Issho: Moral Justice vs True Justice

After being asked that favor from Gild I began to roam around Grand Tesoro looking where Issho was last seen.

Luckily he wasn't difficult for me to find him as he was relaxing in one of the more quiet areas of Grand Tesoro relaxing on a bench with a slight smile on his face as he enjoyed the peace and quiet, which was nice since a majority of this city was very loud and rowdy, this area was quiet in comparison.

"May I sit here?" I ask the old man who was resting with his walking stick on the side of his face and that I noticed it was actually his sword in its sheathe and not just a normal walking stick.

He just looks up towards me and smiles a little, "Sure you can sit beside me young man."

So I just nod and take my seat, then I get a better look at him, even though he's hiding it his body is radiating power that I have only seen in similar strength to Kuzan, if they fought well… I don't know who would win.

Same could be said from Issho's perspective, even though he is blind he has trained in observation haki for a good deal of his long life to see without needing his eyes to really see, and he could tell that inside this man was an enigma to him, every living thing he has ever come to meet ever since he lost his sight and only relied upon his haki to see has an aura that represents the person in his eyes as a single color.

The colors don't mean anything like they did when he was younger like he thought, back then he would equate people based on certain colors, white, green, pink, and teal were what he saw in good people where as black, purple, grey, red, blue and the more darker of colors he equated to bad people, but not long after he came upon that assumption he realized that no matter the colors of one's aura a person could be either good or bad so he stopped judging people like that.

But this young man was an enigma, unlike a normal person who had only one aura, he had several auras with three being the dominate ones, his overall body was a fiery red in color that covered his head, the center of his abdomen and down to his legs, then there was his right side that was a shade of blood red and to him looked like a flowing torrent of blood itself, and lastly his left side taking his left arm had something akin to the shade of that of the setting sun in the sky.

But besides seeing his strange aura he could see and feel that the young man sitting next to him was strong, and if they fought he wouldn't be able to tell who would win or not.

"Your not just a normal blind old man are you?"

"And the same could be said about you kid."

The air became very tense as we both just stared at each other but we both just chuckled before looking away from each other which me leaning back and taking a puff of my cigar.

"Though I have to ask something, what's a blind man doing in a city of gamblers? It's like your asking the people here to steal your money." I say looking back towards him.

He just smiles before shaking his head, "a few are genuine dealers but it seems this city is filled with cheats and liars, I give everyone at first the benefit of the doubt, but even if I'm blind I can tell when someone has cheated me, and when they try to do it a second time…" he just opens his eyes and looks towards me, "… I make them not do that again with but a single look from me." He says with a smirk before closing his eyes once again.

"I see…. Though the question I have to ask is why did you blind yourself? You make it look like you were blinded in a fight but for one's eyes to turn pure white like yours… it has to be done intentionally…"

"Heh… so you saw through that little ruse did you? Well I did it because I no longer wanted to bare witness to the evils and corruption of this world…. Deep down I want to change the world for the better…. But I am only one man…" he says rather sadly as he remembers the evils he had once seen for himself back in his younger days, and how sickening it was to see that he could not stand to look at the world with his own eyes anymore.

"So you are a man of justice? A man who hates everything bad that happens in this world? From pirates to bandits, from thieves to slavers and everything in between?" I ask the man a question on what he views on justice as a whole, as I have my own personal view on justice as well after all.

"Justice huh? That's a thing Marines talk about all the time I hear, say are you a marine?" He says asking me a question that I wasn't exactly expecting to be asked, but hearing him ask that I just burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha! No, I'm not a marine, though I guess you could say that I technically work for them by being one of the Warlords of the Sea." But hearing that I'm not a marine instead a Warlord his disposition towards me changed, though it wasn't on his face or even showing it physically I could feel that his impression of me had lessened in a bad way, it seems he doesn't like the Warlords exactly.

"A Warlord huh? That's just a pirate that's been given free reign to do as they please with no repercussions for there actions, and with you being so young let me guess, your Firebrand Vargas aren't you?"

"The one and only, though I like to think myself as one of the good guys compared to the other Warlords, well besides my wife Boa and maybe Jinbe, Mihawk and Kuma the rest let's just say are very bad pirates."

"And you don't deal in illegal dealings yourself?"

"Define illegal? Besides let's say helping Gild Tesoro make this city of his and having scientist working on things that will help people for the right price, I haven't done any pirating whatsoever since I started being a Warlord."

"Hmph, your just dodging the subject."

"Hey do you blame the manufacturer for the improper use of there product? Or do you blame the user for using it improperly in the first place?"

"That still doesn't justify what your making if in the end it harms people and is given to those who are willing to do harm…"

"I sell my products to whoever pays me for it, if I only chose specific people to sell to then that would make me seem as if I have a bias against them, so whoever pays no matter he it for good or evil purposes I sell my products to."

"And you dont care about the people and civilians it will hurt by selling those products to them then?"

"Ok then, let's say I stop selling my goods to them, that just opens up a big market share to my competitors who will go out of there way to sell even worse things to them at a higher price, I may deal in arms but I clearly stay out of dealing weapons of Mass Destruction, because I know if I make those hundreds of thousands of people will die if I did that, so I don't I make weapons but only strong enough for one to protect and fight back themselves…."

"Hmmmm….. *Sigh* I still think it's bad, but I get the feeling that your telling the truth about not making weapons of mass destruction, and I guess your right you can't blame the one who made the blade but the one who committed atrocities while wielding it…."

"I'm glad we came to an agreement on that…. Though how do you view justice exactly?"

"I believe protecting people first is what's more important than taking down one's enemies, even if we win but at the cost of those we are protecting then we're no better than them."

"Heh, I guess our view of justice is both similar and different at the same time then."

"How so?"

I just take another puff of my Cigar before blowing it back out, "I believe that people who are innocent should be kept out of the battle that is to in sue, but that no matter your status you should be held accountable of your decisions, whether it be a bandit all the way to the Celestial Dragons themselves, Heh if I was say the Fleet Admiral of the Marines I would be the one to turn the Marines on the corrupt World Government and change the world for the better."

But hearing that he stands up and looks at me with a rather serious look on his face, "That's a rather serious thing you just casually mentioned to a total stranger, what if I was in the marines and you didn't know it?…."

"Well then, I guess I would have to kill you…." The air gets extremely tense as he gripped his blade rather hard and putting himself into a stance ready to strike.

But I was being very nonchalant about it, sure I'm emitting a bit of my conquers haki on him but I'm starting to get a good enough grasp on it now that I don't need to be even mad to activate it or in a fight to need to activate it, but soon after I pulled back since his Will was very strong just to withstand it even if I wasn't using it seriously.

Seeing as I pulled back my aura he got much less tense than before and proceeded to sit next to me once again.

"Well your pretty strong old man, even if I'm only slightly using it would cause anyone else to lose consciousness, but no I don't believe your a part of the marines, or at least not yet."

"…. Then I got to ask why would you do that? A lot of innocent lives would be lost if you did something like that…"

"And plenty more would be saved, the Fishmen wouldn't need to keep hiding in there island down below the sea, slavery would be completely illegal and every corrupt noble would be tried for there crimes, i personally don't believe nobility is inherited, but rather earned, the Celestial Dragons and most of the Worlds Nobles haven't earned there right to rule but have inherited it, the only Kingdom I've seen so far where the family isn't corrupt or at least not that corrupt are the Rulers of Alabasta."

"Now your just being bias, I've heard that's the area that you call your territory."

"Maybe so, but I've met plenty of other royalty or have seen what they have done to there people, Flevance is a great example of pure evil corruption, they had there people mine Amber Lead for the profits and clearly knew the risks, and when the outbreak happened they had already left there country and let there people suffer and eventually all die while the country became a dead land until it was burnt down a few years ago." Though I omitted that I was the one who burnt it down and in a few years time it will be a base of operation for the Germa Kingdom, but since there constantly paying me to make Flevance there own who am I to say no to money.

After hearing what I said he feel silent and looked downtrodden even, though it was more reaffirming what he already knew and what he hated about this world.

"How about I make a proposition to you old man."

"… It's Issho…"

"Alright Issho, there is gonna be a group of Celestial Dragons showing up in a few days, I want you to be there to listen and understand what our 'leaders' are really like, nothing but a bunch of spoiled rotten children that don't deserve there titles that were given to them, after I'm done dealing with them I'll ask you if they still deserve there titles, and I want you to think on that before you decide to choose a side to stand with in the future, but for now that's all I need to say…" I say as I get up before I begin to walk away, but then I stop as I remember something.

"Forget something?"

"Yeah, Issho I know you don't like being scammed, hell I don't either, but please stop freaking out the staff, after you leave them some have panic attacks and need to stay in the clinic till they feel better."

But Issho just smiles a little, "Then they shouldn't be trying to cheat me, I'm a rather nice guy when people aren't trying to cheat me."

"Well so am I, tell you what, as a gesture of good faith, no matter where you decide to gamble in the city no one will try to cheat you anymore, and I'll be even nicer and convince Gild to give you any of the money you have lost illegitimately back to you, just head to the big tower in the center of the city to get your money back."

"…. Why?" He asks clearly puzzled at me being nice to him.

"Who knows? Maybe I'm just feeling nice today, or maybe I just want to show you that not everyone is painted in black and white, bad people can do good things and good people can do very bad things as well, so think on that and what we talked about and I hope to see you at the casino in the center of the city in a few days so you can listen in on what the Celestial Dragons are really like…" I say before I finally leave him for good to brood over everything that we talked about.

After that I went back to Gilds place and told him about my meeting with Issho as well as convincing him to make him somewhat of a VIP that isn't meant to be cheated out of his money and that all the money he lost would be returned to him.

"Though I have to ask why are you being nice to that Old Guy anyway?"

"Hmmm…. Lets say that I have a gut feeling that I'm the near future he is gonna be someone important and well before he does become that important of a person I want him to hear the Celestial Dragons, and everything they say and hear everything they do or try to do and see whether or not it's worth to follow people who don't deserve your allegiance."

"What? You think he's gonna be a marine or something?"

"Maybe? I don't exactly know it either, but my gut is telling me that he will at some point and I trust my gut, and if I can keep someone like him away from the world government out of pure disgust the better for us in the end right?"

"Heh, right you are, I feel he would be a scary enemy to deal with." Gild just nods before we both decide to enjoy each other's company before I head off and find Baccarat and spend some time with her for the rest of the day.