An: I hope you enjoy.
*** Fuze Island
Rayleigh and Langstrom stood opposite each other.
"I want to assess your strength, before I agree to train you." Said Rayleigh.
Langstrom was wearing his basic bat-suit. It was black, Level 9000 bulletproof. It was fairly light and flexible and was shock-proof and electric-proof as well. The fabric was such that it could expand to fit him in his human-beast form as well.
To his left side of his hips, he had attached a beautiful sea-stone longsword that as subtly curved, with a dangerous looking sharp blade.
To the right side of his hips, he had a jet black pistol.
They faced each other for a few seconds.
"…Uh, should I start?"
"3, 2, 1…" counted down Rayliegh.
At 1, both men sprung into the air.
Rayleigh drew his katana, already coated with armament Haki and went for a direct strike across Langstrom's chest. The blade was parried by Langstrom's sword.
The armament was strong but not quite strong enough to shatter the sea-stone though it did seem to come close, making a slight creaking sound on contact with Rayleigh's sword.
The shockwave from the hit was huge. It sent both Rayleigh and Langstrom flying.
Rayleigh managed to land on his feet more or less, 1 or 2 feet behind where the two had clashed. Langstrom on the other hand, flew 20 feet or so before crashing into the ground.
By the time that Langstrom had picked himself up and off the ground, Rayleigh was already there, his sword coming down on Langstrom's head.
Langstrom hastily drew his sword and blocked the strike, barely managing to stay on his feet.
Langstrom backed up just a bit before coming back into the fight with a huge flurry of strikes. Several high blows, mixed with a few middle and low blows were all thrown into the mix, as Langstorm went all out with his sword, trying to gain some kind of advantage.
Rayleigh easily managed to dodge and evade all of Langstrom's strikes using his observation Haki.
Langstrom pulled his last card. He transformed into his human-beast form, became about a third bigger and grew the dreaded fangs.
He jumped at Rayleigh again, this time not using the longsword as conventionally but instead using it in conjunction with his fangs.
He swung with both his fangs and his sword. Both of his fangs aimed for Rayleigh's forehead, while his sword went much lower to Rayleigh's stomach. Rayleigh's sword came down, still haki-ed and struck against Langstrom's sword. Rayleigh just coated his neck with haki and Langstrom's fangs bounced off.
Fast as lightning, after parrying Langstrom's longsword, Rayleigh went for an upward strike, going up from Langstrom's stomach to his chest. The sword made a shallow cut, before being parried so hard that it fell out of Rayleigh's hand.
Despite his injury Langstrom smiled triumphantly.
Rayleigh smirked.
"The worst thing to do…" Rayleigh started as he let loose a burst of conqueror's haki.
"…is to let your guard down!" Rayleigh finished.
While Langstrom was shaken by the Conqueror's Haki, Rayleigh backflipped to where his sword lay, picked it up, and swung at Langstrom.
Despite Langstrom's lightning quick reflexes and his strong sword, he couldn't do anything except try to swerve out of the way of the hit, his attempt at which was unsuccessful.
Rayleigh spun his sword around and smashed the butt of his sword into Langstrom's solar plexus.
Langstrom collapsed to the ground, making choking noises.
"Good job, you lasted 32 minutes!"
"Stop being sarcastic!"
"I'm not."
*** Marine Headquarters
"Sir, Frontier Admiral X Drake has escaped!" (An: If you don't remember what rank Frontier Admiral is, go back to chapter 5).
Akainu looked grim.
"We need to catch him. Send a Chief Admiral to capture him."
The Frontier Admiral who had come to inform Akainu winced.
"We already sent a Chief Admiral. He was killed…"
"Send a stronger one!"
"We sent the strongest."
There was a lingering silence. Akainu for whatever reason seemed agitated.
"Whoever catches Drake will be automatically promoted to Chief Admiral."
*** Whiskey Peak
Miss Valentine's-Day and Mr 5 were both beaten.
Vivi and Igaram were awestruck.
They stood there with their mouth open.
Luffy turned to them.
"What do you know about Baroque Works? Why did you infiltrate Baroque Works? Why did I repeat 'Baroque Works' instead of using the pronoun 'it'?"
"…I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
Vivi gestured wildly.
"He'll kill you!"
"Crocodile?" asked Luffy, trying to confirm his knowledge.
Vivi put her hands over her mouth and gasped.
"H-How do you know that!?"
"Don't worry, I can handle Crocodile. What is he up to?"
Vivi's face turned bitter.
"He is planning a revolution in my country Arabasta. He wants to rule Arabasta."
Luffy smirked.
"If that's really his plan, then he's breaking the World Government's rules. You and Igaram can come with me to Arabasta. We'll sort this out in the name of justice!"
*** Later
Igaram had initially suggested a crackpot idea, where he set himself up as a red herring and went straight to Arabasta but Luffy had shot down that idea immediately.
"You're coming with us." Luffy said firmly.
*** Later, just as they were setting off
"Raise the sails, Move towards starboard!" Nami yelled.
"You might want to keep the sails open."
"…Actually, ya you're right. Thanks!" said Nami.
"Welcome."
After a moment, Nami slowly turned around.
"Did you say that, Luffy?"
"Nah, the woman over there did." Said Luffy.
Nami spun around, her eyes searching for 'the woman over there.'
Luffy also lazily looked at the woman.
Something about her was extremely familiar.
Vivi shrieked.
"M-M-Ms A-A-All Sunday!"
"Whose partner is she?"
"Crocodile's."
That made Luffy remember.
Aokiji seemed to have it in for her. He told Luffy to kill her on sight but never wanted to explain why Robin should die.
There was a shady story about her destroying 8 battleships or something like that but Luffy had looked into it and there were no battleships destroyed the month that Robin got her bounty.
"Nico Robin…" he said, disbelievingly.
Robin stiffened.
***
Thanks for reading this incredibly short chapter. I hope I can write longer ones, but I'm pushing this one out now.