An Oni in God's Valley

As Koa started exploring the Jaya Island like the others, as he wanted to see if there's someone that would interest him on the island, it was supposed to be the hub of criminals that was in the Paradise, wanting to see if there's someone that he would find interesting enough to join their crew, the only missing in his supposed crew is a sniper, a chief of staff, and a doctor, but he would not mind having additional crew members for roles.

As Koa walked through the forest, he heard a gunshot from a distance. Curious, Koa started actively using his Observation Haki to look for the one who fired the gunshot. He found that it was in the middle of the forest, and decided to check it out.

After a few minutes of walking, he arrived at the place, where he found a lone tall figure, wearing a mask that Koa recognized and a rifle in his hands, but the rifle looked modified, as it looked a little bit of a musket and a revolver, it was something that had a cylinder as its bullet packet, the sniper felt Koa's arrival, as it immediately aimed towards Koa and fired at the same time, the burst of the bullet is so strong that it created a shockwave around, while the bullet traveled towards Koa in just a few microseconds, but Koa managed to react as he caught the bullet with his fingers.

"Impressive, you seem to know your way around a gun," Koa commented, as he watched everything that happened without missing, and it was perfection to the fullest.

"That's my line, no one managed to live once I fired my gun, making you the first survivor," the sniper then said, as he complimented Koa's strength and abilities.

"Then you haven't seen the world enough to say that, so many people could catch that slow bullet without any hitch," Koa said, breaking the wall that the sniper was stuck in.

"But I can see that you have a talent. Say, what about joining me at the sea, and becoming my sniper?" Koa then added, as he invited the sniper to his crew, without even second-guessing.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you must not be from around here," the sniper laughed with a frantic, and almost maniacal sound, if someone else was here, they would be disturbed by the laugh of the sniper in front of him, but Koa was not one of them, he just became even more intrigued by the sniper in front of him.

"So? What about it?" Koa then asked seriously, as he wanted to know why the sniper would say something like that,

"Because no one would be stupid enough to invite me to anything, they know that it would be the last time they would hold out their breath," the sniper said ominously, but it did not affect Koa.

"I want to see you try to take my breath away," Koa then replied, bringing the two of them to a standstill.

-------------------

Hours passed, and now the sun had set, Kuzan, Joichiro, Greenbull, and Urf came back from their exploration of the island. As both Kuzan and Joichiro scoured the pubs here in search of higher quality booze and supplies, Greenbull accompanied Urf as they did some secret training.

Greenbull was teaching the things that Koa taught him in the Little Garden, as he wanted to see if Urf would manage to learn them. He started with the routine that he was still doing, the Garp routine that Koa taught him, as they kept punching the trees that Greenbull summoned, which had enhanced durability to make them last against their punches. Urf, who wanted to become stronger too, happily did the routine as both of them continued doing their routine.

After more than three hours, both Greenbull and Urf stopped the routine, as they got ready to spar against each other, with Greenbull not using his Devil Fruit abilities. This continued until it was nighttime.

When they all started going back, Kuzan and Joichiro saw both Greenbull and Urf heading the same direction as they were going to the shore where they anchored their ship, and they all talked while walking toward the ship.

"Hey, has anyone seen the boss today after we split up?" Greenbull then asked, as he was curious since he had not yet heard from Koa since they set foot on the island.

"No, but I'm not worried about Captain since you know what he is capable of," Joichiro answered Greenbull.

"Yes, Koa is the strongest among us, and if he did get in a fight, I believe we would feel the after-effects of his attacks, it was not really that subtle," Kuzan then added to what Joichiro said, as he also was not worried about Koa being attacked on the island.

"I guess you're right. Where do you think he did go?" Greenbull asked once again, as he heard their reasons and believed that they were right, but was still curious.

"The last time he disappeared like this was when he recruited Joichiro, so perhaps he is recruiting someone into our crew," Kuzan then answered.

"Now that you said that, it also happened when he recruited you, he disappeared for a long time, and then suddenly you were here," Greenbull then replied, as he realized that it also happened before.

As the crew continued walking, they reached the shore. They saw their ship, but strangely, someone was sitting on the deck, with a gun ready at his side. When they all arrived, he held his gun toward them, as he was guarding the ship that was theirs.

"Hey, what are you doing on our ship?" Greenbull then yelled as he got ready to transform into a giant tree to confront the stranger on the ship.

"Stop, he's the newest member of our crew. Meet Jhin," Koa then suddenly appeared, as he tasked Jhin, the sniper that he met earlier, to guard the ship and wait for the others to come back.

"Come on up, I'll tell you the story on how we met earlier," Koa then added, as he went back inside, while Jhin lowered his weapon and started following Koa inside, while the crew below just looked at each other.