Chapter 41: Jaya

On the way there they came across a storm and saw three giants in the distance fighting behind them. The crew minus Kai and Robin freaked out. Kai just looked at Robin. "Figure it out yet?" He asked. She looked mildly frustrated. "No, what was I supposed to figure out." Kai smiled to himself. "Here's a hint. Think about how shadows work."

Robin pondered for a second. "Nishishi! So that's it! There really is a sky island." Kai laughed. "Yup." He said. The duo just chuckled to themselves as they watched the rest of the crew freak out and try to figure out how to get away from the giants chasing them.

After sailing for a little while longer, the crew finally arrived at Jaya. Luffy, Zoro and Nami were about to leave the ship. Robin turned to Kai and asked. "Would you like to come with me? I'm going to gather some information and walk around the island." Kai looked a bit conflicted and finally he said in a dejected voice. "Sorry devil-chan, I have to do something quickly. I'll come find you when I'm done." Robin looked a little sad for an instant before going back to normal, causing Kai to miss it. "No problem. Just make sure you come fast."

"First time I've heard of a girl saying that. Wahahaha!" Kai said before he muttered under his breath. "I'm really gonna kill that bastard. First he fucks with Ace and now he's taking away my time with Robin." Robin didn't hear the second part of what he said.

Robin smiled at what she heard Kai say. "I thought that you hadn't dated other girls?" She said mischievously. "Err, what did I just say? I forgot. I think I said something about how cute you look devil-chan, yup that must have been it." Robin giggled and Kai just smiled. They both were thinking about how much they enjoy each other's company when Luffy and Zoro jumped off the ship and Nami chased after them into town.

Kai noticed this and stood up on the railing, he saluted and let himself fall backwards off of the ship. "That's my que to leave." He said as he fell and disappeared into thin air, I mean literally disappeared into thin air.

Kai followed the three crew members towards a bar. He sat down at the bar a few seats down from Luffy and wasn't saying anything. His face under the mask was stone cold, devoid of any emotion.

Kai wouldn't let anything show on his face even though he had a mask on, it was like a habit to him after the years of abuse. He hid his emotions so well that even Teach who used his kenbunshoku haki didn't pick up on Kai's bloodlust towards him. He had picked up on how to hide his emotions by showing nothing. Just his dead eyes could be seen which were masking his anger and bloodlust. Nami thought Kai was acting a little weird and tapped him on his shoulder.

When Kai turned to face her, she saw his eyes which had no emotion. She yelped a bit and jumped back before asking. "What's wrong?" Kai showed no reaction as he just turned back to face forward. "Nothing." He said in a flat voice. Nami wasn't convinced he was telling the truth but she had nothing to go off of but her gut feeling that something was up.

Kai didn't seem angry or anything, just dull, like something was missing from his voice even though it sounded the same as normal. Kai didn't show any reaction to Nami's concern as he listened in on the conversation going on between Luffy and a large man beside him.

""This pie is the best thing in the world!/ This pie is the worst thing in the world!"" They both said at the same time. They looked at each other weirdly before taking a drink. ""This is the best drink in the world!/ This is the worst drink in the world!"" They both said at the same time.

"Is something wrong with your tastebuds, kid?"

"Is something wrong with your brain, old man?"

The two faced off ready to fight before Nami stopped Luffy by reminding him of his promise not to fight on this island no matter what. After that the large man left the bar and walked past someone who was coming into the bar with a smile on his face.

Kai tracked Teach leaving with his haki, always keeping an 'eye' on him with his abilities. The man who just walked into the bar walked up to Luffy and asked the bartender. "Get me your best drink and get this guy in the Straw Hat whatever he wants. It's on me." The bartender got the drinks and gave them out.

Luffy turned to the guy and said. "Thanks!" With a smile before taking a sip. As soon as his lips touched the glass a hand grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the bar, destroying the wood.

The man who smashed Luffy into the bar was about to laugh when he felt a cold object on his neck. He looked over to see Zoro sitting on the bar with his arm stretched out pointing his sword at him. The man Bellamy looked up. "What are you gonna do, stick boy?" He asked Zoro.

Kai muttered. "Fucking clowns." Still showing no emotion in his voice or on his face. Luffy stood up and dusted himself off. "Zoro, stand down." Was all he said as he started to look very seriously at Zoro with a cold look on his face. Nami quickly said. "We aren't here to cause trouble! We just want information on the sky island!"

The bar went silent for a few moments before you could hear. "Hahaha!" as laughter erupted from all of the people in the bar, including Bellamy. Who laughed and said. "Hahahha-haha! I was gonna test you guys to see if you were worthy of joining my crew, but who knew you were such idiots?" Kai gripped his drink tightly. Bellamy went on. "The era of dreams is OVER! The fools who say that someone was a good man because he stayed true to his ideals and followed his dreams have no place in the world. They are all idiots who don't know the truth about the world! Hahha-hahaha!" Kai sipped his drink and turned his head to Bellamy.

"And you do?" He asked in a dull voice. Everyone there just thought it was a genuine question as it showed no emotion of anger or mocking. "Of course I do! I have a bounty of 55 million belli and I work for one of the most powerful men in the world."

Kai didn't show any physical reaction. "You're a fool who works for a clown. You don't even know who's on this island right now." He said in a flat voice. Still with no reaction to what was happening. Bellamy got angry. "You're the one who doesn't know what's happening on this island! I am the one who rules over it! Besides, you don't even know who my boss is. If you learned you would be shaking in fear right now!"

Kai didn't show any reaction. He finished his drink and got up. "Do whatever you want." He said before turning to walk towards the door. On his way he walked by a table of people playing poker. He picked up one of the cards and threw it behind him without looking. The card lodged in the wood of the bar right next to Bellamy, revealing what card it was. "Last time I checked a joker was a clown, dumbass."

Kai walked out of the bar and Bellamy's eyes opened wide but he didn't say anything out loud. "What did that mean?" Zoro asked and Luffy shrugged. "I don't know." Nami looked in the direction Kai left and said. "What is he doing? He just left us here. Isn't he gonna help?" Luffy looked at Nami. "He's not a babysitter, and I don't want him to be, we aren't just kids and this isn't just a game." Zoro nodded and added in. "If he wiped our asses for us every time we would never get stronger. I don't want him to do everything for us."

Luffy and Zoro nodded to each other showing their agreement on not having Kai do everything for them. Just then Bellamy swung a bottle of wine at Luffy and broke it on his head. Luffy got off the floor without saying a word. For the next ten minutes this scene repeated itself. Luffy and Zoro would get hit by all of Bellamy's pirates in the bar but would just stand up without saying a word. At this point Bellamy started rambling on about how prideless and worthless the two were before he spit in their faces.

The two still didn't react. Bellamy's first mate looked at Nami and asked. "How much would it cost to bring you over to our pirate group?" Nami looked at him with a smile and said, "I'm sorry, for me to join a crew of small fries like you. Well, that would just be a waste of my talents." Everyone at the bar laughed at all three of them and Bellamy said to Nami.

"Take these two kids and disappear while they're still alive." Nami grabbed Luffy and Zoro and walked out of the bar. She started walking down the road and after a few steps. A voice said. "The sky island does exist."

Nami turned her head to look at the man. "You're that guy from before." The man took a bite of food and said. "Zehahaha! These pies really are the best." Nami said nothing and the man continued on. "Why are you so mad, sister? The battle in the bar, those two won it!"

"Eh?" Nami said, confused.

"Zehaha! What you told them was pretty great too. You have a lot of guts woman!"

Zoro and Luffy stood up and Nami reached out to help them but they refused, standing on their own. They both had a very serious look in their eyes as they turned to look at the man behind them.

"This 'new age' they were talking about was bullshit!" The man said as he took a drink from a bottle of scotch. "Saying that the age for pirates who dream is over?! Zehahahaha!" He slammed down his bottle of scotch on the ground. "A MAN'S DREAM… WILL NEVER DIE!!!" He looked Luffy dead in the eyes when he said that.

Luffy and Zoro didn't say anything but there was a slight change in their deminours showing that they agreed and started walking away. The man laughed as his point got across. "ZEHAHAHA-" His laugh was cut short by an emotionless voice behind him as he felt a cool blade on his throat. "Wanna bet?" Kai said from behind the man. Teach stopped laughing as he was shocked. "Who are you?" He asked the man behind him without moving at all.

Kai ignored him and pressed his blade a little deeper into Teach's throat. "I bet I can end your dreams right here. And I've never lost a bet before." Teach laughed at this. "Zehahaha! Then why don't you?" Teach said as a shot rang out in the distance. A bullet flew from across the island and met Kai right between his eyes.

Kai's head exploded into air only to reform an instant later. Nami heard the gunshot and looked back to see Kai standing behind the man who was just talking to them with his blade to the man's throat. She gasped. "Who is he?" Luffy and Zoro glanced back and saw Kai but turned their heads back right away not meddling in Kai's affair. "It's not 'he'. More like 'they'." Luffy said. Zoro shook his head. "No, more like 'it'. That didn't feel very human." Luffy nodded at this statement leaving Nami even more confused.

Kai still maintained his emotionless mannerisms. "Nice try, Teach. But, I'm not an idiot." Teach held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't order that. That was my subordinate acting on his own." Kai ignored him again. "I won't kill you yet because he asked me not to. But you'd better tread carefully in the future, Teach. You're on real thin ice right now and if you make even the slightest slip up. I don't care if you're a warlord or a Yonko. I don't care if you have one or two devil fruits. When you make that slip up and cross the line. Your life is forfeit. Remember that, and remember it well." Kai expressed in a voice null of threat, anger or bloodlust. It was a calm voice without emotion, but to Teach this only made it more terrifying. This wasn't some threat made in a burst of anger, it felt more like a promise.

Kai turned invisible and let the wind carry him away as he landed on a building across the island. Leaving Teach stunned. He turned around when he felt the blade on his throat disappear only to see nothing. He suddenly remembered something that happened to him years ago. "Zehahahaha! So it's you again! Too bad nothing can stand in the way of my dreams!" He said out loud but inside his head the gears were turning fast. Who was this guy, how strong was he, and why did he mention me being a warlord and having two devil fruits? Did he figure out my plan? Teach wouldn't find an answer to any of his own questions.