Robin glanced around the plaza, at the people seated at the cafe's tables and lastly, at her entourage. In spite of Law's protests, the man had conformed in assisting them in their search for the culprit, but the group had come up empty after a couple of tiring hours of needlessly asking around. No amount of torture would press Caesar to say anything more about the guy than what he looked like and his codename, though the scientist insisted that: "It's the only fucking thing I know about him, goddammit!"
Faced with such a tricky situation, she and Usopp had decided to stop pretending any longer and forgo the mission in favor of concentrating on the guy. Unfortunately, that fact did not sit very well with Law.
"If you couldn't find him, then he's gotta be on another part of the island! Let your friends search for him and concentrate! Time's almost up." His growling face and the feral look in his eyes convinced Usopp for the most part. Robin was tempted to question her captain's choices.
The archaeologist shook her head, desperately wishing for the guy to materialize out of thin air but he didn't come. After another unsuccessful attempt at making peace with Law, Usopp gave up and nodded. Robin followed soon after.
"Such a beauty!" Sanji's exclamation grew steadily faint as they continued running.
Zoro snorted. Obviously that idiot cook would be distracted by the first woman he met on the street long enough to lose him and possibly sabotage the whole plan. It did not help that the bastard who'd stolen his sword was still on the run and they did not have any solid plan to corner him. Beside him, Kin'emon glanced back worriedly after the blond.
"Don't worry, he'll find his way back at some point."
Deciding to stop thinking about the Love Cook, Zoro concentrated on running and not letting his precious katana escape through his fingers again. Unfortunately, he was a tab bit too concentrated on the task and ended up hitting another running figure at the first intersection.
"Ow, what the hell? Watch where you're going, dammit!" Just as the first words were leaving his mouth, a shadow cut his view of the shining sun.
"Sorry." The new man looked pretty apologetic so Zoro decided to let it go.
"Why were you running anyway?" Kin'emon asked as he came closer. His sunglasses did not betray any of his internal conflict.
The black haired guy scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Zoro noticed he had a small scar on his left cheek.
"I was just about to ask you that, but then I saw the katana disappear down the road." He gestured in the direction.
"That's the wrong wa-" Kin'emon's comment was drowned out by Zoro's savage growl. Even the new guy seemed distinctly unnerved.
"You're Roronoa of the Strawhats, right?"
The swordsman raised an impressed eyebrow and nodded. Whoever the guy was, he could take him on anytime, even with only two swords.
The brunette nodded. "I'm VG-66 Unit fifty o–I mean name's Camu." The guy stumbled on his words for a second before clearing his throat awkwardly as he added quickly. "I'm just passing by on this island. Some girl was running after me." He added, looking embarrassed.
Zoro raised an eyebrow at both the reason and the strange beginning of his introduction, but did not comment. He had to admit the guy looked good enough to pass that excuse by.
"Where'd you say you saw the thief?" The green haired pirate asked impatiently.
Camu seemed to read the tense atmosphere as he nodded and urged them to follow him.
"So it's the real thing?" Franky asked in astonishment.
"You think my master would tell such a pointless lie?!" The bleeding guy on the ground was spilling his life blood more profusely now, but he did not seem to mind anymore.
"Ace's... Mera Mera no Mi." Luffy tried the words on his tongue, almost reverent in their intonation. It had been a long time since he'd spoken of his dear dead older brother, but he surprisingly found that the notion of Ace's death was no longer something that hurt much and he was glad for it. Now he could put his newly devised scheme in application without feeling remorseful.
After the shocking revelation, Luffy's mind was immediately on fast forward, a plan already having been concocted inside his mind by the time Franky managed to utter those five words. As some would put it, fate was only giving to those deserving and, somehow or another, fate had been kind enough to give him the possibility of gaining his brother's Devil Fruit, but was still infuriatingly insistent that he couldn't leave these idiots behind. What kind of logic was that?
Leaving such spiritual matters behind, Luffy decided to return to more corporeal ones, such as the infinite possibilities presented to him when he'd have Ace's Fruit. The teen did not doubt he'd be the one winning it, but the real problem was what he'd do with it once he'll have it. The answer came about pretty easy, surprisingly. So many tempting offers and Luffy finally managed to cross out all useless and impracticable ones. In the end only one, amazingly cunning and devious, remained. It will bring him such amazing power and influence – not to mention authority – that the black haired pirate almost, for one dignity breaking moment, allowed himself to smile. But then it was gone and the other two remained none the wiser.
Yes, I'll definitely be unbeatable with this!
His gleeful musings were interrupted by the guy's long and boring explanation about how Devil Fruits worked. Obviously he'd already deduced that from the moment he had told them that Ace's Fruit was there on Dressrosa.
Revising the amazing plan inside his mind one more time, Luffy allowed an unbidden smirk to crawl on his face. Yes, he will obtain that Fruit and place it somewhere safe for starters. After that, he'll kidnap a young, unsuspecting kid and teach him to be the best pirate.
Ruthless, cunning, murderous and intelligent.
If he did not find a suitable kid, Luffy supposed he always could take that Momotaro-whatever and wipe his memories. Disposing of the father will be easy enough and the kid seemed to know some of the Samurai ways too. After teaching the kid all he knew and was expected of a standard pirate to know, he'd give him the Fruit and train the little brat in combat. He'll drill the ways of fighting and the secrets of the fire power, culminating with the Dai Enkai: Entei and maybe even going as far as discovering a new, much more powerful, attack.
And then I will become a force to be reckoned with once I command the Mera Mera no Mi into battle.
His gleeful inner rambling was once again interrupted by Franky.
"Ah, that's right, Ace was your..." The older man began, his face – even though masked – betraying every bit of the pity his tone exuded.
But Luffy could not find it in him to care at that moment.
"I want it! The Mera Mera no Mi!" His shout was half childish, half desperate, but he hoped his oblivious crewmate won't notice.
Unsurprisingly, Franky didn't notice. Instead, he launched into a full-fledged speech about how it was a memento and shit. Luffy couldn't be bothered to try and listen. Almost jumping in his excitement, the teen turned on his heels and made for the Colosseum, a frantic shipwright hot on his heels.
"Outta my way, broken toy soldier!"
The poor toy jumped to the side just in time to not be trampled on by Luffy's hurrying form. The teen looked positively gleeful under the disguise. His eyes roamed hungrily over the huge building, trying to see over those thick stone walls.
"Hey, Luffy. Looks like you have to go in through there." Franky pointed to a stand where people were lining up to compete.
For once in his life, the cyborg had been helpful.
"Good job, minion. Let's go."
Franky looked taken aback by the title, but then quickly reminded himself that Luffy had another personality and he should expect the unexpected. Now that he thought about it, the shipwright had a feeling that he should not let Luffy on his own while he was like this. Nami had especially appointed them to look after him. But his captain was already at the nice lady behind the desk, contemplating the best name to go under in this competition.
"Oh, that's simple. It's gonna be Fleet Commander Luff-" A huge, metallic hand slapped over his face and muffled his words midsentence.
Luffy glared with all the scorching heat of someone whose face was completely secluded by a huge obstacle. If looks could affect material things, Franky would've needed a new hand by now.
"Listen, this is important." The cyborg began, trying to be inconspicuous, but failing miserably.
For the sake of his sanity, Luffy pretended to listen.
"Fight to your hearts' content, but don't give away your identity." Frankly, the cyan haired man shouldn't have said that nor give Luffy permission to literally jump ahead and kill himself, but Franky hoped it wouldn't be the case.
Luffy's eyebrows were up in surprise and he nodded sagely, swatting the large hand away and resuming his conversation with the unnerved woman behind the counter.
"Excuse me, I want to make a rectification for this."
Franky watched Luffy enter the arena, the paper with his registration number and the bolded name stuck on his shirt swaying in the wind.
Fleet Commander Lucyfer
In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have let his unstable captain to call the shots. Either for the name or the fight.
Luffy glanced around the crowded waiting room, his eyes wide and full of excitement. These guys looked pretty strong, not to mention really ferocious.
Finally, I get to meet real pirates. My powerful fleet is as good as secured.
The black head continued walking around, silently observing the various degrees of warming up exercises and muscle display. Unfortunately, his wanderings were noticed and frowned upon by a couple of the participants.
"Oi, brat with the fake beard! This is an arena, go back home!" A particularly bulky one exclaimed, flexing his biceps and growling in warning.
"Hmm? Oh, you seem pretty capable." Luffy regarded the man seriously from behind his sunglasses. "I guess you could join my fleet."
The guy's eyebrows twitched. This lanky kid was telling him of all people to join his fleet? It was a terrible mistake, not only because of the fact that the kid was obviously lying, but he would never join such a weak man either. His pride was too sensitive for that!
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" The large man drew his fist forward in an attempt to land a good reminder for the scrawny man that he couldn't possibly forget. But whatever his fist collided with, it wasn't flesh.
Luffy side-stepped at the last moment and launched a furious strike of his own, coated in Armament Haki. How dare the guy refuse him after making such a tempting offer? He was obviously a cretin and he truly hoped the others weren't like him. There had to be some real pirates somewhere and he was determined to find them and make them join his crew.
His fist rendered the guy useless in a millisecond. As the dust settled, the rest of the participants threw dubious looks to the kid, but they refrained from commenting. Obviously Luffy had gained their respect and admiration, so without further ado, he had decided to screw the formalities.
"From now on, you are all part of my fleet!" The teen declared pompously, grinning at the frightened and livid glares coming from all around him. Oh they couldn't wait to join him.
Further talks were interrupted by the arrival of the Chinjao family. The teen knew these guys had a powerful fleet on their backs, not to mention the means to destroy a small country. Luffy wasn't an idiot, he had done his homework when he'd first arrived here. These influential people were a very much needed force in his future armada.
Surprisingly, they were here to restore some order, but that was no longer needed since he had already dealt with it. A couple of other big names entered the room at some point or the other and with each famous face, Luffy grew more and more thoughtful on how to make them join his fleet. He still wasn't sure on the details, but the straw hat wearer knew for a fact that he couldn't just up and ask them like the others. He had to be more subtle about it.
Further talk was shushed as the announcers came to relay the rules and the distribution of the combatants in the four blocks. For all it was worth, Luffy landed in Block C, something that almost made him protest, but stopped at the last minute as he quickly figured out that it wouldn't matter anyway. They were not divided by strength and even if it was so, they would have made the biggest mistake to underestimate him. Well, their mistake his gain.
The teen was promptly ushered by a rather nice looking lady to the armor room where he had hastily snatched a golden helmet – which he was intending to keep – a red cape and a shield. He wasn't sure what he'd do with it once the actual fighting began, but Luffy supposed he could always slam it in someone's face. Just as he was about to return to his participant assessment, a large statue snatched his attention long enough for him to actually stop and admire it.
The bust was enormous and the story written there didn't make much sense to him, but then again, nothing did these days.
"This guy had to have a ton of chicks fawning all over him." The pirate mused, ignoring the blonde man dressed in strange clothes shouting in the background. He had been talking non-stop to Luffy, even if the teen was constantly and actively seeking to ignore him.
It seemed the guy was a pirate, obsessed with popularity and a stupid idiot all over. Nothing to do here...
"Want to know about him?" A girl's voice sounded right next to his ear, making Luffy jump back and almost bludgeon her with the shield. How dare she stand so close to a ruthless motherfucker that dared enter such obvious murder fest and not expect her neck to be snapped cleanly in half when invading his personal space was beyond him.
"No thanks, I was just admiring the architecture." Luffy scowled, for once resorting to the truth.
The girl ignored him and launched into a full-fledged explanation and story about the guy.
One half of a positively annoying hour later, Luffy finally managed to disentangle himself from the clingy girl with reasonably more information about the current events than before. Though he'd have preferred the blonde guy to irritate him, she was repentant enough in the end to buy him food. At least Rebecca – since he had repeatedly ignored all introductions until their parting when he was forced to hear it again – had the insight of the female population and the protection of some higher being.
The roar from the arena drew him close enough to the concrete railing to see the result of the battle below. It seemed some real motherfucker had won.
Well what do you know? I was right.
A/N: Hello :D
Sorry for being so late with the new chapter! Life is hard when you have huge exams coming up (sniff)
And no, I'm definitely not procrastinating with finishing this story...
... okay fine, I am definitely procrastinating with writing this. I haven't written anything ever since I posted the first chapter, but I already started three new fanfics (well, ups?)
I just hope some random burst of inspiration would hit before I run out of written material o.o; I definitely don't want to put this story on hold...
But enough with my blabbering! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Reviews and Feedback is loved! ^_^