Chapter 22 A New Development

After finishing up the drawing spree and thinking of our next course of action I headed towards the bounty office, luckily it was only a ten-minute walk from the training ground. Yeah, I could probably Soru there in under a minute but I'm trying to enjoy my home island for a little while longer. 'Though it is starting to get late, everyone is probably back at the ship by now' I thought with a yawn as I looked up to the slowly setting sun. Turning my gaze downwards I'm greeted by the front door of the office, a smile wormed its way onto my face as I opened the door and headed in. In seconds I'm greeted by the surprised gaze of James as he was in the middle of hitting his pipe.

"Hey there old man, how ya been?" I asked while taking a seat in the empty chair in front of his desk.

"Well I'll be damned, two months without ye checking in, I began to worry the Whitebeards came back to finish the job, huhuhu" James replied with a laugh as he blew out the smoke from his pipe.

"Yeah ha ha old man, has anything interesting happened lately?" I asked curiously.

"Eh nothing too interesting since ye showed up, a few new scoundrels popped up, new heads came through, ye know the usual. But enough of that, what brought you in? You must have something interesting planned to show up in person" He said, gaining a glint in his eye.

"Ha, yeah I've got a new hunt, here for info, everything you've got" I said with a smirk.

"Well, don't keep me waiting."

"I'm looking to take down the Ghost hand pirates" I said to which James's eyes widened briefly before shuffling through his desk.

"So you're headed to the big leagues huh? Ye sure about this, the bastard is no joke, hell he took out a Captain and a Lieutenant last month. Earned himself a decent little jump in his bounty, apparently, his Vice improved just as much." James said to my surprise, grabbing the new posters I began to look them over.

'THE GHOUL' KORO RISER

CAPTAIN OF THE GHOST HAND PIRATES WITH AN ACCUMULATED CREW BOUNTY OF 205,000,000 BERRIES

135,000,000 BERRIES

WANTED DEAD

BOKUMI TORA

VICE-CAPTAIN OF THE GHOST HAND PIRATES, A COMPETENT SWORDSMAN

70,000,000 BERRIES

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

'Phewww, so much for an easy battle to mark the end of this part of my life, hell what am I saying, I wouldn't want it any other way. Still, that's a very impressive 50,000,000 berrie jump for him and his crew, plus It's been a month since then. Could be the fight of my life, my blood is already starting to boil.' I finished the thought with a battle-lusted smirk before taking my eyes off the poster.

"I want everything you have, price doesn't matter" I said to which James sighed before thinking it over and selling it to me for 55,000.

"I'll start with some vague reports from survivors of the battle, apparently he defeated both the Captain and Lieutenant together, the craziest thing was he didn't even have a scratch. Reports state that the attacks passed right through him like he wasn't actually there, it's speculated that he's eaten a Logia. He uses a pair of daggers as his main attacking option as well as a pistol on his waist as his secondary. He has a weird array of moves that seemed to pass right through people as well, the odd thing is his moves seemed to do no damage, in the beginning at least. It seemed like it was some sort of delayed attack considering the weaker marines he killed didn't have a single wound, autopsy records state that the dead were in perfect health at the time of their death." James finished with a sigh as he began advising me against this course.

"Honestly kid, I'd stay the hell away from this one. Give the guy a year, maybe even less if he decided to wreak havoc and I wouldn't be surprised if his bounty caught up with the 'Fallen God'. I'm not doubting ye or anything but three months ago ye showed up beaten to death by 20 million berrie man. Still, if you think you can do it I wouldn't bet against ya kid" James finished with a smile as I nodded at his trust.

"I understand that and appreciate the sentiment but what element does he turn into, when attacks pass through him I mean?" I asked, confused by this turn of events. 'I'm sure there can't be that many undiscovered Logia fruits, maybe like a sun fruit, plasma, liquid metal, pure earth and Monkey D. Dragon's theorized wind Logia?'

"That's the same question I had, reports are a little iffy on the specifics though, some say he fazed through while others claimed it was just an illusion." James said while scratching his head in confusion. 'Odd…. I have a few Ideas on the subject, the best guess would probably be a Illusion fruit'

"Ok that shouldn't be too hard to handle but what of the Vice Captain? What caused his twenty million jump in bounty?" I thought while considering who would get the second hardest battle.

"Apparently he defeated another separate Captain in single combat, though I heard it was a close battle that caused him a few scars but he did take her life. They are probably the best rookies on this part of the sea. Not to mention they've accomplished all this with a crew of six members, it's honestly surprising no other member has received a bounty at this point." James finished with a sigh.

'Hmmm, it would be a good battle to let Mori test out his new ax…. But I really wanted to see what Corazon or Drake can do on a fight of this level….. Ehhh, I'll just let Drake decide. And the other four sound like a good fight for the fledglings, especially our snow woman'

"So what's the word on their location?" I asked, unperturbed by the new development. James seemed surprised before ruffling through yet more papers.

"It seems they have set up a base in….. Ha! Now that's funny" James said with a chuckle causing me to raise a brow in curiosity.

"It's your favorite island in the North, Minion Island, haha" James said much to my ire. 'Why is it always that forest filled shit hole, well at least it's not two far away, about a week and a half at most….'

"Yeah ha ha you old bastard, thank you for the info but I have to get back to the crew. You know how it is, gotta make sure the ship isn't burning down, Huhaha" I said busting out laughing as I got up and held out a hand to him.

"Always a pleasure Silver, don't be a stranger now." James said with a smile as he grasped my hand.

"It may be a few years before you see me again, kinda pissed off the big bad of the North" I said with a smirk causing James to flinch in surprise.

"For some reason I'm not surprised at all, well give me a call if you ever need some assistance, kid. Hey a word of advice, If you do end up taking out the Ghost-hand pirates don't be surprised if some powerful 'characters' begin to take notice of you. Hell, the chairman of the organization may even give you a holler." James said in warning, causing me to go into deep thought, I quickly gave him my thanks again before heading out towards the docks.

'The mysterious chairman of the bounty organization huh? He definitely wasn't a known character from the show….. But that isn't surprising when you consider the strongest bounty hunter we ever saw was The 'Green Bull' Armaki, the future user of the wood Logia as well as an Admiral. But James did have a point, taking out a low 'supernova' level pirate will put my name on the map, good thing I'm hoping to drop off of it in a years time.'

'Then there's the issue of training the crew, it'd probably be best to let Mori take care of the basic conditioning to get them to a good physical level, then I can probably delegate our Paramecia fruit users to Corazon considering how well he's mastered his. I'll probably give special attention to Law and Monet considering their growth is the most interesting to me at the moment.'

'Drake and Mori have already figured out where they want to take their 'build' so I'll just leave them to it until it's time to introduce Haki.' I finished planning with a smile as I jumped onto the deck.

"Hmmm, where is everyone?" I said curiously before looking at the lights on in the main cabin, turning towards it I began walking towards it, soon the sounds of clinking beer mugs and music reached my ears. 'Damn, should've got back sooner, I missed the party' I thought sliding open the door to see a very funny scene.

All the partying quieted down as soon as I entered, looking around I noticed several things that caused me to chuckle. It seemed Law tried alcohol under Moris watch, noticing the boy with his face to the table with a beer mug in his hand as Mori laughed uncontrollably. Turning to my left I see that Sugar and Ceaser hit it off as both were dancing while doing the weird chopstick in the nose thing. It seemed the 'adults' of the group which consisted of Monet,Drake and Corazon were playing a game of poker.

"What the hell kind of party is this?" I asked to which it caught everyone's attention, they seemed to worried I'd get mad at their slacking.

"The only one here that's shit faced is Law, I expected more from you all." I said, shaking my head exasperated.

"Says the guy that showed up late!" Mori yelled over with a laugh as he raised his mug.

"That's right, Let's get this party started!" I said with a holler as I went to the table the guys were playing poker at and passed my hand over it, about twenty bottles of whiskey appeared.

"WOOOO!" We all yelled in excitement as we took the party to the next level, I quickly introduced everyone to beer pong and brought out a pool table from my inventory I had custom made. Little Sugar was the next to follow Law as she somehow sneaked some mead from her sister's watchful eye, causing the whole crew to burst out laughing at Monet's angry expression.

What followed next was a hazy image of our crew's first real party, singing, horrible dancing and even more laughter as inevitably everyone joined Law and Sugar. Honestly it was a good way for everyone to get to know each other. Through it all it seemed that Drake and Corazon became quick friends just as Sugar and Caesar did.

Quickly sunset turned to early morning as the only ones left standing were me and Mori, both equally shit-faced refusing to concede victory to other. Finally we decided to put an end to it Viking style as we staggered while rolling up a barrel of beer from the cellar.

With a cup in hand, each of us began competing as to who can drink three full cups the fastest, after the fifth round Mori fell back in defeat as I raised my arms and laughed at my victory, well until I began to sway, joining Mori on the floor at the other side of the barrel. 'Yeah, whatever life I was living before has nothing on this. Hell I don't even care about my old memories at this point, I have a family now' I thought with a content sigh as I turned to my motel crew, all passed out in weird positions, some over chairs, others sprawled across the floor. 'Yeah… I couldn't have asked for a better afterlife' I finished the thought as I passed out with the others.