Chapter 9: Getting Acquainted
"You mean to tell me there has been no sighting of the Red Devil in the last 24 hours? He has murdered a Celestial Dragon, we don't have the luxury of just 'losing' him. I don't care what it takes, find him!"
Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral slammed his fist on the now damaged desk and hung up the phone. He was growing too old for this. Perhaps he should simply tell the World Government that they have the wrong man, maybe that would take the pressure off him.
...No, that would only make them concerned as to how he could lose the possible murderer. He loses no matter what in this situation. Marine image is damaged, one of his Admirals is in critical condition and all he could salvage from the broken string of words Akainu gave him was 'no Haki' which certainly didn't help anything.
An unknown, a fucking nobody had gotten away with one of the most heinous crimes one could commit in this world and they couldn't do anything about it. Even with all of the money in the world, half the Grand Line pirates would simply respect him and the other half wouldn't be strong enough to do anything about him, and there is no bounty hunter alive strong enough to touch him.
Sooner or later, the Gorosei will start getting antsy. They'll want answers, and he'll have nothing for them. That is, after they send absolutely everything they can at Dante. Perhaps the Shichibukai will be able to help, if they collaborate.
God, he should've retired. He can barely handle 4 Yonko, and already it seems like there's an up and coming 5th. Should he try invite him to be a Shichibukai? It would help to get rid of Gecko Moria. Would the World Government even let him consider the idea?
No, of fucking course not. How joyous.
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Dante had stayed true to his word, having gone straight West and surprisingly not gotten lost. Ahead of him was the jewel of the seafarer, the greatest boat shop in the world.
Dropping down onto the sea train he had watched travelling into the port of Water Seven, Dante relaxed atop the train and laid on his back, enjoying the scenery all the while.
All he really needed was a ship, size didn't truly matter. He wanted to have a boat for himself, not a fucking Galleon to hold a crew 50 strong. The SS Deadweight doesn't need much room, after all.
He would need to talk to someone high up, possibly the mayor. He never knew the name, but the most obvious place to find him would be the biggest house around, atop the island.
Then again, there was the major issue in that he no longer had any money. Perhaps he should have considered that before coming here, maybe gone to a different island, took some low level bounty burner to the Marines for some cash.
'Nah, they wouldn't pay me. Probably kill me, at least try.' Dante thought, fully aware of the miserable circumstances he was in with once more being broke beyond repair, no cash to his name and a pipedream.
With nothing left to do but wait for the train to pull in, Dante decided to pass the time by practicing his riffs with Nevan and counting the amount of ways Vergil could kill him with his Devil Sword.
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Twenty minutes later saw Dante walking along the chiseled brick pathways of the Water 7 train station. His gait was fast and confident, and he was impressed by the architecture. The place was beautiful, he could give it that.
His next destination was a port, anywhere he could find some shipwrights to build his greatest creation, and soon he would be golden. The hard part was convincing them not to turn him in, or that he could pay them back later.
Thankfully, Dante considered himself quite the charming individual when it came to smooth talking, he was golden here too, so with confidence blooming he walked over to the central platform and made his way towards dock one, ignoring the whispering people around who looked away from him.
What greeted him upon his entry was a bustling hub of shipbuilding mastery, the utter finesse on display was astounding. A man, dapper as all hell with his own little pigeon on the shoulder seemingly whispered to the bird before walking over to him.
"Hey, you seem like a guy who knows what he's doing around here, know where I can have someone build me a ship?"
Instead of the man responding, the fucking bird spoke for him, and boy did it speak.
"Ship build. Money for ship. View catalogue."
"Oh, alright then. Say less my feathered friend, I'll get to it. Say, mind if I speak with the man in charge here? Got something I wanna say."
"No. Not allowed."
"Well, can't say I didn't try. I'll just go there myself."
The man stayed eerily still the entire time, though the pigeon was becoming slightly annoyed as time passed it seems. Dante however didn't care for the opinion of a bird.
With little regard for the shipwright in front of him, Dante walked past the man and decided he would get the best to build the Deadweight rather than some worker.
'Sure, he's touted as one of the best, but his bird speaks better than he does.' Dante thought to himself, once more concerned with the world he found himself in.
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Rob Lucci could say one thing for certain. He hated his superior officer.
"The Red Devil!? What the hell is he doing here? Jesus, do you want do die or something because if you try go after him then that's the only thing that'll happen to you. I don't get paid enough to deal with people like him."
"Sir, with all due respect, quit being a bitch. Likelihood is that he got lucky and simply managed to escape, powerful pirates are always congregating on Sabaody, he may have claimed the credit for beating Akainu. He seems to be a petulant manchild with a grudge against the World Nobles. He has no respect for authority."
"Is your brain on backwards you dumb fuck!? Did you see what Akainu looked like, because I certainly did, and so did the rest of the world after that animal running the newspapers made sure to print a picture of Dante standing atop him like a fucking conquest!"
Spandam, the current superior officer for CP9, rubbed his leather face mask as he heaved, having lost his breath while talking to Lucci. His mission was to take a team and wait for Iceburg to slip up so they can get their hands on the superweapon Pluton. Now, they had Nico Robin and the Straw Hats gallivanting on the island, and the Red Fucking Devil too.
"Lucci, listen, if Dante approaches you, you stay fucking neutral. You let him enjoy his business. If you can grab Nico Robin, grab her, but if you leave even one connection between you and I for the Red Devil to follow then I will..."
Spandam's words were caught short in his throat as Lucci had stepped up to him, asserting dominance in some bizarre manner by simply staring at the man and waiting for him to try and even consider threatening a trained assassin like Lucci.
"Just... just don't let him uncover your operation. I don't want that freak anywhere near me, and I certainly don't want you to have led him here."
"Sir. What if he is here for Pluton? He seemed very insistent on meeting Iceburg."
Spandam rubbed the groove of his golden Buster Call, having considered pressing it the second Lucci mentioned Dante was there. He would survive, no matter what. This Buster Call would make sure of it.
Once more, Lucci reminded himself that if he ever had the chance, he would kill this man.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Felwinter
Felwinter forgot to add one of these for this chapter. anyways, I'm enjoying writing this, gives a break from life.
criticism is more than welcome, love hearing others opinions.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone