Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Journeys We Make

The Tale of a God Killer

Endo let out a roar, adequately relaying his thirst for violence. The swordsman rushed past the tunnel formed between the mass of roaming pirates, all of whom appeared confused about the behavior of one of the VIPs that Mana brought aboard as per her deal with the crew. Before Endo's stiffened thorn sword could rend the flesh of Captain Flint's exposed back, the Pirate Lord turned and drew his saber. A bubbling blue chakra coating formed around the blade, absorbing the blow with a refreshing splash upon the collision of the blades.

"What the heck is this about, boy?" Captain Flint wondered. His body still wore the streaks of bandaging from the wounds accumulated in his deathmatch with Mana in Getsugakure, and the crew's horrific adventure on Polybius Island. Despite not being at full strength, the Pirate Lord didn't appear to lose any sweat in blocking his opponent's suddenly drawn blade.

"You're a pirate. You may just be a top dog pirate!" Endo grumbled with a rich smile on his face as he pressed his whole body against his thorny blade, puncturing through his own skin just to get some extra force behind the shove but the Pirate Lord didn't budge. "Aren't you the least bit curious about whether the blade of a samurai or the blade of a pirate is stronger?"

"I would be if I met a real samurai. God Killer told me you were a dropout. Whether your master dismissed you or you walked out on your own, you're no samurai," Captain Flint lightly shoved his blade, forcing Endo to slide back across the deck with a wobbly stance. Somehow, the apprentice samurai maintained his balance. "If we were to clash, we wouldn't know which warrior class is superior, because you're just a rookie samurai and I'm a top pirate. We're hardly a match."

"You're pretty damn good at talking shit, pirate scum. Let's see how good you are at backing it up. I'm warning you, if I end up killing you, I'll be cashing in the bounty on your head!" Endo reared his teeth.

"Endo! Stand down this instance! We're on this man's ship, for Pete's sake!" Shige-H yelled out in frustration, rubbing her tired temples. Traveling on the Flintory beat out the old fishing boat they sailed on before by a nautical mile.

"Don't worry, Captain Flint promotes freedom of expression on his ship. He won't be holding this against any of us," Mana waved it off, limping to find a place to rest her rear at. Lately, she's spent so much time on the deck that she's been building up a tan and it was getting to where it didn't feel too healthy. Plus, if Endo ended up getting humbled, Mana wanted to have a good seat to see it from.

"Who's this God Killer you're yapping about?" Endo let out an aggressive growl before disappearing alongside his opponent. Flocks of sparks split from separate locations all across the ship's main deck and various sections of the vessel. As one could have found out from dull yet invisible thuds of feet across the masts, the two used every inch and corner of the ship's grounds to duke it out between each other.

"It's the titles that a pirate earns that grant him their bounty. It becomes an inseparable part of their name and follows them all the way to the gallows. Your comrade's got only one title, Mana "God Killer" Nakotsumi," Flint reared his smile before gracefully swinging his blade up and breaking through Endo's block. Thrown off-balance, the Stars' resident swordsman flipped over and smacked into the deck with enough force to bounce half the distance back up.

Grumbling and drooling with blood from the corners of his mouth, Endo writhed back for some distance before stumbling back to his feet and putting his thorny blade up in front of him to protect himself in case the Pirate Lord came at him. "So, she really has joined up with your bunch that she's been taking up your silly, pretentious titles?" he snarled.

"A pirate has no say in their titles. It's not up to a coward to say what people should call him," Flint placed his saber over on his shoulder. With his free hand, the Pirate Lord made a finger gun and pointed it at Endo. Jets of water rose from the ocean and whirled around the Pirate Lord's finger. "Water Blunderbuss!" Captain Flint yelled out before compressing bits and pieces of the surging water mass into baseball-sized spheres and shooting them off at Endo.