Plans For The New Ship

"I got what you wanted."

I promptly slammed the bubble dial that Tom had given me before I left for Skypiea down on his desk. We promptly moved into the office after Tom had managed to calm down his crew, and made sure that they had gotten back to work.

"That's good," Tom replied while fishing for different papers, "we also received the shipment of Celestial Gold and Seastone from your people as well. It saved us a lot of time for forging and developing as a result."

"So?" I asked, "how long do you think it'll take for you to make the ship?"

"Looking at the schematics," Tom responded as he spread out a large sheet of paper over the entire desk, "I'd say that it's going to take us about six to twelve months for its full development. We're lucky that you're only asking for one ship, unlike your captain."

"What's the normal time that you would need to build a ship?" 

"It really depends on how big you want the ship. The bigger the ship, the longer it'll take."

"Alright, but what about the ship's schematics? What kind of ship are you planning on building for me?" 

It was then that Tom froze as he looked around the office, almost as if he was double checking to make sure that nobody was listening in on the conversation. I immediately spread my Observation haki to sense any foreign presences within the office. 

Fortunately, I found no such thing.

Giving him the nod, he slowly pulled out a familiar old book that he had always kept on his person. Putting it in the middle of the map, he looked at me with eyes flashing with excitement as he explained his intention.

"I'm thinking of building it based on the blueprints of Pluton."

"I feel like you're trying to drag me into more trouble than what I normally go through on an average basis."

"Not necessarily," Tom denied, "you see, even a blind man knows that once Roger finds the last island....all hell is going to break loose."

"How'd you know what he's looking for?"

Tom scoffed before folding his arms.

"Has anyone not heard about his ambition? Even if you didn't hear it directly from his mouth, even a blind man can tell what he's gunning for. The question has always been whether or not he can pull it off, and more importantly, what happens after."

I leaned back on my chair before taking out a cigarette and lighting it. I enjoyed the familiar aroma in my nose, that slowly went down into my lungs before I let it out in a puff of smoke. 

"Well, it's obvious what'll happen next, but my question is what it has to do with me?"

"The point is, the World Government will never completely leave you alone, even now; the World Government is meddling in your affairs, and wants to make sure they have a way to neutralize you should the time come."

"I want to build you this in case there comes a time where you would need this ship. I would rather build this kind of thing myself, compared to entrusting you to find trustworthy people to build it without telling the World Government."

"It kind of defeats the point of keeping the blueprints if you're going to make the ship already."

"That's where you're wrong my friend," Tom interjected, "I'm simply copying some important aspects of the blueprints and putting them in your ship. By no means am I actually building the exact same model as the ship; remember that."

I shrugged and nodded my head before asking.

"What's the price?"

That's when Tom smiled before saying.

"We took some pounds off of the Celestial Gold that you had sent as payment. So no need to worry about that."

I looked at him aloofly before getting up and out of the office, I could feel a headache whenever I looked at Tom. Instead, I made my way back to the ship, where Stussy had stopped me before getting on the ship.

"Can we talk?"

Seeing her rarely serious expression, I nodded and calmly followed her into the city of Water 7. We could see children playing while some of the adults were working, while others were walking about. 

"How're the plans for the ship?" She asked curiously.

I could tell that she wanted to break the silence with casual conversation. So I decided to indulge her in it.

"Tom said that it will take between half a year to a year for the completion of the ship. In the meantime, we'll just have to make do with what we have."

"Fair enough, I thought that it would take longer than that if I were to be honest."

After that, we continued walking for a bit until we walked into a particular abandoned alley way. It was there that she had spread her Observation haki throughout the area, probably trying to detect any foreign presences within the vicinity. 

She let out a sigh of relief, probably affirming that there weren't any eaves-droppers nearby. She finally turned back to me before looking at me right in the eyes.

"I didn't finish completing my investigation over Ken, so why did you give him the Devil Fruit?"

For the first time ever, at least in my experience, I could tell that Stussy was irritated with me. Like, really irritated, my mind went blank for a bit. I couldn't remember when I had told her to keep an eye on him when this was going on.

"I never asked you to do so, though."

"That's not what you said, you asked me why I would test his loyalty....remember?"

I thought back to about a month before we went to Jaya. My memory was a bit foggy over the events that had happened asides from offing Patrick. 

"Did I?"

"There's no way you don't remember us having this kind of conversation, are you already losing memories like an old man?" Stussy scolded me.

"Well, either way, I don't remember the conversation. So I don't mind giving him the Devil fruit," I argued.

"Well, I did, and I've been watching him ever since we got to the island;" Stussy reported.

"And? Did you find anything?" I asked.

"Nothing much of substance, just him bossing around the crew as if they were his own. Nothing that would make me think that he was planning a mutiny, but still, it hasn't been long enough for me to make any solid conclusions," Stussy replied.

"Well, let him keep doing so, he'll eventually slip up if he's stabbing us in the back;" I replied.

"And if it's too late?" Stussy asked.

"Simple," I replied, "We'll just kill everyone, and return to the way we used to be before we got a ship."

"Things aren't just as simple as that," Stussy argued, "once we catch a rat on the ship, more will just pop up alike, we can't be as easy going as we are now. Remember Chameleone?"

Vague memories of how he tried to escape after his betrayal was discovered flashed through my mind vividly. 

"We're the 0 Division of the Whitebeard Pirates. It's literally our job to snuff out sparks of betrayal, we can't do that if all we keep doing if rewarding people who we haven't done a thorough background check of," Stussy persuaded.

"Power often reveals the true nature of man," I explained, "If Ken truly has the intention of betraying us, then now is the perfect oppurtunity for him to start sowing those seeds. You can continue to keep an eye on him, but refrain from directly intervening."

Stussy and I maintained eye contact for a while before we kissed. I could tell that she still wasn't satisfied with my approach to how we handle traitors.