Chapter 41- Collusion...

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Chapter 41 (bonus chap)

Title: Collision...

…

-Max POV-

I looked at Ace as he was chained and brought in front of me while I sat down on my throne.

As the 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace cut quite the sorry figure right now as he was covered in injuries that would take a while to heal. Thankfully both Chopper and Kureha were one of, if not the best doctors this world had at the time. After all, Kureha had the means to heal a disease that came from the dinosaur age, and that's something most doctors can't ever hope to do.

Still, even then, a couple of days of rest will be needed for Ace to be back to its full strength. 

Raynare had done a job on him. Normally, even with her awakened wings, she would never be able to defeat Ace so thoroughly. But I knew how Ace fought and all of his moves and weaknesses. She knew them too, and the strategy on how to fight the Flame-Flame Fruit user. Knowing how someone fought gave Raynare a huge advantage, essentially it was the factor that guaranteed her the win. Though Ace being off guard did that too.

Also, one other surprising thing was that Ace could use Armament Haki, though it was only the invisible armor kind. So that was neat, I thought he wouldn't be able to use any. 

"So what did you come here for?" I asked him. "Just to cause chaos? You might be one of Whitebeard's sons, but even then, I won't allow you to cause problems on my island. Whether you are a pirate or even a Celestial Dragon, it won't matter. Also the past time we fought, I won easily... so why are you here? For a fight?"

"Nah, not really." Ace looked at me and smirked. There was no fear in his eyes. "So? You gonna kill me now?"

"No, no, of course not," I clarified while giving him a smirk of my own. "No one would want to make an enemy out of Whitebeard. Instead, I wanna help you."

"Help me?" Asked Ace. "Then you must know what I am after?"

"Obviously," I agreed. "In two days you should be in top condition to fight, and also by then, I will have a Seastone dagger ready for you. It should be useful against Blackbeard."

"Don't joke with me!" Ace looked angry. "I don't need your help. I will take him on by myself."

Ah~ there comes that prideful self of his. C'mon now, as a pirate things like honor would only hold you down. A criminal playing at being honorable? Damn, that's a funny thing. What was the use of doing that? 

Still, though, I didn't say my thoughts out loud. "I understand, then you will stay here for two days and I will tell you where Blackbeard is going and where you can meet him."

I already had a tracker on Blackbeard, because while I was working with the man. That agreement between us was very fragile and I would be the first one to stab him in the back if our relationship was compromised. Being the first to betray the other would be better than being betrayed by him. 

…

-General POV-

At the same time, a ship with a sheep-like creature's head carved at the front of it sailed close to Drum Island. 

The ship was small and had a very small number of people in it. Amongst them was a light blue-haired woman who looked worried as a blonde-haired man smoking a cigarette sat next to her.

"This is bad, Nami's condition keeps worsening. If we don't find an island soon, then…" said the light blue-haired woman with worry.

"Vivi, you don't have to worry about this. We will find a way," said the blonde-haired cook.

"..." Vivi didn't say anything. But she felt responsible for this. If she hadn't begged the Strawhats to take her to Alabasta, then none of this would have happened.

Zoro was at the top hull of the ship keeping a lookout with his sword on his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes as he saw a fleet of ships in front of them. For Nami this would be good as they might have doctors. But the bad thing was that each of those ships was a top Tier Marine Warship, the biggest ones Zoro had ever seen.

"Damn, what bad luck," said the swordsman as he pulled out his three swords. "Vivi! Go and call Luffy out here!"

Vivi immediately went to do so, while Sanji noticed Zoro's panic. The Swordsman would normally be so nervous, but if all these ships decided to bombard them then defending the ship would be hard. Plus Nami was too sick to move around a lot or handle the rocketing of the ship.

"Zoro, what's going on?!" Luffy came out, and he looked forward and saw the ships clearly, and for the first time in a while, their captain had a serious look on his face.

Fwish!

That was when a dark figure landed in front of their ship. Was a 'man' taller than Luffy with long dark hair, purple eyes. "Pirates, I am Marine Captain Ray, under the law of the Drum Kingdom…"

Everyone got ready for combat. But Raynare smirked. "...Pirates are not necessarily prosecuted as long as they don't cause any destruction or problems. No matter what, you will be held responsible and executed if anything wrong goes on around you. Even dining and dashing will put your head on the chopping block and your ship seized. Your comrades will also be executed alongside you or sold into slavery. So be careful."

Luffy nodded. "I give you my word that we won't cause any trouble. Just please help us find a doctor to help, Nami."

"Drum Kingdom is known through the world for its Doctors. If you can't find a cure for the disease here, then you won't find it all around the world." Raynare nodded. 'They came, just as Max said they would. It seems weird to think that this goofy-looking straw hat boy will become someone strong in the future.'

Then dark wings came out off Raynare's back and she flew off. "Don't lose sight of our ships or you will get lost in this place. The waves around here are very weird."

After she flew off, Vivi came out and looked at the retreating figure with a frown on her face. "Ray…"

Zoro turned towards her. "You know him?"

"I know about him," Vivi nodded. "He is the right hand of Max, the new king of the Drum Kingdom. Though there isn't a lot of information on Ray, he is said to follow Max religiously and each of his commands would be executed perfectly. Even dearth. At least that was what the rumors said when I was in Baroque Works. Even Crocodile seemed to be cautious for any investigation done on the man, as he just seemed to come out of nowhere."

"So this Max is a marine?" asked Luffy with a scrunched face like he had just swallowed a lemon. "So he is a bad guy?"

"Not necessarily Because while he is a marine, that would only be technically so. Because due to having an unknown or romantic relationship with a World Noble, then he pretty much does whatever he feels like it. But no one says anything, since he just says that Saint Sharlia ordered him to do it and no Marine had the power to refute his actions as that would be the same as going against the World Government itself." Vivi explained, even she was intrigued by what kind of man Max was. But one thing was for sure, he was someone even Crocodile was careful against.

"So he is a good guy?" Luffy tilted his head curiously. Which annoyed Sanji. "Stop it with the stupid questions!"

Vivi kept quiet and didn't say anything about how Max had also 'coincidentally bought some weapons that were meant for another kingdom. But some pirates stole those weapons and sold them to Max. 

The whole thing was suspicious, but the kingdom that was going to get those weapons hadn't made a sound about it publicly. The whole incident was surrounded in mystery since the World Government had made it clear that anyone who traded weapons with Max would be blacklisted. Still, some suspect that Max and that kingdom who lost the weapons had worked together a weapons trade and just used the pirates as middlemen.

Though the incident was surrounded in mystery, one thing was for sure. Max was preparing for something with all those weapons.

...