First Battle

"Raise the sails! Set off!" Gladius waved his hand, and the family's men immediately lowered the sails. The ship slowly began to move into the distance.

Gray stood on deck, gazing at the waves rolling across the distant sea, his heart filled with anticipation.

He looked forward to the arrival of his first battle.

Ever since Roger ushered in the Great Pirate Era, the seas had been short on plenty of things—but never pirates.

Pirates—fearless, audacious men!

When they met someone at sea, they didn't care who they were. An encounter was exactly the sort of thing they loved.

And sure enough, less than two days after setting sail, Gray and the others came across a pirate ship adrift at sea.

"Which pirate crew is it?" Gray and the other two stood on deck, listening to the lookout's report.

"Reporting to Lord Gladius: it's the Black Hair Pirates, with a bounty of fifteen million Beli."

At that, Gladius immediately gave the order. "Get ready for battle!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Baby-5, watch out for yourself!" After giving Baby-5 that instruction, Gray was practically itching for a fight, both in his expression and his mood.

Whoosh, whoosh~

With a whirring sound, the Fuma Shuriken strapped to the back of his wheelchair began to rise into the air, spinning faster and faster as the magnetic field around it intensified.

Gray's achievement over the past two months was learning to freely control iron weapons—to spin them, make them fly, and attack with them.

There was nothing mysterious about it. He simply rotated the shuriken's magnetic field, using it to make the weapon spin, fly, and attack.

His technique was still immature, and his control range was limited. Otherwise, Gray would have liked to try out long-range attacks.

Still, even though he couldn't yet pull off the attacks he envisioned, he could freely control the shuriken within a thousand meters and make it fly and attack.

Of course, the farther away it was, the weaker the damage and the harder it was to control. The opposite was also true: the closer it was, the faster and easier it became.

"Magnetic Field Rotation—Meteor!"

It was only iron control like Magneto's, nowhere near the minimum standard for Magnetic Field Rotation. But a catchphrase had to sound impressive!

"Boss! There's a ship over there!"

The captain of the Black Hair Pirates was a textbook pirate, in his thirties or forties, with an eyepatch over one eye, a pistol in his left hand and a sword in his right. "What flag are they flying?"

"Boss, this is bad! It's the Donquixote Family's flag!" For pirates living in the North Blue, the Donquixote Family was no ordinary outfit to pick a fight with.

Unfortunately for Gray and the others, the Black Hair Pirates' captain was a fearless pirate.

Or, to put it another way, a pirate who didn't know any better.

"What are you afraid of?" After roaring at his men, Black Hair grinned cruelly. "We're out on the open sea! So what if we take them out?"

"Who do you think I am? I'm the captain of the Black Hair Pirates, with a bounty of fifteen million Beli!"

"Bring our ship alongside theirs!"

"Boys, once we've taken this ship, we're heading for the Grand Line!"

"Yeah!" Black Hair's words dispelled his men's fears. Once they robbed the ship and ducked into the Grand Line, they wouldn't have to worry about the Donquixote Family, back in the North Blue, taking revenge.

"Here they come?"

"I'm off!" Gray slapped the armrest of his wheelchair and shot into the sky, accompanied by two glowing-red Fuma Shuriken at his sides.

"Hey! Gray!"

"Gray-sama!"

"That kid—hurry up and follow him!"

"Yes, Lord Gladius!"

Whoosh, whoosh~

The shuriken spun at such incredible speed that friction heated the specially made Fuma Shuriken until they glowed red-hot.

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

Arriving above the Black Hair Pirates' ship, Gray's eyes immediately fell on the one-eyed man with black hair on deck, who looked like a nameless extra.

Whoosh~

The Fuma Shuriken spun incredibly fast, and its flight speed was nearly as great. In the blink of an eye, the one-eyed man with black hair, looking like a nameless extra on deck, had been decapitated.

"Bring out your captain!" Gray shouted as the other Fuma Shuriken flew off as well.

In only moments, the two Fuma Shuriken had killed all thirty pirates on deck.

And that wasn't all. The mast, captain's cabin, and deck were covered in sharp cuts.

"Where is he?" Landing beside a pirate who still had a faint breath left, Gray demanded, "Tell me, where's your captain?"

"Heh." Blood poured from the pirate's mouth. He clearly couldn't manage to say anything coherent.

But Gray took the pirate's final two words as mockery.

After all, to a modern man, "heh" was hardly a friendly thing to say!

"So stubborn, are you?"

Whoosh~

The Fuma Shuriken beside him flew over and ended the pirate's life.

"Is this crew one of those close-knit groups, too?" Thinking of how the pirate had kept quiet about his captain's whereabouts until the very end, Gray couldn't help comparing him to people like Gin.

People absolutely loyal to their captain!

Even considering how loyal pirates could be to their captains, Gray hadn't imagined that the man he'd taken out in a single blow at the start was the captain.

But who would believe that?

With his extra-like getup and getting taken out in one hit, who would've guessed he was the captain?

"Hey, Gray!" Just then, Gladius arrived with his men. "Boys, get ready for battle and search the cabins!"

"Gray-sama!"

"Ah! Baby-5, Gladius, I'm fine!" After greeting them, Gray explained, "Tell the men to be careful. I haven't found their captain!"

"He might be hiding in the cabins, waiting to ambush us. I can't fight properly in there!"

"Understood!" Gladius nodded. Just as he was about to issue an order, one of his men stepped forward.

"Lord Gray, this is the captain of the Black Hair Pirates!" The three of them followed the man's pointing finger and saw a headless corpse, with an eyepatched head lying beside it.

"This is their captain?" Gray was dumbfounded. A pirate with a fifteen-million-Beli bounty, and he was that weak?

Only then did Gray realize just how much he had grown!

"Subarashii! Gray-sama!" Baby-5 was already gazing at Gray with adoration.

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

"Boys, haul their treasure back to our ship!"

"Right away, boss!"

"Remember to take Black Hair's head with you, then collect the bounty!"

"Leave it to us, Lord Gladius!" As the underground king of the North Blue, the Donquixote Family didn't need its officers to handle pirate bounty claims.

Back on his own ship, Gray stood on deck and watched the men clean up the bodies. Only now did he finally come back to himself.

"So... I did all this?" The corpses and severed limbs on deck didn't make Gray feel sick at all.

Instead, he felt the benefits of power!

"I see! So I'm a cruel person, too?" He clenched his fist, feeling the strength in his body, and a twisted smile tugged at his lips. "This feeling... isn't bad!"

Everyone, help come up with a bounty epithet for the protagonist. The story's about to get to that part.

If you can't think of anything cool and imposing, then we'll follow the Marines' tradition and base it on a distinctive trait: Flying Wheel.