"Ragna, I'm going to the market, do you need something ?" Sona called out with her upbeat tone, a happy smile playing on her face, seeing how her son was now finally acting a little more like his age.
At least after she revealed her knowledge of his training in secret, he has been more honest and tells her what's going on and how he spends his day.
That was an improvement, she also helped him train sometimes, and even his son knew that she was strong.
'It was worth looking at his face when he saw me lifting that boar he was so proud of catching with one hand…' she can't help but a little smirk appeared on her face.
'Silly child..' she smiled.
"Ah, A new body with better muscular structure please…" Ragna replied from the distance as he was lying down, looking half dead after his training, his body aching from all angles.
"Tsk, stop being overly dramatic, it's just small endurance training, you're not gonna die." Sona rolled her eyes. This was another thing she was dealing with. Her child being a part-time training freak and a zombie the rest of the time, having no energy to move after the said training.
"In which world 5 hours of continuously heavy cardio for an 8-year-old is concerned small…" Ragna muttered as he let out a growl as she tried to move his muscles.
And as if that wasn't, he has witty remarks like this to make her annoyed.
"You were eight years old, not anymore and If it was that hard then why even bother doing it in the first place ?" She let out an exasperated sigh.
"No way, I asked for your help to devise a training plan for me, there is no way I'll give up mid-way… and I was born at night, you said so yourself, meaning there are still few hours left until I turn 9. Until then I'm officially 8…"
"Sigh… fine fine, talking with you could be so troublesome. Why can't you act all cute like those other brats? I'm no envious of those mothers you know…"
"God gave me a hot mother and now I have to protect you from those lecherous uncles… did you see me complaining…"
"Sigh, you are hopeless, you're not getting any girl like this you know. Or are you planning on staying with Mama all the time…" Sona can't help but feel her heart flatter but at the same time lips twitch.
Should she be happy that his son was a low-key genius or be mad that he used his brains arguing with her?
And is he the reason our neighbours recently are quarrelling? What did this child do? That wife surely didn't look happy, or safe for the husband.
"Hmm sure, I don't mind." Ragna lying on the ground like a dead fish once again opens his mouth.
Sona can't help but just shake her head, without saying anything she just left. No point talking to him, when he was like that.
'Just wait you brat, once puberty hits you, let you just find a girl. I'm not gonna let him have it easy…' She left with a smile on her face, already evil thoughts about how to torment her cute son when he is older, wandering in her head.
—-
A small ship sailed all the way from the Grand Line to the East Blue. It didn't have a lot of people and they didn't look friendly either. They years they have searched for someone and finally, it felt like their search was coming to an end.
Their search made them travel from all parts of the world, from the New World to the weakest of the East Blue.
Finally, it seemed like their long mission was coming to an end as they might have found their target at last.
Their small boat slowly parked on a small, not so famous, island in east Blue. "Are you sure this is it, if not then you might just better get rid of that information provider, I will be much obliged to do so for you."
On the boat, there were five people, and among them one spoke, it was a feminine voice and the sound came off cheerful but others knew that the speaker was annoyed, and so were they.
They had spent too much time running behind their target, it wasn't supposed to be this hard, but their target was better at hiding than they thought.
It didn't help that they were ordered to pursue the target after a few years she ran away. In this condition where no proper records were available of the target's whereabouts and her goals, their search infinitely expanded.
They reached here from the smallest of the clues they had, almost nothing but they made it and didn't plan to back down anymore.
"What are the orders." One person, wearing a similar dress asks as he observes the island in front of him.
It was a small island in east blue, nothing much was there to talk about it, to the point that if it were to get completely wiped off the map, no one would bat an idea.
"Don't do anything until you find the target. Only act when you are sure that you can either capture her… we can't let the target run away. Remember, don't kill. "
—-
Ragna wasn't expecting much on his birthday, as long as he got to lie around the entire day without getting his mommy's special tough love, he was happy. And maybe, just maybe he could get his favorite soup.
Though he didn't count on that, those ingredients could be expensive, wouldn't ask her mother to waste money on something like that.
He learned the importance of money the hard way in this last life, and this world was no different.
He slowly looks towards his palm and after a little contemplating look, he closes it.
'Maybe I can make one with wood for the time being...' he thought.
He was a big fan of swordsmen in his previous life. Now that he was in a fantasy world, he wanted to be one.
But he had no one to teach him, were he gonna get a swordsman teacher here?
But that wasn't the problem, the reason thing was that he wanted a sword of his own. It's one of those things that you just want even after knowing that he can't use it right now.
He knew that it was impractical, let alone he couldn't use it right now, he would never go and ask his mother for one, especially in their tight financial condition.
However, his heart still longed for one... just like how in his previous world, people would buy the latest iPhone even after the one they have is just a year old and the newer model offer practically nothing new.
Some can, even after they don't need it, becuase they have money. And broke people like him fall back to logic and go through all the reasons why they don't need one... Sigh.
"Maybe I can get away by not eating veggies for a few days if I ask for it, maybe…" he thought, that sounded like a good birthday gift to him and started to slowly drift to sleep.
Or at least he tried, it was too noisy outside for some reason, he had thoughts about going out there and giving those noisy people a piece of his mind but he was too tired to move right now. Slowly the noise was growing.
'Those brats, what are they up to now…' Ragna can't help but let out a groan at how irritating and noisy those kids could be. They certainly causing some mischief again.
Finally, he was feeling his body stop bitching about those swollen muscles and just as the sleep was about to claim him. The gate of the house spin open wide, almost giving him a mini heart attack.
'Thief…' that was his first thought, though he quickly let go of that thought, they were so poor that even a thief could get more money by getting a manual labour job for a day over looting their house.
But if not a thief then who ?
He got up, his muscles still aching, trying to move and get closer to his favourite metal rod he got while he was taking a stroll around the island, most likely floated to the shore by one shipwreck and ever since it was his truthy companion and a replacement sword whenever he wants to crack open someone's skull, 'aka' the uncles and of course hunting.
But before he could reach the iron pipe, he saw his mother rushing inside, her frantic movements making his heart sink. A feeling of heart palpitation appeared in him when he caught the hint of red on her.
She certainly wasn't wearing red when she left so how?
"Mom, this…" Soon he knew why, she saw her mother clutching onto her left shoulder, the wound was like someone shot her.
"Shika's mind had a hard time registering what was going on,…no he understood but his mind wasn't ready to accept the fact.
His lovely mother was half drained in her own blood. He knew this world was dangerous but….
"Ragna come here. We need to go." There was an urgency in her voice, but he didn't care. He snapped out of his momentary daze and pushed his aching body to its limit, in record time grab the pipe which was only a few meters away from him and launched it toward his mother.
"Mom, quickly lie down, I will bandage it…" He said as he moved to hold her. But before he could, his mother grabbed his hand and yanked him away, making him almost lose his balance and even surprised at the sudden movement.
"There is no time, just listen to me okay. We need to get out of here." She said as she dragged him out of the house while he gave mock resistance to stop her and treat her first but still not trying to put too much strain on her wounded.
"Wait, let me do a quick first aid, won't take more than a minute…" he tried to say but his mother listened to none of his pleas, and just dragged him out.
As soon as he was outside the house, he saw the entire area was burning. Fire was everywhere. People he knew since he came to this world were veiling and running away while trying to protect their loved ones.
Ragna's eyes widened, as both he and her mother stopped. He witnesses something horrible.
"Run away, they are…" He saw one of the neighbourhood uncles who he didn't like around his mother, running towards them with panic in all this fire, his house was already burning.
But as he was running away, someone appeared behind him, it was like that person appeared out of nowhere. And then the next second, pervert uncle fell down, blood oozing out of his back as the person sliced him open with a sword.
Ragna was in a daze, all this happening within seconds. His even didn't even register that person's movements.
But as if that wasn't enough he saw that there were more of them. All of them wearing complete white with strange masks on their faces.
Killing the villagers left and right, fire was burning and making it hard to breathe, it was a massacre. Ragna thought that he was in a nightmare.
Ragna's mother saw this and immediately pulled him back inside the house with lightning-fast speed and closed the gate.
Ragna on the other hand was woken up by the gate getting slammed close almost to his face, he came back to his senses and looked to his mother's face. She was bleeding, breathing heavily and more than anything was looking at him with concern.
"Mom, what going on… are they… are they pirates." Rag asked with a damming feeling cheeping up to him.
There was no marine outpost in this island, the closest marine outlook was Longue Town which could be an entire day's journey from the Lost Island. He knew that no one would come to save them. They are all their own.
He immediately acted, though he himself wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in this situation. He knew that he had to act, staying inside the house was even more dangerous as he noticed that the fire had finally caught up to their house as well.
Ragna's mind was running a mile a second, staying in was out of the question, but he himself saw that there were those Pirates out there. He had no idea which pirate group had a dress code with masks attached but for right now, he will consider them as Pirates. Who else loots and burns outside them.
"Don't worry, it's gonna be alright…" Her mother, maybe thinking he was afraid slowly rubbed his head and said.
He pursed his lips, it would be a lie if he said he wasn't a little afraid, but for someone who already has died once, he had no fear of death.
What he was afraid was to lose this peaceful life he had. He was about to shake his head and pull his mother to at least bandage her wound but that was when the door swung open, it was the same masked man who killed that uncle, his swords still in his hand.
"To pretend you are dead only kill one of us and run away. It has to be you right… You are the target. Finally Found You…" Said and main and rushed towards them with his sword in his hands.
Ragna's heart skipped a beat, and his body froze up at the sudden danger, only now he realized that no matter how much he trained, real fighting is much different than training.
The thick killing intent and aura that man gave away was not something he could get used to in simple training.
And just when the man was almost near them, he saw his Mom push him back, standing in front of him, shielding him from the incoming sword attack.
"MOM…
xxx
[Word Count: 2400]
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