Encounter: A.I vs Hito

[Kuro]

"No threats spotted, sir."

"Time: 2:15 PM. Weather: Fair, some clouds in the sky. Sea: Calm, acceptable color. Soldier #3452 reports no threats spotted, no visible indication of lying."

He shut the small book and placed it under his clean white jacket of gold trim, readjusting his crimson tie seconds afterward. He wore a hat of the same color scheme with the black A.I logo in the center. His entire outfit was likewise, complete with white gloves and black boots. From his gleaming, even sparkling white chair, he oversaw his people sitting in front of dials and valves, the deck of his ship through the giant glass window that was basically the wall of the opposite end of the room. On the deck were four tanks, each inactive, their cannons and hulls as shiny and clean as possible, as per his orders.

Wait.

"Soldier #3548."

"Yes, sir?"

"I see a stain on tank number two of this battleship."

"...F-from there, s - ?"

"Clean it immediately!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

The soldier scrambled for a bit and ran out of the room, used to running around in such a heavy suit from years of training and practice. Nevertheless, by the time he had gone down all of the stairs, he wasn't happy to do any running around at all. So, it was most unfortunate when he had finally reached the tank and, in the midst of his panting, realized something. Something he hoped the captain had not noticed as well.

"...He forgot his cleaning supplies. Time: 2:19 PM. Weather: Fair, some clouds in the sky. Sea: Calm, acceptable color. Three minutes earlier, soldier #3548 ordered to clean tank number two of this battleship. He forgot the cleaning supplies. This counts as a mark on his record."

He made a final pen stroke and closed the book again, hiding it under his jacket and going back to overseeing his vessel.

"Soldier #4613. Report."

"No threats spotted, sir."

"Time: 2:20 PM. Weather: Fair..."

---

Three battleships and two airships sailed through the sea and sky in the name of Arkady Industries. Each of the battleships was impressive in stature and white in color. Regular twin cannons lined the sides and three massive artillery cannons were on the deck, facing forward. Near the back of the center of the ship were three large smokestacks that continuously clogged the air with smoke. The airships, which steered clear of the smoke coming from the battleships, were similar, looking like battleships in the sky, but they were much smaller and did not have as many cannons. It was a mystery as to how they propelled themselves through the air without any sails or balloons whatsoever; either way, the smokestacks on each of them stuffed smog into the clouds it went through.

[Hitotsumami]

Hito continued his swim in the ocean. Sure, it would have been easier to ride on a boat, but that was against his morals.

The man had long, somewhat spiky black hair and dark eyes. He wore nothing but a pair of blue shorts and samurai-like sandals. Strapped to his side was a black blade.

Hito paused, swimming in place, as he saw three huge battleships, all white, appear before him. The sun striking them made them look incredibly bright.

"I haven't seen a ship in the last fifteen days of swimmin'," muttered Hito to himself. He also hadn't had a good drink of water or food, other than seawater which was starting to get tiring, and random fish Hito caught in his mouth. For any normal person, they would surely die, but Hito was anything but normal.

Hito swam up to the side of one of the giant ships. Surely, he thought, he'd look like nothing but a speck from way up there on deck. Hito then pierced the ship with the tips of his fingers and began crawling up. If nothing had stopped him so far, he'd jump on the deck and get out his matches.

"Time to burn another ship~"

[Kuro]

"W-what?! What the -"

The Arkadian who had been vigorously cleaning an already gleaming tank on deck made a double-take at the sight of a half-naked man not too far away. He shuffled for the rifle strapped over his back and pointed it at the man, yelling loud enough to make himself heard as he walked towards him.

"Intruder! Cease and desist all activity immediately! You have illegally boarded a ship owned by Arkady Industries and are under arrest! You will come forwards with your hands up or I will shoot you down now! Any attempt to resist arrest will result in summary execution! Surrender now!"

He ended up only a few feet away from the man, his rifle pointed at the intruder's chest.

---

"...Is soldier #3548 interacting with someone? He has moved away from the tank. Soldiers #3542 and 3190, investigate. Ready your weapons."

Two "Yes sir"s were said and the soldiers went proceeded towards the deck, arriving onto the scene around five minutes after the intruder was confronted. When they opened the door to the deck, they weren't sure what to expect.

[Hitotsumami]

As Hito lit the match, he looked over to see a man pointing a gun at him and yelling at him to stand down. Hito frowned and flickered the match across the matchbox, setting it alight.

"So, it's one of those ships."

Sighing, Hito paced back and forth for a few feet, speaking as he did so. "Sometimes, I come across ships where all I gotta do is set the match and light the ship, then I can go on my way. Those are the good times. But then, sometimes I end up on ships like this. Ships where the people start yellin' at me and tellin' me to go away and leave em alone."

Hito took one step towards the man with a gun, then stopped.

"They say things like: "Don't burn down my ship! I need that ship to get to the next island! What do you think you're doing with that match!?" They yell all of these darn things at me and it really ends up just givin' me a big headache. But you wanna know how it ends every time?"

With the hand not holding the match, Hito gave the thumbs down.

"I burn down their ship and they sink, every time! And while they're yellin' about, I tell them this: If I can swim through the grand line with nothin' but a pair of shorts, you don't need no stinkin' ships!"

And with that, Hito dropped the match and it fell on the ground, surely to spread unless something stopped it.

[Kuro]

The two extra soldiers had come in right when Hito had dropped the match. It seemed like a moment in slow-motion; the door opening, the match falling, the heads turning. It was all so slow, everything focused on one thing. The match fell, fell, fell to the floor, bringing with it the majesty and power of flame.

The match hit the ground with no effect whatsoever. The fire spread nowhere because the ship wasn't made of wood. Instead, the match continued to burn a tiny little ember until the soldier wordlessly and casually smothered it with his metal boot.

"...You swam here? In those? You must be insane from drinking seawater. No wonder they call you all savages. Well, come on then, maybe we can fix you up and get you to work. A.I doesn't waste anything, not even lives. We use those up to their fullest potential. So, let's get you some real food and water and then you can mop up decks as punishment."

Soldier #3548 looked at the two new arrivals and jerked his head to the door. "Well? Let's get him to the medical bay first, see if there's anything wrong."

"Are you crazy? We have to report him to the captain first!"

"Oh, oh! Yeah, I forgo - er, forgot."

"Yeah, like you forgot to take the cleaning supplies. You clean whatever mess he just made on deck and we'll take him to the captain. He probably got seaweed and dirt and dust everywhere. Captain says it has to be spotless."

"I know, just go already."

Soldier #3548 lowered his gun and went to pick up the cleaning supplies near the tank so that he could begin on cleaning up whatever mess the intruder had brought with him onto the deck. The other two kept their guns raised and pointed at the stranger, one of them prodding the man in the back with it. "Okay, proceed forward, nice and slow...behave nicely and we'll give you some food and water, you're probably dying or something, right?"

They intended to take him through the door and through obnoxiously clean white hallways with the occasional shining pipe, all of the rooms full of technology that he had most likely never seen before, but it was up to the invader whether or not he would comply.

[Hitotsumami]

Hito was surprised to see that his fire wasn't working. He reached down, picked up the match, and blew it out.

"Oh yeah," he said, watching the smoke sizzle out from the match tip. "There was one other kinda ship I come across sometimes."

From his side, he unsheathed a long, silver sword. Clenching the hilt tightly with his hand, it activated a flame dial in the hilt, causing the sword to be covered in fire.

"The kinda ship that just won't go down without a fight. Sorry pal, but I aint goin' nowhere that I don't wanna go to. It would be best if you left the ship while it is still floatin'."

[Kuro]

"Oh. Okay then."

The two Arkadians who were right behind Hito, one of them with his gun actually touching Hito's back, fired their fully automatic rifles at him, shooting as many bullets as they needed.

There was really nothing else to be said.

I mean...Wow.

[Hitotsumami]

Hito, hardly realizing it before it happened, heard a barrage of gunshots go off behind him. The bullets slammed into him, as many as the gun could shoot. Hito stood there, unmoving, as he felt the bullets hit him in his back.

Once the men finally stopped shooting, they'd see that Hito's back was covered in smashed bullets, as if they had slammed not into skin, but the hardest steel. The bullets then fell off of Hito's back onto the metal deck. Once all of the bullets had fallen off of his back, everyone around could see that his back was completely dyed black.

"Busoshoku Haki," muttered Hito as his black skin faded back to white.

Hito turned around and pointed at the men's guns. "At least, that's what the last guy who shot me said I had. No clue what it means exactly. Also, maybe should put those guns away, or else you'll waste more bullets."

Looking at the flaming sword in his hand, he remembered what exactly he was here for. "Oh, that's right. Time to burn!" Hito slashed the sword forward, slamming it into the deck without enough force to cut it and send a spray of fire in all directions.

[Kuro]

The soldiers stood in shock, silent. Their faces were covered by goggles and masks, so their emotions were hidden in that regard. They said nothing as Hito spoke, still shocked by what had just happened. It wasn't until the man impaled the hallway and flame started going everywhere that they were brought back to reality.

"Hey! No! Stop, freak!"

The two who had attempted to bring him into the hallway thought of attacking him again...but with what? They looked at each other, their guns, and back at each other. They looked back at the soldier assigned to clean the tank, who was now running towards the fire with the bucket of water he had been using to clean the vehicle. "Ah! Ah, no, no, stop, stop!" He poured as much water as he could onto the fire, but it did little to deter it. He looked at the other two.

"Why haven't you killed him yet?!"

"Guns don't work! He said something about Haki! He's a freak!"

The fires made the soldiers flinch and step back. "What do we do?!"

"Hmm..."

---

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?!"

The captain had jumped out of his chair and was leaning on a railing, pointing at the chaos that was happening on the deck of his ship. The others in the bridge were just as confused, but none of them nearly as angry as the man. He growled, blood veins bulging around his face, and shouted to everyone around him. "What are you waiting for?! Someone get rid of him! Someone kill him! Do SOMETHING, just get him off of my - what?"

He watched as one of the soldiers, the one he had sent to clean the tank, was now jumping into said tank.

"...No."

The tank began to turn, its two cannons now pointing at Hito. One of the cannons was glowing.

"No!"

The fire had no effect on the tank or the person inside. The glowing cannon was shining now, a blue glow surrounding it.

"NO!"

The cannons fired a laser straight at the swordsman, disintegrating all in its path. It took a little of the ship with it, but to the soldier inside, that was a small cost.

[Hitotsumami]

While Hito was busy causing trouble and setting everything that could be set on fire... well... on fire... it seemed the one of the other guys had jumped into a tank, pointed it at him, and fired.

Hito jumped to the side, trying to avoid the deadly laser blast, but unfortunately did not completely succeed. As he stood on the deck of the ship, just a few inches away from a huge portion which was obliterated from the laser blast, Hito looked down at his leg. Where once his calf of his left leg was, there was now nothing but empty space.

"Well, that can't be good," said Hito. He placed his flaming sword against the wound, burning it and cauterizing so that it would not bleed out. "Guess I gotta take care of that big tank if I wanna burn the ship down..."

Thus, Hito dashed straight for the tank, though to be honest, his speed had decreased due to his injury. While doing so, he imbued his flaming sword with Busoshoku Haki, making it incredibly tough, and sliced across the barrel of the tank, hoping to chop it in half.

[Kuro]

"Hah! Yes! I have you now...just one more hit and -"

And just like that, the enemy had dashed with one leg and ended up on top of the tank before he knew it.

"W-wha?! What?! How can he - Wait no, no, no!"

He cringed and threw his arms up as the swordsman raised his sword and hoped and prayed that he wouldn't die, not here, not like this! He was in that position for a while before he noticed that nothing had happened. He slowly opened one eye behind his standard black, opaque goggles and saw that the man was still there, his sword no longer raised. He was, understandably, rather confused and it wasn't until a couple of seconds had passed before he saw something missing.

"T-the barrel! What?! What did you do to it? I, you, wha..."

It was unlikely that Hito could hear anything the soldier was saying, but that probably didn't matter much to him. The soldier raised his right arm and touched the palm of his hand with fingers excluding the index and thumb. A pistol that had been attached to the underarm of his right, armored arm sprung forward and was caught by his hand. This was standard issue for all Arkadian soldiers, but at the moment he wasn't sure if it would do anything. He looked at the gun for a second and exhaled.

The hatch on the top of the tank flung open and the soldier popped up with his pistol pointed at Hito's face.

"Even you can't take a bullet to the face you fre -"

"That will not be necessary."

The three soldiers on deck turned towards the scathing voice they knew all too well.

"You've wasted enough resources already. Every bullet you use against a bulletproof entity burns up beli. Didn't you know that?"

Standing on deck was the captain, tall and dressed in his stainless white and gold garb. He wore boots and gauntlets that were made of gleaming, shining white metal and were sleek in design, fitting his slender body. The fingers were long and sharp, like the claws of a monster. Dials and pressure gauges spotted its surface and tubes ran from it to his back, through his coat. The boots, which also shielded the entirety of his lower legs and knees, seemed a bit too big for him but fit anyway. Likewise, valves and dials could be seen on the legs and tubes ran from it to the upper parts of his legs, through the white cloth.

"Not only that, but you've caused irreparable damage to this ship. Laser weaponry on the deck without my permission? What were you thinking?!"

He wore a smooth, round, oval-like helmet, also of sleek, white metal save for the round, glass visor that took up most of it. It was opaque and hid his annoyed face.

"This is a matter for professionals such as myself, you little nothing. You've caused enough damage already. I really don't think I need you anymore."

He lazily raised one of his arms up and pointed an accusing, now glowing finger at the soldier halfway out of the tank, who was petrified.

"W-wha...?"

The captain pointed his glowing finger to the left and watched as a thin laser beam, capable of cutting through anything, shot out in one continuous line that seemed to stretch on forever. The laser had not hit any part of the ship and the captain didn't intend for any such thing. With the laser only a few inches away from the sides of Hito and the soldier, he quickly flung his arm towards the right, cutting through anything in the horizontal slash, and assumed that of course, such advanced weaponry would get rid of the swordsman and the incompetent soldier soon enough.

[Hitotsumami]

After slashing the barrel of the tank, Hito thought all the problems were gone and now he could enjoy burning the ship until it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Spinning around, he saw who he guessed was the captain come out.

"Kenbunshoku Haki," muttered Hito. In his mind, he saw the captain's future attack. He saw the long, thin laser shoot out of his finger, slicing everything in half. He had to dodge, now.

Hito jumped into the air, hoping to get high enough to dodge the laser, and then come down with a powerful fire sword attack. Unfortunately, half way up, Hito realized he was not going fast enough.

The laser cut Hito's foot right off.

Hito landed on the deck, grunting and yelling in pain, grasping his ankle where his leg ended and squeezing it. "AGHH! My foot! You cut my foot off!" Hito saw his severed foot laying on the ground not far away and jumped for it, grabbing it and pushing it back in place at the end of his leg. He then reached in his pocket and brought out some needle and thread and started sewing his foot back onto his leg, but he realized it was no good. Even if he did connect his foot back, there was too much internal damage.

Hito grunted, standing up on one leg, blood oozing out of his other ankle, and his severed foot in hand.

"Well, guess this aint gonna work as I thought it would. Since you cut it off," Hito turned his attention towards the captain, "then I guess it's yours now!"

Hito, imbuing his foot with Busoshoku Haki and then chucked it at him with great speed, hoping to hit him in the middle of the forehead and knock him out. At the same time, Hito jumepd high into the air, lifting his flaming sword above his head, and then came crashing down back on the deck, sending a wall of fire heading straight for the captain.

"Just burn already!"

[Kuro]

As Hito fell to the deck with a thud, the soldier's upper half slid off of his now-cut body and fell over onto the tank with a clank. The two soldiers who had been behind the captain had, with a nod from their superior, gone back inside and joined those who were watching from the bridge. The captain had not requested any aid, so no aid he would get.

The Arkadian looked at the foot on his deck, the facelessness of his smooth helmet matching with his apathy as he watched the intruder attempted to sew it back onto his leg as if he had the mind of a child. Judging by his attempt to attack an Arkadian battleship with naught but a sword and Haki, perhaps such a description was accurate. He scoffed and pointed a finger at the savage again, his voice now only mildly annoyed rather than aggravated.

"While most would interrogate you, I think it's safe to say in my expert opinion that you are nothing more than a stupid wanderer. I will tolerate such disorder on my ship. What a waste of time; you weren't even target practice."

And as he pulled the trigger mechanism in his gloves to fire the laser from his finger, the savage threw his foot at him in a most disgusting and filthy move. Out of reflex, he pointed his finger at the incoming projectile and fired it on that while moving his finger about, cutting it into pieces before it could hit him. The foot had distracted him from the savage's leap and it wasn't until Hito shouted that he looked up into the air.

The fire rushed onto the deck, now enveloping much of its metallic plains, the fire rising higher and higher. As the smoke began to rise and fill the air on the deck instead of in the sky with the ship's intended smog, a type of roar could be heard, a continous one that sounded as if it was coming from some machine. In the noise was the voice of a man going through much, much irritation.

"Now...now look what at you've done. Wasted so many resources, so much work, and for what?!"

The captain floated in the air, white smoke coming shooting out from the bottom of his boots and keeping him above the ground. It was with careful manipulation that he was activating and deactivating the propelling mechanism so that he could stay in roughly one place instead of shooting off into the sky. He looked around for his opponent, the fire and smoke obscuring his view, before he sighed.

"I cannot seem to find you in the chaos that you've created. I shall have to get rid of you in a rather unconventional way, it seems. And with that, you waste even more of my precious time."

He leaned forward and the boots, now diagonal, propelled him in that direction. He turned as he moved in the sky, going faster and faster as he spun around in a circle around the flames. It went to the point where he had become a blur in the air, a white streak behind him. His intention was to create a vortex to suck out the air and thus choke out the flame and whatever unfortunate swordsman may be inside. The winds were beginning to whip around and form a miniature tornado on the deck, the flames caught inside. What else was trapped in the windy prison?

[Hitotsumami]

Hito was stuck.

Totally stuck in a whirlwind. While he had been slashing away at the boat, he forgot about the captain guy, and before he knew it, he was swept up into this huge tornado of flame of smoke.

Hito attempted to slash against the wind, but surprisingly, he wasn't able to break through the wind or counter it in any way. He cursed to himself. His foot was searing with pain. His own flames were dancing around him, threatening with a fiery death.

"Damn it," cursed Hito. He could feel his strength fading. His grip on his sword wouldn't hold much longer. There was only one option left. Monster form.

No. He couldn't do that. Not right now. Last time he did that, he ended up destroying more than just a ship. That was a last resort option only. There was something else he could do, but it was risky. It was dangerous. And it would mean, he would lose this battle.

Hito took the second option. With all his remaining strength, he pointed his sword down at the ship (which was already difficult since he was spinning around like crazy). He took a deep breath, then squeezed the hilt of the sword, activating the flame dial, and shooting out a huge tower of fire.

A huge blast of fire would shoot down towards the ship, and the resulting attack was enough to propel him out of the tornado, away from the ship. However, Hito didn't anticipate just how powerful the attack was, for it didn't just propel him away from the ship, but miles and miles away.

Hundreds of miles...

---

Hito flew through the air, and it looked like nothing was going to stop him. Looking below, he saw nothing but the wide blue ocean. Not one ship or an island. His foot was killing him, he had burns and scrapes all over, and it took all he could to just stay conscious. He hoped he didn't land in the ocean, because he wasn't sure if he had the strength to swim out.

Lucky for him, he didn't land in the ocean. He crashed into a giant cyborg in midair.

"What the--?" muttered Wolf as he stopped, hovering in the air. He examined the man he had caught in his huge hands. "Where did you come from? Scanners say you're in a bad condition. You won't survive much longer."

Hito opened his eyes, coughing up a bit of blood. "A... robot?"

"Yeah," responded Wolf. He considered the situation, then said, "Hang on, there's an island nearby."

---

A few minutes later and Wolf had patched Hito up on an island. Bandages and wraps covered his head and his arms and chest. The huge open wound on his ankle, where his foot once was, was not doing very good, however.

"Now tell me," said Wolf, starting a fire and sitting down opposite side of Hito. "Who are you and what is going on?"

"I'm Hito," said Hito. "Ship sinker."

Wolf remembered his scanning capabilities, and he scanned Hito's face. Indeed, he was telling the truth. His archives showed a bounty poster of 69,000,000 Beri. Wait a moment, that was his first bounty.

"300 Million," muttered Wolf out loud.

"Eh?" asked Hito, tilting his head.

Wolf chuckled. "No, it's nothing. I've heard about you, Hito Tsumami. You come from an island in the West Blue. You're famous for burning down marine ships, right? You've been associated with some pretty interesting people. Including... Kusu!?"

Hito raised an eyebrow. "... who?"

"Kusu!" said Wolf, more anxious. "You've been in a crew with Kusu before! You see, I was just in an incident with a... sinking ship... and I lost contact with her. I'm heading back to find them now! I'm part of their crew now, just like you!"

Hito frowned, shaking his head. "No, I don't know any Kusu. Ya see, I have a really bad memory. Maybe if I saw him, I'd recognize him, maybe."

"It's a her."

"Yeah, her. But if what you say is true, then I guess we're both crewmates, in some kind of weird way. Listen then, all you need to know is that I'm a pirate, and I burn down ships. But now... I don't know if I can do that anymore."

Hito's eyes looked down at his severed foot. The opening had been burned to seal it, and then Wolf wrapped it in bandages. "I can heal from a lot of wounds. I've been practically blown up before. But there's one thing even I know. You can't grow back a foot."

Wolf solemnly nodded. "That is true. What happened for this to happen?"

"I ran into a ship. And... a strong guy with weapons I weren't used to. I was careless, and I lost my foot. After that, I felt my power decease dramatically. I couldn't even stop one man!" Hito clenched his fists, closing his eyes tightly and looking down. "I can't even stop one ship! After that day when I was a kid... after what I saw... I can't let ships like those just roam free! I have to destroy them all. But like this..." A tear formed in Hito's eyes and ran down his face. "I can't do anything."

Wolf frowned. He knew this man had some dramatic past and had been through a lot of adventures. He had to remember to ask Kusu about it at one point. He reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder. "You're a strong man. If you want, I can take you with me, to Kusu. You can rejoin our crew."

Hito shook his head. "No. I don't want to. Even if I remembered them, what's the point? My leg is--!!" Hito suddenly stood up, and almost fell down as well. He grabbed the side of a tree to keep his balance, and looked around, confused.

"What is it, Hito?" asked Wolf, standing up. He began scanning the island, but it didn't show any intelligent life. Just a few wild animals. "Do you see something?"

"No," said Hito, his eyes still looking around. He ripped a tree branch and used it as a cane to help keep his balance as he moved. "I don't see it. But I can feel it. The same feeling I had before. There's a black rock around."

"Black rock...?"

"This way!" shouted Hito. With as much speed as he could muster with only one foot, Hito ran into the forest, pushing down any shrubs, plants, or trees that got in his way. Alerted, Wolf quickly followed after him.

It was only a few minutes later that Hito stopped. All around him were ancient ruins, over 800 year old ones. Trinkets and antiques littered the ground. However, one ruin stood tall and without fracture.

Encased in a golden box was a Poneglyph.

"A black rock," said Hito, reaching out and touching it. "They studied these things back on my home island."

"That's a poneglyph," said Wolf in disbelief. He had never seen one himself, but he heard legends about them. Ancient rocks with messages were carved onto unbreakable stones and hidden. It was forbidden to view it or study it, so the Government said.

"Yeah, a black rock," said Hito. He tilted his head. "This is our treasure, passed on through the generations. Protecting it with your life is our descendants one goal. The forces of the world will eventually clash, and the powers will fall out of balance. Good and evil, dark and light. These are perceptions of men. It is but a gradient of the same color. This is a clue for the future. For the next piece of the grand puzzle. A city of stone, as high as a mountain, with dark clouds swarming around the top, but not made of water, but acid. The ancient weapon is kept there."

Wolf was absolutely aghast. "You... can read these?"

"I guess so," said Hito, scratching his head. "It's funny, cause I don't know how to read, but these words just kinda speak by themselves. I wonder what it means about a weapon?"

"An ancient weapon!" Wolf felt a pain resonate deep in his chest. He himself held one of the ancient weapons, Fenrir. It was once a ravaging beast, a creature of tremendous power, but at one point in the past it had been captured a fused with a man, Samuel Wolf. The only thing that kept the beast from breaking free was the machines he was made with. "A city of stone as high as a mountain? I need to find this."

Hito looked back at Wolf. "Is this about you?"

"Maybe," said Wolf. "I can't be sure, but if it is, I need to know. Hito! Will you come with me? I want to go back to Kusu, and continue my journey. With her and my crew, I want to discover who I really am! If you can read the Poneglyph's, then its possible!"

Hito was silent a moment, then smiled. "Nope. Like I said, I don't wanna. But your enthusiasm is pretty impressive! Heheh, I guess I'm missin' a foot, but it could be a lot worse, right? I gotta keep destroying ships. That's my dream. If your dream is to find out who you are, then you know yourself just how important my dream is to me, right? We have to stick with the path ahead."

Wolf smiled. "Yes, you're right. I'm sure you'll survive, just as I will."

Hito then scratched his chin, looking Wolf up and down. "But hold on one second. You said you're a robot, right? So like, you're made of metal?"

"Yeah," said Wolf hesitantly. He raised his hands. "But I'm not like a boat! You don't have to sink me to the bottom of the ocean, please!"

Hito laughed. "I wouldn't do that! But listen. I once met a man. I can't remember his face or his name though. I think it started with a 'C' or something. Anyway, this man was kinda like you. He was part machine. I've met two robots now, and now I know it's possible, so I got a favor to ask you."

Wolf furrowed his brow. "Yes?"

Hito raised his stump foot. "Give me a robot leg!"

---

Hito watched as Wolf left the island, flying through the sky. Wolf had continued to beg Hito to come with him, but Hito said no every time. He had something else he had to do.

Looking down, he smiled. Once, there was a foot on this leg. Then, there was no foot. But now... Now his entire leg had been mechanized. Thanks to Wolf's knowledge, and a few spare parts he had lying around, Wolf had constructed a mechanical leg with all kinds of powerful weapons and effects, and attached it to Hito's body.

"With this, it's possible," said Hito, grinning. He lit a match and watched the embers burn. "There are a lot of strong guys still out there, and they all have big ships. If I'm gonna burn them all down, then this was just a necessary step."

Hito tossed the match behind him, setting the forest on fire. He looked out to the beach, to the sunset far in the distance. "I know you're out there, weird laser captain! I'm gonna find you, I promise! I'm gonna find you and completely destroy your ship! Just wait!!"

At that moment, for hundreds of miles in every direction, every living thing could feel a presence brush against them, like a soft evening wind. Even the trees and the grass and flowers fluttered in the presence of this strange, foreign sensation. Even the captain upon the Arkadian ship, hundreds of miles away in the Grand Mile, could perhaps feel it as well.

It was the Haoshoku Haki, the Conqueror's Haki.

Hito jumped into the ocean and began swimming as fast as he could, hoping to catch up to that ship. He knew it would take a long time, probably days, but he was prepared. He wouldn't stop swimming until he finally caught up.

"You've won this time, laser captain," muttered Hito. "But just wait for a me."

The man from Ohara, reader of the Poneglyph's and master of the three Haki's, owner of a powerful flame dial sword and a new mechanical leg, swam as fast as he could, for his destiny was awaiting him.


(Kuro, you can post once more if you want, but we can end the thread after that. I'll move Hito back a few squares on the map.)