Hello Friends! Thanks as always to Wyrdfyre for editing!

Warnings at end of chapter.

FISHMAN ISLAND

"Ship's ready to set sail, Captain." Deuce said as he and Skull walked up behind me.

"Yea ok, great thanks. I just need to take care of something and then we can go." I said as I stood on the dock, staring up at Whitebeard's flag as it waved overhead. I took a step towards it and Deuce grabbed my arm.

"Don't you idiot!" He said. "Don't go picking fights for no reason. Why would you make us more enemies?"

"If you can't keep up, you can stay behind." I said without taking my eyes off the flag.

"Wha-"

"Stay here and chase mermaids. I won't turn away anyone who wants to be here, hell I've even taken on people who aren't pirates. But not anymore. This voyage is headed for the pinnacle of piracy. So I can only use people with the will to fight. If we can't surpass the emperors, then why aim for the top at all." I gathered a small flame in the palm of my hand.

Deuce looked stunned and took a step back. "Fine ok I get it. No weakness. But still… don't burn the flag."

"Captain, if you burn that flag just know that there are over 1,600 men on Whitebeard's flag ship alone. Then he has his massive fleet of allies at his back as well. His entire force is well into the tens of thousands." Skull said from his spot next to Deuce.

"So that's the top huh?" I let the fire grow up my arm. "I'm going to raise the flag of the Spade Pirates and my name along with it! This is the New World!" Then I threw the fireball at the Whitebeard Pirates jolly roger.

I watched as the fabric was quickly swallowed up by the flames before putting my hand on my hat and turning away from it.

Just try and stop me old man.

After I had burned the flag the crew was quick to get underway and we left Fishman island without incident.

Interesting how those people claim to love Whitebeard so much, yet they didn't say a damn thing when I burned their flag. Guess that just proves how much love is really worth…

I was sitting in my cabin flipping through the medical notes that the old man Crocus had given me when Ari walked in.

"Hey Skull and Deuce wanted to talk to you to try and figure out what we're doing next." She said.

"Yea sure fine."

"Are you alright?"

"Why did he give me this?" I asked, holding up the notebook.

"Likely as a favor to Roger. They were good friends after all."

"Right." I said before turning my hand into fire and letting the notebook burn. "I don't need anything from that bastard."

Ari watched it burn and crumble before saying, "While I agree with you, you do realize that that notebook could have been the key to saving your life later on right?"

"No it wasn't. I'm too strong to catch some disease. I won't die to the same thing he did."

I won't let that bastard decide how I die.

"I hope you're right." She said before there was a knock at the door.

Ari went to open it and Skull and Deuce walked in.

"Hey Captain you have a minute? We were hoping to talk to you." Skull said cheerfully.

"Yea sure, come on in guys." I said, moving to sit at the small table in the room.

"So what's the first thing we're going to do in the New World Captain?" Skull asked from his spot at the table.

"There's someone I need to pay my respects to out here." I said.

"Alright who?" Deuce asked.

"Red Haired Shanks."

Skull choked and started coughing while Ari and Deuce stared at me. "You can't be serious Captain." Deuce said after a minute.

Oh great here we go. Another lecture about how I'm too damn weak.

"Well I am, so how do we find him?" I said.

"No... Ace he's right. Deliberately hunting down Red Hair is not a good idea, regardless of your intentions." Ari said.

"Why not? What do you know about him?"

Because you obviously know everyone in the whole damn world right?

"Have you met him?" Deuce asked her.

"Not quite. I've never spoken to him but I've seen him fight. Which is exactly why I know that this is a bad idea."

"What? Did you see him swing a sword around? Big deal." I said with an eye roll.

"Yes he does use a sword, but he did far more than just swing it around. He dueled with Dracule Mihawk for 7 days straight. The island they were fighting on was completely destroyed. It's literally an endless whirlpool now."

Is this Mihawk guy supposed to be strong? I mean if they destroyed an island, well that it's something to totally shrug off.

But eh I'm sure we could still take him.

"I heard about that fight." Skull said. "Hell- everyone's heard about that fight. Red Hair was the only one who could actually fight Mihawk."

"Who the hell is Mihawk?" I asked, getting impatient.

"He's the strongest swordsman in the world! The title went back and forth between the two of them dozens of times but that last fight was the one when Shanks finally beat Mihawk down. Everyone thought that he was going to keep the title for life but then he lost his arm." Skull said.

"Exactly. So the fact that he is pretty much the second strongest swordsman in the world should be reason enough as to why we should leave him alone. But there is also the matter of his crew." Ari added.

"What's wrong with his crew." I asked with a sigh.

I really wish we could skip this lecture and just get to how we find the dude.

"I don't know." She said.

Wait what?

"You don't know?"

"No I don't. All I know is that Shanks is an incredibly powerful man who has surrounded himself with other powerful men. They rarely get into fights, but when they do… Let's just say that survivors are far rarer than the fights themselves. And even then those who survive are usually so distraught that they lose all mental capabilities. They only survive in body alone."

I turned to Skull and asked, "Skull do you know anything about his crew?"

"Nothing more than what Ari said. All I know is that while Red Hair isn't an emperor that is only because he doesn't want to be one. His status has nothing to do with the strength of him or his crew."

I started rubbing my temples as I said, "Ok but what does his strength even matter? We aren't looking for a fight."

"No but Shank's doesn't like strangers. I know that much. If we ran into him on accident that would be one thing but hunting him down? Deliberately tracking him? I doubt he'll take too kindly to that." Ari said.

"And there's also the matter of how the hell we would even find him." Skull added.

"Right well I'll leave that to you and Ari." I said before standing up and heading for the door.

"Wait Ace." Ari called after me. "Why do you even want to meet with Red Hair? You never said."

"I did actually. I need to pay my respects. For my little brother."

"Sail ho! We're under attack Captain!" Leonero shouted down from the crowsnest.

"Again? Who is it?" I shouted back.

That's the third time this week!

And we've only been in the New World for a week!

"Pirates. But I don't recognize their flag. Their ship is badly damaged too."

"For fuck sakes why do they keep attacking us?" I said as I looked through my own spyglass at the damaged ship limping towards us.

"Seriously. This is getting old." Deuce said next to me.

"Well let's just get this over with I guess." I said before jumping up into the air and shouting "Fire Fist!"

"Come on! Give us a break please! We're just trying to get out of here!" The captain of the ship that had attacked us whimpered. He and the rest of his crew were cowering on the deck of their ship, which was barely floating after our fight.

"If you're trying to go back to Paradise then why did you attack us? Didn't you think to look at our flag first? Didn't you realize that you were attacking the Spade Pirates?" I asked.

"We didn't know! We just wanted your ship!"

What a bunch of idiots…

Skull walked onto the deck from below and said, "They've got nothing down there Captain! The hold's completely empty."

"Not surprised. What's with the pirate ships in the New World? They're all cheapskates." Deuce said.

"It's really not that surprising. It's pretty much impossible for a rookie crew to survive out here if you don't have the protection of one of the emperors." Ari said.

"Or you're as strong as us." I said.

"Or that."

The pathetic captain tried to grab my arm but I quickly turned it into flames before he could. He fell onto his hand and knees and said, "We were just trying to take your ship to escape! We want to go back to Paradise! Please!"

"Fine, fine. Whatever I don't have a use for you so do whatever you want." I said while shooting him some finger guns and turning to walk away. "Alright boys there's nothing here for us so let's get going!"

"Please! We could be your underlings. Let us ride on your ship. We'll do whatever you say! Just take us with you! But seriously, turn back now! You can't-"

I quickly shot a fire ball at their flag and watched as it quickly burned. "Sorry, I'm not interested in your flag. And I don't have a use for weaklings like you where I'm going."

The other captain tried to say something but was interrupted by Ducky jogging up to me and saying, "Hey Captain wait up! I found some maps in their navigation room!"

"Ooh nice. Are they actually good ones?" I asked him.

"Seem to be."

"Great. We'll need them to find Red Hair. You'd think that someone as famous as him would be easier to find."

"I know where Red Haired Shanks is." The other captain said.

Excuse me?

I turned back to him and said, "Oh really?"

"Yea, he's really hard to find. Harder than the other big name pirates out here, but there are rumors that he's been holed up on Snowy Island."

"Oh hey thanks." I said with a tip of my hat before walking away again.

"Wait! I told you what you wanted to know so take us with you!"

"When was that agreement made? Sorry friend, I'm afraid you'll have to find your own way out of the mess you made. But thanks again!" I smiled and jumped back onto the deck of the Spadille along with the rest of my crew mates.

We quickly set sail and left the other pirate ship behind.

"Hey Air! Got a question for you!" At my call her head perked up and she started walking over from where she had been talking to Skull.

"What do you need?"

"What do you know about Snowy Island?"

"Snowy Island? Not much really."

"So you don't know anything?"

"No, I just know enough to know that there isn't much worth knowing about it."

Wait… Huh?

I blinked at her for a second. "Why did that sentence just give me a headache? Ok whatever, what do you know?"

"It's an uninhabited winter island that is under a constant blanket of snow."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Roughly. I've never been there in person but it's a fair distance from here. We're still at the entrance to the New World and Raijin island is pretty close right now. So it will probably take a good while to get there."

"How far is it?"

"You'll have to ask Skull for the specifics but it's around the center of the New World."

"Alright thanks. Hey Skull!"

"Why is this taking so long?" I asked while repeatedly hitting my forehead on the table in the galley.

"I told you that it was a long ways away." Ari said from her seat on the other side of the table.

"I know that! But I didn't think it would take over a month!"

It's been forever since anything happened! We just keep stopping at islands for supplies and nothing happens!

"We're actually making pretty good time. It took us 3 months to cross Paradise and we've crossed nearly half the New World in just over a month."

"Doesn't feel like we're making good time."

"Well then, I don't know what to tell you."

I sighed and crossed my arm on the table to cushion my chin instead.

"What are you thinking about?" Ari asked, finally looking up from where she had been writing in her journal. I tried to see what she was writing in it but she was quick to close it before I could.

Why is she always so secretive about that thing?

"Just trying to figure out what I'm going to say to Red Hair." I said.

"What do you want to say?"

"I need to thank him but I want to make a good impression."

"What do you want to thank him for?"

"I told you. For Luffy."

Ari rolled her eyes and said, "But what about Luffy? You always leave that part out."

I do? Whoops.

"Oh right. He saved Luffy from drowning when he was a kid. He spent about a year or so on our island back before me and Luffy met. They were really close, well Luffy says that they were. But one day this bandit came into the bar that a friend of mine ran and started trying to pick a fight with Shanks. Bastard even poured a bottle of booze all over him."

"And Shanks killed him right?"

"Nope. He just laughed it off."

"Seriously?"

"Yea, then the bandits left without a fight and it was all good. Until they came back a few weeks later when Shanks and his men were gone. They were apparently talking shit about him in the same bar and Luffy got a bit mouthy. So the bandits kidnapped him and were going to kill him, but Shanks showed up and stopped them."

"So that's why you need to do all this? He beat up some bandits?"

"Not quite. The bandit managed to escape into a little dingy with Luffy and threw him into the ocean. Luffy had just eaten his Devil Fruit by the way. So he would have drowned if Shanks hadn't shown up. But also the stupid Lord of the Coast showed up at the same time. I think it's a sea king actually, but we always called it the Lord of The Coast. Anyways the bandit got eaten and right before Luffy was as well Shanks showed up and scared off the monster. Cost him his arm, but he saved Luffy's life."

Ari looked up from her journal at that and said, "Wait… Shanks sacrificed his arm for a little kid in the East Blue?"

"Yea, he's a nice guy like that."

"No, he really isn't. Shanks has a reputation of being kind to his friends, but he's a pirate through and through. Sure he doesn't pillage as many villages as other pirates but there is no way he would give up his dominant arm for a kid. There's just no way."

"Well I don't know what to tell you cause that's what happened." I said with a shrug.

"Huh, interesting."

"Right, so that's the full story of why I need to pay him my respects."

"That does make more sense now. But I still don't think that this is a good idea."

"Trust me. I'm well aware of your opinion on the matter, Ari."

"Well I'm just doing my job Captain. Trying to keep you out of trouble and all." She said before biting her lip and saying. "Well if you're still bored then do you wanna go… take a nap… with me?"

Feeling saucy are we?

I smirked, "Thanks for the offer but I think I'm going to talk to Skull about how much further we have to go."

"Oh right yea. Of course." She said while backing up and starting to fidget with her jacket.

Just as I stood up to go find Skull the door to the galley was thrown open and Deuce ran in. "Captain! We need you out here! I don't know what happened but the currents are out of control!"

Whoa wait what? Wasn't it supposed to be smooth sailing for today? The currents don't usually change out here...

I quickly ran to follow him to see what was going on and left Ari in the galley. When I got out on deck I was immediately soaked by the pouring rain. I also saw that Deuce hadn't been lying and we were indeed caught in a powerful current as well as being surrounded by whirlpools.

"What the hell happened?" I shouted to Skull who was nearby.

"I don't know Captain! We were just heading towards the next island and then this happened!"

"What island were we going to?" Ari asked after she came out on deck.

"I don't know! It isn't on the map but it had the steadiest needle! I didn't expect this shit to happen!" Skull shouted.

"Ari can't you do something? Change the currents? Anything?" Deuce asked.

"No! Even if I change the current that we're on right now I can't stop all of those whirlpools! We'd just be sucked in if I tried!" She shouted back. She walked over to the railing and looked down into the water. "Is that a carp?"

As she said that she went deathly pale and started to back away from the railing before stumbling and falling on her butt.

"What now?" I shouted.

She sat on the deck while shaking and said, "I know where we're going."

"Where?" Skull asked.

"This is the entrance to Wano."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we are heading straight into the den of the strongest creature in the world, and there is nothing that can be done to save us!"

Warnings:

No chapter warnings apply