I meandered through the crowded marketplace. Exercising extreme caution while trying to hold my breath in outrageously putrid place, the whole place seems like a bunch of measly held patchwork of small stalls sewed together like an ugly rag doll.
All I can hope for is that those irritating marines will get tired of finding me and leave so I can get the hell out of this place.
The Sabondy archipelago is a quaint little place, sunny mangroves sewed together like an elaborate patchwork piece. However, things are not always as they seemed in Grandline, especially the extremely sunny places.
While it looks like a tourist resort for slap happy people on the outside, it is actually the gathering place for many pirates seeking passage into the New World. The slave centers and the gambling halls that came with the flow of prevalence of piracy became unstoppable by even the marines and eventually became tolerated by them. Hence, the lawless areas in archipelago that drew even more evil into the place.
In my opinion, the place seemed more like a pirates' resort instead.
And this place became the feeding grounds for my target, which turned out to be the marines' own little pet supplying their guilty pleasures. Lucky me.
Cautiously coming out of my hiding place from the crack between two fruit boxes which thankfully made a nice little gap for me, I surveyed the crampy marketplace for those wannabe do-gooders.
They are gone.
I breathed a sigh of relief and straighten my crumpled shirt and pants.
My next search place that I know where he will be is the slave trading halls. I shall get his bounty reward before he finds some way to bribe the marines to remove it. I swear on my honor that I will catch this bastard.
After a good long 3 hours of fruitless searching in groves 2-30, I was thoroughly drained and exhausted. I even went to the fun park in mangrove 30 just for good measure. A headache is in order. Mangrove 1 is the final destination that I had yet to check.
The tides are turning. Things are getting dangerous. I sensed the presences of supernovas and the anxiety of the people around me. The emotions formed like a giant whirlpool of black liquid. Tension is palpable in the air and my sixth sense told me that something is going to happen real soon. Things are always like that when the giant whirlpool started forming. It is like the measuring stick for which conflicts are surfacing and in what form they are going to take. After some time, it will explode and spilled out onto the people, burning and scaring them like acid. Except that this one developed much faster and deeper.
I picked up my pace and cycled my bubble bike faster. Uneasiness settled in the pit of my stomach. The bastard proved more trouble than he is worth. But still, my mind would not allow me to give up half way and since I already hunted him down from water 7 all the way here, I am definitely not going to give up now.
Mangrove one is taller than the rest. It towers like an intimidating man over most of the other mangroves. The slave shop, labelled the auction house, as the marines called it; human employment shop, is smack at the end of the bridge connecting it to the other groves. This is going to be my last stop for the day. I'm famished and tired. Although the mangroves made the atmosphere slightly cooler, the afternoon heats are still getting to me. The bastard had better be there.
The auction is just starting. I got the best seats at the back of the theater. Several deep breaths to keep myself from vomiting later, I scanned the area full of people. There were nobles, pirates and common folk. A neat little gathering place where all the different classes of people come together and 'socialize'. Bonded by their lust for cruelty. It is here that the true nature of humans is revealed. Ugly and sadistic. The place where they are truly equal, criminal and noble born alike.
I see the monsters hovering all over the air. Hideous in their physical forms and powerful in their attacks as they swerved, struck and drop down on the unsuspecting victims, biting viciously and whispering poison into their ears.
The whole place looked like a hell out of Stephanie King's books. A true sadistic horror writer he if I ever seen one.
I fingered my bracelet furiously and all the monsters ceased to exist.
"Captain, the auction is starting." A deep voice started on my right.
I was slightly startled and jerked out of my temporary state of King's hell.
It was Trafalgar law's crew. Half of his crew are here to either observe this disgraceful spectacle or to participate in its inhumane function.
Thoughts wanted to form in my head but the obnoxious music started and drums rolled. The entire hall is drowned by the horrendous clapping of hands. The tiny stream in my head suddenly became a running river. A headache was definitely in good order.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the auction hall where all the goods are sold in good quality and terrific conditions!" The bombast voice pieces the air. I froze.
The owner of the irritating voice reveals himself to the audience as the curtains drew themselves backwards, like birds retreating back into their nests for safety.
My target was right there on that stage. So exposed was he that I can just throw a knife into his chest and sink him like a marine ship and disappear into the crowds.
The host, Disco, the man that I had been hunting down for weeks showed up right in front of my eyes, looking as if he just returned from Spa island.
As if I had not been diligent in hunting him down after all this time, as if he had not trampled all over my terrain.
Fury swirled within me and the whirlpool twisted and turned, groaning under the weight of its many opposing currents.
A/N: while there will be twists to the main storyline, this story shall remain faithful to the original version. :)
