30 Sword Pirates Chapter Two: Quest for a Helmsman; Conquering Reverse Mountain

As the Floating Justice made its journey across the east blue, getting closer and closer to the Grand Line, it's captain, Muramasa Gideon, waited for the day when he would be able to see Reverse Mountain, the said landmark of the Grand Line. The problem would be getting through it. Gideon had heard the horror stories of the narrow and rugged paths along the mountain, but he was sure he could get though it. Gideon's crew, the 30 Sword Pirates, had made quite a name for themselves for stopping an execution of another wanted criminal, and finding several more along the way. Gideon now sat on the deck of his ship, reading some of his favorite authors work. Gideon was garbed in his fighting robes, as they were comfortable and such. He kept looking up from his position on the boat to see if they had reached the mountain yet, as his calculations had said they should any hour now. It was quite early in the morning, 5 am to be exact and it was decently cold out, and getting colder as they went, telling Gideon that they were close.

After awhile of reading, Gideon looked up and a grin of excitement appeared on his face; Reverse Mountain. It was large, and misty around the island, although Gideon could not see the entrance to the mountain, confirming his suspicions of the narrow passage. Gideon got up, put his book in his back pocket and walked over to the helm, as he had some experience steering the ship as a shipwright. As the island got closer, Gideon got colder, and ran to his quarters, down through the deck crews quarters (who had all left or died) and down another flight of stairs to the long hallway where the main crew members slept. He ran down this hallway, stopping at his own room and grabbing his straw, chinese style hat and a black cloak and ran the other way up to the top of the stairs and back to the helm. When he got to the top, he realized they were much closer to the island than he expected. he just hoped that if he began turning now he could avoid crashing into the mountain side. Grabbing the helm, Gideon swung it clockwise, causing the ship to begin to slowly turn. It began doing this until it was fully turned and safe from crashing; not but half a football field away from it though.

Gideon then began steering the ship to find an entrance, ready to pass it and be in the grand line by time his crew awoke. But he found a slight problem. As he finally found the opening to Reverse Mountain, he found that he had EXTREMELY underestimated what it would take to get though it. It was only thin enough to fit the ship and maybe another two rowboats if he was lucky. Also the currents were fierce looking, way too fierce looking. Gideon gaped at the passageway.

"My god..." he whispered to himself, slowly turning the ship in the opposite direction. They were going to need a real helmsman, a real good helmsman.

Gideon began a journey back to the nearest island, a small one, not even 10 miles wide called 'Grand Edge'. The whole way there he cursed himself for underestimating the mountain. Of course the Grand Line would be DIFFICULT to get into, what the hell way he thinking? As they pulled into port at about 9 am, Gideon walked down to the higher ups in the crews sleeping areas and began clanging a pot with a metal spoon.

"Get up!" he yelled "We're making an unexpected pit stop!"

Meanwhile, on the very same island Gideon and his crew where heading to, a helmsman was waking up, and a real good helmsman too. He was an old man, who was a little short, and just clambered out of bed in his stripey pyjamas. Although old, he still had a rather toned and well built body, though slightly stocky due to most of the muscle used to be 'lovehandles', revealing more of his latino skin and old scars as he began to get changed before he went behind his dressing screen, after all he was an old fasioned man who lived in an old fasioned house, with a rickety roof, creaky floor boards, needing some wallpaper or a least a new coat of paint, and the only extra floors where an attic and a basment. After he got changed in his usual attire, a vest, his tattered old sleeveless jacket, his wrinkled trousers and his well worn boots, complete with leather belt, he washed his face in a nearby basin, the face in question worn down and wrinkled, though still with the features of a man who would prefer if you did not annoy him, or else. As he gargled some mouth wash, revealing his white teeth with yelow round the edges, he looked grumpily in a mirror hanging on the wall, staring at his short close cropped pale white hair, as well as his bristlely face. "Right, might as well go get some breakfast before things get ruined to quickly.", the man said to himself in a gruff voice, as he tried to open the front door, struggled for a few moments, before suddenly transforming into a scaly beast, and punching the door clean off it's hinges, and reverting back to his human form. "Fricking stupid door, now I have to fix it up again just because it decided to get in my way.", the old man complained, glaring at the lump of crumppled wood, before going on his way to the local village in the distance.

Silvio awoke at 6:30am, ten hours too early for him to be getting up. But if he didn't look like he had a job to do, he would be kicked out of the musty basement he currently resided in. Silvio reluctantly got up, showered and brushed his teeth, then got dressed in his usual clothes; oriental clothing with a tattered robe and medicinal tape that covered his face. He said good bye to his landowners and left to go to sleep somewhere else. People that saw him walk by simply knew him as 'That weird looking guy' and quickly diverted their eyes as if he was some kind of unholy symbol that'll rot your brain if you look at it. Silvio hadn't enough energy to get to his usual spot where he slept, let alone even lift his feet to avoid shuffling. He slowly shuffled behind one of the village houses and lied down to get some shut eye. But even after half an hour of closing his eyes waiting to fall into the land of dreams, he was still awake. He sat up and looked back at the day he stumbled upon this village. Silvio got kicked off a merchant ship after they discovered he had been sleeping amongst the inventory. Luckily, they were already docked and Silvio only had to walk off the gangplank instead of being thrown off. When he saw the residents, they were all paranoid and ran away when the merchants went to sell stuff to them. The merchants departed and left Silvio all alone with crazy people. He soon gained their trust after retrieving many stolen goods from a thief camp near the village and brought them the head of the leader. He was showered with praise when the villagers retrieved their items and gave him a basement to stay in and food for the day. And to think this all happened a week ago. The people had been really kind to Silvio but he still needed to pursue his dream sooner or later. Then Silvio realized he had drawn a crowd because it looked like he was napping behind a house. He quickly jumped over the crowd and headed back to the village for something to eat, he had forgotten to eat at his temporary home but at least there was a small diner near him. Silvio walked in and ordered his food then scrounged around in his pockets for money. Just enough for the food, but not for anything extra. Beggars can't be choosers Silvio thought as he began to dig into his food.

Prince Keeram D. Fishont cleared his throat as he read through some papers. At his nineteen years he was already a wanted man in his country in the south blue, called Ryoorinin Kingdom. He was supposed to be the prince that everyone expected to take control of the country, and lead it to a grand shining era of gold and happiness like his father had done. But Keeram just hated the idea, his father had made him study mathematics and business all his life, but luckily he had also learned the arts of swordsmanship with his now cherished spork blades: Daiyahifu Sajifooku, the diamond blade, and Keimusho Sajihooku, the cage blade.

He had sailed away from the South Blue to the East Blue, a place that he knew the expeditions of his father to find him wouldnt get. This was also a good opportunity to get to know the world, so he had been exploring the East Blue, taking passenger ships with the great amount of money he had "stolen" from the kingdom.

But as he sailed through the East Blue, he also heard that there was a place called Grandline, a place that was said to be greatly awesome and dangerous, but it seemed like the best place to explore. The grandline was vast, he had heard, and you need to cross it through Reverse Mountain. So Keeram had sailed towards Reverse Mountain in a boat, but they didnt want to go into the grandline, so they had left him in an island called Grand Edge.

So there he was, reading some papers he had bough in a store of the small island, looking for ways to get into the grandline. The obvious was to buy a ship... but he didnt have any navigator skills and he would surely crash the boat and die. there were few to none passenger ships that went into the grandline, and he didnt want to have any help from the marines, because his father couldve talked to World Government about giving him a bounty to catch him alive. Between his options, the simplest one was to join a pirate crew. Although some people said pirates were bad, others said that some of them were just adventurers and that they wanted to look for new territories and treasures. That is just what Keeram needed.

He put his papers in a bag he had bought in his journey, threw the bag over his shoulders together with his Spork blades and started walking around the town. It was morning, and a ship was docking in the port.

Hugo had woken up when his captain yelled at him, the sudden shock of it all made him jump off his bed and hit the floor. "Grr.. I barely had enough time to sleep last night..."

Hugo thought of the ship that was sailing across from them in the night, they seemed like a Normal marine ship, it didn't even appear to have a captain on board... they pretty much begging for someone to attack them. Of course Hugo would tell his captain that what he was going to do was done so the Marines wouldn't interfere with them, but the reality was he was hungry... and he wanted some human meat. Hugo at that moment jumped off the ship in the middle of the night and swam towards his next meal, he gained speed until he hit the side of their ship downing the enemy ship with a huge impact that seemed like an explosion. Hugo then waited for the boat to sink, as he continued eating them one by one. The marine ship was small and had about 20 marines on board, which was just enough to help his appetite disappear for the next few hours.

Remembering this helped Hugo smile in the morning, the meal was fresh and the hint of fear almost added flavor to their meat. It did however make the meal seem tastier with the thrill he got from the hunting. Hugo looked at his captain which was currently in front of him.

"Hey Gideon, I'm hungry again and need something to eat.. are we near a town?" Hugo had not noticed they stopped on an island, he was still groggy and could not tell the ship had stopped moving.

Gideon looked over to see his first mate, Hugo walk out of the ship. He smiled and him and then heard what he had to say. He sighed, Human meat and Hugo went hand and hand, and a town wasn't the best place to have him. They had been on the same crew for only a week and this is what he had gathered from him for sure.

"There will be no eating humans on this island, Hugo...unless they cause us trouble" he said, grinning lightly

Gideon then let down walked onto the dock in the small town and walked towards the town, beckoning Hugo to follow him. They then saw a diner in town and Gideon looked at Hugo. It was a small place, but still, food that wasn't flesh. They then saw a man walking aimlessly around, and decided to talk to him. Gideon didn't usually do this, but still, he wanted to find out where he could find a good helmsman. He walked up to the man and smiled.

"Hello there" he said to Keeram

Keeram was looking at the sides, he was somehow always enthusiastic, and now a man had talked him. Of course this had to be a mere peasant from the city, but he decided to be nice to him since he could have a ship, also, he needed to change his demmanding nature.

"Hello? My name is Keeram D.Fishont... Ex-ki..."-He started, but decided not to say it._"What do you want from me?"

The elderly man moodily began storming down the street much to the worry of the locals, who stood right against buildings away from the old man. "Damnit, no one said he was coming into the village, why's he here?", one of the locals whispered as the old man walked past. "Strange, he usually only shows up once a week, maybe he forgot something?", another mumbled to himself, and then looked in confusion, then in fear along with the other villagers as a little rubber ball, bounced along the street, with a small boy chasing behind it, the ball bouncing along until it hit the old man square in the jaw. The little boy quickly grabbed the rubber ball and then started shaking, apoligising in a terrified voice; "S-s-s-s-sor-sor-sorry M-M-Mr. T-Tarin sir!" The old man named Tarin stared down with a face of thunder, eyeing the boy for a few moments before snarling; "Kid's shouldn't play on the street! Go to a playground boy! That's where little kid's belong! Scram!", and before the terrified child could reply, Tarin stormed past him, heading intently towards a diner.

"Ah, that was a really great meal. Makes me wanna go back to sleep. Too bad I have insomnia today...." Silvio thought as he wiped his mouth with a napkin before disposing of it. He grabbed his katana, re-attached it to his waist and began to head off. Silvio wondered what he could do while he was stuck on this island. He could actually get a job, but that seemed like a lot of work. A child ran up to Silvio and asked him a multitude of questions without even stopping to breath. She was eager to hear Silvio's story on how he defeated the evil thief bandit and questions related to that. Silvio chuckled as the girl jumped up and down with a happy exalted expression on her face, and began to tell her his story. Before he could finish his sentence, another child with a ball came up to him crying and blubbering. He could make out a complaint about a mean old man. Silvio patted the kid on the head and said, "Don't worry, I'll talk to him for you." Before jumping high up in the air to find an old man in the town. He yawned and began to lose focus. Before he knew it, Silvio was about to land on someone. Luckily, Silvio landed just in front of him. Silvio dusted himself and looked up; it was an old man. "Oh hey! How's it going?"

Tarin looked at Silvio with a face which was the very essence of grumpiness. "Oh it's you. I ain't giving you any more of my supplies, just because you beat up those bandits for me before dosent mean your gonna get double rewards! Now what the hell do you want? I have to get some food since I havent got any at my home, thanks to your reward.", the old man complained moodily, as he carried on walking to the diner. "If you want something spit it out.", he added impatiently, as he stood at the door of the diner, and turned back to Silvio.

"I don't want any possessions of yours, but I do want you to be nice to the children. You look like a heartless bastard doing that, in fact, you have a bit of a reputation being a scary old man as I have heard from the townsfolk. Hey, have you ever shouted, 'Get off of my lawn, you rotten kids!' while shaking your cane at them? Ha ha ha! I crack myself up at times...." While Silvio was chuckling to himself, the townsfolk were starting to empty out of the diner and the area around it, knowing what will happen if they stay to watch Tarin in his angry mood. "Eh, where's everyone going?" Silvio asked as he looked around.

Hugo was following Gideon, making sure he did nothing to cause trouble. He watched as kids went by and he couldn't help but smile, they stopped in front of a man that almost said something he didn't want to, he stopped in the middle of a sentence... it made Hugo suspicious. Hugos eyes went Black as he heard a small amount of commotion coming from another direction in town. "hehehe.. Captain im gunna go ahead and use the can.. yeah last nights dinner is hitting me hard.." After faking a stomach ache Hugo ran towards the direction of the crowd while holding his stomach, he was a Bull Shark Fshmen so people stopped what they were doing and slowly backed away from him. Hugo did not say anything as he watched the two people converse, one being an Old Men and another a younger person who seemed to be laughing.

Hugo was getting prepared to interrupt and maybe Kill if things got out of hand, Hugos muscles were Wide and showed that he was indeed someone that specialized in strength above all else. Watching the two men converse was making him even MORE hungry then before he headed towards their direction. His only Hope was that his captain didn't show-up to ruin his meal/Fun. The odds of him interfering weren't high, since the image of his captain being mad at him stopped Hugo from attacking right away.

Gideon looked at the man oddly, he was sure he was about to say something but didn't. He was confused, although it wasn't his business to find out what it was. He then heard Hugo talk to him about using the bathroom and nodded to him. He knew he'd probably try to eat someone, but also knew that he told him not to, and he would be punished if he did so. He sighed and then turned back to Keeram.

"Well sir, I was wondering where we could find a helmsman" he said

Tarin's face flushed with anger, he was gritting his teeth, using them to hold back harsh words, until they lostened for a moment, but before he said anything, he managed to overhear the words; where we could find a helmsman, to which his anger died down as he though suspicously; Someones looking for a helmsman eh? The marines might of found me for once, typical, I liked it here since there wasn't any, guess I better eat quick. He stared at Silvio with eyes of rage and merely told him; "I'm letting you off with a warning, get lost and let me eat my breakfast in peace." The old man then walked into the dinner, bellowing out gruffly to the staff; "Fruit, cornflakes, juice, now!", to which the staff hurridely began preparing the breakfast, all of them replying; "Yes sir!", as the elderly helmsman sat slumped at one of the tables in the now empty dinner.

Lucas was trying to enjoy his food in the corner in peace. But that wasn't happening because of an old man who was screaming at the people that worked there. He was quickly getting frustrated and he was playing with a needle deciding if he wanted to kill the man or not.

He decided that he was going to try to act nice and he walked over and tapped the older man and said. "Excuse me can you please be quite I don't feel so well and the noise is upsetting my stomach." He said this very calmly and with a straight face that showed no emotion

Keeram looked at the man, he was asking for where to find a helmsman... well, he didn't know where to find a helmsman. But he was a chef, and a prince, he had to know many things... although he only knew many things about his kingdom. But, as Keeram was enthusiastic about many things and he was kind of bored and looking for a crew right now... he decided to tell Gideon... a little lie.

"Mmm, well... I am a chef, and I might know where to find a helmsman." -Keeram lied, only about the helmsman part. -"I think there was one... here in the town. But I dont know if he'll want to go with you."

Keeram didn't know that there was an actual helmsman in the town... but he wanted to stay with this guy for a while, so he decided to look for one too. He asked a little girl that was near to them.

"Hey little girl, do you know where Mr. Helmsman is?"

To what the girl answered. "Oh, I saw Mr. Helmsman entering that restaurant... he was kind of angry... but he wanted his breakfast." Then the little girl ran away.

Keeram turned around and told Gideon.- "Ok, so let's go to that palce where the old man is eating."

He started walking towards the place.

Gideon watched the man think for a little, and waited for his answer as well. He sighed in relief as he finally began talking. He then heard him talk about being a chef and smiled. A chef! Hugo finally has something to eat regularly that isn't a human being! Gideon then heard him say something about helmsman he might know, then leaned over and asked a little girl. Gideon smiled at the child's innocence, and sighed to himself, remembering when he was a kid. He then nodded to the girl who said that "Mr. Helmsmen" went into the diner. Gideon then began to walk to the diner and turned to Keeram.

"So, sir, whats your name?" he asked politely

Keeram turned around when he was at the restaurant's door to answer Keeram's question. Umm, so... should he tell him his real name? Yeah, that was ok, since he didnt think that this people knew his name.

"My name is Keeram D. Fishont." -Keeram told Gideon with a smile, still surprised that there was an actual helmsman in the island. -"So well, let's go inside and see what Mr. Helmsman can offer you."

Keeram went into the restaurant, and as he didnt know who the helmsman was, he asked one of the ladies that ran the place, in a ver low voice.

"Do you know who is a helmsman here?"-for what the girl answered, in a very low voice too, pointing at Tarin. -"That old man there, he is a helmsman."

Keeram turned around and told Gideon.

"Good man, that old man there is the person you are looking for." -he said proudly and with a loud voice. -"Go on, ask him whatever you need to ask him!"

Then Keeram moved towards Tarin too, staying at his side, so he could not see him.

Gideon looked over to see the mans response and nodded to him, smiling. He was glad he was introduced to the chef, he would try to keep him around for a little and ask him to join his crew soon.

"Muramasa Gideon, its a pleasure to meet you, Keeram" Gideon said smiling and then nodded to him

When they got to the restaurant, he saw Keeram ask one of the ladies who the helmsman was, suggesting he had no clue the whole time. Gideon sighed, although they had, in the end, found a helmsman. Then Keeram told him to go talk to the man in a loud voice, then hid behind him. Gideon looked back at the man strangely. He obviously wasn't telling him everything. When they got to Andrew, Gideon looked at hi and smiled.

"Hello sir, I have heard you were a helmsman, no?" he asked

As the breakfast of the elderly helmsman arrived, some fruit with a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, Tarin grunted in approval at the waiter who quickly fled. as He stuffed himself with most of the fruit already, quickly chewing and gulping down the citrus meal, he turned to a rather calm voice who had just asked him to lower his voice. "Don't tell me what to do youngster! You should respect your elders and let them do what they please! I'm gonna be quite, but not because you asked me, because I like eating in silence!", the old man burst out, though admitedly was going to do as the stranger asked, afterall he was probably a sickly traveleer by the looks of him. As he quite munched his cereal, he heard somone enter and then ask him if he was a helmsman, in the same voice that said was looking for one. Damnit, it's this guy! He better just be a rookie looking for some help, or else he's a bounty hunter, a marine, or a pirate that wants to prove himself. I really hate Thursdays., the old man thought to himself angrily, as he shook in fury. He turned round to look at the man, who in his oppinion either looked like a push over of a naivee pirate, or a really badly disguised marine. "Show me your bounty.", Tarin said gruffly, sliding to the idea of him being a fake.

Gideon looked at the man strangely, that was some way to treat a stranger. But still, maybe this man was wanted and a little paranoid, oh well. He then nodded to the man. Luckily a few days ago they had been eating somewhere with his bounty posted on the wall, so he had to take it down before anyone saw. He the took out a bounty poster with his picture on it reading:
"Wanted: Dead or Alive: , Reward: 35,000,000 Berris. 'Blood Hair' Muramasa Gideon is a pirate originating in the North Blue, and came here awhile ago. His time here is of no matter, of course, as he has been killing marines ever since he got to the East Blue. His most recent activity is stopping the execution of Hugo 'Scartooth' Echo".
Gideon then put this on the table next to the man and nodded to him.

"I hope this will suffice, sir" he said, smiling

Tarin snatched the poster from the pirate, staring at it intensely, eyeing up every detail. H ethen rubbed the paper for a few moments feeling its texture, and then poured a little of his orange juice on the posted, and watched as the ink was unaffected. "Hmm seems genuine, but dosent completely let you off." the old man grumbled as he quickly finished off his cereal, before turning back and saying grumpily; "Well what do you want? Spit out already rookie.", while staring at Gideon as if he just opened his curtains to see a dog leave a little present on his lawn.

Gideon watched the man study the bounty poster, a little confused. He didn't know why anyone would fake a bounty poster of any kind. If anything, people would want to fake NOT having a bounty, so they could do things normally. He then nodded to the man when he discovered the poster was genuine. He then began to tell him what he needed.

"Well, my crew needs passage through Reverse Mountain, and I heard you were a great helmsman" Gideon started "We inspected the mountain earlier and found it would be nye impossible to navigate through with out a experienced sailor like yourself, so I was wondering if you would like to join my crew, or at least help us pass the mountain" he said, finishing and hoping the mans response would be good.

"Forget it, i'm retired.", Tarin answered back simply, as gulped down his orange juice, and sormed past the man, considering the conversation entirely over, before stopping suddenly and rumaging in his pocket to throw a few berri on his his empty plate, before leaving the dinner and carrying on walking. Damn rookies, if you wanted to head out of the seas then you should of put a crew together first, the old man thought to himself moodily, as slowly began walking back up the street.

Hugo watched his captain ask the old man to help their crew, the old man ended up denying him... Hugos blood boiled at that point. If his captain asked someone to join the answer should always be yes, anything else is a disgrace. Hugo walked up to the old man as he was leaving and stood in his way. "I think you're heading the wrong way Old man, the Ship is that way." Hugo pointed in the direction the ship was. "If you don't go in that direction I wont guarantee your body arriving there without missing a limb hehehe" Hugo was a bull shark man with Dark Skin and a big jaw for big appetizers. But in this case he was simply going to Kidnap the older men if necessary, although the threats were void if it were not for the captains orders he would have attempted to eat him already.