The storm from yesterday, seemed not to have happened, for the skies were clear with a group of gulls flitting calmly across the boundless sky. The clouds stretched lazily on, drifting thoughtlessly in all directions.

It had been a mere day that we had spent on the new world and already we had faced one of the most terrible storms that we had ever experienced. The mult.i.tude of ice bergs that came after did nothing to ease the tension that the place brought. Only now did we have a slight moment to relax, and so that was what I was doing. Sleeping on deck all the while keeping an eye on the unpredictable sea.

Angella had collected our youngest protégé, (Neither Sorren nor I counted, seeing as both of us acted much older than we had any right to) harshly hammering the last nails into the coffin of his illiteracy.

Fawkes had taken the two rookies to the far side of the boat, snugly fit into the huge shadow of the tall and trusty mast. He had them experiment with the fruits that they had consumed.

It had been ruled over food today, that they both were woefully unaware of how to possibly use their capabilities, even if the devil fruit was to be discounted, the both of them still possessed a p.i.s.s poor form and little to no battle experience.

Terrick had taken it upon himself to rectify the latter in a surprising show of character and responsibility. So every other day they would drill the basic weapons and unarmed combat alongside the crew's a.s.sa.s.sin.

While on the days that they did not work on their physical abilities, they would work on their devil fruits, which was what they were doing now.

I originally planned to train them on the use of their devil fruits myself, but Fawkes had volunteered, seeing as and I am going on a vein and quoting him here, 'I was pretty useless on the last island, and the only even slightly respectable thing I did was the basic equivalent of weight lifting' in an attempt to both get himself familiarized with people that possessed devil fruits and to the individual aspects of the fruits that the two rookies had consumed.

Thus I had left it to him. It would help him in the long run, I reasoned especially if we were to get involved with the bigwigs of the sea. No doubt about it. We would need every trump card we could get our hands on.

And now here I was. Thinking lazily as I looked at the chipped daggers on my palm. There was no where that I could improve anytime soon. The restrictions on my Armament Haki, was pretty much my age coming into the picture. The main reason that I could train it this far, could be pretty much solely attributed to my devil fruit.

Thus it was obvious. The only way I could increase my power was by getting myself better weapons and diversifying my a.r.s.enal.

With a sigh I slowly swung of the thin white cloth that had been slung between the railings of the s.h.i.+p and a part of the captain's cabin and began to walk forward. There was nothing I could do about the former, but the later? I could definitely work on that!

***********************

Sengoku groaned as he looked at the ma.s.sive flood of papers that had found their way onto his desk. It had been barely a month since that big mouthed b.a.s.t.a.r.d Morgans got his hands on what had happened on Ohara, thankfully the world government had pretty much censored him by that point.

Still, the blowback of that matter had forced him to make CP9 work on the double! The scanty few that got their hands on the information before it had been categorically silenced had already thrown shade on the monstrous bounty that Sengoku had been forced to sign on one Devil child Nico Robin.

The revolutionary army had been having a field day! and vice Admiral Borsolino anything but. For he had been the only one that could be dispatched to reach the destination of issue in any sensible amount of time.

At this point Sengoku could not help but pity the lazy brat, he had been driven almost as ragged as Sengoku himself!

To top it all off, Garp had pretty much lost the trail of the upstart pirates that he had been pursuing. The only thing that stopped Sengoku from questioning his old friend's capabilities was because he knew that the temperamental fool knew when to act serious.

He had been sending back regular reports for G.o.d's sakes!

"Fleet Admiral!!" the sound of the door hastily broke Sengoku out of his revere. In marched a marine, his cap skewed in its placement, with a frail fluttering file in his hands, an anxious look in his face and a p.r.o.nounced huff that told Sengoku that he had run up from the information room on the other side of Marineford.

"Soldier." He greeted with a simple nod, his hands not leaving the weathered pen in between his fingers.

"Garp's report just came in! It's been signed off by Vice admiral Garp and Kuzan!" he said as he waved the paper around before placing it on the table with a worried expression.

The fleet Admiral nodded calmly, a hint of dread in his heart as he dismissed the man with a wave of his free hand, his afro quivering.

His gla.s.ses gleamed unnaturally as he perused the contents of the unpunctuated letter. It spoke of how Garp had Kuzan on s.h.i.+p. And what Kuzan met with, resembling a certain pirate that Sengoku had hoped would be forgotten, he had hoped that a monster such as Garp would be enough to sniff him out and put a stop to him before he took up place alongside recent upstarts like Kaido or Linlin, or heaven's forbid f.u.c.king whitebeard.

Again his fears had been proven accurate it seemed..

"G.o.dd.a.m.nit Kong, you made it look so f.u.c.king easy.." he muttered darkly as he did the only thing he knew he could do. He sanctioned a bounty.