Chapter 18

West blue, Las Camp island, capital

Las Camp. An island whose names origin had been buried beneath the thick concrete that nowadays plastered the capitals city and welcomed its unsuspecting visitors with open arms only to pull them into the morast that lurked in the cities shadows, namely the underworld, haven to mafiosi, weapons dealers, drug sellers, slave traders and all the sc.u.m from the world. Las Camps name at first only discribed the gangs that regularly met on this island to trade with each other or settle problems with one another but soon enough the mafiosi had arrived and under the guise of bringing the misfits of society into their 'families' had build an imperium of illegality from which even the top of the top of society profited, the tenryuubito.

So it came to no surprise when the first to arrive at the bar Azul was staying at were the mafiosi, after him having collected all the bounties from there. Why they even bothered to put them up was beyond him. Maybe a trap to lure in unsuspecting bounty hunters? 'Mee, who cares...' Azul thought to himself while not being effected by the tenseness that had descended on the street after the mafiosi had given their full attention to him. The tension grew and one or the other mafiosi had already pulled out a gun or sword, obviously preparing to take the young mans life if so ordered.

The tension was broken by a voice coming from the middle of the mafiosi, which caused them to step aside, making way for their padre. The man that came into Azuls vision was a rather pudgy individual with a black sound with white stripes going down vertically adorned with a black hat on and a lit cigar in his mouth.

"So you are that bounty hunter my men told me about... Aren't you a bit ambitious for a man your age? Not that I can't appreciate ambition when I see it. Why don't you join my family? You could become someone great you know?" The man said while puffing his cigar with a grin, confident that the young man would soon be joining his crew which would after all in a few years set sail to the grandline and leave this god forsaken island behind.

But against his expectations the young man reacted a little differently from what he had presumed.

At first a slight twitch started to move the young mans eyelid which spread from there to his mouth which soon formed into a broad grin before the young man buckled over in roaring laughter, filling the whole street with it which was kinda contra productive to the padres musings on his future endeavors that would lead him to the top of the food chain. After all he knew exactly how the game was played having spent his whole life in contact with the underworld.

"Me, joining y-you? hahahahaha, please, mercy! hahahahaha" Padre twitched slightly in ennoyance at the welps audacity which soon registered in his mens angry faces that eluminated the streets with their red faces.

"How dare you mock the padre! Have you no respect for those more powerful than you?! You should take this chance to rise to greatness!" One of the padres men yelled, venting some of the frustrations they all felt. After all with his laughter the young man had literally spat on their decisions they had made from joining their padre.

"Puuh, what a workout. Ahhh, apologies gentlemen, I didn't mean to disrespect you, well maybe I did but doesn't matter. It was just so funny that you would actually believe that I would join a little fatty like him when he can't even control his own apetite, let alone command a battalion of men, hehehe" Azul answered, whiping some tears from his eyelids while still recovering from the laughing flash he just had.

Not really sure the padre had heard the young man correctly he asked: "Did you actually just call me fat?" dumbfounded that someone could be this brazen in his territory.

"Yep, I did. You wanne do something to vent a little? Come on, lets enjoy ourselfs a little, what you say fatty? A little workout could do wonders for your figure and calorie mirror. We don't want you to get a heartattack now, would we?" Azul said while starting to roll up his sleaves while a monstrous grin formed on his face. Oh how he longed to finally start with the main event. The apetizer was alright, he supposed but you could only go so far with small portions. Time to dig in!

"You little shit! You'll regret your words, I'll make sure of that! Get him!" The padre yelled after a vein had started to bulge on his red face from anger and shame while using his obvious devilfruit powers to open little gates on his body from which first tiny canonballs appeared that soon grew to regular sizes and flew towards Azul, who now moved into an actual fighting stance, after which an army of men on horses appeared from the padres body and with battlecries charge towards Azul who had a happy grin all over his face while he started to take deep breaths and exhale with the later being in the form of white smoke. As the first canonball reached him Azul grabbed it out of the air and with a resounding crunch crushed it in between his fingers which caused the padres eyes to widen at the raw strength displayed. The first rider was smacked to the side, along with the horse and collided with a nearby house, not standing up again. After which the same repeated itself a few times, with the occasional scream of mercy echoing in the streets. Weaving through the advancing soldiers, Azul turned on his own axis, delivering an elbow to a mans face, before elonggating his arm and following up with a fist to the face which implanted the man into the concrete below. Wirling, throwing kicks and punches Azul decimated the army in seconds only to end up before the padre, who had developed a serious sweat on his forehead, not sure who he had just pissed of.

Before he had finished his thought and stuttered a "w-wait, we can ta-" a fist smashed into his solar plexus with such power that it threw him down the street and ended with him facefirst against a lamppost, slowly loosing conciousness, until blackness took him completely.

"Mhhh, was alright for a warm up, but nothing incredible so. If only master was still... no Azul, don't go there. We've had this discussion already. Letting go, letting go, letting go. Pfffffuuuuu" Azul murmed while slowly breathing out and coming back into the present. He walked up to the padre and picked him up from the street before throwing him on the pile of his men he had built while fighting and heaving them all on his right should before walking into the direction of the marine base of this island, which surprisingly still stood, to collect his earned bounty and then leave for the south blue. There were some heads to split after all!