Chapter 13: Hidden Monsters.
Sabaody Archipelago—Grove 13—Shakky's Rip off bar. A beautiful blond hair woman entered the bar, a sword strapped to her back.
"Hello, welcome to the bar. What can I help you with?" Shakuyaku, or Shakky as she was known, said, shifting her attention away from the video screen she had been watching.
"Hello, miss Shakky. Can you help me locate Old Man Rayleigh's whereabouts?" the blonde woman asked with a smile.
"It'll cost you a huge chunk of money, sweetie." As Shakky completed saying this, the woman reached into her jacket and pulled out five bundles of cash from a sack.
"This should cover it," the woman said, sliding the five bundes berries totalling a billion across the table towards Shakky.
Shakky narrowed her eyes. This woman seems familiar with my business, but I haven't seen her before, she thought. "Just give me a minute." Shakky turned around and went to make a call.
"He's at Grove 21 right now, watching the live broadcast of the Battle of Marineford," she said when she returned.
"Oh, thank you for that! by the way there's nothing worth watching in the battle of Marineford, it'll be interrupted by someone" the woman remarked before turning and leaving.
Hearing the remark Shakky narrowed her eyes thinking and her eyes turned back on the projected screen showing live telecast from Marineford.
Rayleigh sat quietly on a faraway tree branch, sipping from a bottle of booze as he watched the live broadcast in the public sqare. His thoughts wandered back to the past with his days with Roger and the crew.
Watching Ace on the screen tied up, memories of Roger's execution resurfacing in his mind. A call from Shakky woke him up from his trip to memory lane. "Some rich little woman was looking for you specifically and even paid a billion berries for it, I sent her your way".
"She left here some time ago, she'll reach you soon" saying this she hung up the call. (Who could be looking for me now?) he thought, then hearing footsteps below him he looked below.
A beautiful blonde woman stood there looking at him "Hey, old man, can you come down for a bit?" the woman's voice called out.
Rayleigh's mouth twiched hearing her calling him an old man. Rayleigh jumped down gracefully, landing in front of the woman. "Are you looking for me, missy?" he asked.
"Can you come with me? My captain asked me to bring you back to our place safely" she said.
Rayleigh narrowed his eyes "Who are you? and who's this captain of Yours?". "Ohh! Sorry I totally forgot to Introduce myself, I'm Nayeon that's all I can say, my captain forbid me from saying you more than this" she said.
Rayleigh hesitated, his eyes drifting back to the screen, reluctant to leave as the execution of Ace continued. His heart was heavy, filled with old memories of his time with Roger.
"Nothing will happen to him," Nayeon said, noticing his hesitation. "The battle will be interrupted by someone."
Rayleigh paused for a moment, her words carrying an unexpected confidence. He gave her a long look, then nodded. "Alright, lead the way," he said, following her.
While walking Nayeon suddenly turned around suddenly "don't you want to inform Shakky before you leave?" she said. "I don't want you to get beat up after you go back home late". Rayleigh's eyebrows twiched hearing her words.
He didn't replied and silently called Shakky while walking as he followed her. They both came to grove 1 to get on the boat. Reaching the shore Rayleigh saw a small ship with jolly roger with a skull wearing a golden crown and crossbones on it.
The funny thing was that this ship was being looted right now. "Just a minute! I'll go clean up some rats on board" Nayeon smiled and said turning her head to Rayleigh.
With that said she walked towards the ship and jumped aboard elegantly as if she was some kind of royal. Rayleigh just stood there as if watching a show about to unfold.
Then, without any warning a wave of Conqueror's Haki spread with Nayeon as it's center. This Haki was perfectly controlled and concentrated only on the people present on the two boats specifically.
This wave of Conqueror's Haki was so well controlled that it didn't felt like a wild beast unleashed but a ferocious beast tamed and trained ready to create chaos anywhere it's told to.
Seeing this Rayleigh was shocked standing there with an open mouth. He couldn't believe that there exists someone who controls Conqueror's Haki soo well that it scares him.
(She can't be someone unknown with such raw power filled within her, but when I see her no one comes to mind) as Rayleigh was brainstorming he saw something more shocking.
The woman pulled out the sword from her back and swung it without taking it out of its scabbard and that was a nightmare for people present of the two ships before they were cut to pieces and a shocker for Rayleigh too.
He saw this as he was brainstorming to guess her Identity and with seeing her powerful swordsmanship his brain just gave up thinking. At first he took her lightly, now he thinks he made a mistake coming alone with her.
In a quick move everyone onboard the two ships died without spilling a single stain on her ship. Nayeon then jumped to the other ship to loot it. There wasn't much she just got around ฿800,000,000 berries worth of things from the ship.
After everything Nayeon just turned around looked at Rayleigh and smiled gently "Thank you for waiting". Rayleigh just coughed and showed a forceful smile.
"By the way, captain said that you're in a lot of debt and have the habit of selling yourself sometimes. You can have it, anyways it isn't worth much but it'll at least ease your burden" she said as she pointed at the just looted pile of treasure piled onboard.
Rayleigh just looked and it and had a rough estimate of the pile at around ฿800,000,000. His face twiched as he recalled her nonsensical words about how it isn't worth much (Are you serious right now, really!).
"Anyway do you really work under a captain with your strength" he asked. "Yup! My captain is far stronger than me". "Okay now we're going to move, you can watch the live broadcast sitting in yourself room until then" she said and went to steer the ship away.
"Haah! What am I getting myself into" Rayleigh sighed and went in the room pointed by Nayeon before she left.