Witnessing the surrender of the Skull Pirates brought peace of mind; seeing Yuurei take a seat upon the sandy beach, Gideon was quick to do the same. As Yuurei interrogated the enemy pirates, the giant would gently apply pressure to his leg, but tried his best to not make it noticeable, he felt the moment these pirates saw weakness, they would take advantage and probably take another shot at attacking the two.

The conversation being held was a bit odd; Gideon had thought the Skull pirates had more devious and selfish motives, but hearing the viewpoints of their captain, he began to wonder if there were any true enemies, but Yuurei quickly reminded everyone that the Waitress was still a victim and everyone was taking it too lightly; as for the 'Explosive Memory', Gideon couldn't make heads or tails of it, it simply shrugged to Yuurei.

Either way, their course remained the same, find the waitress, then worry about the captain and his affairs after, whatever they may seem to be. Gideon slowly got up and followed Yuurei North East, then they vanished from sight through the cluster of trees.

It would be a good distance away before Gideon figured it would be alright to talk, "The captain doesn't like slavery, do you think it's possible for the Skull Pirates and the Phantom Pirates to create an alliance to destroy the slave-trade up here?" Gideon asked, although the fact that the waitress was kidnapped still rang in his ear.

Soon, the two would reach a grove underneath a small cliff, "Perfect" sighed as he sat beneath the cliff, leaning against the rocky wall. "I wish we had a doctor with us; you said this 'Harley' person is a medical professional, right?" Gideon asked, trying to make light of the situation as he began tearing through his jeans, ultimately making them shorts, then tearing at his shirt to use as substitute gauze, to which he used to wrap around the more serious wounds such as the one on his forearm and the one on his leg.

There the giant laid against the rocky wall, tired, bloodied and nearly naked.

Yuurei moved through the forest as he was keeping tabs of where they were headed. They couldn’t get lost right now, or they would have a bad time navigating through the forest. While they were walking the thief felt a bit sluggish in his movements. His adrenaline had died down and now he was feeling the pain from the wounds he had suffered. His jaw hurt, and he stopped moving it around unless he had to talk to Gideon. His friend did speak to him, and he heard his words, and he had thought the same thing. He figured that would be something they could try to do, but if they were even allowed to. Yuurei didn’t answer Gideon as he was looking for a place for them to relax and catch their breath. It wouldn’t take long for them to find a nice hidden place for them to gain their stamina.

When they got to the area, Yuurei could only sighed with relief, and threw himself on the floor without hesitating. His arms and legs were stretched out for a bit as he looked in the direction of Gideon. His friend had mention Harley, and he kind of wished that he brought her with him. ”Yeah we should have brought Harley with us. Still, at least we can bandage ourselves, and worry about truly getting patched up later.” He mentioned to his friend. He figured he would have to do the same thing with his wounds before he bled out. The bandaged were to stopped the bleeding, or slow the bleeding process down. He was comfortable, and he didn’t want to get up, but knew would could transpired, if he just ignored it.

The thief forced himself into a sitting position and moved the bag that was inside of his robe to the front of his robe. He pulled it out and unzipped it to take out a bunch of bandages. ”Harley may not be here, but one thing I learned about myself is that I always need bandages. I’m always getting myself into trouble, which leads me to being injured. So, I bring this with me just in case.” He chuckled when he said this, and he started bandaging himself. He started with the piercing wound on his thigh. He tighten up the bandaged, and moved towards the slicing wounds that he had suffered from Scowl. There was nothing he could do for his jaw, and he knew that he would have to go for Harley for that. He moved a bit, and he flinched and twitched a little bit as he felt the pain behind it.

It would take him a while to bandage himself, and his friend had done the same thing, but with his clothes. Yuurei wanted to give him some of his bandages, but he knew they wouldn’t help the giant. The swordsman had dropped back to the floor again when he was finished as he put everything away and looked into the sky, but all he could see is the ceiling of the cliff. ”About the Skull Pirates.” He paused a bit. ”I guess we can see how that goes. They took the waitress without thinking about the consequences. If they truly wanted to get rid of slavery, then the waitress should be freed as soon as possible.” He said this and then remembered what the pirate said.

Yuurei looked like he was dead, and his body wouldn’t move, but he just didn’t want to move right now. ”I also can’t get the idea of what that pirate said. An explosive memory? It sounds like their captain is crazy, or it was just his term to described how his captain was. I guess it all depends on how they treat us when get to their hideout.” He wanted to stay quiet because of his jaw, but he needed to act like he wasn’t that injured. ”I saw you were able to use Armament. I guess Scowl pushed you to the limit. That will come in handy and maybe I could show you how to use observation. I mean you do owe me a sparring match.” He chuckled when he said this. He wanted to fight Gideon because he had never fought against one.

Gideon had watched Yuurei pull out bandages, sadly they weren't fit for a being his size, so he had to make due with his own shirt. The way everyone seems to speak about Harley was as if this woman is a master doctor, able to cure any illness. The giant began to lowly groan, trying to ignore the pain.

The two sat facing one another in silence for the moment, the only sound Gideon could hear was his own heartbeat. Then Yuurei brought up the Skull Pirates. By what he suggests, the idea of the captain being crazy could be believable, but they didn't have enough information to who he was or what he was about or what he intends. "If they truly mean to release the slaves, then we are all on the same team" the thought was calming, but then Gideon had thought of something, he stared at Yuurei, "But what if the captain finds out we messed up his crew, including Scowl, we probably killed at least a handful of them" Gideon was a bit worried, but he shook his head, putting the thought to the back of his mind, he was too tired and too much in pain to worry about things he could focus on later on, even if he has to deal with it within just an hour or two.

"And if we end up fighting" Gideon groaned at the thought of another fight, they had just nearly escaped death at the hands of Scowl, "Then we'll just have to beat them down" he tried his best to sound confident, but the thought about another fight was aching him both in fear and in annoyance.

Then he began to fall asleep, his eyes beginning to feel heavier and heavier, "Hey, Yuurei... you don't mind if we catch a few... z's before we..." and with that, Gideon was out like a light.

Yuurei continued to lay down on the floor as he was looking at Gideon. His friend spoke about both of the crews being on the same team. He hoped that was the case, but he didn’t know if that was going to happen. He was thinking about the fact that they had beaten up their crew, and he didn’t think it would go well whenever they got to the Skull Pirate’s hideout. It was something that Gideon brought as well, and he chuckled when he heard those words. ”Yeah I’m sure he found out about us taking out the crew members that were on the ship. They probably have den den mushis to contact their hideout. Hell it would be something we would do.” The swordsman said to Gideon as he was relaxing. His body was physically exhausted, and he didn’t want to move and honestly he didn’t think he could right now. He was still thinking about the fact that they didn’t bring Harley with them, but they couldn’t have thought something like this would happen.

The thief heard say “if” in fighting, but Yuurei kind of figured that they were going to have to fight. He put his foot in the Skull Pirate’s shoes, and knew that if two men had done this to him, he would never forgive them. The time for working things out was over, and he knew that better than anybody. He allowed Gideon to finish saying they would have to beat them up, and he chuckled again because he agreed with him. ”I don’t think we can reason with them now that I think about it Gideon. We took out a bunch of their crewmates like you said. If we were in their shoes would we agree to join up with them? If anybody were killed in battle against any pirate I would never agree to ally myself with them. That is how I know we won’t be able to reason with them.” He finished his sentence as he could see his friend trying to fight his sleep. The exhaustion was taking a toll on him, and soon he could see Gideon falling asleep while trying to talk to him. He chuckled a bit as he looked up at the ceiling again.

Yuurei sighed because they didn’t even rescue the girl yet, and they were already this hurt. The thief could just imagine what kind of fights they would have to endure. Still, the only thing he could do right now was fall asleep as well. Their spot wouldn’t be easy to find, and that much he knew. He was a light sleeper anyways, so anything that got to close to him would have alerted him. ”Man the things we do for people who can’t defend themselves. I feel like sometimes we aren’t so evil.” He said to himself as he knew that Gideon wouldn’t be able to say anything. His eyes slowly started to close though, and soon enough he was also out, and resting.

*Four hours Later*

Yuurei’s eyes widen as he heard a noise closeby the two of them. His body shot up, but he felt the pain surging throughout his body. He gritted his teeth, but that hurt as well as his jaw dropped, and left his mouth open. He didn’t have time to complain about the pain though as he looked to his left, and to his right trying to figure out who was around the area. It wouldn’t take long, but there was a rabbit that would hop around their area, and when the rabbit recognized that it wasn’t alone, it would run away without a moment to waste. The thief sighed as he thought that the Skull Pirates had found them out. Still, it was dark outside, and he knew it was way past midnight. Still, they had to get up, and start heading to where the waitress was located. Yuurei had gotten up slowly as he could feel the soreness of his body, but fought through it. When he was up, he sighed because he wasn’t tired like he was a few hours ago.

He didn’t know how long he had been sleeping, but it was a good rest that he needed. Yuurei knew that if this was the case for him, then it would be for Gideon. ”Hey Gideon it’s time to get moving. I think we slept enough, and if we wait any longer I’m not sure what might happen to her. Pick me up if you can.” He said in a loud voice, but not a voice that could be consider yelling. When his friend would wake up, he would allow him to get up, and ready himself. If he picked him up, they would be on their way to rescue the waitress who needed them.

Gideon slept through the four hours without shifting once. When Yuurei had called to him, he slowed to his wake, feeling the aches from his wounds and sore muscles. The evening darkness made it difficult for  Gideon to see, but after a moment, he could spot the silhouette of Yuurei moving about. It soon registered to him what had happened; the fight, the mission, everything, "Right, we're on a mission" he groaned as he slowly got to his feet. His hand ran across a number of small cuts on his chest, he wasn't use to being so beaten up as he wasn't use to having his shirt off.

The woods looked different at night, which gave Gideon a hard time to determine which way was north east, or it would have been if the cliff side didn't remind him do to it's convenience. "North east" Gideon pointed groggily right before he picked up Yuurei and place him on his shoulder as they began making their way towards the next checkpoint.

"Do we have a plan?" Gideon asked. He was concerned for there own safety, they were already injured and their muscles sore, albeit it they may have gotten some rest, he was sure it wasn't enough, but what else could they do?

Breaking through a cluster of trees, Gideon came into view of a gigantic rock formation pointing diagonally towards the sky, then he took another look and realized it wasn't made of rock, but some kid of metal, "What the hell is that?" Gideon concerned, wide-eyed, not knowing what to do. Because he couldn't see the base of this thing because of the trees and foliage in his way, he didn't know how far away it was or how big it truly was. Whatever this thing is, it might just be what the Skull Pirates' captain was talking about.

Yuurei could feel the captain pick him up, and with that they were off. He wasn’t excited that they were doing this, but he had to be confident moving forward. They needed to rescue that waitress, for he felt that he as partially responsible for her capture. Still, they needed to continue on with their pressure; they already allowed the enemy to rest up a bit and possibly prepare for what was to come. While they were moving through the night Yuurei heard Gideon speak about having a plan, and the pirate could only chuckle when he heard that. ”Am I good at making plans or something? I don’t think I’m good with that unless it comes to stealing.” He said this, and the sad thing he could never really go on a robbery mission with Gideon. ”I was planning on taking your approach and see if they can be reason with. I doubt it will work, but might as well give it a shot before we start fighting.” He stretched as he could feel the soreness take its course.

”Maybe we get lucky and we don’t have to fight anymore.” He looked at Gideon. While he rest on his friend’s shoulder he looked around as that was the only thing he could do for the time being. He noticed that there were ruffling happening around their left side. He ignored it for the time being, and it was only because Gideon had brought his attention to something. He could see the metal structure and it looked familiar, but he wasn’t able to put his finger on it, and it was mainly because of the darkness. ”I’m not sure what it is, but let’s get close to it. This thing might belong to the Skull pirates.” He added. Then, he heard for more noises coming from the brushes around them. No, it wasn’t from the brushes, but there were people moving around the trees.

Yuurei though it could be animals, but he put his guard up. He didn’t think it was necessary to use his Haki for something that might not be a threat. ”Be on guard though Gideon I don’t think we are alone here.” He said to his friend. The moment Gideon would make a step forward to the metal structure, a spear would have been thrown from the tree and towards Yuurei. He was paying attention to the tree, but the spear came out of nowhere. He didn’t have enough time to full dodge the projectile, but it had slightly cut him on the right side of his cheek. That was too close for comfort, but then it started happening more frequently, and soon a barrage of spears were coming out from the trees. ”WATCH IT GIDEON!” He shouted. At this moment he guarded himself as the spears were missing him, or at least barely missing him.

He could feel the cuts that were being created by the tips of the spears that passed him. He grunted from the pain and knew that he couldn’t grit his teeth because of the hairline fracture. There was moment of opening, and Yuurei would take his swords out as he pushed against Gideon, and towards one of the nearby tree. The swordsman would cut down the closest tree with his sword. He landed on the ground, and when he turned the piece of tree had been cut and started falling down. From that, there were a few shadows that jumped out of the area. These figures landed on the ground as they were surrounding both Gideon, and Yuurei. When he was able to see them as best as he could, there were about fifteen men here. They all had a launcher on their right shoulder, which looked like they could hold spears in them.

”That is how they were able to throw the spears at us like that. Damn the sneak attacks.” He whispered to himself. ”Why are you people attacking us?” He asked. ”This is an outpost for the Skull Pirates. We were told that there might be a giant passing by here, and not allowed that giant to pass through here.” One of them said this with the outmost confidence. Yuurei was about to break that confidence of theirs real quick though. ”You guys do know we took out Scowl. Do you think you can do better?” He asked them. They twitched for a bit as they heard those words. They got a little nervous, but they knew that if they had gotten Scowl then it meant that they weren’t in condition to fight.

They all threw the launchers towards Yuurei, and Gideon right then and there as they didn’t care what the man had said. The thief would dodge the toss of their weapon, and he could hear the loud crashing noise afterwards. When his feet planted on the ground, Yuurei rushed straight towards the one closest to him. He could have definitely felt the pain that was coming from his wounds, but he wasn’t going to allow that to stop him. He wasn’t exhausted as he got the rest that he needed. He swung his arms around as if he had claws as he swiped the man that was close to him. The man was too slow to react on Yuurei’s movement. When he got passed him the man had dropped down to the ground, which surprised everyone else.

”I will give you a choice like I’ve done before. Leave and surrender, or die where you stand.” He waited for their answer.

Gideon continued to make his way through the woods, every so often he would see the the large structure in the distance through breaks in the branches of the tall trees which made him wonder what it could be. Yuurei suggested a plan, but how the words came out made Gideon question, "Sounds a lot like sarcasm, thank you, Yuurei" As far as he guess, Yuurei was probably irritated by his desire to preserve life, "I know at this point there's probably no going back to diplomacy with the Skull Pirates".

Every so often, Gideon would nearly stumble over overgrown roots which he could barely see due to the night. The only hint of light came from the moon which barely broke through the cluster of branches above. The walk was overly boring until Yuurei called his attention, warning him to be on his guard which Gideon took seriously, given what he and Yuurei just went through just hours before.

Cautiously, the giant continued his trek, cautiously looking about until a spear nearly hit him. At this point, Gideon turned about and drew Jormungandr while Yuurei cut down a tree to reveal a man with a spear-launcher, then a little over a dozen more appeared surrounding the two Phantom pirates. Though Gideon wasn't sure about Yuurei's plan of trying to talk their way out, he still hoped it had some kind of effect, but their answer of being shot at wasn't suitable.

"Surrender while we have you two at your weakest!? You shall receive our answer!!" one of the men shouted as they continued to spray spears from their launchers. Gideon reacted by jumping behind a thick tree to dodge spears. The moment the spray stopped so the pirates had to reload their launchers, Gideon made his move and swung Jormungandr low and wide, cutting down brush and trees the Skull pirates were hiding behind; yells and dying screams sounded as the giant blade arced it's swing, right after that, the giant went back behind the tree again, "We have your answer, now you will have our reply" Gideon called back.

They didn’t like the fact that he had cut down one of their men. He didn’t care if they did or not, but they were the ones that had attacked first, and he was only responding to them. Still, it seemed like they weren’t alone. It wasn’t just the fifteen people he had saw surrounding them, but there were more people hiding around the trees and brushes. That made sense, and soon enough they started shooting out more spears. Yuurei started moving his arms around though as he figured he would play the defensive role right now. He kept his guard up, and he sighed as he knew that nobody would get through his defense. His arms picked up speed as he continued to swing around his arms, and the spears that were flying towards him were being parried and cut down by his blades. He looked at the fourteen guys that were around him and noticed that they were moving.

The spears stopped coming, which brought him to stop moving his arms. He got into a crouching position as he figured this was going to happen, and he zoomed straight at them as well. These fights he was having over and over made him feel like he was getting stronger, but he knew he had to be strong enough to take on the world. These guys were quick to take out weapons of their own. He could see that they had short swords, and were ready to attack him. He smiled because it was dark, and he was going to use that to his advantage. They wouldn’t have known that he had longer arms than usual, and he swung down his right hand straight at the incoming pirate. The man fell to his right when he was cut down, and Yuurei brought the same hand up to catch the next man who came at him. His left had done the same now as he was alternating between hands after brought down these men.

”We don’t have time for you people, so be gone!” He shouted this as he got to the last man who was running towards him. This man swung his blade early, so he could protect himself from the incoming blade, but he was met with Benehime, which broke through the short sword, and cut the man down. He sighed as he stood straight and knew that his friend would have taken care of the rest. ”You guys are just stalling, but what are you guys actually stalling for?” He asked, but knew that nobody would answer him. He looked over at Gideon and shook his head. They needed to keep moving as he felt as if there was something fishy going on here.

The thief put his swords away as he swung them down taking the blood off them. ”Let’s go, Gideon, we don’t have time to be wasting.” He said this and when he was about to move, more people showed up. It angered him, and he didn’t have time for this bull shit. ”Stay down!” He screamed as a blue aura shot out of him, and the men that were running towards him were hit by this aura. Their eyes widen when they felt this power hit them, and then their eyes rolled back, and they dropped in a domino effect. The only person who would have been protected by this was Gideon as he wouldn’t have done this to his friend. He sighed because that would keep them down for a while.

He looked at Gideon once again, and with that Yuurei started moving through the forest now as he was no longer going to be on his friend’s shoulder. He had gotten enough energy back, but his adrenaline was surging through his body. He moved through the forest as he noticed odd was happening.  ”Gideon we keep moving towards the direction, and that damn metal structure keeps getting bigger. What the hell is that?” He didn’t know what it was, but it was mainly due to the fact that it was dark outside. Still, even though he didn’t know what it was he continued to move forward. It would take the two about twenty minutes to arrive at the clearing of the forest, but they didn’t have to deal with anybody on their way there. The man had taken these guys out with his Haki, something he didn’t use carelessly. Yuurei would soon stop before he actually reached the clearing because he knew what that meant.

This clearing also gave him visual of the metal structure that Gideon had spotted earlier. It was a fucking cannon, and there were three of them there to be exact. It wasn’t just that, but there was another campsite in the Upper Yard. This time it was in front of a huge entrance to a cave. There were people in what looked like a watchtower. It was night time, so they needed someone to guard them from a surprise attack. That also told him that they were truly alert that there were people attacking them. ”Gideon want to throw me again towards that tower?” He said this with a smile on his face. The duo would soon find out the motives of the captain of this crew. It would be something that they cannot allow to be pursue. The best thing about this was that they would continue to grow stronger and become a duo not to be messed with.

12/20 Haki

King’s Conqueror:

EXIT

The duo fought against the Skull Pirates, swords and spears clashing, albeit due to Yuurei's speed, it was hard to get a focus on him, Gideon didn't even know exactly he was, given the lack of light was making the battle overall difficult for everyone. As for the giant, he was overwhelming the others by simply sweeping the area with his massive blade. Enemy pirates flew to and fro before Yuurei called for them to continue advancement, but before they could take another step, another set of Skull Pirates arrived. "Damn it, they're like roaches!"

Before Gideon could adjust his sword to take another swing, something had swept the area, like a dramatic change to the atmosphere, he could barely feel it, but before he could take a thought to what that could be, the entire party of Skull Pirates dropped like flies right before Yuurei took off towards the structure, Gideon soon followed.

For the moment, Gideon wondered what exactly that ability was; there is much to Yuurei that he knew, but certain things remain a mystery. Hearing that he is from Swordsman island and the fighting style his mother taught him gave Gideon an idea to how he fights, but this feeling told him there was more to this long-armed man's abilities.

After some time, the two finally reached a clearing to which they spotted an encampment; Gideon lowered him as best as he could, creeping behind the swordsman. The three cannons looked intimidating by size, even for a giant such as him; he wondered what the cannons were for, though a pit in his stomach told him this wasn't going to be good at all and needed to be stopped.

Deeper within the encampment, there were a few torches to give sight at the center, to which Gideon could see a few men sitting, possibly awake, but how lazily they sat, he wondered if they had any awareness about them, then he spotted the tower, though it didn't have any lit torches which made it difficult to see if anyone was manning it.

Yuurei asked for a boost, to which Gideon nodded before grabbing him. he took one look around to make sure no one was watching before he stood up to position his self and threw the swordsman towards the tower, he then quickly crouched back down and waited for whatever plan Yuurei had or whatever signal.