Hippie Power

Looking at the old man, and the surrounding people watching on intently, Dante decided that this may be relatively important and grabbed the arm of the Geezer, Tricking tens of meters away to a rooftop nearby.

The old man, slightly disoriented but nonetheless aware of what just happened, continued smiling at Dante as he pulled a flask from his pocket, unscrewing the lid and taking a hefty sip.

"You're different. Your Aura is all... wrong. Haki doesn't seem to understand you. Must be one hell of a Fruit, too. That was teleportation, wasn't it? Long as I've been alive, no Fruit has managed to do that."

Glaring at the old mans insistence and inability to get to the point, Dante voiced his displeasure with gusto.

"You got any more questions you wanna ask, or are you done? Who the hell even are you anyway, some secret admirer? I ain't into old bastards so I'm afraid you're out of luck."

Huffing, the old man sits down and crosses a leg over his knee, never quite resting fully, always prepared to move.

"Name's Rayleigh, professional ship coater. And you're Dante, the new kid on the block."

"And? Look I doubt you came here without some kind of agenda. Most people don't insist on introducing themselves for no reason."

Rayleigh pauses for a moment, seemingly to annoy Dante even further and enjoy the moment, until finally answering after another sip of his flask.

"...You ever heard of Haki?"

"Is that all you wanted? No, I haven't. I got no idea what that is, nor do I want anything to do with it. Don't you know you ain't supposed to trust random old men you meet?"

The answer is exactly what Rayleigh wanted, as he seemingly laughs for a moment in astonishment, whispering to himself something about the 'new generation' and how Dante had 'certain potential' before once more affixing Dante with a hard stare.

"I find that hard to believe considering I watched you damn near kill a man who had a Logia fruit. Either you're lying, or I've stumbled across the strongest pirate this side of the New World by accident."

Leveling his gaze with Rayleigh, Dante makes sure his exasperation is entirely visible before answering the mans unspoken question in the most bleak, uncaring tone he could muster.

"I guess I'm just built different then."

"Ha! I knew I liked you for a reason, Dante. You keep your cards close, I respect that. Say, how do you feel about freedom?"

"Odd question, but alright, I'll bite. I live for the feeling of being free. Whole life I've been going with the flow, no restrictions, and I've been living the dream. Hell, first time I killed a man was after he tried to take that from me."

Rayleigh's grin had only been growing more and more as Dante spoke, however his eyes gained a certain edge after his last line.

"Oh? I think I heard about that. How'd it happen?"

"World Noble. He wanted me to get intimate with the business end of his pistol, so I turned the tables."

"Ah, weaponry, huh. Speaking of which, you wanna explain those tools of yours?"

Dante gave a sly grin as he noticed the eagerness Rayleigh had for this subject.

"You said it yourself, Rayleigh. I'll keep those cards close to my chest, thanks."

"Hehe, you're a tough nut to crack, Dante. Say... you seem like someone who's gonna turn the world upside down. I like your style. You wanna learn Haki?"

Dante, unaware that he was being offered a tutorship under a Haki master, looked at Rayleigh as though he was an alien, a creepy old man for which he was concerned as to the motives he held.

"The hell am I gonna do with Haki? I don't even know what that is, but you want me to trust some guy I don't even know to 'teach' me?"

"I'll make it simple for you then. Haki is essentially Soul Power, weaponised Souls."

Rayleigh made sure to ignore Dante discreetly saying the word 'Hipster' between coughs. Continuing on, he leant forward so Dante could hear him better and maintain discretion.

"This ain't your ordinary Soul Power. See, Haki comes in two primary forms, with one secondary. Observation and Armament are the work horses. Observation will allow you to sense Aura, see better, attain awareness greater than you could imagine and, if you get good at it, maybe even see into the future."

"Hold on there, Rayleigh. That other stuff sounds pretty average, but I swore I just heard you say Future Sight. That can't be right, though. Surely you don't get that from some hippie magic."

"Oh Dante, you are in for a surprise. You wanna hear more?"

Dante eagerly shifted closer to Rayleigh, now stood on the rooftop near him, unable to turn his focus away as he learns of this special power.

"Absolutely. Teach me everything."

"Heh. Good to hear. Now, it'll take a while for you to get that level of finesse with Haki to be able to see into the future, but with your natural talent I don't doubt it'll be quick."

He pauses to take a breath and another sip from his beverage that seemingly has no end.

"Armament is where the real fun begins. See, with Armament, you can form a sort of... armour that you can use to protect yourself, and dish out some heavy damage. Can even put it on those weapons of yours. Normally I'd say the best part is damaging Logia users, but you don't seem to need that."

"Huh. I guess it just makes me hit harder? I'm sure that's good either way. You said there were 3 types though. Two primary, one secondary. What's the last one?"

"Conquerors. That explanation comes later. You gotta get the basics before diving in the deep waters, Dante."

He pauses before standing up, prompting Dante to do the same in response.

"Now, what say you we start training? Trust me when I say Haki is gonna be your best friend for the coming journey you have."

Dante in response puts out a hand, obviously motioning for a handshake, and grins.

"Eager to do business with you, Rayleigh."

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With that, Dante began his small training montage with Rayleigh, which consisted of what can only be assumed as several attempts on his life.

From dodging hundreds of projectiles and the rapid kicks of Rayleigh himself, all while blindfolded, to looking at his fist and trying to will the Haki into existence because everything he punched was shattered anyway. Dante was being worked. The training was taking time though, it had already been weeks and Dante was losing faith slowly but surely.

The world had not stopped around him though. Things had been happening, of which he was unaware the impact he had on them. The first was the Straw Hats. They had still convinced Franky to join their crew, and had enjoyed a relatively calm journey.

Thriller Bark had been utterly decimated by Dante and Vergil's fight, with Perona barely surviving, and Brook had long since disappeared after realising his shadow had been returned. It was simply a boat journey to Sabaody left before they reached the New World. They were not ready.

The World Government had been even more on their toes than before after Dante was spotted in Sabaody again, even more after he was found conversing with Silvers Rayleigh, the Pirate King's Right Hand Man. They had severely restricted the Celestial Dragons travel liberties after that, unwilling to lose more on the off chance that one angers the Red Devil.

Vergil had also been on the move, having bore witness to a meeting between two Emperors along the way after noticing their power to be greater than that of those around him. He was intrigued, but also uncaring for them. Shanks had no fruit to speak of, and Whitebeard's served him no purpose. His interest was instead piqued by the news afterwards.

Blackbeard had captured Fire Fist Ace. He had no idea who those people were, nor did he care, what he did know what that Ace served under Whitebeard, having heard the man himself gloat about Ace while Vergil was watching.

Whitebeard would die for his crew, and this would more than likely mean the old man would directly try to take Ace back. Vergil smiled, having already formed a plan to use the confusion that would arise from that day's battle to either assault Big Mom without Marine intervention, or interrupt the clash and see what weapons he could take for himself.

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All while this had been unfolding, Dante had been simply training to enhance his Haki, having unlocked an extremely basic sense for it very early in his training.

"You sure keeping this up is a good idea, Rayleigh? Things are going down pretty hard in the World right now. Not sure it would help me to just stick around and dodge pebbles."

Rayleigh rested a hand on his chin in contemplation. He sighed.

"I guess you're right. You've already got the basics. Truth be told, Haki gets better the more it's used, so as long as you keep it up it'll still grow stronger. Hell, I haven't even hit you yet, so you must be doing something right."

"Trust me, if you managed to hit me I'd consider myself washed up." Turning the page on the newspaper, Dante once more looked on in shock, before grinning to himself.

"Now this, I gotta see."

"Oh? What's that, Dante?"

"Did you know that the Marines have called all the Shichibukai back to Marineford for a meeting? A discussion of sorts. Cause I didn't, and I am absolutely willing to exploit that."

Rayleigh snorted, looking at Dante as though he were an idiot.

"You really think you can get away with walking into the Marine headquarters? You'd have better chances getting Sengoku to kiss your boots."

"Clearly you have no idea who you're talking to. This is child's play. In fact, I'll go there now, see if I can't get there for the meeting early. I'll be back in a few days."

Before Rayleigh could protest, Dante had already long since gone on his newest mission, excited to finally meet the Marine Higher-Ups face to face.

He briefly looked around as if trying to find him, before sighing and looking at the sky.

"He's strong. Too strong. Something isn't right with him. Is this what you had in mind when you spoke of the next generation, Roger?"

Utter silence was all he was left with.

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After reaching a safe distance from Sabaody, Dante consulted his map, set his eyes East towards Marineford and engaged his Devil Trigger, flying across the ocean to reach his desired destination in record speeds.

His first impression of the large Marine base was that it was quite unimpressive. He had activated Quicksilver shortly into his travel so that he could remain uninterrupted on his journey, and now that he reached the plaza he disengaged, moving up from the central well to the castle structure at the head of the island.

Marines across the island all gawked at his open stroll through the island, with one even attempting to call the Fleet Admiral on his Mushi to alert them that Dante had arrived. That, however, did not work, as Dante had quickly stolen the Mushi and taken control of the call.

"Sengoku. That you?"

"Ah, Red Devil Dante. Why should I bother listening to you, and not bring the full force of the Marines down upon you for daring to step on my land?"

"Cause you'd lose. That's why. Anyway, I heard you were having an important meeting. I figured I'd stop by. Save me a seat, yeah? Non-negotiable."

He hung up the call immediately afterwards, unwilling to bother playing verbal chicken with Sengoku and instead feeling giddy at the prospect of meeting new people.

Climbing up along the walls of the castle, Tricking here and there, Dante eventually finds himself looking over a window to what seems to be a conference room after having searched several other rooms that were used for personal offices. Grinning, he climbs through, and takes a seat at the table, placing his boots up on it and now waiting for the honoured guests to arrive.

He simply couldn't wait.