Chapter 14: A Brief Stop
A couple of days had passed by since I decided to accept Whitebeard's invitation. Since then, we had been sailing apart from the rest of the Rocks pirates to build up the old man's 'family'. He had been pestering me to call him dad, or papa, or the worst one of all : daddy. I decided I would call him pops because the others didn't sit right with me. We already were having quite the formidable force already, and the pirate crew had already acknowledged Whitebeard as their father; but, Pops wanted to build up an even larger force. Sidenote, the pirate crew seemed to have acknowledged my strength with the feet I had performed at the start of the battle. Meaning that my initial goal had been achieved.
We sailed on from the Grandline, where we met the marines, all the way to the island of Sabaody Archipelgo. I was resting on the front of the ship when my eyes landed on the island in the distance. The pirates all cheered in excitement as they awaited the orders from Whitebeard. Whitebeard, who was currently passed out after downing a whole barrel of alcohal, woke up and ordered that we would be landing at the shore to coat the ship. It was strange seeing Pops in a ship that wasn't the Moby Dick, but I guess we would be heading to Water 7 to get the ship commissioned; Or hopefully , he already had the ship commissioned and it was just waiting for payment and pickup. During the few days that I had spent with the whitebeard pirates I had come to understand the personalities of crew members. Namely one particular crew member by the name of Marco, he had a big head with hair sprouting at the crown like a pineapple. He had quite the spirited personality, even as an apprentice of the crew on the ship. He wasted no time trying to make friends with me, asking me how I got so powerful though I'm more or less about the same age as he was. i tried my best to answer some of his questions, but he wouldn't let up on them.
We eventually docked at the shore of the island, and I had to admit that the trees were way taller than the anime had given credit to it for. Up close, you couldn't even see the top of the trees no matter how back I leaned my head. I was tempted to fly up there to see how far they can go when Whitebeard made an announcement, "Coat the ship and gather supplies, we are not staying here for long" Whitebeard looked rather hurried and excited for some reason. I could see the light of excitement shining in his eyes as he spoke. The rest of the crew got to looking for supplies and a ship coater while I decided to go talk to Pops, as I got closer, he let out a boom of laughter as he noticed my approach.
I asked, "What's..... gotten you so excited today?" At the question he wasted no time replying, "We are going to meet an old friend of mine!" then he went back to the ship and sat down on a barrel that was nearby. He went on and said, "I hadn't seen him in quite sometime, and his strength is close to mine! We must have a rematch!" he laughed after that and I sighed. It looks like before he started caring about his family. Whitebeard wanted a good fight, he was almost as bad as Kaido; almost. I left him to his own devices and decided to take a walk along the archipelgo, in the future. It was used to be a pirate haven of somesorts. Giving pirates the oppurtunity to cover their ships and gather supplies before moving on to the New World. Judging from the looks of it right now, it seemed that this had always been the case. As I walked I saw pirates from different walks of life with different attires: fighting amongst themselves, eating, drinking and even trying to hit on some women.
Looking at my worn out wolf fur toga. I decided that it was time for a change in dressing, I had managed to get some money off some idiots who were passed out drunk on the ground near a bar and I went to the closest clothes store that I could see. There I picked out a black trenchcoat, a couple pairs of underwear and pants, and a black pair of boots. I didn't want to wear a shirt because I felt as if it would restrict my movements. Looking at myself in the mirror, I couldn't help but admire my rather hansome appearance, I kept my already locked hair in a ponytail and the coat revealed a well muscular chest. I chose not to get any tatoos at the moment because I knew I'd be getting Whitebeard's Jolly Roger tattooed somewhere on my torso. I just didn't know where, it could have been my neck for all I cared.
Satisfied with my appearance I decided to head back to the ship, which was undergoing the final touches of ship coating. However, my peaceful walk was interrupted when a rather large man stood in my way. He looked rather imposing with his bald head and numerous scars on his bare chest and face. He looked as if he had something to say to me as he raised his gigantic axe and placed it on his shoulders. The bald man was about the same height as I was, and he looked me right in the eye while saying, "I saw you take money from my boys pockets while they were passed out, fork up everything in your person right now and I'll let you go only after I chopped your arm off!"
I looked at him before smiling lazily and saying, "What happens.....If I don't?" Before the bald man could realize what was happening, I dissapeared from his view and reappeared right up in front of him. I smiled as I sunk my fist down his face, I could hear several bones cracking while my fist was buried in his face. I thought I held back quite a bit considering I didn't even use as much as 5% of my total power. I guess I was wrong; I slammed his head down to the ground that caused the ground to tremor a bit. The axe that he held spun in the air for a brief moment before I caught its handle with my other free hand. 'This isn't a bad axe at all, if anything it feels like its slowly becoming a black blade' I internally noted as I could feel faint traces of haki within the giant weapon. I got back to the freshly coated ship in good spirits, in one walk I managed to get some new clothes and a new weapon to boot!