The First Battle

"Set sail!" Gladius waved his hand, and the family underlings immediately lowered the sails, the ship slowly moving into the distance.

Gray stood on the deck, gazing at the rolling waves in the distance, his heart filled with anticipation.

Anticipation for the arrival of his first battle.

In the Great Pirate Era started by Roger, the sea might lack many things, but it never lacked pirates.

Pirates—people with the audacity to defy the heavens!

When they met on the sea, they didn't care who you were; an encounter was simply a scenario they were all too happy to see.

And so, not two days after setting sail, Gray and his group encountered a pirate ship drifting on the ocean.

"Which pirate crew is it?" The three of them stood on the deck, listening to the report from the lookout.

"Reporting to Lord Gladius, it is the Black Hair Pirates, with a bounty of 15 million berries."

Hearing this, Gladius issued a direct order: "Prepare for battle!"

"Yes!"

"Baby-5, watch your safety!" After giving Baby-5 a quick instruction, Gray felt his eyes and his spirit brimming with eagerness.

Whir, whir.

As the sound rang out, the Fuma Shuriken hanging behind his wheelchair began to rise, spinning faster and faster along with the magnetic field.

Freely controlling iron weapons to spin, fly, and attack was the result of Gray's work over the past two months.

This wasn't some mysterious technique; it was simply rotating the magnetic field of the shuriken, using that field to drive the shuriken to spin, fly, and strike.

The technique was still immature, and the control range wasn't very far, otherwise, Gray would have liked to test out long-range strike methods.

However, even though he couldn't achieve his ideal strike range yet, within a thousand meters, the shuriken were under Gray's control and could fly and attack freely.

Of course, the further the distance, the lower the damage and the harder it was to control the shuriken; conversely, the closer they were, the faster and easier it became.

"Magnetic Field Rotation—Meteor!"

Although it was just controlling iron objects like Magneto and didn't reach the minimum standard of a true magnetic field rotation, the slogan had to be shouted loudly.

"Boss! There's a ship opposite us!"

The captain of the Black Hair Pirates was a standard pirate, thirty or forty years old, wearing an eyepatch with a gun in his left hand and a sword in his right. "What flag are they flying?"

"Boss, it's bad! It's the flag of the Donquixote Family!" For pirates living in the North Blue, the Donquixote Family was definitely not someone to be trifled with lightly.

Unfortunately, Gray and his group were unlucky; the captain of the Black Hair Pirates was a bold pirate.

Or, one could say, a pirate with absolutely no sense of the world.

"What are you afraid of?" After roaring at his underling, Black Hair revealed a cruel smile. "This is the open sea! Even if we finish them off, so what!"

"Who do you think I am? I am the captain of the Black Hair Pirates, with a bounty of 15 million berries!"

"Bring the ship alongside!"

"Boys, once we pull this off, we're heading to the Grand Line!"

"Oh!!!" With Black Hair's words, the underlings' worries vanished. Once they seized this ship, they would dive into the Grand Line, having no fear of retaliation from the Donquixote Family back in the North Blue.

"Are they here?"

"I'm off!" With a slap to the armrest of his wheelchair, Gray's figure shot into the sky, accompanied by two glowing red Fuma Shuriken at his sides.

Gladius: "Hey! Gray!"

"Gray-sama!"

"That brat, hurry up and follow him!"

"Yes, Lord Gladius!"

Whir, whir.

The rapidly spinning shuriken rubbed against the air, causing the specially crafted Fuma Shuriken to turn scorching hot and bright red.

"Pirates, let me see what you're made of!"

Arriving above the Black Hair Pirates' ship, the first thing Gray saw on the deck was the one-eyed Black Hair, who looked like a mere extra.

Whoosh.

The Fuma Shuriken not only spun at high speeds, but their flight speed was just as impressive. In the blink of an eye, the one-eyed Black Hair on the deck was decapitated.

"Call out your captain!" Following Gray's shout, the remaining Fuma Shuriken flew out as well.

In just a few moments, the two Fuma Shuriken had killed the thirty pirates on the deck.

Not only that, but sharp cutting marks were everywhere—on the masts, the captain's quarters, and the deck.

"Where is he!" Landing beside a pirate who still had a breath of life left, Gray demanded, "Tell me, where is your captain?"

"Heh..." Blood gushed from the pirate's mouth; he clearly couldn't speak clearly.

Gray interpreted the pirate's final two sounds as a direct mockery of himself.

After all, to a modern person, "Heh heh!" was hardly a friendly term.

"Still so stubborn?"

Whoosh.

The Fuma Shuriken beside him flew out, ending the pirate's life once and for all.

Is this pirate crew also the type that values unity? Gray wondered, noting that the pirate hadn't revealed his captain's location even at the very end.

Gray couldn't help but think of people like Agin.

People with such unwavering loyalty to their captain!

Even while contemplating the pirate's loyalty, it never crossed Gray's mind that the one he had insta-killed at the start was the captain himself.

Then again, who would believe it if he said so?

Dressed like a background character and taken out in one hit—who would ever guess he was the captain?

"Hey, Gray!" Just then, Gladius arrived with his men. "Lads, prepare for combat. Search the ship's cabins for any remaining crew."

"Gray-sama!"

"Ah! Baby-5, Gladius, I'm fine!" After greeting them, Gray explained the situation. "Tell the boys to be careful. I didn't find their captain."

"He might be hiding in the cabins to ambush us; it's hard for me to maneuver in there."

"Understood." Gladius nodded in acknowledgment. Just as he was about to issue orders, one of his subordinates stepped forward.

"Lord Gray, this is the captain of the Black Hair Pirates!" Gray and the others followed the subordinate's finger to see a headless corpse and a severed, one-eyed head lying nearby.

"This... is their captain?" Gray was dumbfounded. Was a pirate with a fifteen-million-berry bounty really this weak?

It was only then that Gray realized he had grown significantly.

"Subarashii! Gray-sama!" Baby-5 was already looking at Gray with adoring eyes.

Gladius patted him on the shoulder. "Not bad."

"Lads, move their treasure back to the ship!"

"Yes, boss!"

"Remember to take the Black Hair's head so we can collect the bounty!"

"Leave it to us, Lord Gladius!" As kings of the North Blue underworld, the executives didn't need to get involved in the triviality of exchanging pirate bounties.

Back on their own ship, Gray stood on the deck watching the subordinates clear away the corpses. Only now did he finally snap back to reality.

Is this... what I caused? The severed limbs and mangled bodies on the deck didn't make Gray feel sick at all.

Instead, he felt the benefits of power.

So that's how it is. Am I... a cruel person too? Clenching his fist and feeling the strength in his body, Gray pulled his lips into a twisted smirk. "This feeling... isn't bad at all."

Everyone, help me think of a bounty title for the protagonist; the plot is almost there.

If there isn't anything catchy and imposing, I'll follow the Navy's tradition and name him after his signature trait: Flying Wheel.