.
"Dracula Mihawk, I guessed we would cross paths in this island" I said while sitting back, the pressure I can sense from him was enough to tell me that I am no match for the man in front of me but I am a 18 year old teenager and by heart would not listen to my reasoning and screamed to take him down.But I sensed no harming intent from him; if he had he would have already attacked by now.
"I am Arya, Captain of red rose Pirates nice to meet you" I spoke, "Sorry to bother you on your camping but I could not help but hear your discussion and praise your wisdom" Mihawk saw us with amusement.
"So this is the greatest swordsman in the world if I defeat him, I am good enough to travel around the new world" Liana asked as she had that eagerness to challenge him.
"Well? Certainly you would but before that I wanted to ask something, Dracula mihawk I would like you to join my crew" I asked 'I just wanted to try it so I would not regret not asking him'.
"Hum, you would be the first person who asked me that as soon as we met" Mihawk said with a smile, "I am sorry but I refuse, I like to travel alone".
"Travel alone, come on no one can survive on their own in the sea" I said, just trying my luck. "Kid you are not strong enough to convince me to become your crewmate" He said not taking my words offensively.
"Alright let talk this along with some food and we do have some alcohol" I said with a laugh, 'this might work'.
"I am not joining you kids to play some pirate game, and just thought of giving you suggestion before going to new world" mihawk said,
"I know you meant for good now have some food and drink, it is not every day that we can meet a warlord and beside that I have a favor to ask" I said with my tone a little serious.
"And why would I would I accept that" Mihawk asked confused while holding a jug with alcohol.
"Please it is a request from few pirate wannabe kids, and in the future we can definitely be someone who can defeat you, this way you can at least have someone to spar frequently" I said, "This is unreasonable".
"Ho please I just want you to teach us some basic haki application, Please" I asked with a un-cute puppy eye no jutsu.
"Please stop it, it is creepy" he asked, and the others also agreed, "Please I want to continue our journey without stopping, once I find the one piece I still have to find Captain john treasure, explore other seas and many things. And to do that I have to become strong enough to face the world leaders" I said, and this time he spewed out the alcohol he was drinking.
"Hahahaha! You had made me laugh kid; Ok the log pose would need 1 Month to set in this island and I would teach you basics of haki" Mihawk said.
"Yes I did it" I shouted throwing my arms up.
"I am kind of thinking, isn't it strange to ask a enemy or a rival train you and the person accepting to do so" Hawk asked, "Well this happens sometimes so don't let it bother you, and he is actually crazy enough to make a person who tried to make him to a slave his crewmember. Just look at joke and you would understand how he is" Deuce explained.
"You mean that joke is actually a skeleton and not someone with a makeup" Hawk asked while looking closely at joke and suddenly fainted.
The others sighed while joke protested for unfairness.
But I did not regret my decision; I had to be somewhat capable enough to face the new world. The new world is presently the base of yonko's. Marine is the least troublesome opponent in the new world I could ally with a yonko but I just cannot sit right with it, except whitebeard I don't want to ally with any other and marines just forget them.
As such I had to make everyone stronger in my team and at present the only way is to ask the expert.
..
Even with few complaints we are able to get mihawk train us some basic haki, and let me tell you I was definitely not happy to find out that I had no aptitude in haki.
On bright side, four of my crew can use haki now, Ace, borodo, liana and last is joke, yes joke was able to memorize how mihawk applied the haki and with that he was able to perform it, Even I was jealous on how quickly he learned it.
Hawk was also training with us, and he was strong I can see after watching him over the days and decided to have him as my new crewmate, which he accepted since he had nothing special to do and become our official Shipwright and a archer.
I could not use haki but I found something more interesting I can actually defeat ace even with his haki and found a rather interesting fact.
Armament Haki is a double edge sword, it gives the opponent a very strong buff but when I fought ace I was able to hurt his hand 'because a high pressure hydro-punch was much stronger then a superhuman body'.
If I can overpower my opponent then even a logia user can get damaged due to their own haki, It was one good thing that I figured in this month.
As for others they are just not strong enough to fight the best yet, he is a how our crew ranks.
'1st-arya, 2nd- Ace, 3rd-borodo, 4th-liana, 5th-joke, 6th-lily, 7th-Hawk, 8th- Deuce and 9th- Meroie',
Don't doubt that I am stronger even without haki I am so good with my devil fruit powers that it is a little scary, and beside that I had a little training on sword since I had the fancy sword I thought why not and I was a really terrible swordsman, beside that I had borodo teach me how to unlock the handcuffs 'for future when I am got locked in sea prism stone handcuffs'.
After wards we thanked Mihawk for the help and headed to the next island which is obviously Fishman Island, with the new friend we all continued on to our journey.
..
"Alright now we are ready to face the new world, be ready to get your mind get blown. I heard the sea is so rough compared to that this half is called paradise by the new world pirates; I just cannot wait to see the fish man island and meet mermaids. What do you think would any of them would be willing to join us" I asked to my crew who are presently enjoying in the pool.
"I don't know but I am eager to see the mermaids who are said to be so beautiful" Deuce spoke as we both started to imagine the mermaids.
"Alright I don't want to sound stupid but even I am excited to see them" Borodo words made everyone relax, except one ace.
"Oy Ace why are you down" I asked, feeling some negative vibes from him.
"It is just, Arya can I ask you a request" he asked, and I felt it was important and sat beside him.
"Arya, I have been feeling conflicted for quite some time now. I wanted to prove my strength to this world and surpass my father, and the new world is the place where I can do that all. I just cannot think straight" he spoke clearly having unclear thoughts; I felt he wanted to leave this ship.
"Ace, I don't understand what you want but I'll tell you what is in my mind. There are only two ways to survive in the new world, either we take down the yonko's or work for them… I don't plan on to surrender to anyone. If you feel you are not up to it or want something else speak to me" I believe this all I had to say, under no circumstances I am losing that dumb idiot.
.
We finally reached Sabaody Archipelago and the first thing I faced when set foot on the island is a group of people shifting slaves and a cat boy running into me, he had well developed body and was taller than me by feet but was currently pulled by chains connected to a collar around his neck.
"Please save me" He pleaded.
"Fine", "Hey release him" I asked to the people who were after him.
"Are you an idiot, he is a special mink slave very rare if you want him pay up 2 million" a man shouted while pulling the cat boy back.
"Fine release him" I said, I did not want to cause a trouble as soon as I stepped in even though the idea of buying a living being did not sit right with me."Are you an idiot…" unprepared for my reply he was going to deny it when suddenly another one shut his mouth.
"As you wish Captain Arya of red rose Pirates, you release that mink" he ordered, as we freed the cat boy.
"Thank you, gyu" the cat boy spoke crying, "You seemed to be strong how did you even get caught" I asked but he was just crying.
"Well ok, then I shall take my leave take care of yourself" I said and went away, as for the 2 million I would get it back eventually.
...
Grove 13, Shakky's rip-off bar
"Captain are you sure we can find a coating engineer here" Joke asked feeling unsure.
"I am sure but I am here to confirm a rumor" I said as we all entered, "What type of rumor" he asked.
"That the dark king Silvers Rayleigh, should be around here" I said this caused everyone to focus.
And right in front of us was the man in question and his wife, smiling at us.
"And what do you know, the rumors turn out to be true" I said as I watched the old man casually drinking and his wife smoking.
"How can we help you" Shakki asked, "No just wanted to have our ship coated, so we can sail to fishmen Island" I said.
"I will but the coating cost a lot of money" Rayleigh said, "Don't worry we got money, I think you know that much" I said while sitting next to him.
"Arya that is the legend dark king" my crew asked while shocked, "That is in past, now I am just a coating engineer Ray".
"Please have a seat" shakki said while bringing us fruit juice and food, "I do know you have money, captain of red rose pirates. After all you are the richest pirate of paradise" She said while giving me a mango juice.
"Hey captain if we capture him, we can find one piece quickly" Hawk asked feeling itchy to fight. "Hum, why would we do that" I asked.
"As he said if we can have him guide us we can get one piece, and you can become pirate king" Deuce said, "What is the fun in it, I want to find one piece my own way. Beside that old man is strong I hear him, even with all of us we cannot take him down" I said while looking at the dark king's eyes which did not have a single trace of fear, I felt like fighting him right now to see who is stronger but kept quiet since I was not here to fight.
"It is no wonder you have such high bounty" he said with a smile.
"Wait a minute, if pirate king was captured by marines how you could be alive and here living peacefully" Ace asked, which of rest of the crewmembers thoughts.
Rayleigh just drank his drink and watched ace, as he remembered his good friend "Roger was not captured by the marines, he gave himself in".
This sent a shiver through us, Even if I already knew it I still got Goosebumps.
"Why would he even do that" we questioned, Rayleigh started to explain about roger and we were immersed in the story.
"Ha pirate king was such a cool man, Rayleigh please quickly start the coating I cannot wait to find the one piece" I said filled with new excitement.
"Hahaha, you are an impatient one aren't you" He asked, than he asked me a question I never thought he would.
"Do you think you can do it, conquer the mightiest sea and become pirate king?".
"Hum, I never wanted to conquer anything, I just want to find one piece, then other treasures and so on" I answered, causing him to smile.
"I guess I am fan of you arya-chan" Shakki said, "Alright let get your ship coated, you impatient one" Rayleigh stood up and went to the grove 41 where we had anchored our ship.
Meanwhile a small cat was watching all this quietly and followed arya.
…