Chapter 13

Shanks Interlude

After having made up his mind about asking Hisana to marry him Shanks' thoughts then went back to the island he had chosen. As far as he could remember it was also one of the most naturally protected ones in his territories because of the dangerous nearly two mile long coral reeve that encircled three quarters of the island. Furthermore it was one of the isles that couldn't be found with the Log Pose, which was a serious advantage in Shanks books. Said Island had been in the back of his mind for a time now, he had even considered putting up something close to a permanent place for the Red Hair pirates though he never had the motivation to make that reality, their ship had been home enough until now.

His thoughts drifted back to the islands and the pirate captain furrowed his eyebrows, the smaller islands around it had some rather strange animals. Shanks wasn't sure how dangerous those were, so before either Hisoka or Hisana explored them he would have to let his crew sweep the islands, better safe than sorry. The main isle though should be relatively safe, with exception of the natural predators of course.

With his mind focused on this new project Shanks was antsy to get going and so the Red Hair Pirates didn't stay long at Hisana's and Hisoka's home. Only two days later they travelled in direction of the New World again. Shanks could practically feel the questioning glances from his crew but during the first day none of the pirates dared to ask why he wanted to leave his family so suddenly after seeing them for the first time in six years.

In the morning of the second day Ben apparently had enough of his captain acting so strange and asked him point blank in front of the whole crew why he was acting so strange. The crew was clearly taken back at the radiant grin that Shanks sent his first mate as answer.

"Hisana has agreed to come to the New World; she has given me a year to find a safe place for both of them." The red haired man crowed happily.

All over the ship jaws dropped. It was not uncommon that the mothers of pirate brats allowed the fathers a certain amount of contact if they happened to be decent but to willingly follow one into the most dangerous region on earth? None of them could remember to ever having heard of such an occurrence.

"…Crazy..." Ben snorted before he sighed, "Both of you! Seriously, you and Hisana can't be serious! Moving to the New World?"

"A year." Shanks just singsonged before he turned to the rest of the crew and announced, "I will build a safe haven for both Hisana and Hisoka, if you want to move your family there you are welcome to it." and then left the deck.

Ben Interlude

Another heavy sigh escaped Ben while behind him the noise exploded. Why again was he the First Mate of the red haired Shanks? Oh right because being a fisher man had been too boring.

Oh well if Shanks' pretty lover and their little princess really wanted to move to the redheaded Emperor's territories, he would make damn sure that Shanks didn't forget something essential.

Hhm Empress Hisana… Ben grinned amused. It certainly fit the beautiful woman, and from what Ben had seen she probably was really strong enough to withstand the pressure of being a Yonko's wife. Raising a pirate's kid on the Grand Line and relatively close to the Marine Headquarters is no easy feat; it required smarts and nerves of steel. Ben snorted again while his gaze glided over the ship and to the horizon, who would have thought that a carefree man like Shanks would jump at the chance of having a family, maybe he would even marry Hisana.

At first Ben wanted to snort at the thought, pirates were notoriously known to run the moment marriage was brought up… but maybe… with a sigh the first mate moved his eyes away from the horizon to follow his captain inside while he continued to ponder the topic. Inside he wandered to the room where Shanks and him always discussed routes and possible marine ambushes.
He watched from the doorway as his captain stood hunched over one of the roughly drawn maps of an isle group in their territories that was uninhabited as far as Ben knew… oh who was he kidding, of course Shanks would put a ring on Hisana's finger the moment his preparation were completed. And then he would smite down whoever dared to come too close to her, Shanks was possessive like that. Chuckling to himself Ben walked into the cabin he was curious what his captain had planned.

The idea was a lot more amusing than Ben first had thought, Akagami no Shanks married, what his frenemies would say to that?

Shanks Interlude

After they had passed under the Red Line, the first stop they made was at one of Shanks' personal loot islands. The red haired pirate had more than one of these islands placed all over the New World and even Paradise. As a young captain he had quickly learned to put some gold aside before everything was exchanged for booze, in the first three years it happened more than once that they had alcohol but not enough food or medicine stocked up and so the crew as a whole had several safe depots spread out over the oceans, for just these emergency situations.
His own personal savings had started after he had lost his arm, and had been attacked by various more or less wealthy pirate crews. For a short amount of time it was touch and go about his reputation and a lot of small fry had 'rightly' thought that he would be weak enough to take down. Shanks had been weak at that time true but he had still been able to easily make shish kebab out of said small fry and more importantly he had the backing of Ben and the rest of his crew who had taken exception to assassination attempts at their still wounded captain. The attacks had been annoying but the loot they had won had more than made up for that, and it was always a good idea to have some gold to fall back on in bad times.

Having never needed a construction company before Shanks had quite a few problems imagining what he wanted them to do and estimating the costs for that. so in the end he had simply filled the bilge to the brim with some of his treasure.

And so hopefully sufficiently prepared the Red Haired Pirates arrived nearly two weeks after leaving Hisana's home in Wano country. Shanks had been contemplating this for a while but in the end he and Ben had agreed that this place would be the safest choice to hire experienced builders from, who wouldn't rat him out. After all Wano country was not part of the World Government and that guaranteed nearly a hundred percent of discretion for pirates.

While he left his crew to refill their stocks Shanks asked one of the merchants that he had known since his first arrival in the New World where he could find a reliable construction company that would take jobs on other islands. After some careful consideration and a long stare, Shanks was pointed in the direction of a man called Takeru-san.

Takeru Hiroaki was a nearly seventy year old master builder who had been in this business for over fifty years and instantly recognized in Shanks the intent to build a main base the moment the pirate captain entered his administration building. Instead of further wasting time with pleasantries that were normally so typical for his countrymen Takeru told the pirate plainly to bring him a map of the island he wanted to build on. The old master builder then sat down with the red haired pirate captain and explained to him what he could build on this terrain along with a rough estimate of what it would cost Shanks and what would be essential for further constructions.
Ben, who had accompanied Shanks, threw in some questions concerning the defense of the island and the constructions. The old master nodded approvingly and pointed out some very interesting possibilities to the pirates.

In the end Shanks decided on the draft where the port was on the, for the Mad Mura accessible side of the island as well as an apartment building overlooking the port for his crew, plus some extra rooms for various occasions. In the end they had agreed on a lot of extra rooms, just in case and because of the more than favorable location.

Considering the size of this project, eighty percent of Takeru's workers were hired right from the beginning and because of the estimated time frame as well as the rush order Shanks would have to pay thirty percent of the work hours in advance so that the families of the workers would be provided with funds while their husbands and fathers were away.

Any other man would have winced when presented with the estimated amount that Shanks would have to fork over but to be honest the red head had expected more, if only for the reason that he was a pirate and not a civilian. So while his crew winced around him when they saw a significant amount of the chests filled with gold leave the ship, Shanks just whistled happily while he thought of what Hisana and Hisoka would want in their new home. Ben had also made sure that the exact numbers that Shanks had paid for the building that would be for the crew had been documented so that the rest of the crew could slowly start paying it back through a small cut of their due, after all it really wasn't Shanks duty to provide them with a place to stay on the newly deemed headquarters.

The next morning the Mad Mura left Wano with a forty men strong construction crew as well as the bilge full with building materials instead of loot.

Some days after leaving Wano Country and finally entering in Shanks territory the Red Hair pirates encountered some of the smaller pirate groups they had defeated throughout the last five or so years and which were now under Shanks' command and owed him part of their loot as a tribute.

Having an idea to reduce the building costs for the triangle islands, Shanks gave the captains the instruction to start ferrying all looted building materials to a certain bare island only a day trip away from the triangle island. Shanks normally didn't expect a lot of tribute from his underlings, so while his strange request raised some eyebrows they didn't dare to say anything.

On his right side Ben nodded approvingly at his captain's fast thinking. In his mind Shanks childishly blew a raspberry in his First Mate's direction. The older pirate had showed him up during the initial planning with Takeru-san and in his mind Shanks was still pouting about this fact.

After having satisfied his more childish urges he returned to his thoughts about ferrying said building materials. As much as Shanks was sure that the crews under his command wouldn't try to usurp him, he couldn't be sure about how much they could be trusted with the information of his new headquarters and more pressing, the new home of his family. As much as Shanks wanted to move the construction forward, he didn't want to be bound to the near vicinity of the triangle island to supervise the other pirate crews, after all he needed to make a few trips to reestablish his presence.

XXXXXXX

Two days before finally arriving at the triangle island they encountered another one of Shanks underling pirate crews, though this time Shanks felt comfortable enough to talk about his newest project with their captain.
The Sea Lions, as they called themselves, were one of the two crews that Shanks trusted implicitly. He had sailed with the Sea Lions for years now. His crew had defeated them in his first year as pirate captain and the two ships had kept a very amiable relationship throughout the years. Hell they even sometimes exchanges some crew members for a few months for the hell of it.

After their reunion was celebrated that evening with lots of alcohol, Shanks took Captain Montura to the side and asked him to do him a personal favor. Montura, who had always had the deepest respect for his friend and Yonko, agreed instantly without even asking what the favor contained. Shanks then told him about the fact that he had a long time lover and a child and that he wanted to situate them in the New World under his protection.

The dumbfounded captain who had blown his beer through his nose in sheer disbelief, agreed to ferry the building materials from the abandoned island to the triangle island in exchange for rooms in the pirate building and a home port to which they could return without fear of anyone attacking them.

A few days later Shanks and his crew finally arrived at the triangle island.