Just as the fighting spirit of Ahua and the others grew stronger, a voice rang through their souls, instantly calming them.
"Don't come up. Carry on exploring. I'll be done here soon. This is just an unexpected sparring match."
"It's Mr. Kuta."
"It's Kuta."
Hearing Kuta's voice, they all pictured him at once.
"Yohohoho! So it's just sparring! You scared me to death."
Brook raised a hand to wipe nonexistent sweat from his forehead, then laughed and added another terrible joke. "Though I'm already dead, and all that's left of me is a skeleton! Yohohoho!"
"Unexpected, is it?"
The tension left Issho's face, and an inscrutable smile touched his lips.
He had joined Kuta's ship on short notice, but after spending time with these young people, he had become good friends with Kuta's crew.
Most of the time, he remained an observer. In his spare moments, though, he chatted and played cards with them, telling them stories from his travels around the world. They, in turn, were happy to hear his stories and his views on right and wrong.
Mr. Kuta had nothing to do with the Pirates Issho described as "not killing indiscriminately," but Issho could still see that this group was genuinely different from an ordinary pirate crew.
How different?
Well...
They were more like the Adventure Crew they so often mentioned.
Rather than pirates, they were a band of adventurers gathered to travel the world and weather whatever storms came their way.
"Slow. Far too slow."
Kuta watched Kratos. His right hand seemed to move slowly, yet it was as if it pierced through space. Every thrust of Kratos's spear appeared to land directly before Kuta's fingers, rather than being caught by them.
He stretched out his left hand and yawned, taking the opportunity to tell