Elly heard what I had to say and lowered her head to think, and after half a minute of deep thought, she raised her head and nodded with a serious face to show her resolve as she looked at the hand holding the knife and let it go.

"I heard the impel down is quite the hellish place," the redhead remarked as she looked into my eyes. "I'll be doing this piece of shit a favor if I slit his throat here," she concluded with a carefree smile.

"tehahaha, that's as good a choice as any, I suppose," I said with a while, laughing cheerfully. "You do know this guy could bleed out and die before he could get there, considering the state he's in, don't you?" I asked as I started shaking him again like some old rag.

"then let his luck decide his fate. Will he survive and suffer in impel down? Will he die and not suffer anymore? I don't care anymore since his life is over either way," she remarked while stretching her shoulders with a relieved expression. She looked like a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

I listened to her explanation and merely nodded my head with a smile while Wilson did not seem interested in Frank Nitti's fate, and Laffite was nodding his fervently with a smile even broader than mine.

Laffite, like all the members of the black-beard pirates, was a firm believer in fate, luck, and dreams, so it made sense that her actions would win his approval even if she didn't intend it the way Laffite thought she did, but I digress.

I heard some murmuring coming from behind us, so I turned around to check it out and saw a large crowd of civilians who stopped murmuring and whispering among themselves when they noticed me looking in their direction.

I smirked at them and raised Frank Nitti's unconscious body as high as I can and shouted at the top of my lungs, "The silver hand bounty hunters have destroyed the Nitti family."

There was silence as one civilian reached out and pinched the waist of the man standing next to him. "You bastard, what the hell are you doing?!" shouted the man who just had his waist pinched in outrage.

"I was checking to see If was in a dream," replied the offender as he looked at the man he just assaulted like the man was an idiot. "You're supposed to pinch your self goddamnit," he shouted again as he reached with his hand and pinched the man in revenge.

Looking at the two men escalate their argument into an all-out pinching brawl, my smile widened, and I laughed, which seemed to bring the rest of the civilians off their daze as they began cheering and dancing in the street.

Some were crying tears of joy. Some were in a state of disbelief. Some praised my crew and me, and I even saw the elderly storekeeper that I helped earlier bow his head in our direction as his granddaughter pulled on his beared from the corner of my eye, but we had no more time to waste here.

We made our way to the sheriff's office, and the crowd made way for us. Although some tried to approach us, they stopped once they noticed the dirty looks Wilson kept sending in every direction, and so we left the area at a leisurely pace as we chatted and joked with each other.

Thankfully, Delivering Frank Nitti and claiming the bounty on his head went smoothly. He had a reward of twenty million bellies on his head, but we only received fifteen because of property damage.

I'm sure that we've done less damage than that, but it wasn't by much, so I didn't ruin the good mood by arguing with the sheriff, and so we left and made our way back to the inn after completing all procedures and claiming our reward.

Once we were at the inn, it was already dark, so we ordered some food and drinks. Bob joined us while we were in the middle of our meal, and we explained to him what happened. He merely nodded his head, seemingly not surprised or overjoyed at our revelation as he took it as a matter of fact.

Even though we wanted to have a party to celebrate our success, Elly was in no condition for that, so we were content by simply drinking and enjoying each other's company until it was time to call it a day, so we all made our way to our rooms to sleep.

When it was morning, and everyone was awake and gathered at the inn's dining area, I handed a million bellies to every crew member as their cut of the bounty. I told them to spend the money for their pleasure and come to me for more if they wanted to buy something necessary.

Wilson, of course, only spent his money to buy alcohol and food, while Laffite only purchased a revolver, like the one Mr 5 had, and other necessities like bullets.

Elly asked me for another million to buy some equipment for building a workshop for herself as she seemed to enjoy tinkering with weapons and was good at creating all kinds of bombs and grenades, like smoke bombs, flashbangs,...etc. I gave her the money and told her to buy what she needed but to wait for the ship to be completed before installing her workshop.

Bob only received two hundred and fifty thousand Bellies, as he wasn't a part of the fight against the Nitti family, and he just accepted the money with a nod but spent none of it.

We spent the rest of the week doing training, partying, and drinking ourselves to sleep. Although Elly wanted to train as well, I insisted she would not until the wound on her back was fully healed.

By the time the wood for our ship was finally ready to be hauled into shipwright town, I could perform my impact fist a little faster, but I still couldn't do it in a fight without mixing it with Soru.

I also tried to teach Laffite the six powers to some level of success, as he absorbed the kami-e, Soru and rankyaku like a fish.

He was already doing something like kami-e to control the muscles of his feet and not make a sound while moving, so it only took him half a day to learn. He was also capable of a moving technique similar to soru, so he mastered it just as fast as kami-e. Rankyaku was more difficult for him to learn as he wasn't familiar with anything like it, but his leg strength was sufficient, and so was his control over his muscles, so he managed to learn it as well by the end of the week.

-0-

The days quickly passed, and it was finally time to leave the capital. The wood for our ship was ready, and the Nitti family was in a mess with most of their leadership dead, arrested, or on the run as the Ballywood kingdom's authorities capitalized on our defeat of the mob's boss and started a witch hunt against them.

An official of the kingdom even came to visit us at the inn during this time, stating that the royal family had invited us to reward us for our efforts. But I refused to go, and when the official seemed like he still had something to say, I told him that I wasn't from this country, and so I had no obligation to answer the summons of its royal family.

The official, however, didn't want to give up, and just when things were about to get complicated, one of Wilson's infamous dirty looks saved me, as he only needed to scoff at the official's persistence to scare him away.

King Ham Burger seemed like a decent man in the anime, but he was still a king, and he wouldn't bother with bounty hunters unless he had something to gain. I, of course, wanted nothing to do with that, as involving ourselves with royalty would bring us nothing but trouble that we didn't need right now.

"it's time to go, captain," Laffite said, forcing me to stop thinking about the events of last week. "They already loaded the wood into the train, and I just bought us train tickets," he concluded with a smile, and I merely nodded my head as I stood up and picked up my backpack.

"what about the rest of the crew?" I asked as I suddenly noticed their absence.

"Elly and bob went to visit her father's grave one last time before leaving, and Wilson went out a while earlier saying he'll meet us at the train station," said Laffite while checking his on his baggage.

"Then there's no reason to wait any longer. Let's go," I stated as I put on my hat and made my way outside the inn, and Laffite hastily followed me after taking several seconds to finish checking his belongings.

We passed the shop where I helped the elderly man before, and it just so happens that the little girl, his granddaughter, was standing outside the shop. She smiled and waved at me when we passed through, and I smiled and waved back without halting my steps.

There were also some stall owners who offered us food and other items with warm smiles on their faces as we passed through the streets where they did business.

I politely refused to accept their generosity, and we continued marching towards the train station.

I will not lie. The acknowledgment and the warm, welcoming looks that the people sent our way didn't feel bad at all, but I couldn't let myself get used to it. I knew for a fact that for every person liking me, there will be ten or more hating me by the time I made a name for myself and started working on my goals for real.

And so we kept walking while smiling and waving back or politely declining some people who tried to give us some food or other things until we reached the train station and found the wood merchant waiting for us at its entrance.

"Hello, sir. The wood you've ordered has already been double-checked and fully loaded onto the train. You merely have to board the train, and there will be people in shipwright town who will unload it and transport it to the best shipyard there," the shifty merchant remarked while eyeing me with barely concealed greed as he tried to fawn on me.

I looked at his shifty expression and felt the urge to spit at his face as I remembered he must have scammed me somehow when I purchased the wood from him, but I refrained and turned to look questioningly at Laffite instead.

"it's as this gentleman said, everything was accounted for, and it all checks out," He answered my unsaid question with a smile without needing me to say the words.

"That's good," I nodded with a smile and walked past the shifty merchant saying nothing to him while Laffite exchanged a few more words with him before following me.

When we were finally inside, we found Elly and Bob sitting at one bench waiting for us, but Wilson was still nowhere to be seen.

"You guys are early," I said as I sat down next to them. "How did it go? Were you able to properly bid farewell to your dad, Elly?" I asked as I put my hand on her shoulder.

"yes, I bid both him and my mother farewell," she said and continued when she noticed me looking worriedly at her. "Bob already told me about mom two days ago, and while learning that my mother is also dead made me sad, it wouldn't bring me down, especially since I have a new family now," She said with a smile as she put her hand above mine that was lying on her shoulder.

I just smiled at her and said nothing. Bob and Laffite also did the same, and comfortable silence continued for five minutes until Wilson showed up with a large bag and sat down on the ground in front of the bench.

"It took me three days and half of my money," Wilson said as he began taking out bottles of alcohol from the bag he was carrying. "Behold, this bag contains two of every type of alcohol available in this city," he proclaimed with a proud smile.

"Why am I not surprised that this is the reason you're late," I said with a smirk as I snatched an expensive-looking bottle of wine from his hand. "looks fancy," I stated as I opened the bottle and started drinking from its mouth.

"you uncultured swine, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted as he tried to get the bottle back. "You're ruining the wine by drinking it like that. Didn't anybody teach you how to drink wine properly?" he asked in outrage as he pointed his index finger at me as if I was some kind of great sinner.

"I don't want to hear that from a gorilla,' I said with a smirk after I emptied the contents of the bottle into my mouth. "This stuff is too sophisticated for your primitive taste buds, burp. Why don't you find yourself some banana juice or something instead?" I said with a disdain-filled smirk as I reached out to take another bottle.

Wilson, however, was having none of it as he planted his fist into my face to try stopping me from taking any more of his precious alcohol.

"You goddamned gorilla, you wanna go at it?!" I said as I recovered from his punch, suffering absolutely no damage, and rolled up my sleeves.

"That's exactly what I want. You goddamned alcohol thief," Wilson replied as he began rolling his own sleeves.

Just as we were about to fight in the middle of the train station while the rest of the crew were sweating and trying to figure out a way to stop us before we wreck the place, we heard the words we've all been waiting for:

"The train heading for Shipwright town will depart shortly. Please make your way to the designated platform for boarding."

-0-

Wilson and I heard the train's departure announcement and froze just as our fists were about to hit each other's faces. "That was close," I said as I unclenched my hand and drew it back, then heard the rest of the crew heave sighs of relief.

"Yea, I forgot where we were for a minute. It's a good thing that we stopped when we did. This train would have been a wreck otherwise," Wilson said as he drew his fist as well and started laughing.

"Tehahah, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" I replied as I put my hand around Wilson's neck and started cackling as well.

Wilson did the same, and so we made our way towards the train with our arms around each other's neck as we kept laughing like maniacs.

The rest of the crew looked at this scene, and they had different reactions. Laffite merely chuckled as he stood up and started following us while spinning his cane with one hand while the other was on his top hat. Elly sighed while rubbing her forehead and then stood up to follow with a smile after shaking her head. Bob merely snorted in amusement at our antics and got up to follow us, too.

It only took us several minutes to board the train and find the private cabin that Laffite had booked for us. Once there, we made ourselves comfortable and began chatting with each other.

"So captain, you never told me what that Haki thing is," Elly said after adjusting herself in her seat while reclining her rifle on her shoulder.

"Haki, huh? It's somewhat complicated, so I'll try to make this explanation as short as I can," I said with a shrug. "There are three kinds of Haki in total, hardening Haki, observation Haki, and conquerors Haki," I explained as I raised three fingers.

"The hardening and observation Haki can theoretically be obtained by anyone through emotional trauma or training," I stated with a calm voice as I lowered two fingers.

"conquerors Haki, on the other hand, is something you are born with, and no one can get it unless they are born with it," I concluded as I lowered the last finger.

"Then what is the use of these three types of Haki? Are they something like the six powers you and Wilson use?" Elly asked with curiosity as she tilted her head to the side.

I took several seconds to organize my thoughts and chose the best way to describe the uses of Haki to my crew. I then explained How all three kinds of Haki can be applied, and the conversation then turned to devil fruits and their types as Wilson asked why hardening Haki was necessary to defeat the users of certain devil fruits.

The conversation's subject changed again as they began asking me about the world in general.

Wilson was interested in the powerful people that we could come across on the sea, so I told him about the seven warlords of the sea and four emperors in the new world.

Laffite asked me about the weather in the grand line and how it differed from the four blues, and I told what little I know, like the unchanging seasons on some islands and the strange weather phenomena that I remembered.

Elly was not interested in anything in particular but kept listening with rapt attention as I answered Wilson and Laffite's questions, while sometimes asking questions about things she didn't understand.

Bob, however, was content with listening from the side asking no questions of his own or commenting on anything I said.

When they asked how I knew all of this, I used the same excuse I used on Bob. I told them I learned it from a pirate diary, which I found inside a buried treasure on the deserted island Where Wilson and I met.

Wilson also chose that time to reveal that he was a gorilla who ate the human fruit and gained the ability to turn into a human, and not the other way around.

His revelation, however, only surprised Elly, but she accepted it without making a fuss about it.

Laffite only seemed slightly surprised by the revelation as he chuckled and waved his hands, stating that we will most likely encounter even weirder things if we keep roaming the seas.

Bob, however, was the least surprised. He said that the world is big and that he'd already seen weirder things.

And so we kept chatting like that about topics both big and small until we reached our destination.

When we departed the train, a man of average height, wearing a set of tattered work clothes, approached us.

"I assume you are johnny silver hand?" he asked as he pointed to a group of men behind him. "We work for old Jim. We're here to transport your wood to his shipyard," he concluded, as he offered his hand to me for a handshake.

"Johnny silver hand?" I asked in amusement as I shook the man's hand. My questioning tone seemed to have taken him by surprise and he looked at my prosthetic hand and then back at my face, and only understood my meaning after several seconds of awkward staring.

"New of what you did in the capital has already made its way here, and that's what people are calling you, you know, because of that," he said sheepishly while pointing at my hand. "And the fact that you called your group the silver hand bounty hunters," he concluded, while rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I guess it kind of makes sense, but no matter," I said with a shrug. "You and your boys can get to work, but why don't you point us in the old Jim's shipyard first," I concluded with a smirk, and the dock worker hurriedly pointed us in the right direction and then went to work immediately.

It didn't take us long to make our way into old Jim's shipyard, and we were greeted by the man himself when we arrived.

"You must be the bounty hunters who my little brother told you so much about," said a short man with short spikey hair and bushy eyebrows the same color. "Thank you for saving his life and his store in the capital," he concluded as he offered his hand to me to ask for a handshake.

"your little brother? I'm sorry, but who was he again?" I asked in confusion as I shook the man's extended hand. "the old man who you saved from those despicable Nitti family thugs, they might have beaten him to death if it weren't for you," he stated with a concerned but grateful smile. I finally realized who he was talking about: He probably meant the elderly shopkeeper I saved from the little worm and its friends.

-0-

I was about to wave it off and say it was nothing, but old Jim interrupted me before I could say anything. "If you're going to say that saving my little brother's life was nothing, you should stop, or I'll be angry," he said with a reproachful smile.

"He's a hot-headed old fart who always causes problems for people everywhere, but he's still my cute little brother, and I must thank you for saving his life," old Jim stated with a glint of resolution in his eyes as he bowed his head to me.

"Tehaha, If you put it that way, then I guess I have no choice but to accept your gratitude, but hurry up and raise your head," I said as I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him from bowing his head again.

"that's what I wanted to hear," said old Jim with a smile. "Before we talk about the ship, I have something to tell you," he said in a grave tone and waited for me to nod before continuing to speak.

"The man you bought the Bally wood from seems to have played a trick on you," he stated, and I raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing and waited for him to keep going.

"he would have had you wood sent into the worst shipyard here. It's a shipyard that specializes in mass-producing ships with no soul to them," he said with disdain. "Most of their products are faulty vessels that would end up drowning sooner rather than later, so I did the only thing I could and threw whatever weight I have here to take over your order after hearing about you from my little brother," he concluded with a sigh.

"is that so? Then it seems we owe you a debt of gratitude as well," I said with a calm smile, but I was fuming on the inside.

I was going to shrug it off, but it seems my vindictive perk finally started acting up. 'I guess I'll have to take care of that shifty wood merchant and that shady shipyard before we leave the island,' I thought inside my head but didn't let it show on my face.

We then scattered as Wilson went to explore the town while Elly and bob went to find us suitable accommodations to stay in until the ship was complete. Laffite and I stayed and made our way to old Jim's office to discuss the finer details, like the final price and the design for the ship.

It was already dark by the time we finished discussing the construction of the ship. It would take one month for the vessel to be ready. It would cost us twenty-five million bellies, which might seem like much, it was, however, only the cost of the work as old Jim refused to take even one belly more than that, and he even stated that he's going to have a surprise for us ready for us by the time the ship was complete.

We tried asking him what the surprise will be, but he was surprisingly stubborn about not telling us what it was, so we had no choice but to give up on what it was and leave as it was already late.

Once outside the shipyard, we contacted Elly to ask her where we'll be staying until our ship was complete and made our way to the Inn she found for us after she informed us of its location.

It was nothing like the inn we stayed at in the capital, but the beds were comfortable, and the place was clean, so it was still ok.

We spent the rest of the month training and doing some bounty hunting work when we got bored or had free time.

I mostly worked on my impact fist technique while also keeping up with my daily practice swings. By the time the month was over, I've made a lot of progress in my training as I could now use Impact first even while moving, but I could only do it every five seconds or so, and it still required some more work.

Wilson was also doing his own training, but he refused to share what that training was with the rest of the crew or myself, saying that he'll leave it as a surprise.

Laffite came to me to learn the rest of the marine's six powers, but he, unfortunately, had to spend the whole month learning Geppo, so he didn't have time to learn the rest before it was time to leave the island, but he did master geppo, so that counts for something.

Elly spent the first week recovering from her injuries while setting up a simple workshop to work on some ideas she had about improving her bombs, and she came to me to learn the six powers as well once her wounds were ok.

She spent the first-week learning soru as it was the most suitable for her. We then moved on to kami-e, which also took her a week to master. She, however, refused to learn rankyaku, saying that it didn't suit her fighting style, and I agreed, so I had her doing leg strengthening exercises instead to prepare her for learning Geppo later.

Bob didn't do any training himself and was content with watching from the side like always while preparing the occasional home-cooked meal for as we trained. He was no Sanji, of course, but his cooking was still delicious.

It also seems that the shifty merchant who sold us the wood in the capital had unfortunately disappeared under "mysterious" circumstances. That shady shipyard also seemed to have accidentally caught fire and was burned to the ground, but it had nothing to do with me, so I digress.

It was finally time to take our first look at our completed ship, so the crew and I got together and made our way to old Jim's shipyard.

The old man received us with a warm welcome and invited us in after we exchanged a couple of polite words, then took us straight to the shipyard's dry dock as he noticed our impatient expressions.

"allow me to introduce my pride and joy and the finest ship I had the pleasure to build so far. The Black Pearl galleon," he stated as he gestured to our ship that was finally complete.

She looked exactly like the black pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean, with some minor changes. She had a lot of silver decorations on her. The figurehead, the sails, and the keel were all silver in color, and she didn't have any canons yet.

"She comes with three masts, a captain's room, ten officer bedrooms, crew quarters capable of comfortably housing thirty sailors, kitchen, bath workshop, a doctor room, a storage area, and twenty canon slots, but that's not all," old Jim stated while gesturing with his hand in a grand, dramatic manner.

"The most important thing is this," old Jim stated while pointing the black pearl's keel. "I had to step on my heart and use my treasure, the Adam Wood I've been holding onto for 25 years now, to make the keel as it's the core of the ship and its most important part," he concluded with a proud smile like a father looking at his child.

"Old Jim, I don't know what to say. She's so much more than I expected," I said with a sigh of admiration as I looked at this magnificent ship that will carry us through the seas.

"You don't have to say anything. You only have to take care of her and use her well," old Jim said with a smirk. "I'll be looking forward to hearing about your adventures in the grand line, so hurry up and get out of here," he concluded, as he smacked me on the back in a friendly way.

And so we loaded our luggage into the ship and set sail, after some ceremony and bidding farewell to old Jim and the rest of the shipyard workers.

"Alright, people, look alive. It's finally time to start our first voyage as a formal crew with our new companion, the black pearl," I said with a smirk as I stood in front of the crew.

"Our first destination Will be Toroa island, the home of musicians."