Loyalty

The blood stench from the docks was carried far out by the sea breeze.

When Mila rushed out of the alley, the taste of rust still lingered in her mouth.

She had already smelled the blood.

The scent drifting from the docks was stronger and thicker than the blood on her body, like an invisible mist spread across the sea.

She rounded the final corner, and the docks suddenly opened up before her. Her footsteps froze.

More than a dozen corpses lay scattered across the stone-paved road, sprawled in every direction.

Some lay on their backs, still gripping knives, half the blades in their hands and half lodged in their own ribs.

Some lay face-down, a slash running from shoulder blade to waist. Their clothes had been cut open, exposing wounds so deep that bone could be seen.

Some had collapsed beside the mooring posts, their necks twisted at impossible angles.

Some were half-submerged in the seawater at the edge of the dock. Blood flowed from their bodies, diluted by the tide into pale red strands that spread toward the depths of the sea.

At the far end of the berth, the white ash single-masted sailboat sat quietly moored.

A blood-soaked figure sat amid the pile of corpses.

He sat on the back of a face-down corpse whose back was twice the size of an ordinary man's, like a felled ox.

His sword was lodged in a crack between the stone slabs beside him, its blade coated in a layer of half-dried brown blood. His clothes no longer had any recognizable color. From collar to hem, shoulders to cuffs, they were soaked through with blood. Some parts had dried into hard crusts, while others were still dripping.

He kept his head lowered. His hair was matted into strands by blood and hung over his forehead. His chest rose and fell slowly, each breath deep and labored, accompanied by a dragging sound from deep within his lungs.

Mila took a step forward, her boot landing in a pool of blood.

The blood-soaked figure raised his head.

The same blood-red eyes. The same two black Tomoe. It was Damian.

Damian looked at Mila standing at the edge of the dock. Her hair hung loose, several blood-stiffened strands plastered to her cheeks. Her mouth and body were covered in blood, her clothes soaked from collar to hem.

He rose from the corpse, stepped over another body at his feet, walked up to Mila, and stopped.

He was more than half a head taller than her. He looked down at her while she looked up at him. Moonlight fell between them, turning the blood on both their bodies the same dark brown.

"Are you okay?"

They spoke at the same time, their voices overlapping—one hoarse and low, the other still slightly breathless.

Damian froze for a moment. Mila did too. Then they both laughed at once.

Damian extended his left hand. Blood stained the back of it and filled the gaps between his fingers, already congealed into black scabs.

He placed that hand on top of Mila's head, gently pressed down, and rubbed it. Her hair made a faint rustling sound beneath his palm.

"Of course your big brother is fine."

Mila stood there and let that blood-covered hand rub the top of her head.

The two looked like close siblings as usual, except they were covered in blood and surrounded by corpses.

In the shadows of the alley, Koldo's back was pressed tightly against the stone wall.

His legs trembled as his gaze swept over the pile of corpses on the dock. The longer he looked, the more terrified he became.

Koldo had spent seven years at Orange Town's docks. During those seven years, he had seen pirates fight each other and merchant ship guards clash with pirates on the docks.

But he had never seen more than a dozen corpses lying before a single ship while that ship had not even been splashed with blood.

He had guessed that these young people were no ordinary people. From the first day he saw that white ash ship, saw the red-and-white fan flag flying on it, and saw all four of them carrying swords at their waists, he knew it was no ordinary vessel and they were no ordinary people.

But he had guessed wrong. He had thought they were surviving descendants of some fallen merchant house, venturing out with the last of their belongings.

He had thought that white ash ship was their final bit of wealth. He had thought four people with four swords were merely armed for protection.

Then...

The Sea Serpent Gang, once one of Orange Town's dominant forces, was gone overnight.

From their boss to their thugs, not one remained.

He had to leave. He had to leave now.

His foot had barely shifted back half an inch when a hand grabbed the back of his collar.

He turned around.

Two pairs of blood-red eyes stared at him.

It was Barlow and Roy.

They dragged him onto the dock. Barlow released his collar, and he staggered forward two steps before his knees struck the stone pavement. He looked up.

Damian stood before him, with Mila at Damian's side.

Four pairs of blood-red eyes fell upon him from four directions. Koldo knelt amid four Sharingan.

Barlow's sword rested against his throat. The blade was icy cold, its edge pressed against the pulsing artery in his neck.

"Tell us everything you know."

Koldo's lips trembled. He had spent seven years at Orange Town's docks. He knew when he could play tricks and when he needed to make every word perfectly clear.

"My name is Koldo. I've been in Orange Town for seven years." He spoke quickly, but every word was clear.

"I do all kinds of work. If a shipowner at the docks can't find cargo, I help him find it. If a cargo owner can't find a ship, I help him find one. If unfamiliar outsiders want to understand the rules of the docks, they come to me. They ask questions, I answer them, for a separate price. If someone's ship has changed flags, if someone's warehouse receives visitors at night, if someone says something in a tavern—I sell it if there's a buyer."

He paused.

"When you docked yesterday, I saw you by the pier. I've been in Orange Town for seven years, and I'd never seen a flag like that. I went to the Sea Serpent Gang. They were the biggest force at Orange Town's docks. They had their hands in everything—collecting protection fees at the docks, taking cuts from the warehouses, and sometimes dealing in 'cargo.' I told them a stranded fish had arrived at the docks."

He lowered his head until his forehead nearly touched the stone.

"I guessed wrong."

Barlow's sword remained at his throat.

Roy's voice came from beside him, low and casual.

"Kill him?"

Mila used her left hand to tuck the hair hanging before her face behind her ear. It was stuck together with blood, and she had to try twice before she managed it.

"I don't mind."

Barlow did not answer. His gaze shifted from Koldo to Damian's face.

Koldo had sharp instincts. He raised his head but kept his body bent, moving his eyes away from Barlow's sword tip and toward Damian's blood-covered boots.

"Sirs, I call myself Orange Town's know-it-all, and no one would dispute it. I've been around for years and know quite a few people."

He slammed his forehead against the stone pavement with a heavy, solid thud.

"You gentlemen have just arrived and have already wiped out the Sea Serpent Gang. Why not let this humble one guide you in taking over their territory and continuing to grow? I will serve with all my strength to atone for my offense."

Damian took a step forward. His boot struck the stone pavement and stopped before Koldo's bowed head.

"Koldo."

Koldo raised his head, though his body remained bent.

"Look into these eyes."

Koldo raised his gaze, moving it up from Damian's boots, past the blood-soaked hem of his clothes, past the right hand hanging at his side, until it finally settled on Damian's face.

Those eyes shone under the moonlight, blood-red with two black Tomoe in each. In all his life, he had never seen eyes like them.

Damian turned slightly.

"Look at that flag."

Koldo's gaze fell upon the top of the mast. The flag was sometimes pulled taut by the sea breeze and sometimes folded over itself, but no matter how it folded, its red-over-white colors remained striking under the moonlight.

He had spent seven years at Orange Town's docks. In those seven years, he had seen countless flags. He had seen every one of them, recognized every one of them, and knew who stood behind every one of them.

He did not recognize this flag, but after tonight, he would never forget it for the rest of his life.

Damian's voice fell from above.

"Look at this emblem."

His voice was low, the same as always.

"Remember what you said."

Koldo's gaze moved from the flag back to those blood-red eyes.

"Pledge eternal loyalty to Uchiha."

The docks were silent for a long time as the sea breeze carried the smell of blood toward the ocean.

In the distance, the lights of Orange Town went out.

The whole town seemed to know that something had happened at the docks tonight. Do not go outside. Do not open the windows. Do not look in that direction.

Koldo's forehead pressed against the stone pavement. His voice came muffled through the cracks between the slabs.

"Pledge eternal loyalty to Uchiha."