21 Jaya

Before they sailed out from South Blue.

Arthur didn't allowed to hang a black flag above their ship, He wanted to only hang it when they had their own, the main ship that he planned to make.

He declared themselves as bounty hunters. Eve asked why but was only told that it was not the time yet to declare themselves as pirates.

Months passed, They went to a lot of islands, but the same thing always happened, all the pirates they encountered had been killed by Arthur.

Since then, he gained infamy around the Grand Line as a ruthless bounty hunter, as no pirate ever survived after crossing paths with Arthur. The only witnesses to their deeds were the civilians or the marines.

Marines once tried recruiting him but were directly rejected. Why would he join again when he already planted a dangerous snake among the Marines.

His crew also noticed that their Captain has the habit of collecting books, Especially unusual ones.

Although they didn't see him read a book, they didn't say anything and just did their jobs.

Arriving at Jaya, the island in the legends that said it harbors vast treasure 'The Golden City' which for hundreds of years no one has ever found.

It was a famous childhood story where Noland said he found a golden city, which led him to be executed as they didn't find such city. He was known as 'Liar Noland.'

"Find all out pirates who have bounties in this town and report back to me" Arthur ordered Ketter which he wholeheartedly obeyed.

"Yes, Captain!"

Although Ketter is annoying he is diligent in everything Arthur asks, so he just lets him be a fanboy.

"Tell Eve I will head to the town first, Find me in the bar somewhere when you have the details," Arthur added and went on his way.

Walking around the town, Arthur took some nasty looks from the Pirates here.

This town is called Mocktown, which is mostly inhabited by pirates.

"Hehe, a newbie"

"Are you lost suit guy"

The town folks called out things to Arthur, but he ignored it all, as he really was hungry now and just wanted to dig in some delicious food.

A drunk man was walking and headed straight to Arthur.

"Hey! Look somethings gonna happen"

"Let us see"

"That's Vodka drinker Rosnov"

"He has a forty million berry bounty".

"He is in trouble now"

The people muttered all around.

"Heek!, why are you blocking my way eh?! Heek!" The drunk man put his near Arthur which pissed him off.

As the man raised his hand and tried grabbing Arthur's collars.

He froze midway, his eyes widened, he turned pale and tried speaking but no words seemed to get out.

"Agh!" as the man fell and Arthur went passed him.

The bystanders were shocked at what had happened. They let Arthur leave first before checking Rosnov.

They rolled over Rosnov, his eyes were still wide open.

"He is dead!" a man said.

"Look over his chest"

The bystanders all widened their eyes.

They were shocked to find out that the man was missing his heart. The only thing left was his hollowed-out chest.

"That guy was terrifying"

"Not even a drop of blood".

"Who was that person?".

The bystanders kept discussing, figuring out who that man was.

-------

After Arthur had his meal, he was sitting inside the bar in the town.

Then Ketter went in and looked for Arthur and reported that there weren't any note-worthy pirates with high bounties.

"That's too bad" he waved his hand, and caring about it anymore.

"Then let us stay for a day, tomorrow we're gonna go somewhere fun" Arthur grinned, ordering Ketter. "Roger, Captain"

After a long time, he is finally near one of his goals, The city fully made out of gold.

.

.

.

Morning arrived and all of them were gathered near the ship. Where they safely docked their ship somewhere. Arthur plans to leave the people here in Jaya because he can't carry all the people to Skypiea.

"Aside from Eve and Ketter, all of you are free to do whatever you want"

"There is someplace I wanted to go and I won't be bringing you all".

Ketter on the other hand seemed shaking, he was very excited that got the chance to follow Arthur more.

'Hehe, my hard work had paid off'

He smiled in a very animated manner.

"You can leave if you want to."

"You can wait, but I don't know when will be back".

Arthur gave them instructions.

The crew looked at each other and decided what they wanted. They looked conflicted, even though they were forced at first to follow Arthur.

But following Arthur was beneficial to them. Before they were just lowly pirates who got treated terribly by their previous Captain.

Now, they have a lot of money to spend, they have a very strong leader. Since they follow him no one has ever suffered from enemies, even the Marines seemed to be wary of them.

"Huhuhu! Captain! Please don't leave us".

"We will follow you wherever Captain Arthur!"

"Yes yes, Captain!"

"We will even do better".

"That's right Captain"

The crew started crying, begging, and pleading their case.

If they could hold onto Arthur's legs literally, they would have already.

Witnessing all of these, Arthur just smiled slightly and told them they could wait here and lay low for the time being.

'Although a lot of these guys are idiots, I still need some grunts when I go back to sea'.

"I said you can do whatever you want, but you better be here on time when I get back"

"Hey, Arthur? Where are we going? You never told me anything about this?"

Eve asked, she was very curious as to where would they be going.

"You will know in a while" he mysteriously said to Eve while smiling.

Eve slightly blushed and looked away embarrassed as she had never seen Arthur smile that genuinely.

She didn't know, all Arthur was thinking was just the gold he was gonna get.

"When you stay here on the island don't talk to anyone about me"

Arthur narrowed his eyes looking at the crew.

They immediately understood what Arthur meant, When he orders something you have to do it to the T. If they don't want to receive Arthurs's wrath.

Arthur then started releasing his tails. He moved them around, wrapping the waist of Eve and Ketter.

"What's this?" Eve was shocked that he needed to hug tied her, Weren't they gonna use a ship? She even became more curious.

Ketter just smiled and looked excited.'I just wanna become Arthur's official crew member'

Arthur lowered his knees preparing to jump up.

It created a sonic boom!

The jump he made created a pit on the ground as they floated to the sky.

"Ahhhh!!!" Eve shouted and was panicked.

Ketter widened his eyes and was unable to mutter any words. Looking very nervous.

They got higher and higher, Arthur looked at his side as to why it got silent all of a sudden.

Both of them lost unconscious, Ketter probably got too excited with all of this...and Eve...'I can't believe she was even afraid of heights, she passed out, her body looked like a ragged doll and probably her soul left her body.

Arthur just laughed at them and continued on his way.