15. Crossing Paths

Leaving the Bar, Darren boarded the Sea Train once more as he made his way back to his boat. After unhooking his boat, he travelled to Dock One, he was going to hire a few shipwrights to build his new boat.

Arriving, he got off putting a hook on his boat, making his way to Dock One walking through a massive gate with the number 1 on it.

Looking around, he saw shipwrights working on ships and he went to the closest shipwright, "hello, I would like my boat to be reconstructed, where do I go?".

"Go to the Foremen, they supervise the process of everything".

"Thank you". Darren then walked into a building that had a red ceiling, he came across a blonde man with a cigar in his mouth, his face seemed as if it was in a constant frown.

"Hello, I'm here to get my boat reconstructed" Darren said cutting to the chase, "sure, where is your boat?".

"It's docked outside, how much is the price?", "first we'll see how long it'll take then I'll calculate the price".

"Sure."

"By the way, my name is Paulie" Paulie stuck his hand out, "I'm Midas, nice to meet you" shaking hands, they then walked out soon arriving at Darren's boat.

"So how big would you like it?", "big enough to accommodate a Bedroom, the bedroom should be pretty large too".

"Hmm, ok then I'll assign three shipwrights, it'll take a week".

"Sure that's no problem, I'll pay you then". "Sure up to you, but don't try to scam us ok?" Paulie said with a scary look.

"I'm not like that, don't worry" Darren then walk off, the shipwrights arrived as they walked past him, looking at them he saw Rob lucci, kaku with his long ass nose and Tilestone, a tall man with two pads on his elbows.

They also stared at Darren, Rob Lucci seeing his mask got curious but he refrained from asking his name.

"Hello, I'm Midas a bounty hunter, the boat your assigned to is mine, nice to meet you all" Darren then stuck his hand out.

Shaking his hands Kaku smiled and laughed as he also introduced himself, "I'm Kaku, and I'm a shipwright!".

"I'm Tilestone also a shipwright".

"Rob Lucci, a shipwright aswell".

"Well nice to meet you all, I have to get going I have reservation at a restaurant" Darren then excused himself.

Rob Lucci stared at his back, looking at his pink hair, a wanted poster flashed in his brain of a young man called Darren Rees, but this man introduced himself as Midas so Rob although skeptical, pushed it to the back of his mind.

Darren then went ahead as he rented a Yagara Bull for 2,000 berries going around the city.

He bought some fruits as he ate them whilst looking out for some government officials.

Soon the atmosphere changed, he realised that there were quite a lot of government agents moving around, still acting normal Darren spread his observation haki range, coming into contact with three people running towards a certain part of the city.

The three of them abruptly stopped as they released their haki but to of no avail, annoyed one of the men with black hair and moustache continued on, although he moved slower and more carefully.

Getting intrigued Darren continued on his Yagara Bull, after they stopped and started monitoring a house, Darren returned his Yagara Bull.

Slowly walking with his hands in his pocket, Darren smiled underneath his mask, "seems like the CP9 members are gonna eliminate someone".

He then walked into an alley way as he got out of the sight of the government agents, then he used this moment to disappear from there as he reappeared a few houses away from the CP9 members.

He then used his observation haki on the small ordinary house, he was wondering who they were monitoring, he knew the CP9 were waiting for the perfect time to assassinate their targets.

"The revolutionary army? What the hell are they doing here?" Confused Darren continued watching.

After 10 minutes, the CP9 agents attacked, the fat one then went to the back of the house as stationed himself for any getaways.

Another man with long pink hair that was going down to his knees moved to the front along with the man with the moustache.

Darren then watched as they burst in, shouts could be heard "CP9 ARE HERE!!", "GO GO!", "THEY'VE BLOCKED THE BACK!! FIGHT BACK KILL YOUR WAY OUT!!".

Standing there, Darren looked around, "it seems that this place has been evacuated slowly", moving closer he arrived on top of the closest house, looking down he saw the CP9 eliminating the revolutionary arm soldier rather quickly.

At the back of the house he could see the fat CP9 fighting two against one, "those must be the generals of the revolutionary army soldiers, Fukurou is strong enough alone to eliminate them".

The man with the moustache soon joined him "hehe, Jabra I alone am enough to eliminate them don't interfere!"

"Tch, get this over with and stop toying with them!".

As Jabra and Fukurou weren't aware, a young man that looked like he was in his early 20s escaped throughout the chaos, quickly running through alleyways he made a swift escape.

After finishing the two generals Fukurou and Jabra counted the corpses, "huh? It seems one's missing" grabbing his forehead a blue vein was oozing out of Jabra's forehead.

Darren not continuing to watch disappeared as he followed the young man, the man looked around and when he thought he was safe relaxed as he calmed his heart down.

After he calmed down Darren appeared behind him, "you run rather fast", "ahhh!" Scared the man turned around as he raised his sword pointing it at Darren.

"Put it down, I just want to ask some questions", listening to his voice the man calmed down, but he stayed vigilant.

"Since you already know I'm from the revolutionary army why haven't you killed me?", "I'm but a bounty hunter, I only hunt people that'll give me money, you're just a lackey".

The man felt insulted but couldn't argue, "well, I can't tell you sorry, the only choice you'll have is to kill me or let me go", Darren stood there contemplating for a second, "I won't kill you" the man hearing that smiled as his heart leapt.

"But I'll torture you until you give the answer" hearing Darren's cold voice, the man's heart sinked faster than the titanic, a soul crushing pressure hit him as he immediately fell to his knees.

The ground cracked as Darren's clothes fluttered, he made sure to control his conquerors haki so the man wouldn't get knocked out.

"You'll stay on you're knees until you confess" Darren then increased the pressure ever so slightly as the man gritted his teeth, the pressure continued to increase until he couldn't bare anymore.

"O-ok Ill t-tell y-you", the pressure then disappeared as if it wasn't there, Darren then helped him get up as he gave him a spare robe he had in his bag of shopping.

"Here, hid yourself with this", "thank you", "ok walk with me, and tell me why you were here".

'I can't disobey him, his so strong!', "ok, we arrived here because we were gonna attack the capital", Darren looked at him, he knew he wasn't lying but he was still holding something back.

"That isn't the only reason, while you were being attacked the other revolutionary members around the city would've helped if you were only here for that reason, and it seems that only you lot were here for now, so you weren't planning on attacking the capital right now".

"Now tell me, what were your true motives?". Being caught in a half lie, the man sighed as he gave up, "we were here to look for Darren Rees and see if we were able to recruit him".

"Huh? Darren Rees?", seeing Darren's confusion the man continued, "yes, since his not affiliated with a pirate group, and he himself refuses to be called a pirate, we thought he'd be a good addition to the revolutionary army especially with his strength that rivals the admirals".

'These idiots really want to recruit me?', "what makes you think he'll be willing to join you lot?".

"Well the supreme leader had once told us that Darren Rees is looking for true freedom and he'd find it here with us".

"True freedom? So you want him to help you all to overthrow the government?".

"Yeah, the leader told us how Darren Rees had destroyed a slave auction house for a little boy, we admire him for his justice, the marines a disgrace to justice!".

Smiling Darren agreed, the marines were a really bad representation of justice, they let civilians become casualties when fighting against enemies as long the enemy was taken out or imprisoned, they'd also give no explanation but say they have done justice by taken away a criminal.

Darren didn't know how the civilians always continued to fall for it, it reminded him of the humans on earth, they were easily swayed by the false propaganda in the TV's and continued to trust the government.

Darren stopped as he looked at the sky, the man following him stared at him, 'No matter what world, the Governments are always corrupt, they also ruin the world that they govern too.'

"True freedom, huh".