A Deal and a Desperate Situation

Vidal really had no idea what level his strength had reached. He needed an all-out battle to assess it.

"By the way, Issho, do you want to join the Marines too? I can have my father assign you directly to headquarters. Once I graduate from the special training camp, come be my adjutant."

Vidal finally said what he had been holding in for a long time. If he had the means, he would have wanted to bring Issho into the special training camp too.

"No, I haven't finished visiting the places I want to see." Issho shook his head, choosing to refuse just as he had a few years ago.

Vidal wasn't surprised by the answer, but he was still a little disappointed. Sure enough, he didn't have the legendary aura of a king.

"Vidal, before you leave for Marineford, I want to fight you!" Issho suddenly proposed, his expression solemn.

"Why?"

Vidal didn't understand, but he was eager to try. Perhaps a fight with Issho would let him go all out.

"To see how we measure up to each other now. After you graduate from the special training camp, we'll fight again."

"Sure!" Vidal immediately accepted the challenge, then made a suggestion of his own. "Don't you love gambling? How about we make a wager?"

"What kind of wager?" Issho looked at him. He did like gambling.

"If I win the first fight, you'll join the Marines and come help me when I'm promoted to Marine Admiral."

"If I win the second one too, you'll join the Marines earlier, when I'm promoted to Marine Vice Admiral. How about it?" Vidal made no secret of his goal.

"And what if you lose?" Issho asked with a smile.

"Then I won't insist on you joining the Marines," Vidal said brazenly, without a trace of shame.

"That's not fair." Issho pointed it out bluntly. Vidal asked, "Then what do you want?"

"I haven't thought of anything. I only wanted to see how strong you are," Issho said. "If I win, let's say you owe me a favor."

"Sure, no problem." Vidal agreed at once. This was a favor owed to Fujitora Issho. It looked like he was getting the short end of the deal, but he was actually making a killing.

What he feared most was that their relationship would grow more distant as time passed.

Huh, why did that sound so gay?

"Get ready. We're almost at Garuzburg Island."

On Garuzburg Island, Bullet had already waited a full day for reinforcements.

When the first half-day passed without any support, headquarters told him to wait another half-day. He promptly crushed the poor Den Den Mushi.

He was now hiding in the mountain forest in the dead of night, his scar-covered upper body bare. He had long since torn off his uniform because it was in tatters.

Meanwhile, soldiers of the North Garuzburg Kingdom, along with all kinds of mercenaries and bounty hunters, were hunting him across the mountains.

As for the troops under his command, they had all been wiped out not long into the first half-day.

Daybreak was approaching, and once visibility improved, his situation would become even more difficult.

The biggest problem was that his body, after more than a day of intense fighting, was already exhausted and tormented by hunger and thirst.

Exhaustion was manageable, but hunger and thirst were a serious problem!

"Damn it, don't let me get back alive, or sooner or later I'll make you all pay!"

Breathing heavily, Bullet leaned against a thick tree trunk and looked up at the bright Milky Way, silently swearing an oath.

He wasn't stupid. He had probably been betrayed again, and by even more people this time.

But his immediate priority was to stay alive.

"Hm, what's that?"

He didn't know how his eyes had caught it. As he kept an instinctive watch on his surroundings, he suddenly noticed something blue illuminated by moonlight in the undergrowth nearby.

Bullet tensed his body and sharpened his senses. He walked over cautiously and gently parted the weeds and strange green plants.

He found a fruit-shaped object, navy blue all over, its surface covered in bizarre black patterns and raised shapes of triangles, squares, circles, and the like.

"Can I eat this thing?"

He knew Devil Fruit Users existed. Not only did he have comrades in the army who were Devil Fruit Users, but the enemy country also had them from time to time, though most were Zoans.

But he had never seen a Devil Fruit with his own eyes, so he didn't recognize it at first. Still, it certainly looked like a fruit.

Its color and appearance were too strange and vivid, though. Anyone with a bit of common sense knew it was best not to touch anything too brightly colored in the wild.

Most of them were poisonous!

In the end, Bullet picked it up anyway and kept it for later. If he really reached a dead end, who cared whether it was poisonous?

"Someone's coming!"

Amid the chirping of insects and birds around him, he suddenly detected faint footsteps. He quickly grabbed the fruit and ran deeper into the forest.

Right now, he only hoped to find a clean stream or a fruit tree bearing sweet fruit. Failing that, some wild animals would do.

But since he couldn't light a fire, he would have to eat their flesh and drink their blood raw!

More importantly, he had to find a hiding place where no one could find him for the time being. Otherwise, even if he caught a wild animal, he wouldn't have the time or opportunity to eat it.

All in all, the situation was dire!

Trees filled the mountain forest. In the darkness, their densely packed branches looked like twisting venomous snakes or terrifying ghostly hands.

Bullet didn't need to figure out where he was. He only had to adjust his direction as he ran, guided by the sounds around him and his own instincts.

That was how he had avoided his pursuers before, but this time, the ones behind him were clearly different!

He might not have eyes in the back of his head, but he had a strange feeling that something was rapidly approaching him.

He trusted that feeling. It had saved him countless times over the years!

"I can't shake them! Why?!" Bullet stopped, panting. Years of fighting had made him as good as a human computer at monitoring his own body.

He knew he couldn't keep running. His body was already utterly exhausted, hungry and thirsty. If he kept wasting his strength like this, he wouldn't even have the energy to fight back later!

Rather than do that, he might as well wait where he was, use the time to steady his breathing and recover some strength, then kill everyone chasing him!

His gaze fell on the blue fruit in his hand. It seemed... the time had come to eat it.

There was no such thing as hesitation in Bullet's nature. He quickly brought the fruit to his mouth, opening it at the same time to reveal two rows of white teeth.

But just then, a black shadow flashed past overhead even faster, and the fruit in his hand vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Who's there?!"

Startled, Bullet looked up, his expression grim, only to discover that the blue fruit had been caught by a branch and was hanging high in the tree.

Before he could think any further, hurried footsteps sounded ahead of him. A tall, dark figure swiftly leaped onto the trunk of a large tree.

I know I shouldn't have done this. I don't have many chapters saved up as it is, and here I am posting on a whim. But when I saw it was past seven, I figured there should be plenty of traffic now and couldn't resist posting it. Sigh.

By the way, is my writing not very good? Why hasn't the signing message arrived yet? I'm starting to lose confidence. Please give me more recommendations. Maybe if this book makes the new releases chart, the message will come!

There'll be another chapter at 12:05. Also, could everyone leave more comments and such? You probably have no idea how many times I refresh the comment section and this chapter's comments every day.