Chapter 11: Calm Belt

It was told in the news that Monkey D Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates defeated one of the Royal 10 Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile. It was a feat that made the government acknowledge this pirates group as a potential threat. Therefore, they put a bounty on his head as high as 100 Million.

After reading the article, Rex now more or less able to guess Luffy's whereabouts. Their group should be now heading towards the Jaya Island, or already ascended to the Sky Islands.

Hold on, 10 Warlords of the Sea? Was not it suppose to be 7 Warlords of the Sea? Why are there three more Warlords?

Rex felt that there are things that didn't go according to the normal story. He tried to find out more about the Warlods, but there are no other news that talked about those Warlods.

On the other hand, Rex saw an article about some new emerging pirates that claimed themselves as the new Emperor of the Sea. There are two pirate groups that claiming this title. The Archangel Pirates, and the Grey Pirates.

Both pirates have a captain with bounty more than 1.5 Billion Berry; Toro, the captain of the Archangel Pirates have a bounty of 1.65 Billion Berry, while Grey the captain of the Grey Pirates have a bounty of 1.72 Billion Berry. This didn't include their total bounties for all of their crews.

Rex looked at the high bounties and felt that the two might have a chance to be a real Emperor of the Sea.

Other that those news, Rex didn't see any other news that worthy of his attention. He then throw away the news and checked the bounties.

Roronoa Zoro

Pirate: Straw Hat Pirates

Bounty: 60 Million

Rex already expected this bounty. However, he was surprised to see another bounty.

Black Leg Sanji

Pirate: Straw Hat Pirates

Bounty: 57 Million

In the original story, Sanji shouldn't have gotten any bounty at this time. Now however, Rex saw the bounty, though his picture is still the drawn picture. Did this guy fought someone worthy of government concern?

Rex continued looking at the rest of the Bounties. There were many rookies who showed their notorious side, and gained some bounties. However, most of them only issued bounty that didn't reach the hundreds Million Berry marks.

Suddenly, Rex saw another interesting bounties.

Silent Shadow Yuwa

Pirate: Rising Hunter (Vice-Captain)

Bounty: 345 Million

Roku-Jin

Pirate: Rising Hunter (Vice-Captain)

Bounty: 321 Million

They become famous? How did they get so much bounty? Why do they got some weird title? Also, they are still using the Rising Hunter as the name of their pirate groups? Many questions popped up in Rex's head. The thing that make him curious is why are they shown as 'Vice Captain'. Then he saw another bounty.

Collector

Pirate: Rising Hunter (Captain)

Bounty: 400 Million

On the bounty paper, there was a picture of the back of a head. Looking closely, Rex knew that the picture is the back of his own head. How the heck did the picture of the back of his head got placed in that bounty?

This stressed him out. That damned Morgan! If he wanted to post his picture, just put his front face. What's the use of placing the picture of his back? Also, how did he suddenly gained 400 Million as a bounty?

As for his name, hmmm... not bad.

After being surprised with these bounties, and complaining for a time, Rex decided to just let it be for now. He then checked the last three bounties.

Sabo

Pirate: The Horn Pirates

Bounty: 470 Million

Huh? Sabo didn't join the revolutionary army? Another confusion for Rex. The picture showed Sabo in his twentieth. It seems like somehow he manages to form his own pirate group.

Monkey D Saka

Pirate: Saka Pirates

Bounty: 477 Million

This one caused more confusion to Rex. Who is this new monkey fellow? Is he related to Luffy? Looking at the picture, Rex saw a man in his twentieth smiling funnily and showing his thumbs up. There is some resemblance on his face that is similar to Luffy. Is this Luffy's brother, thought the confused Rex. Now, he can confirm that story didn't follow the original timeline.

The last bounty is a picture of a woman.

Celeste

Pirate: Lone Pirate

Bounty: 101 Million

Seeing the barely 100 Million Berry bounty calmed down Rex a little bit. This bounty seems normal compared to those ever surprising and confusing bounties. Although the bounty is a little bit higher compared to Luffy's bounty, it was still at the normal level.

Rex inhaled some deep breath, before exhaling with a sigh. These information seems a bit much for him to process.

"Sigh. I should not care too much about it. Let's first head out to Grandline." Sighed Rex.

...

Early next day.

Rex once again travelled through air and headed to Grandline. This time, he brought a map and a compass to guide him towards Grandline. In the past, he was supposed to reach the reverse mountain before he atarted his journey to Grandline. Now that he was able to travel on air, he decided to just go directly towards the nearby Calm Belt, and pass through to enter the nearby Grandline.

As he continued his journey, he often rested for a bit to eat, pick some fruit and caught some animal as his provisions. As for places such as some town or place where there are many human, he just avoided it and continue traveling towards his destination.

After running on air for almost three days, he finally reached the Calm Belt.

"Finally. So this is what the people call Calm Belt. This sea is truly very calm." Said Rex, admiring the sea. The sea was completely calm, with no ocean currents or wind blowing on it. Even in the sky, there are no birds flying around, or cloud drifting.

As he got curious, he tried to look into the water using his perception. Instantly, he saw many giant creatures deep in the water. Some of them even glanced at him, causing him to subconsciously took a step back. Did it felt my gaze? thought Rex in astonishment.

Looking to the other side of the Calm Belt, he couldn't even see the distance. This just mean that the clm sea was so wide. It certainly will take some time, maybe some days to cross this calm see in order to reach the not calm Grandline.

Should I really use this route? This doesn't look so safe, thought Rex, hesitating on whether to proceed or not.

Although Rex can be said to be someone capable, as he already learned the Haki, it didn't guarantee him to be capable enough to face those horde of giant sea creature. However, thinking that he could run high in the sky, it gave him a little confidence to cross through the Calm Belt.

"Let's just go for it!"

Rex then proceeded to cross the calm sea. At first, he ascended as high as he can. After making sure that he was high enough in the sky, he then started running as fast as he can.

A few kilometers of his early journey, he didn't face any trouble. Two hours later, he still didn't met any danger. This made him exhale a breath of relief. It seems that the sky was not a dangerous place in Calm Belt.

As he relaxed his mind and continued running, he suddenly saw a small dot on the calm sea. Before long, that dot enlarged in size and quickly turned into a giant creature that shot towards him. This creature is a giant sea snake. As it reached Rex within seconds, it opened it's giant mouth and tried to bite him.

"Gah!!"

Chomp!

Rex hurriedly kicked hard on the air, and moved to the side. Just a second after he moved, the snake chomped and bit at his former location. Seconds later, the snake dropped down back to the sea. However, it's big eyes were looking at Rex, showing some desire to devour him whole.

Rex sweated profusely when he saw those eyes. He hurriedly run away as fast as he could while sweeping away those cold sweat on his forehead.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several sounds can be heard coming out from the sea below. As he looked down once again, he saw many dots appearing on the surface of the water.

"Oh shit!"

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Rex expression changed, and he hurriedly accelerated his running speed. Several giant snakes shot out of the sea and chomped on his previous location. Some of them even shot pass him as if attempting to hit him first.

Rex no longer in relaxed state as he tried his best to avoid those sea hunter. Right then, he saw another group of sea giants flying towards him. At first he just tried his best to avoid it. However, something abnormal happened.

This group of giant fish didn't fall back down into the sea. They instead stretched out their fins, and opened it wide. Instantly, those fins spread like a wings, and the group of fish started flying using their fins to pursue Rex.

"Ack! They can fly? What the heck???"

This time, Rex was forced to run even faster as he gained a flying pursuers on his back. Adding to that, some newly giants sea creature will pop out of the sea and try to attack him.

Finally, after running for some distance, Rex's patience reached it limit.

"You damned fish! F**k off!"

He glared and shouted angrily at those pursuing fish. An aura that brought a great pressure erupted from within his mind and got projected directly on the pursuing fish. This caused some of the fish to faint and dropped down into the sea. Some of them however have a great resistance and wasn't affected by the pressure. However, they momentarily stopped pursuing.

Just momentary...

Seconds later, they once again pursued Rex. As for those in the sea, they still keep coming to attack the young sole human. This infuriated Rex.

"You want a fight? Let me give you one!"

Rex then used punched down on a snake that almost hit him. The punch caused an air waves to spread away, knocking those flying fish away, and sending the snake shooting down back to the sea.

Boom!!

A giant water splash was created the moment the snake hit the water surface. This however didn't deter those sea creatures from continuing to attack Rex.

A fish with two protruding hands suddenly jumped out of the sea, trying to catch Rex. This time Rex used his Haki to predict their movement and evaded the catch. However, some small and fast creature suddenly came out from the back of the two handed fish. That creature was so fast that it instantly arrived close to Rex's side.

It tried to bite his left hand, but missed by hair breath. In Rex's anger, he swept that creature with a left kick. The kick was fast and imbued with his Armament Haki. It hit the creature, and insta killed it.

Right then, several electric arc jolted Rex's body.

"Argh!!"

The electric attack was so sudden that Rex didn't manage to see it. He tried his best to not get affected by the electric current, and hurriedly jumped away. As he got into the distance, he could see an invisible giant eel that dropping down back to the sea. It's body appearing at a time, and being transparent in the next instant. Many electric arc were moving around it's body.

Seeing that there are so many weird, and dangerous giant creatures caused Rex to no longer have the mood to fight. If this is on the land, he sure will fight these creatures as long as he can, even if it's up to a thousand rounds. The current location however limited his fighting ability. He didn't know how long he will be able to stay up in the sky.

Thinking this way, he decided to just fled as fast as he could. When he made up his mind, he swiftly kicked as hard as he can, and shot out like a cannon into the distance.