Natural Enemy 3-1

“F is for Friends who do stuff together…”

Strings fought back no matter what he did, the guitar off-key under the not-so-gentle attempts from Kai’s fingers. All five digits may have been strong enough to leave indents in iron but they really weren't doing much to keep the chords sounding good.

Hell, they were barely managing to make noise that barely passed for music. 

His voice, on the other hand…

“U is for U and Me…”

His voice was just as bad; a raspy teenage croak that couldn't find a pitch with a map and a flashlight.

No matter what, Kai kept playing though, singing to himself as the Naruto limped its way into a new port.

His bright orange skiff was still listing to the side, way harder than he’d like and far more than he felt at all comfortable with. Still strumming and humming, he tried his best to play and sing over the grating shudder running through the hull that rattled the bones in his teeth. It was almost as bad as the same vibration that ran through the boat anytime he attempted anything more than a gentle lazy cruising speed. The makeshift patch he’d fashioned from salvaged driftwood and tar was a temporary fix, and not even a good one — pretty much just a dirty bandage on a broken bone.

And not even a clean break, either.

Fuckin’ pirates.

It’d been a good three weeks on the open ocean since the fight with Beula came to an end, her freakshow crew somehow escaping in the chaos before Kai could bring them in too. Doesn’t matter, though.

It really didn’t, especially since Beula’s big ol’ bounty had been collected, a fat stack of Beri sitting heavy in his bag. When you added that on top of all the other bounties from the last three weeks, Kai knew he’d made solid bank, a crazy amount stacked up and sitting tight.

Unfortunately, though, it hadn’t all been smooth sailing.

Literally.

His baby had paid the price for each one of those bounties. Every fight since the whale lady had taken a little more out of the orange wood, chipping away at the polish until the Naruto looked less like a prize and more like a survivor.

Kai patted the side of his baby boy. Not an easy three weeks for you, huh?

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

It hadn't been an easy three weeks for him, either.

He hadn’t thought being a bounty hunter would be easy, exactly, but Kai had definitely underestimated the West Blue. The place was just full of people who thought they were the main character, freaks and crazies who thought a weird outfit and a gimmick made them invincible. 

Like the guy with the tuning fork. 

That fuckin’ guy. 

Captain Uno Forte of the One Note Pirates had been a bitch and a half to deal with. A skinny, twitchy dude with a barrel chest that made him look like a walking lollipop, he ran around in a bright red tailcoat that made him look like he was about to conduct an orchestra.

The fight with him had stretched out way too long, that giant tuning fork he swung around like a baseball bat making Kai’s vision blur and his stomach flip. And the one time he’d blocked a hit from Kai’s fist, the soundwave had sent Kai rocking back, brain rattling against his skull as the world spun.

It was sonic hell, fighting when your balance kept getting ripped away from you.

“Water Gun…!” But you didn't need perfect balance to shoot. "Finger Flood!"

A barrage of high-pressure water shots ripped from his fingertips like a machine gun, tearing through the conductor’s coat and dropping the orchestra loser before he could strike another chord.

Then there was the fuckin’ gambler guy. A wiry, hyperactive freak with sharp pointed teeth, he wore a flashy gold shirt that hurt the eyes and had his blue hair gelled straight up into a hard shark fin that was as sharp as it looked. 

…somehow.

He never stopped moving, and he never stopped laughing either; the sound from his mouth like nails on a chalkboard.

Kai had traced Captain Donny “Sharper” Fin of the Card Shark Pirates into a town on Chance Island, the ‘half’-fishman halfway through holding up a casino when a Breaker Fist had taken out half the guy’s crew.

He expected the guy to be like Beula when he heard about him, another Fishman throwing his weight around. Kai had even made sure he was ready and willing to throw out another Heavy Water Fist.

But Donny was nothing like Beula. 

Sure, he was strong enough.

But where Beula was a menace of a whale-woman that hauled around anchors, Donny was a psycho of a shark-man that threw playing cards. 

Razor-sharp, steel-edged cards that cut through the Naruto’s sail and sliced nasty lines across Kai’s cheek. The cackling card shark was too fast to hit with a standard blast, dancing around the harbor every time Kai had tried. So, after wiping the blood from his face, Kai had gone another way. 

"Water Whip!" The liquid lashed out, forming a solid flexible line to wrap around the fin-head's ankle mid-jump. With a grunt, Kai had yanked the guy clean out of the air and sent him slamming into a brick wall with a crunch that was oh-so-satisfying.

Not all of them were fast, though. 

No, some of the pirates Kai took on were just dense. Like the bowling guy. 

Captain Keggle Bowman of the Ten-Pin Pirates was shaped like the black ball on his ship’s Jolly Roger, the bald man almost perfectly circular. Squeezed into an ugly, striped bowling shirt, the guy treated the whole fight like a round, his men olishing heavy bowling balls before they passed them onto Keggle.

And then Keggle sent them flying.

Each throw came with a booming laugh and every impact was a cannonball, one of them managing to take out a decent chunk of the Naruto’s hull, orange wood splintering under the impact. 

“My baby!” Nobody touched the boat. 

Launching himself with a full-power geyser, Kai had charged the round man, ignoring the next iron ball that grazed his shoulder, and got inside the guy's guard. "Water Fist: Roll…!" The move was brutal as it was hard, a combo of hooks carrying a small shockwave of water that vibrated through layers and layers of fat. “Tide!”

The last had sent Keg flying.

And then, just last week, his last bounty had been another annoyance.

The baker. Where Keggle was wide, Captain Don Cannoli was a big bastard all around. Built like a brick oven stuffed into a pinstripe suit, the guy wore a tall chef’s hat and chomped hard on a chocolate cigar.

The guy was apparently related to one of the big mafia families in the West Blue, because apparently the West Blue had a mafia. And he seemed really proud of that fact, the way he’d walked around with a too-big rolling pin made all out of iron.

He didn't just have a pin, though. 

Kai learned pretty quick during their fight that the guy also kept a big ol’ tommy gun on him, the heavy weapon firing jawbreakers of all things. As silly as it sounded, the hard candy still managed to hit like lead bullets. Pinned behind a fruit stand, supersonic jawbreakers shredding the wood and raining splinters down on his bucket hat, Kai had squeezed his eyes shut and pulled on the water inside him.

Condensing it around his hand until the liquid was the size of a grapefruit, Kai jumped up and swung out, the compact water fist flying like a fastball. "Baby Breaker!" 

Don Cannoli didn’t have much to brag about when he woke up missing teeth in a Marine cell.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

All that time island-hopping across the West Blue had taught him a lot. Asking questions had gotten him even more info; like about Devil Fruits, news about pirates, and exactly how frickin’ weird the West Blue was. Why is there a king named Ham Burger?

Most of all, though, it had taught him one hard but simple lesson: a bounty hunter was only as good as his ride. And right now, his ride was on life support.

Which is why he’d spent the last five days navigating all the way here.

Scuttle Town.

Built right next to a place called The Pirate Graveyard — emphasis on The — Scuttle Town stood out even from a distance as a jagged scar on the ocean where hundreds and hundreds of ships had come to die and rot. According to the bartender with the missing ear three islands back, Scuttle Town was apparently the only place for a hundred leagues that had shipwrights who didn’t waste your time with permits or asked where the money came from. Kai figured he could believe that as he looked around the town, eyes tracking the skeletons of galleons, sloops and caravels. So many ships poked out from the murky water, wood corpses up against the rocks that poked from the small island and splintered masts pointing at the gray sky. 

Apart from that, though, it didn’t seem like it was all that bad.

Sure, the air tasted of rust and brine and sure maybe something bitter and chemical on top of all that… that… that… 

A cough tore from Kai’s throat, his nose wrinkling as he shook his head. What was I saying again? Train of thought already lost, the fourteen-year-old bounty hunter cleared his throat and focused on guiding his skiff into Scuttle Town proper.

The strap dug into his shoulder as he put the guitar on his back, but Kai couldn’t really care about that. No, he was too focused on something else, the feel of the water in this place just weird… his senses on high alert, the static under his skin humming a low, steady warning.

It was sick, for one. 

Not sick like a person, but sluggish and heavy; the whole place thick with oil, blood, and worse things. It kinda made sense when you looked at how the rest of the town was built, though, a bunch of the high-up walkways made from lashed-together masts swaying over the black water as people made their way across.

Huts and storefronts carved directly into the upturned hulls of frigates, smoke puffing from chimneys as the residents and visitors of Scuttle went about their day. Hell, the center of the whole town was the rotting belly of some warship, its name too old and faded to even show up anymore even as the ship itself dominated the skyline.

Kai shrugged to himself as he finally moored the Naruto at a rickety dock, battered wood groaning under his weight as he stepped off.  A few pairs of eyes flicked his way, Kai not missing the curious faces sizing him up and doing the math as they looked him down. 

Try me. One hand went up and pulled his bucket hat down lower, brim shading his eyes as he slouched his shoulders. I dare you.

"Hey, kid."

Someone immediately dared.

Kai looked up as a guy stepped out of the shadow of a leaning mast. Tall, stringy, and with a bandana covering the lower half of his face, the guy eased over with a raised eyebrow and a voice calm enough to almost make you miss the rusted cutlass on his shoulder.

"You lost? Port fee's ten thousand Beri. Payable to me."

Kai let out a long breath, air whistling through his teeth. "Man, I was gonna just pay whatever the dock master asked, like… eventually, but now y’all starting with the tolls. I ain't even seen a sign."

"I'm the sign.” Bandana-man stepped closer, a second shadow slinking off from the wall behind him. “Pay up, or we take the boat."

Kai looked back at the Naruto, his baby’s patched hull staring back.

He looked back and stared back at both men. “I hear you, I’m just sayin’ tho… boat’s already sinkin’. Maybe don’t stomp on the guy tryin’ to fix it first. Try and take it after I’m done.” The offer was as much a dare as anything else. 

The stringy guy laughed, the sound only half-muffled by the bandana. "Funny kid. Grab him, Jace."

The second guy lunged, hands first.

Kai raised an eyebrow, the same moment as he raised one hand. “Volley Dump.”

Five fingers and palm erupted outward, water bluer and cleaner than anything in the harbor bursting out and catching the rushing thug square in the jaw. With a sound like something breaking, the guy flipped head over heels, out cold before his head hit the wood.  

The stringy guy froze, cutlass suddenly looking very heavy on his shoulder as his eyes dropped down to his body.

"Like I said…”

Bandana-man looked up again, cutlass hanging loose as he stared at the fat kid with a guitar and a bucket hat walking past him.

“Try and take it.”

He left the toll collector standing there and walked deeper into Scuttle Town.

Let’s get you fixed, bud.