Unorthodox Procedures

Rayleigh didn't elaborate further after that. Despite Dante's nagging and pestering, the Old Bastard didn't bother explaining just what it was that should 'stay buried'.

It was as ominous and unhelpful as it seemed. If it was so bad, Dante could just kill it and save himself the trouble later, yet now Rayleigh was being coy? Either the Bastard was underestimating him, or was traumatised by the thing locked deep in Impel Down.

Realistically, chances are it wasn't that bad. This world had nothing that could pose a threat to him, so what could be so bad? The Sea Devil itself, slumbering away on the ocean floor, eager to be liberated from a prison in it's own domain...? Was the One Piece the key to unleash it from the cell?

'Pfft. As if.'

Dante laughed away the idea, it seemed too outlandish and farfetched for a rubber man to be able to defeat the fucking God of this world, so he doubted it to be the case. A nifty idea, though. Cool as hell, too. Dante needs to use his head more, his imagination was much more potent than he thought.

Anyways, Dante now found himself with a moral dilemma. Does he say no to Rayleigh's suggestion, bombastically break into the prison and save Ace like the hero he is, or does he wait for Marineford and the Summit War? The answer was simple.

He was getting his prison break. Rayleigh did have a good point though. He would be going in blind essentially, with no idea who he should and shouldn't trust. Then again, it would be best to take the smart route and just not free anyone other than Ace.

Ah, thats too boring. If he couldn't have fun with it, it wasn't worth it. He didn't gain anything from saving Ace other than respect and appreciation, and while nothing in the world beats the feeling of validation from those you hold dear, Dante wanted more. He wanted tangible benefits. Those could come later though, when he was actually in prison.

His plans for Marineford would no doubt be shattered by this. The Summit War would not take place, and the Marines would stew in the humiliation of another demoralising blow at the hands of the fiendishly handsome Red Devil Dante.

A shame. He liked the small familiarity he had, with it being the only real event he knew of from his personal knowledge. Then again, he had been slowly building his repertoire of knowledge from chats with the Straw Hats. Special swords, mythical tales, an entire century of history gone. It intrigued him.

Thankfully, he had someone he could talk to about such things. Given that he had spent a few hours enjoying a walk around Sabaody and treating himself to delicious food, the Straw Hats were probably finished with training for the day.

So, who better to talk to than the supposed expert on such things?

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When he entered the hotel currently housing the Straw Hats, the Bannouche Bed and Breakfast, Dante took stock of the scenery. It was nothing short of luxury. Rayleigh had splashed extensive amounts of money making this place look, from both inside and out, like an establishment for the upper class. He wouldn't be surprised if a Celestial Dragon walked through the door right now.

He figured that everyone was probably asleep now, exhausted after rigorous training, but he had faith that he would be able to have a small chat with Robin about the Void Century. Plus, he was basically looking for excuses to talk to her at this point.

A few knocks at the door to her room, and a moment later the door was opened, revealing Robin laying atop a bed, reading a small book and having used her Devil Fruit to open the door. She noticed exactly who it was that had visited her, and straightened up instantly.

"I take it I'm not interrupting anything?"

Dante asked, moving further into the room and shutting the door behind him, taking a seat next to a desk and twirling it around to the side, resting his arm atop the back of the chair and still directly facing Robin.

"No, no. I was merely catching up on some reading. I had lost track of time it seems. It is nonetheless pleasant to see you again, Dante. I didn't expect to be making your acquaintance, though."

Her mood had brightened significantly upon seeing Dante, and this coming conversation would only serve to heighten it further.

Rubbing his cheek as if scratching an itch, Dante hesitantly made his request.

"Well, I've been hearing a lot of stuff about this Void Century... aside from sounding pretty edgy, it also intrigued me. And I figure you'd know about it, given how much you love things like that. Mind teaching me about it?"

Her smile was radiant. He couldn't say anything else to describe it. She seemed excited beyond anything else that she could finally share what she had learned, what she theorised, what she wanted to know with another person.

Dante resigned himself to spending the next few hours with Robin discussing history for a world he had no relation to, also making the decision that he would come back soon to see her again, because she was a lot of fun to be around if he was being honest.

Just like that, the night passed. When Dante left, having waited until Robin fell asleep in exhaustion after spending so long talking, he found it was the early hours of morning, close to 4am.

He wasn't in the mood to sleep, so he decided to go back to his ship.

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He spent the time after his conversation with Robin mulling over the same thoughts as he had been before they talked: the 'threat that should stay buried', the void century, and the straw hat.

By the time he reached the Deadweight, he was no further in his deciphering of the Old Bastards words, nor the possible history of the void century. Robin only had snippets of text from Poneglyphs to go by, the rest was extensive theories.

He trudged across the deck of his ship, thankful that none had been so mindless as to try and steal it, coming to the Captains Quarters and letting himself sink into the comfortable chair of his 'office' so to speak.

Rubbing a hand over his forehead, Dante wondered just how he ended up having to deal with other peoples problems, without even asking for payment.

He cursed himself for feeling even a tinge of pity for the Old Bastard, for not telling him to fix the problem himself, for dealing with the Ace situation on his own instead of throwing it on Dante.

Actually... no. He had more than enough money, now. And with even more to come, Dante had fallen into the trap of having far too much money, and nothing to do with it.

His luck was far too abysmal for him to gamble it away, and he couldn't spend it on Devil Fruits since he had no intention of eating them. Sadly for him, he couldn't just amass a collection of Devil Fruits and harvest them all for new Arms, it needed to bind to a human for the Soul aspect of the Devil Arm.

He had nothing much else to do but look through the newspaper and see if anything interesting had been happening, and by God was there some juicy information.

'Marines still struggle to find the whereabouts of the Scourge of Sabaody, Red Devil Dante. There is no official comment at the time, however many are of the belief that he is responsible for the death of Admiral Akainu, and several witnesses have come forward stating Dante had stabbed the Admiral, watching him bleed out. Will the Marines never triumph over evil? Will piracy only grow stronger? The thought chills the soul.'

They gave him much less credit than he expected. The Scourge of Sabaody; what a joke. He was a scourge across the whole damn ocean, not just a single island. He was surprised his image was that of an 'evil pirate', in his eyes all he had done was weaken the hold of a totalitarian military force controlled by a totalitarian government. No good deeds are good enough it seems.

Though, onto brighter news, Dante's bounty only grew further and further as days passed. Well, it didn't. It had actually been relatively flat, as if they had capped his bounty. Either they didn't believe him to be so much of a threat, or he wasn't doing enough to make them afraid.

Red Devil Dante: Wanted Dead or Alive, with a reward of 3.5 billion Berries. Crimes include: Larceny, Homicide, Assassination, Murder of a Government official, collusion, loitering, several minor misdemeanors.

To be honest, his list seemed a bit more inflated than he thought. When the hell did he commit Larceny? Assassination? Collusion!? They were just trying to make him seem even worse than he already was!

On an even more spectacular note, Vergil's bounty was much less flattering. The price on his head had gone up an earth shattering 50 million Berries, with a new crime listed under his heinous offences. Shoplifting.

Dante couldn't help himself. He laughed. He laughed himself sore. Though, in the middle of his laughing, the Owl he had placed a few days prior began to convulse on the shelf, slowly falling to the floor and laying still upon colliding with the ground. A few seconds later, Dante finally shook off his astonishment.

'Did... did the bird just have a stroke?'

He had no words. He didn't quite know what to do, nor how to administer medicinal aid to a fucking owl. Funny enough, that skill doesn't often see use in the Devil Hunting business. Well, it seems as though his only lane of communication with the Revolutionary Army just died.

The very next moment, the corpse of the bird begins to rapidly incininerate, turning from a still fresh body to a pile of bones. At least, initially it seems that way. The closer he looks though, the sooner Dante realizes that there is a small stack of tiny papers, instructions he realises, including specific details on how to dispose of the paper since its fireproof.

Is this what they meant by maintaining discretion? Why the hell are they going so far? In fact, why the hell did they need a middle man? Just hand him the letter when they meet, the bird was pointless.

A waste of resources too, the bird was killed by a device that was designed to burn the Owl to ash when a signal was received through it. Soon they'd run out of owls.

'How paranoid is Dragon? Christ...' Dante thought to himself as he gazed at the empty space once occupied by the Owl, and notices the foul stench of burning flesh that hung in the room.

The instructions were pointless anyway. All he does is simply summon a gauntlet of Balrog onto his arm, activate his Ignition and watch as the paper turns into cinders and ash. His first mission from the Revolutionary Army was a lot less cool than he expected.

The Army needs access to supply lines through the North Blue that can be fronted under someone else's banner. Apparently Dante's actions had caused the World Government to kick into third gear their search for Dragon, narrowing down on his efforts enough that his network of resources was dwindling.

So now, Dante had to go carve out a new Ho Chi Minh trail for the bastard, and Dragon already had an idea who could temporarily harbour the Army's trade. A family that had apparently fallen from previous Grace in the North Blue, the Vinsmoke family.

All Dante had to do was 'politely encourage' that they accept the Revolutionary Army's wishes and assist in the transit of resources through a carefully crafted network of - okay Dante didn't much care for that part. It was just an explanation of the system they used to keep goods moving and not be noticed.

He was both disappointed and excited for his first terrorist act. A simple intimidation job? Dragon didn't even specify what he was supposed to do if negotiations fell through. Does he just kill them all? No, that seemed a bit counterintuitive, and would more than likely damage the Army.

Now, though, Dante finds himself presented with two different options for how to spend the rest of the day, each one being relatively important to establishing good relations with those around him.

Does he travel to the North Blue and see what the 'Vinsmoke' Empire is all about, or does he bust Ace out of prison here and now?