It took them a good few days to reach cloud island, on the way there, Ryu asked Cho about her life, "you said you were in the marines, right? Why did you leave? What was so important that you had to become an outlaw over it?"
"I- I was raped by my superior officer. He covered it up, made it seem as if I wanted it. One of my brothers in the marines supported his story. I had no ground to stand on to be moved to another captain, so I decided to leave. Had I stayed, it would have happened again", Cho shuddered.
"Well, I was feeling conflicted on attacking an innocent captain but after hearing that… I will enjoy draining him", Ryu smiled sinisterly, his hand shooting towards his rapier.
Cho shuddered, "you can be damn scary when you want to be captain, but I signed up for this, so I can't really complain can I?"
"Rarararara! It is natural to fear someone like me. My power demands I drain other people, that isn't something a good person can do. To take full advantage of it, I need to kill, to drain people whole. But remember, the brave are not the ones without fear but those who act despite their fear", Ryu laughed full belly.
When they arrived at cloud island, the marine ship wasn't in sight, so, they boarded the harbor and went to the island's jeweler, with their spoils of war at their side. They heaved the chest onto the desk and Ryu said, "we want to sell these, what are they worth?"
"Let me see", the old woman working there, took out a monocle and slowly inspected each piece after another, writing down prices. After a long while, she was done calculating, "most of these are cheap replicas but there are a few authentic pieces in here, I can give you 5 million berry for all of it"
"Ten million", Ryu said, crossing his arms.
"5.5 million", she countered, putting away the monocle.
"8 million", he insisted, knowing the woman was down playing the worth of them, though he didn't know how much they were really worth.
"6 million", she was determined but he was even more determined.
"7 million"
"Fine, 7 million", she resigned, putting the crate behind the counter and counting out bills, "... 6 million and 980 thousand, 6 million and 990 thousand and- 7 million, here you go sonny"
"Thank you good ma'am", he nodded, pocketing the cash and leaving the store. There was a patrol of marines walking down the street and Cho cowered behind Ryu, "are any of them the captain?"
"N- no, they are just foot soldiers but they could still recognise me", Cho said, peeking around him at the soldiers who hadn't noticed them, "if there is a patrol, then captain Bär must be on the island"
"How does he look like?"
"Big, maybe two meters tall, with spiky white hair and sideburns, he should be the only one around here who wears justice on his back", Cho explained as they walked towards the harbor. They spotted a marine wearing justice on his back but they didn't look like how Cho had described captain Bär, they had fire red hair and wore an ensign's uniform, "I thought your captain was the only one with justice on their backs here?", Ryu dragged Cho into an alleyway.
"He should be… but this is good!"
"How is this good?", Ryu was ticked off. He could handle a captain, if with trouble but if there were multiple high ranking marines around, that would be a problem. He needed time to drain someone and he couldn't afford to do so if there were foes of this caliber around.
"It means that captain Bär isn't around. Yes, in the grandline, multiple high ranking officers of the marines could be patrolling the same area but we are in the east blue, here, we are way too thinly spread for that, there aren't many marines with justice on their backs who are in the weakest of the seas, so, Bär isn't around and I know of that ensign, he is fresh blood. He rose quickly in the marines because of his devil fruit but he is way weaker than Bär, he should be no problem at all and you can drain him for his fruit power", Cho explained and with every word, Ryu's grin got wider and wider.
"Okay… I'll go confront him, you take out any grunts around with the help of your rifle, stay out of sight. By the way, what devil fruit does he have?"
"He has the Hone Hone no mi, the bone bone fruit, it allows him to manipulate bones, both his and others', though he can't control the bones of a living creature. You see that chest on his back? It is full of the skeletons of the pirates he has killed, to create skeleton soldiers", Cho shuddered, "his power is almost as creepy as your's captain"
"Well, okay, the plan stands, I confront him in the front and you give back up support", he nodded thoughtfully, "ready? Let's kill this guy!"
Ryu walked up to the ensign, sword in hand, "halt, civilian, what are you doing with that sword?"
"Killing you of course", he said calmly, throwing the blade from one hand to another.
"Ah, a pirate, very well, one more to my collection, I haven't seen your face on any wanted posters…", he sat down the chest onto the ground.
"I'm new, you will be the first marine I slaughter, the first of many, I'm sure"
"Yayayaya, I like your optimism but this won't take long", he raised his arms and five skeletons sprung from the chest, grabbing swords and pistols. There were more skeletons in there but he didn't summon them. That either meant he was underestimating Ryu or he had a cap of how many he could control at one time. The skeletons looked fearsome but for Ryu's enhanced strength, crushing bones was nothing, as he proved by pulverising the skull of the first skeleton that came after him with his bare hand. The skeleton, now headless, collapsed but was quickly replaced by another from inside the chest. The now un-animated bones flew back to the chest and he could see the skull slowly knitting itself back together from it's fragmented self, though it would likely take a few minutes to fully reform. Seems as though the skeletons needed to be whole to animate, though he could still control the bones individually.
"Argh-" a bone fragment hit him in the arm, shot from the ensign's hand. Ryu ripped it out.
"Looks like, I won't get far by destroying the skeletons, I have to hit the snake at the head", he rushed past the skeleton soldiers, dodging their sword swings.
Shots fired as Cho killed any marines who got near.
The ensign looked more and more panicked as he got closer and shot more bone fragments at him, hitting him in the arm but he ignored them, puncturing his throat with his blade… only he didn't start bleeding. Looking closer, the throat was encased in a thin layer of bone, "tch, you are strong, alright… but I'm stronger"
Ryu grabbed the man by the throat and squeezed. The bone cracked under his hands and, with a satisfying *snap*, the man's neck was crushed. Now, he could slit his throat, which he did, drinking the blood from the source. The skeletons fell to the ground as their master died.
After a minute, he had drained him completely and he felt the hone hone no mi's power integrate into himself. He took up the chest full of bones and ran, "Cho, come with me, ignore the grunts!"
He ran back to the ship and they sailed off.
On the high sea's Ryu tried animating the skeletons in the chest. He could animate five at a time. Animating them took a bit of stamina but keeping them active didn't drain him at all, so, he let them work on the ship, alleviating the duties of Cho and Him, now they had a crew to man the ship, a crew of dead men. Manipulating your own bones was not nearly as painful as it sounded, it was weird at first but over the days, he got used to it. No matter how many bone fragments he shot out, they were always replaced within milliseconds. He could even mend his own broken bones, which he learned after accidentally dropping a barrel full of water onto his foot.