The heart of the manticor (One Piece ff)

1. Courage or stupidity?

Marco POV:

We are currently heading for one of the islands that is under our protection. One of the island contacted us with the transponder snail and told us that they were being attacked by a dangerous pirate crew.

We're all a little tense because we don't know how people are doing. "If these pirates have done something to the people, then we process them into fire wood!" I hear Ace grumbling next to me. He is very angry, but not only he, all of us. Even Pops doesn't drink anything right now and is tense.

"ISLAND IN SIGHT!" we hear one from my division shouting from the crow's nest. From a distance you can already see smoke and you can hear fighting sounds and screams.

"The Commanders and Divisions 2, 3 and 5 come ashore with me and we capture these pirates first. The 1st Division takes care of docking and the other divisions take care of the islanders!" Pops gives us all the orders. Shortly afterwards, we can all hear an approving roar. "And don't forget to take care of yourself! I don't want my sons to be hurt unnecessarily!" adds our captain and father. A new agreement goes through the round.

The closer we get, the louder the fighting sounds become.

"There are 2 pirate crews! Are the two fighting against each other or together against the island?" asks Vista next to me. "I don't know, we'll find out. But one thing is certain! They chose the wrong island!" I answer him. Immediately I receive an approving nod.

Shortly afterwards we arrive on the island. My division ensures that we can dock without problems and we commanders with the 2nd, 3rd and 5th divisions run across the island and drum up all the pirates.

All in all, this takes just under 1 hour. The island is not exactly small. We gathered everyone on the big marketplace. There are 2 pirate gangs. One sits on the left, the other on the right. We all tied up with ropes, each person individually. The 3 divisions have spread around the marketplace and keep an eye on the gangs. Ace shoots a fireball into the air and this is the sign for the remaining divisions to take care of the inhabitants of the island.

We commanders stand in front of the crews. One looks quite young and the other could have been at sea for a few years. It consists mainly of older ones. But there are also younger ones. "The captains and vice-captains get up!" I say in a cold voice.

Shortly thereafter, an old man from the crew on the right side gets up. I estimate him to be 40? Maybe even 50. He has a captain's coat and also seems a little scared. There is also a young woman standing up. She has fiery red hair and blood-red eyes. So she seems to be the vice-captain. Something about her doesn't suit me. She will cause us quite a bit of trouble, I notice that. She is also completely calm and shows no emotion. Not even a tremor. Nothing. It only examines us attentively.

On the left side are 2 men, both visibly intimidated.

Pops is angry. Everyone notices this, because you can clearly feel his Haki. He slowly approaches the two crews and stands in front of us commanders. "Which idiot dares to attack my island?!" asks Pops, visibly upset. Immediately the youngsters speak up: "T-That was the one over there! T-They attacked! W-We tried to defend Y-your island!" He stutters a lot at the statement. Something doesn't suit me. Is he just trying to pull his own neck out of the snitch or is he telling the truth? All our eyes are now on the older captain of the right crew. He seems to be angry and wants to say something, but the young woman bumps into him and shakes her head. Why? He looks frustrated and is silent.

"Do you have nothing to say about the accusations?!" Pops now addresses his word to the older captain. Pops is angry, you can hear it in his voice. The captain looks at his vice-captain, who nods. Now he looks up at Pops. "What else can I say? You must form your own judgment. I can't change anything about it and if I now prove that it was exactly reversed, it doesn't help. Because it stands our word against that of the other crew. An old crew with a few youngsters against a new crew. Word against word. That's all I have to say." he replies pops. This old captain seems to be honest.

"What's your name?" asks Pops a little more calmly. "Kyle. Kyle Lion is my name and this is my crew. We are the Lion Pirates." he answers the question.

"So the ship with the lion's head and the flag with the Jolly Roger, which has a lion's mane, is yours, right?" asks Izo. Captain Kyle answers the question with a nod. "Then the other ship belongs to the newcomers with the skeleton on the flag." Haruta now notes. Pops turns his gaze to the other pirate crew.

"W-We are the S-S-Skeleton pirates. I-I'm J-James. t-the C-Captain." the young captain answers the unasked question.

"He piss in his pants right away." Ace whispers to me, whereupon I have to smile. Out of the corner of my eye I see that the girl with the red hair and the red eyes leans towards her captain and whispers something to him.

"You can say out loud what you're up to!" I address my word to her and take a step towards her.

"I have nothing to say. I just told my captain something and for your information: You shouldn't get that close. Could be dangerous." she says succinctly and with a calmness I have never seen before. "Was that a threat?!" I ask angrily and take another step towards her. Her calm nature brings me extremely close to an explosion!

Suddenly she stands in front of me out of nowhere and kicks me, so that I end up in the group of commanders. "What's the fuck?!" I ask angrily and get up to attack her. But what I see there leaves me speechless.

At the place where I stood until a few seconds ago is suddenly a skeleton that holds her leg with which she kicked me away. But she shows no emotion, no fear. What the hell is going on here? Who is this girl?

"You just helped one of my sons." says Pops. "No Whitebeard. She saved your son's life." says her captain.

"I'm a phoenix! Nothing can kill me so quickly!" I call back angrily. "You overestimate yourself." says the red-haired woman calmly. "These skeletons are here because of a devil's power. They only listen to the owner of this devil power and they are hidden in the ground in a circle around the Lion Pirates." she adds. "Are they there for your protection?! Nevertheless, they can not harm a phoenix! Besides, you would have to die the same way!" calls Ace now angrily. Pops only watches the whole thing with interest.

"If they were to protect us, they wouldn't have touched me. Firstly, this. Secondly, these skeletons can't do anything against Haki and I wrapped my leg in Haki to kick you away Phoenix. Thus, the skeleton grabbed my haki-covered leg. If it had grabbed my leg like without haki, I would be dead. Because these skeletons slowly deprive you of your life energy. Nobody in our crew has this devil power. We have already lost a few of our crew to these ugly skeletons. These skeletons are there to destroy us because we disturbed this other crew over there during their raid. We were only here to replenish our supplies and then wanted to sail on. Among other things, we have no interest in messing with one of the yonkos and furthermore we do not allow this injustice. We are a crew who are not just pirates. We are also fighting against injustice and slavery in this shitty world." she says.

"Why didn't you say that Kyle?" asks pops calmly. Does he believe her?! "Because she asked me to. She said you wouldn't believe us without proof. Apparently, she was right." Kyle now says. "As if we believed such a silly story!!" I say angrily. "You don't believe me? Then touch this skeleton. Or I'll just make it for you. I'll release my haki and then you'll see it for yourself." says the red-haired woman now. "Tiana! Are you stupid?! Your father will kill me if he notices this and if you go for it!" complains Kyle. "And then he buttoned up the Whitebeard pirates because they allowed it!" adds one of the crew worriedly.

Some of our divisions started laughing. "Who is so stupid and mess with one of the 4 yonkos?" I hear one from the division laughing. "Another Yonko!" Kyle replies dead seriously. Immediately everyone falls silent. "What is your name girl?" asks father restlessly. "Tiana." she says. "And your last name?" asks Father. "It doesn't matter." she more or less answers the question.

Why is this girl not afraid of us?