chapter 28- Shanks

"Damn that took a while, though I have to say that you're really lucky. I half expected the old men to assassinate you when you entered the room" Shanks said as we left. "You thought they were going to assassinate me? why the hell didn't you say anything?!" I questioned Shanks.

"Well I sensed that no one was there with my observation haki, and even if there was an assassin, how are you going to become the pirate king if you can't even do that?". "What are you talking about?" I asked Shanks, not realizing he didn't know about my "new" plans. "Aren't you going to become the pirate king? isn't that the whole reason you became a pirate?" Shanks retorted with a confused expression. "Well, I've already discovered the one-piece so that's that... as a matter of fact, I wanted to grab something from Raftel, do you want to come with?". "Wait wait wait, you already discovered the one-piece?! so what the hell are you sailing for?" Shanks had a shocked expression as he didn't imagine I would find it so quickly, if at all.

"I'm sailing for the dreames of my crew" I answered, "I already made one come true and despite all of the shit that happened lately I did manage to get started on another". "Oh? what wish are you working on right now?" Shanks was curios, "well my right-hand man's dream is to become the strongest swordsman so I took the title from Mihawk since until he beats me he won't truly be the strongest, and I'm currently training him though by how it looks I'll have to kick his training up a notch since he can't hope to beat me in a hundred years by his current progress". "Hold on a second, did you just say you took Mihawk's title?!", "yea you arrived a couple of minutes after our dual has ended".

"I-I don't even know what to say anymore..." Shanks had a hollow look in his eyes as if everything he knew was a lie. "'Wait so if I challenge you and win I'll be the strongest swordsman?" some light returned to Shanks's eyes. "Well yes, but why do you suddenly want to be the strongest swordsman?", "I had a long rivalry with Mihawk, so anyone besides him or me doesn't deserve the title of "the strongest swordsman", it just doesn't feel right. So out of obligation to my duals with Mihawk, I have to at least try and get the title from you, plus if I become the strongest swordsman just think of all the teasing I can do to Mihawk" Shanks smiled as he imagined Mihawk's shocked face{honestly, even I can't imagine that so I salute shanks}.

"Do you want to fight right now?" I asked Shanks. "Yea let's go to some abandoned island and fight there", "it's cute that you think we need an island to fight, you won't last long enough for collateral damage" I provoked Shanks with a smile. "Oh you're on! don't come crying to me when you lose though" Shanks's competitive spirit took over as he drawed his sword from its scabbard. I a dry wooden branch that laid in the boat for some reason and got into position, "before we start, how about we make this more interesting" I said with a smile. "Oh? and what did you think about" Shanks asked with a smile of his own, "if I win your crew becomes the first members in my fleet, if you win I'll teach you how to improve your haki considerably, you saw how advanced my haki was so I think it's fair". It wasn't fair, of course, my haki methods are far better then Shanks's crew but he won't win anyway so it doesn't matter. "Deal, but don't regret it later" Shanks looked at me with a somewhat teasing look as he began to count down. "Three! two! one! GO!".

As Shanks finished his countdown he lunched a sword-energy attack at me from afar. "Try harder", I said as I tilted my head to dodge the incoming strike. Shanks started to try every move he knew against me but to no avail."How about this then?" Shanks shouted as he lunged in my direction, I looked at him as if he was crazy and simply kicked him a couple of kilometers away from the boat while he was in the air. "Did you forget we are on a tiny boat? this thing isn't even five meters long! don't jump in the air like that!" I lectured Shanks for a couple of minutes while he swam back to the boat. "Hahaha, sorry I got excited, it's just that it has been so long since I had a good fight with a sword since Mihawk doesn't dual with me ever since I lost an arm" Shanks scratched the back of his head while laughing. when Shanks finally boarded the boat my stick flashed to his neck before he could react, "do you surrender?" I asked him with a wide smile, "oh, I completely forgot about this... but I guess it is your win so the Red Hair crew is now part of your fleet". I facepalmed as I heard his words.