108 Old Acquaintance

The Heavenly Demons were in no rush, and as the distance between them and Water 7 was relatively close, they decided to sail the normal way instead of Ori using the wind to speed them along. It took them 3 days before they arrived and docked.

As they departed the ship they overheard a conversation relating to them.

"Did you hear? The Heavenly Demon acted again…"

"I know! It's said he convinced one of the elites from the Genius Camp run by Instructor Zephyr to betray the Marines and join him and in the process he even killed several high ranking marines and even defeated the man who ranked 8th in the Genius Camp; Marine Commander Hallorian!"

"I heard that the Marine Commander actually lost an arm…"

"That's nothing, I heard that even though the man who betrayed the Marines was ranked last, what's annoyed the Marines even more is the fact that he's the son of Admiral Akainu!"

"Apparently the only reason the Marine Commander was allowed to leave with his life was to deliver a message to Admiral Akainu, explaining that if he insists on chasing them in the future then he should clean his neck and await their arrival in the New World!"

"The Heavenly Demon is clearly a man that doesn't know the meaning of the word fear! To publicly provoke an Admiral… I don't know if he's brave or stupid!"

"Akainu apparently swore that if they dare to show their faces in the New World he'll personally hunt them down!"

"It's no wonder that his bounty was raised to £800,000,000! Even that Marine traitor has a bounty of £200,000,000."

"I've never heard of a rookie crew where the person with the lowest recorded bounty is above £100,000,000…"

"They don't call the Heavenly Demon's the rookie kings for no reason!"

"No, I suppose they don't…"

When Ori and the others heard that, they were a little surprised about how fast the news of what happened travelled. They weren't surprised by the results though. Ori was just happy his bounty had once again gone up.

Sabo glared at Benjiro as he snorted and said.

"It's not fair, I can't believe you got a bounty before me and you only just became a Pirate! When will it be my turn?!"

Benji smiled wryly as he replied.

"I'm a lover not a fighter. If I could, I'd happily swap bounties!"

Sabo rolled his eyes before he said.

"That doesn't make me feel any better!"

Whilst the 2 were going back and forth, they heard the group from before carry on with their conversation.

"Speaking of rookies. Did you hear about the new Super Rookie that appeared out of nowhere?"

"Who, The God of Thunder?"

"Yeah I heard he's just as crazy as the Heavenly Demon. Apparently he ran into a World Noble and ordered him to call him a god and take him to his rulers. As you can imagine the World Noble was angered deeply and ended up calling him a peasant for not knowing his place.

The God of Thunder summoned a bolt of lightning and actually incinerated the World Noble right there and then before killing off all of his protectors.

Admiral Aokiji was then sent to investigate and after the battle between the Admiral and the Raijin Pirates, the pirates were forced to flee but still managed to leave with their lives. Even though they were said to suffer some grievous injuries, the fact remains that they still managed to successfully retreat from the hands of an Admiral."

"I heard about that too… He was said to have received an initial bounty of £380,000,000. As far as initial bounties go, the only 2 people to have topped that are the Heavenly Demon and the late Pirate King; Gold Roger!"

"This generation really is full of monsters, from the Heavenly Demon Pirates, to Raijin Pirates, to the Navy's Empyrean Trinity. And apparently there's that Murdock from the Federation, He's only 20 and fought Billy from the Beast Pirates to a standstill…"

"Billy? As in one of the 3 disasters of the Beast Pirates? Isn't that monster supposed to be equal in strength to that of an Admiral?!"

"So they say…"

"A 20 year old with the strength of an Admiral?! With talent like that he's even better than the Heavenly Demon whose talents are said to be on par with the Sword-Genius; Dracule Mihawk… What's the world coming to when so many talents are pouring forth at once?!"

Although Ori heard everything they said, he was mainly focused on the mention of The God of Thunder Pirates, more specifically the captain.

[Ordering someone to call him God and striking them with lightning for not doing it? The only person that fits that description is Enel, but how was he able to descend from Skypiea?

Regardless, with him out at sea things will be a lot more interesting! Meeting others with abilities stronger than his own will show him how big the world really is and force him to grow stronger if he wants to achieve his goal.]

As he was lost in thoughts Shaya's voice woke him up.

"Ori what are your plans?"

Ori glanced in a certain direction before turning back to her shrugging leisurely as he replied.

"I'm going for a stroll!"

Shaya who was more proficient with the use of observation haki clearly saw what he was looking at and shook her head helplessly.

"For once in your life could you not go looking for trouble."

Ori feigned ignorance as he replied.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just going to see an old friend."

As he said that he walked in the direction he was just looking leaving Shaya and the others watching his departing back.

Shaya rolled her eyes and looked at Roman.

"Aren't you going to say anything to stop him?"

Roman shrugged helplessly as he replied.

"You know just as well I do that when he gets that look in his eyes there's no stopping him."

Shaya let out a helpless sigh knowing that Roman was right.

Ori had know idea how exasperated Shaya was by his actions. He had already arrived at his destination and when he did he let out a little smile.

He was stood in the air above a large crowd watching what appeared to be an outdoor trial. The prosecutor was a white man with black rings around his eyes, a dark red nose and wild lavender hair that reached the base of his neck. He was dressed in a suit and a long dark jacket with a World Government insignia over his left breast pocket. That man was the current leader of CP5 and future leader of CP9, Spandam.

Stood behind him on his left were a group of Marines and on his right a group of what Ori identified as CP5 operatives and sat right beside him at a small desk was a man wearing a purple gown who Ori guessed was the judge for the proceedings.

And there were 4 men in cuffs on trial. The first was a young man no older than 20 with bright blue hair dressed in an unbuttoned short sleeve orange shirt and dark coloured shorts. Beside him was a young man of similar age. He had shoulder length blue hair that sat under a white bandanna and naturally red lips.

To his left was a large yellow skinned cowfish fish-man with large spiky teeth that couldn't be covered by his lips and a large white beard. He was dressed in an unbuttoned baby blue short-sleeve shirt and a pair of brown trousers.

But it was the man at the end which caught the eye of the Heavenly Demon. He was an extremely obese man that when standing easily cleared 8". He had long brown hair that reached the top of his back but sat under a plain white bandanna, and thick black eyebrows. He was dressed in a dark apron and pair of baggy red trousers, the bottom of which was tied behind a bandage that ran from the top of his ankle to his shins. Tied at his waist was a small hammer that almost looked like a toy when sat on the waist of the oversized man.

The obese man was sat cross legged with his eyes closed and his hands cuffed behind his back. He looked so serene, as if what was happening around him had nothing to do with him.

Each of the men on trials were looked as if they had been heavily injured in their arrest. Tom, the fishman even had a fishing spear pierced through his shoulder.

[I didn't expect to arrive at Water 7 on the day of Franky's trial which led to Tom's death… But more than that, why is the Dreaming Forger; Bai Kitetsu cuffed as well? He wasn't any part of this in the canon…]