Akagami no Shanks

New world.

Akagami Pirates.

Shanks and his crew right now are on an island glaring at their opposition.

The Nightmare pirates.

Shanks's eyesight met Ian's.

"In the end, we never shared that drink did we?" Ian said with a small smile.

Shanks gave him a nod. Not losing his seriousness.

Shanks thought about how it all went down and reached these current events…

****

He was generally a very laid-back person.

He was also a pacifist, searching for balance and order. Although the most important thing to him was still freedom. When he knows the world is going to be engulfed in chaos, he makes his move. This was how he was…

He had done so in the past, stopping Kaido from joining in the Marineford war, and stopping the war itself when it proved to be pointless to continue it.

He had even some relation with the world government since they knew and respect him the most among pirates. He never goes back on his words, and they knew he was quite honorable, and not searching for conflict. Though if he had known about the diávoloi from before, he wouldn't have helped them at all…

Not many things made him break out of this usual characteristic of his…

Among the few things capable of so, are hurting his friends. As evidenced by Luffy.

Another thing was how inspired by Roger he was.

Roger had said that he was very early when they found the One Piece… And Shanks having not reached the last island, believed them when they said that Roger's son would reach it…

But an encounter with Luffy put the image of his deceased captain in his mind the figure of the two almost overlapping… At that time he felt that Luffy will be the chosen one.

When he met Ace, his thoughts on the matter became more firm.

Luffy was just too similar to roger for him to think otherwise. Their carefree personality their non-caring attitude, and their childish demeanor. Even their quick to anger tendencies were shared… Shanks had provoked Luffy saying he doesn't have what it takes to become a pirate… and this led Luffy to proclaim how he will become the best of the best among them, the pirate king, and claim the one piece.

So he traded his arm for the future of Luffy. It was not that he couldn't dodge that sea king back then, it was just a matter of how much importance he placed on Luffy and he showed it with that.

But as Luffy was slowly growing, Ian started to appear.

His existence led Shanks to start doubting himself…

After all, if anyone was close to reaching Laughtale, then it had become Ian. And due to recent events, Shanks was sure it was Ian.

Ian had taken big mom's Road Poneglyph, had gotten a copy of the one in Zou, and now took the one with Kaido.

All that was left was the last one.

Which coincidently is with Shanks… Or rather Shanks knew where it was.

So now he had to accept that Ian was the most likely person Roger his captain was waiting for to reach the last island…

He had a hard time accepting this for a while. He was a stubborn fool, but in the end, he came to terms with it. Which is why he had come here…

Sooner or later Ian was going to reach the last island… Shanks was even sure that Ian can take the last Stone from him in time.

But he came here selfishly this time.

He wanted to test Ian. Both in strength and character.

Why was Ian in need of reaching the last island? What did Ian know and he didn't? What were the diávoloi they fought at the war? It was apparent that Ian did know these things… and Shanks wanted to ask these questions…

If his goals didn't meet his and Roger's expectations Shanks would leave and not give him the location where the stone was. As Ian's opposing goals would mean he was not the one who Roger was waiting for to lead the new dawn…

****

"Let's have a fight!" Shanks all of a sudden spoke up making the tense atmosphere grow more heated...

Both crews except the captains, got ready and tense as they brandished their weapons. Ready to move in a second.

"Sure!" Ian cheerfully replied.

But Shanks added next.

"It will be just you and me! Our crew members can watch if they want!" Shanks said.

Ian agreed with a nod.

He knew his crew will win easily, so it was pointless… it was not arrogant of him to think that, not at all. He was just that confident.

There is a difference between confidence and arrogance…

When that fight does happen and his crew loses, only then would what he said be considered arrogance.

Right now they had already landed on the island that was close to them when Ian and co were stopped by them...

Ian was standing with his crewmates near him, and Shanks with his similarly.

It was an uninhabited island so it would serve well for the purpose of fighting this time.

"You Ian D. Louis are the closest living person to ever reach Laughtale!" Shanks stated as they both got rid of their cloaks and their crew stepped back a distance away.

Ian looked at him in amusement.

"Are we going to fight or talk?" He asked. From Shanks laid back stance he deduced that he wanted to talk first. Which Ian thought was weird considering how serious Shanks looked when he asked for a fight.

Shanks was startled for a second before he recovered and scratched his head nervously.

"My apologies… I didn't mean a fight to the death or the like… It is more like a spar, nothing too serious…" Shanks said.

"I'm being selfish here, but I want to know your goals for reaching the last island, and also what you know about those diávoloi! In return, if I find your goals similar to mine, we'll have the spar and I can teach you something about Haki very few people know about, and then I'll give you the location of the-" Shanks was still speaking when Ian interrupted him.

"The location of the last Road Poneglyph!" Ian grinned as he said.

"As expected it was with you!" Ian added.

Shanks was stunned.

"How did you know about that?" He asked genuinely wondering about that.

"Well, my thoughts were that either you or the government had it. But you confirmed it right now!" Ian cheekily said with a grin on his face.

Shanks stared at him for a few seconds.

Before he burst into laughter.

"DAHAHAHAH!"

Ian shared the laugh with him, as their crew at the back relaxed at hearing what both had said.

Ben didn't know what his captain had in mind this time, along with the whole crew. So only now could they relax thinking to themselves that it was just a spar.

As for Ian's side, he had warned them that at the current time, only Shanks could possibly be a match for him. Not in power but in skill.

After a while, Ian looked a bit seriously at Shanks.

"I don't mind telling you what you want to know, after all, you are a strong ally to have. We can also have the spar just for fun!" Ian nodded at him.

Shanks suddenly felt that Ian was quite a good guy.

He nodded back at Ian waiting for him to start speaking. Only after he hears what Ian has to say will they have their spar. If Ian's answers are not what Shanks is searching for, then there was no point to have the spar.