Changing Targets

Malia looked at the carefree expression on Ori's face and didn't know what to think. She naturally knew that he was referring to his offer for her to join the Heavenly Demon Pirates, but if she were to join it'd be slapping the face of not only the League of Killers, the same organisation that raised her, but also the Big Mom Pirates, the crew that now wants her dead at all costs.

"Are you stupid?! If I was to join the Heavenly Demons, you'd be slapping the faces of 2 of the 10 strongest faction's in the world…

Do you have a death wish?!"

The 10 strongest factions she was referring to were the

1. The Red Hair Pirates

2. The Whitebeard Pirates

3. The Beast Pirates

4. The Big Mom Pirates

5. The World Government

6. The Marines

7. The Shichibukai

8. The Revolutionaries

9. The Federation

10. The League of Killers

Even though the Marines and the Shichibukai technically received their orders from the World Government, because of the individual strength of each faction they are both considered as one of the top 10 factions.

Ori shrugged as he replied.

"Those 2 factions you're referring to already want my head. Since they are willing to come after my head why should I care about their face?!"

When she heard that she remembered that he wasn't wrong, there was a bounty placed on his head at the League and Big Mom publicly declared that she'd be taking their heads. Since both of them were after his head then why should he care about being polite.

Even though she agreed with the principal of what he said, saying it in private was one thing, but he was speaking in an open forum with powerful members of both factions present and he spoke so leisurely as if he didn't even see them.

When he said that Ori could feel the undisguised Killing Intent of both the Big Mom Pirates and Vernon from the League, but he didn't care. He remembered what his father once told him when he was a child.

"If your heart tells you to go left then go left, if it tells you to go right then go right. The D. in our name represents us wanting to live our lives freely without being bound by the hands of fate. If one day the whole world stands against you, then stand tall and face it with your head held high."

Ever since that day 9 years ago in North Blue he'd felt an almost ethereal force trying to keep him from travelling down his current path, weather it was Kizaru and Sun Wu appearing at the docks in Notice Island or Akainu appearing in East Blue a few months ago. If it wasn't for the appearance of those with the will of D. or somehow related to them he would've lost his life at either time. Even today, powerhouses from all 3 of the top 10 factions that want my head are here today.

He was starting to become fed up with the constant interference of this invisible force. Today Ori planned on sending a message, but it wasn't to the World Government or any of the other super factions. This message was to that invisible force trying to stand in his way and that message was:

"If you want to start a war with me, then I'm happy to oblige!"

Malia had no idea what Ori was thinking about, but she could feel his confidence and was somehow affected. She looked at Benji, who for her was the only person she felt she could genuinely trust. Feeling her gaze and knowing what it meant he smiled and nodded gently indicating she could trust Ori.

Malia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them once more, there was no longer any doubts in her eyes. She looked at Ori and nodded.

"I'm willing to become the 7th Heavenly Demon!"

Hearing that Ori smiled cheerily. He turned back to Roman, Shaya and the others and said helplessly.

"Looks like we have to trade targets."

No one in the crowd understood what he meant, but his crew naturally did. Before today, the plan had always been to go after Kaido using the veil of warring with Big Mom as a cover so that Kaido wouldn't expect it was them who was silently attacking him.

But now Ori was preparing to thoroughly offend Big Mom. Ori was brazen, but he wasn't stupid. Going after Kaido after thoroughly crossing Big Mom's bottom line was suicidal.

Even though he was also offending the League, he wasn't crossing their bottom line. They'd probably send more powerful fighters after him in the future, but it wasn't likely to be any of their leading members, in which case he was confident in his chances of surviving their assassination attempts.

Up till now the only reason why neither the Big Mom Pirates nor Vernon had attacked Ori despite desperately wanting to, was because they felt the eyes of Yasopp staring at their closely at their every action.

After Ori's talk with Shanks they didn't know exactly how close the 2 crews were and how far the Red Hair Pirates were willing to go to protect them. So having the man who's referred to as the world's greatest sniper eyeing them whilst they didn't know his chain of thought was enough to deter them from acting rashly.

Katakuri turned to Yasopp with a frown and said.

"I don't know the connection between you Red Hairs and the Heavenly Demons but are you really willing to protect him after he provoked so many powerful forces?!"

Just as he was waiting for Yasopp to reply he seemed to sense something and stabbed out with the trident in his hand.

"To try and get one over on me with your strength… Naïve!"

Ori was only just about to start moving when he felt Katakuri's trident aiming for his head. He knew full well that like Shaya and Sabo, Katakuri was capable of seeing a few seconds into the future, with the only difference being he was able to control that ability. So he wasn't surprised by his sudden attack, in fact he had expected it.

Shaya used her temporal vision to slow down time under the request of Ori and so was able to clearly see the incoming trident. When the trident had only covered half of the distance she had fired a pitch black arrow at the tip of the trident diverting it's path.

As soon as he felt Shaya's arrow being released he moved. Since the evolution of his devil fruit he realised he was capable of moving at incredible speeds by not only removing the air resistance but also by compressing then releasing the air under his feet for propulsion. The only problem was that he moved at a speed to fast for him to react efficiently.

When he dodged Enel yesterday, he had only removed the air resistance. But now was the first time he was using his fastest speeds in actual combat.

BANG!

Before anyone could react, Ori moved almost as if he teleported, appearing behind Perospero. Not even a second later the head of Big Mom's oldest son rolled to the ground.

Tamago and Bobbin looked at the headless body of Perospero as cold sweat rolled down the back of their neck in fear. It wasn't just them, most of the people present was shocked by what just happened. Very few people were capable of even seeing what happened and even those who could only just about saw Ori's blurry figure.

They looked at Ori's figure as if they were looking at a monster!

Only Ori knew how difficult what he did really was. He had to move at his fastest possible speed so that no one could stop him, but when he moves that fast he isn't capable of reacting in time, so before he moved he had to calculate how fast he'd be moving and when to start swinging his sword to kill Perospero. But because he knew he would be moving too fast to change the path of his sword mid-swing he had to make sure that Perospero didn't move by compressing the air around him until it was virtually solid.

Thankfully all his calculations paid off. He turned to look at the shocked Charlotte brothers and said lightly.

"And that makes 2!"