His Angel, Her Hothead | Eustass Kid x reader

09

For as long as you had been on the Victoria Punk, the weather of the New World had been kind and forgiving to those of you onboard.

But as the men lay down in their hammocks apart from those on watch, you in your room fast asleep, Kid and Killer also out - the ship shook like a leaf inside of the crashing waves. At first, no one had woken up. It wasn't unusual to sail through this kind of weather and not bat an eyelid. But as the night dragged on to extremely early morning where it was still pitch black and just past midnight, it became something worse.

Something more than a storm.

Rising annoying and aggravation came to your being as you were shaken from your deep sleep, the ship creaking around you as the sound of crashing waves hit the deck. There were a few yells, mainly ones of alert along with the sound of thundering boots against timber that matched the thunder heard from above. You slung yourself out, quickly changing from the t-shirt and shorts you wore to sleep into black cargo pants and a white shirt: throwing on your belt around your waist as it held dials for your bandaged arms.

Your door clattered open, the wind almost ripping it from its hinges as you made your way out. A hand had to come up to shield your face from the tearing gusts that knocked the deck, also to shade from the battering rain - which fell like bullets onto the ship. Men were running left and right, trying to take in the sails so that they wouldn't rip from the intensity of the storm. Some even rushed to move crates from the deck down into the guts of the vessel, fearing for the cargo inside.

"(Y/n)!"

As you heard a call of your name, you tried to squint through the pandemonium to see who it was. Across deck, a head of long, blue hair was just visible off to the sides where the cannons were stood. Battling against the wind, you made your way slowly but surely to where Heat was leaned against the railings, clinging on for dear life. You were about to shout back, a good twenty yards from the man, when there was a loud bang followed by a whistle.

One that was much too metallic to be anything of a storm.

"Huh?"

Looking around in the murky rain, you tried to see what the noise was. You were so caught up in working out what made the sound that you didn't realize that a large, black cannon was literally meters from your head.

Blood running cold, your eyes went as wide as saucers. You noticed the proximity between your head and the shining mass that was closing in suddenly and rapidly. Heat also saw, giving you another frantic shout as you aimed to dodge it.

There were a few inches between you and the mass, the rain lashing on your face as you panicked.

But then, you felt a hard push against your back.

You were sent you crashing to the floor with a wince as the sound of a blade split the air, almost slicing the rain itself. Your eyes were screwed closed as you worried on your nearing death, but they cracked open to see one blonde nakama stood over you.

Pulling yourself to your feet, Killer pointed off into the darkness of the waters and spoke loudly over the thunderous waves.

"There's an incoming ship, I need you to prepare for combat!"

There was no hesitation as you nodded affirmatively, a determined look plastered on your face as you opened up your bag.

Your logic when picking whether to use an impact dial, axe dial or another form, such as the reject dial, was simple - assessment of your opponent.

The one you usually settled for tended to be the impact dial. For you, it was like a default to your being and was the easier option. Axe dials were useful to you mainly when it came to one on one combat where you didn't require such a close proximity, and it worked well against people like snipers. However, when worse came to worse, you found that using a reject dial was the best option. Given that you didn't use it often, the backlash was pretty massive. Unlike most people, you had gotten accustom to the pullback of the impact dial - able to take it with no issues.