4 Ch 4 : Meeting the Rebels

According to the original story, after reaching Alabasta, Luffy's original goal was to head to Yuba to talk with the rebels to stop the war.

However, upon reaching it, they will no doubt find nothing but sand and ruins there except for Toto and that the rebel army had already moved to Katorea, a city east of Nanohana.

Rain, who had watched all episodes of One Piece, clearly knew this, and therefore, he set his eyes on Katorea.

His main reason was nothing sort of a noble one. Instead, he just wanted to use the rebels as a stepladder to get closer to the main cast of Strawhats.

Don't get him wrong. Rain didn't have any ideas about joining the straw hat crews. But having a good relationship with them is a whole new thing.

The Strawhats were full of kind and trustworthy people, and if Rain could get a good relationship with them, then maybe they could help Rain if Rain was in trouble one day.

Walking for a few days, Rain finally saw Katorea.

In the anime, Vivi described Katorea as an Oasis. This is what is seen of Katorea by Rain right now. It has coconut trees and standard Alabasta architecture of rectangular buildings with some dome roofs.

There were some people moving cargoes here and there, and Rain could see the solemn atmosphere here as if they were waiting for something big to come.

Rain had just arrived in Katorea, when a few people with firearms in their hands came and intercepted Rain.

"State your business here!"

Rain heard the people and immediately shifted his gaze.

Just from the way they dressed up, Rain could guess that they were the rebels.

Facing the rebels, two choices appeared on Rain's mind: To lay low or to enter with a domineering manner.

'Hm… I think I will go with this one.'

Rain closed his eyes as he fell into silence for a bit.

He soon opened his eyes once again, but this time, the atmosphere surrounding him had changed.

"There is no such thing as hope without power. The concept of hope without is nothing more than giving up—a word that holds no true meanings."

"….. "

Hearing that Rain was speaking gibberish, the rebels looked against each other.

For the man who appeared out of nowhere and in a strange manner like this, they really didn't know what to do.

It was until one of the rebels decided to shoot him that the other also began to aim their weapon at Rain.

"Shoot!!"

Bang!!! Bang!!! Bang!!! Bang!!!

A countless gunshot was heard in the entrance of Katorea, but even in the presence of numerous bullets in front of him, Rain didn't flinch a bit.

"Foolish, don't you hear what I say? Hope without power was just a meaningless word!"

Rain walked toward the direction of the bullets, and to the rebels' horror, the bullet just went past through Rain like nothing happened.

No matter how hard they tried, no bullets were able to graze Rain's body, and it just kept passing through him like Rain wasn't even existed, to begin with.

Rain reached the nearest soldier, and with one swift motion, he pulled the soldier into a chokehold position.

"Now, can we talk quietly here? I don't want to make such a big scene… All I want to do is just to meet your leader.."

At this moment, the rebels knew that they had hit a hard plate, a very hard one on top of it.

They saw one of their comrades was being held hostage by Rain, and in the end, they had no other choice but to call Koza here.

For someone with such a strange power like Rain, the rebels could only hope that Rain had no malicious intent against them.

A few minutes later, the previous rebel brought out one person that was not unfamiliar to Rain, Koza.

From watching the anime, Rain had known that Koza was the leader of the rebels, but now, he needed to act:

"Are you, by chance, the leader of this rebel group?"

Rain said with a flat tone, much to Koza's displeasure. But as a leader of the rebels, Koza was able to control his temper against this unknown stranger.

"What of it? Are you looking to join as well? If so-"

Koza was not even able to finish his words when Rain shook his head.

"*Sigh* I expect more from the rebel leader. But from the look of it, it seems you are just the same cannon fodder as them."

Rain words this time had fully triggered all the rebels.

They were ready to bombard Rain with bullets, but Koza raised his hand to stop them.

"Kohza, why stop us? If this person intends on stopping us, then he's an enemy!"

"Stop, this guy.. I don't think he is a normal guy. You can see that he is not afraid at all even when facing countless weapons right before his eyes."

The rebels gulped at Koza's word. Just now, they realized what Koza said indeed makes sense. For a guy who was not afraid when facing that many guns, this guy seemed to be more than your normal average Joe.

The weapons were lowered, but the rebel group was still vigilant.

Kohza was their leader, and they could not have him have an accident here.

Rain saw this scene, and even though on the outside he was very calm, he was actually pretty nervous inside.

With his current capabilities, he was still very far from Obito, who could partially transfer his body for a long time.

Twenty-three seconds, that was the limit of the current Rain, and if the Rebels were to continuously bombard him with bullets for more than twenty-three seconds, then Rain could only face his demise.

Still, he needed to put up an act now.

"Futile… Don't you guys see that You can't harm me at all? You guys are just ants compared to a true powerhouse, and I can step on you guys easily if I wanted to."