might make some mistakes, here and there.)
Eventually..
"Oh! is that another boat?, there's two! wow lucky, I can ask them directions.. I might be on the wrong route."
"oii oiii!!" Sear signaled and in no time, the two boats, each the size of his own, came right toward his direction.
'They aren't friendly are they' he came to realize, seeing what type of people were on the boats.
These almost a dozen ruffians all had disturbing grins plastered to their faces.
A hyena-like slithery thug pointed his weapon at him and said, "Hahaha give us all the valuables you have.. even the ship, we will gladly take it, if you aren't fast."
"Why ask? won't you just kill me regardless in the end?" Sear scoffed.
"We might spare you. They call us the righteous pirates, look we don't even have a flag, right guys?" this particular thug appeared to be the leading figure among the group.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!"
"What a funny group!"
Suddenly a thug, struck by something hard, like the scabbard of a sword, flew and fell into the water.
??
The surrounding became eerily quiet for a second.
—That day, loud terrible sounds, cries that were jarring to any unfortunate listener, could be heard in the middle of the ocean.
"Enough enough please, I can't bear this torture any more" one of the hooligans begged.
"Yes please spare us" another hurriedly added after his partner.
Sear narrowed his eyes and spoke with authority.
"Is this all you got?!.."
—The hunter became the hunted. As not only had he beaten them to a pulp, he also forced them to hand over all their possessions, though the total loot amounted to mere 300,000 belly.. Sear's attention however was fixed on something else entirely.
"I might let you all live if you guys happen to have something I am looking for"
He jumped to the back of the pirates' boat in a single leap.
There, attached at the back— "It's an engine!. As I suspected, it was the sound of a propeller hitting against the water. how convenient. supply of engines is controlled by the government so I didn't get my hands on any. but is this detachable?"
. . . .
Although he asked something, the pirates appeared dazed and confused.
"I asked something!!"
The supposed leader was the one to answer, "Oh yes sir, it's detachable!! whatever you want from us, belongs to you, please just let us go.."
"Alright "
The pirates went on to safely remove the engine. It was adjusted there very sloppily in the first place and only one of the boats had it, so the work was done fairly quickly.
In the vast oceans, the scarce birds passing through the sky could observe someone nonchalantly sailing the boat, whistling a tune.
♪ ♪ ♪. ♪ ♪ ♪. ♪ ♪ ♪.
Before he let the pirates go, Sear didn't forget to question them about the fuel source used in the engine.
"To think the fuel is actually a special kind of fish oil. it's weird however many times I think about it. I did get two barrels of it from those guys but wonder how long a tank full of it lasts"
Sear exclaimed while briefly looking back toward the cockpit where the engine was kept. There was no way he could put that bad boy into his boat without the help of an expert.
He also forced out the secret regarding how they got their hands on a motor engine despite the government restrictions.
"Logue-town, huh!? now there's one more reason why I must go there. hopefully I can find that engineer. they did say it was pretty hard to meet him, but who knows I might get lucky."
He had thought of asking the wannabe pirates about the directions too, but then again, deeming it too risky to believe sensitive information told by these thugs, he merely questioned them briefly about the nearby islands.
Half believing the information he got, Sear was on his way to his destination.
That night, his first in the sea alone, disaster struck.
________