Ding! Quest Complete!
Quest: It's always polite to assist your elders. Be a swell guy and help the old man deliver his flowers to where they need to go.
Reward: 100 Exp.
My shoulders visibly relax. 'Finally.'
"All right gramps. I'm gonna take off. Are you good pulling the cart back yourself?" I circle around to the other side of the grave to read the epitaph….
...and nearly feel my blood turn to ice. 'PORTGAS D. ROUGE' 1469-1502 'Nothing is impossible if it means saving the one who matters most' I try not to gape as my brain attempts to reboot itself. My eyes are darting rapidly between the headstone, the florist kneeling before it, back to the grave, back to the florist, back to the gra-
'Wha- I don't under-..who is..[Observe]!'
Braxton Berwynne, Retired Pirate, Lv. 118
While a humble and merry shopkeep these days, Berwynne once served as the Assistant Navigator on board the legendary pirate vessel, the Oro Jackson. In the spring of 1500 he accompanied his captain, Gol D. Roger, to Baterilla where-
Alert! Foreign System Detected! Your target's Observation Haki has alerted them that you have done...something!
'Wait! WHAT!'
My panicked thoughts were cutoff as the old mans leg swooped around, hooked one of my ankles, and then ripped both feet out from under me. My head crashed painfully against the rocky hillside and was then pinned there as a foot came down onto my throat.
Bullet Time Skill Active!
-Time is being slowed for you by 9%.
"What did you just do young man?" The now identified 'Berwynne' questioned with narrow eyes.
I try to wrench the shoe off of my throat but it refuses to budge a single inch. Whatever this old codgers strength is, it far supersedes my own. 'What the fuck! This is not happening! I did not just pull a fuck-up as bad as with Jorgen!'
[Adrenalin Rush] Activated!
STR (135 +70%) → (229.5)
Despite the [Perk]'s activation, there is no movement in Berwynne's hold, if anything the pressure on my windpipe tightens even further and I realize he has no intention of letting up until he gets an answer.
The need to breathe is rising and my brain defaults to the only answer I think he'll accept. "..d-devil fruit.." I weakly rasp out.
The ex-pirate eases up, just enough to let me breathe, and raises an eyebrow. "A Paramecia user…? What kind?" He demands. "What was that I just felt?"
With the force behind his hold lifted, I gently push his foot aside -or rather he allows me toand start to rise. "It's an Observation Fruit.." I begin, "If I use it's power while looking at something- a person, a building, a ship, you get the idea- then I can learn a lot about that something."
The New World veteran's gaze pierces straight through me and I realize that everything about the man has changed. His back is straighter. His face more taut. There is no hint at all remaining of the facade he was playing all afternoon. "Continue."
"When used on a person I can learn their name, some of their history, how powerful they are..."
My explanation is calm but internally I'm having the panic attack of my life. 'Is this a joke [Game]!? I try to take a week off for some 'me time' and you hit me with- with this! Also! What the hell's the deal with [Observe] being detectable by Haki! I get that the names are similar but that's no justification for-'
"I see." Berwynne speaks. "So..Jack was it?... What did you learn about me?"
I audibly gulp. 'Tell the truth. Don't tell the truth. Tell the truth. Don't tell the truth. Which one gets us out of this situation alive?'
"N-nothing that I would ever repeat to anyone else sir." Berwynne smiles but it's nothing like the cheerful grin of 'Mr. B'. This one is hollow. Dangerous. "I've built a fine life here young man. It can be a bit dull at times admittedly, but I've grown quite fond of it.
I enjoy it. And if people were to learn-"
"I won't tell anyone!" I spit out in a panic. "Not any townspeople, certainly not the Marines, I swear-"
"I know you're not." He cuts me off. "Because you are leaving this island tonight. I don't care how you do it or what it costs you, but if you're still here in the morning then you and I are going to have a problem."
I'm only nodding silently at this point. The fear of being on the bad side of someone nearly triple my level doesn't allow for anything else.
"You're going to forget every speck of what your Fruit taught you about me and if I so much as smell a Marine battleship heading for Baterilla then I will know exactly who to-" Berwynne stops talking and looks around confused. "Do you hear that?"
"H-hear what?" I stammer. A 60 piece orchestra could be playing on the next hill over and it would still be blocked out by the sound of my heart screaming in my ears.
The ex-pirate's eyes widen. "Cannon fire."
Berwynne zips back to the other side of the cemetery at a speed I can just barely follow and I -against my better judgment- move to follow him.
When I catch up I can hear the audible grinding and gnashing of his teeth as he stares over the hillside and out into the bay.
A pirate galleon with a massive yellow dinosaur skull as its figurehead has sailed into the harbor and is bombarding the shoreline with every gun it has. Several black specks that I can identify as rowboats have already deployed and are just minutes away from making landfall on the beachhead.
"Damnit damnit damnit," The retired pirate curses as he speeds off towards town, leaving me alone with the dead.
"Wa-Wait! I'm coming too!" '[Soru]!'
[Skill Failed!]
"Son of a-! Gah-[SORU]!"
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