One piece : Armor of Justice

Fia was not in the best position. Her devil fruit ability was powerful, but her cannons fired indiscriminately. Therefore, she didn't dare to shoot into the crowd.

While Rance led the main attack, saving dozens of people, Fia focused on clearing out the attackers he couldn't reach.

The battle lasted about thirty minutes until finally the marines regained control over most of the ship's main deck.

Only a few pirates remained—some were incapacitated, others ended up overboard. Those left included the old captain who had deceived the fleet commander.

"S...stop! One more step and I'll kill him!"

As the commander bent over, clutching his side, the old captain pressed a flintlock pistol to his head.

Seeing the threat, Rance halted, which gave the pirate captain a false sense of confidence.

"Drop your weapons and surrender! If you refuse, say goodbye to this man!"

Glancing at his commander and the pirate, Rance wiped the sweat from his forehead but stood his ground. He surveyed the pirates' positions: three of the last twelve held firearms, while the other nine were armed with chains and sabers.

Using his intuition, he sensed that Fia was about twenty feet away from him but had a good aim on the pirates with guns—he hoped for this.

Thinking it over for about ten seconds, Rance didn't notice that the marines behind him were following his lead.

He didn't move, and they didn't move.

Cock the pistol, the pirate captain shouted again: "I will do it! I swear I will! Don't..."

Razor

"STORM STRIKE!"

Reacting instantly, the coordination between the two friends was flawless. As Rance cut the pirate captain off mid-sentence, Fia rushed forward and unleashed three cannon volleys, instantly killing the armed pirates.

With them eliminated, the rest of the marines quickly subdued the frenzied, leaderless pirates.

With pained legs, Rance didn't look at the pirate captain who had been sliced in half, but approached the ship's commander.

Placing a hand on the captain's shoulder, Rance said as calmly as possible, "Commander Simon, how are you?"

The man was conscious, but blood was coming from his mouth, which was clearly a bad sign.

"My left lung is punctured; I will survive but I can't move. You did an excellent job, MacGrew. The navigator will bring us back to port, but I entrust you with command of the ship."

When Rance heard this, he didn't feel pride or joy. He simply nodded and got to work. Because, despite being a recruit, Rance and Fia possessed something few in this world could boast about.

Touching the badge under his shirt, given to him by one of his best friends, Rance acted as he had been taught in emergency situations.

He worked tirelessly, restraining pirates who weren't severely injured and separating the wounded into those who required urgent help and those who were severely injured.

He wasn't a surgeon but had learned enough first aid to help sew and treat cuts while the only trained medic on the warship dealt with the gunshot wounds.

By the end of the day, as the ship headed back to port, Rance and Fia stood on the ship's foredeck.

Looking at Rance, Fia tried to lift the mood: "Well, you can boast to the others that you were the first to take command, even if it's temporary."

Nodding, Rance wanted to smile but couldn't.

"It's just a shame it happened this way."

"We saved a lot of people today, Rance. Without us, this ship would have been captured, and aside from the surgeon, they probably would have killed everyone."

Nodding again, Rance kept repeating, "I know," several times.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity of silence, Rance looked at her and said, "I didn't even think about killing them until the very end. Although I knew what I was doing, it felt like I was somewhere else… did you have something similar?"

Today, they both experienced many firsts. Out of the forty crew members, ten Marines died in the first seconds of the ambush, and half the remaining were severely injured.

They took the head of the pirate captain, although no one on board knew who he was, and the captured pirates fell into despair.

Nodding, Fia continued to stand her ground firmly: "They were bad guys, you shouldn't have worried. In that fight, you couldn't stop them otherwise.

When I first shot at the pirates among the wreckage, I remembered using this ability for the first time. That day you and Bill were chasing me along the beach... The memory of that was far scarier than when I blew up those guys in the ocean.

Because when I was shooting, I didn't even think about it. I jumped down from the ropes and focused on our comrades."

Rance knew in his mind that Fia was right. Those people wanted to kill them, and he did everything he could to prevent it.

But in his heart, it troubled him that it turned out to be too easy. He feared that if he wasn't careful, a time would come when it wouldn't bother him anymore.

Thinking about this, his short brown hair fluttered in the sea breeze, and his hand reached for the old [Helper] badge he had exchanged many years ago.

"Bunk check! Bunk check!"

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