Stepping On Toes

After his minor spooking of Aokiji, Dante very quickly realised he didn't know what to do next. He wanted a boat, and he planned to go to Iceburg to get it done. But, he'd already said goodbye to the Straw Hats, and it would be slightly... awkward to say hello again.

Kicking stones around as he watched the whirlpool spin rapidly, Dante realised that maybe he should start thinking his plans through instead of winging it all the time. In his defence though, it had worked quite well for him.

He had successfully befriended the main characters of the story, meaning he has eternal plot armour if they ever cross paths again. All in all, Dante was relatively proud of himself.

"Hold on a minute, the hell am I doing trying to get a boat? I don't even know how to sail one. Should just get a paddle boat or something, maybe that'll work." He spoke aloud, having come up with another damn near genius idea that would catapult him into the annals of History; the first man to sail the Grand Line in a paddle boat.

'On second thought... that would be pretty pathetic. Just go back to the normal boat plan, I'll learn as I go. I'm still bored either way. The hell am I meant to do now?' Mulling over his plans for the future, Dante decided to stick to what he knew.

Go with the flow, get a boat and go in a direction until something fun happens. Hopefully, if all goes well, he'll fight some strong enemies, make some good friends, and eat some good food. Food, however, costs money, something Dante does not have. Thankfully, he was quite aware of this.

Smacking his fist against his palm, as if he had come up with an idea to be actually proud of for once, Dante yet again spoke aloud to absolutely nobody.

"That's what I'll do! First, make some money. Second, I'll repeat step one until I'm successful. Then, I'll go out and make the world my oyster. Easy breezy!"

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Step one had been failing miserably. It had been a few days since he had made his mind up on a new goal, and each time he tried he was met with resistance. The method wasn't an issue. Hunt down people with bounties, give those people to the Marines, receive due compensation.

The Marines however were unwilling to pay him, instead choosing to open fire or attack him with a unique variety of Devil Fruits. One man even tried to punch him in the face, didn't work out though. Anyways, the method wasn't succeeding.

The only other method for making money was either start an honest-to-God business, or simply begin plundering, and sadly he didn't quite have the money to buy a building in the first place.

The hell else was he supposed to do, 'be an assassin?' Childish, edgy, and its hard to get actual clients. 'Be an information broker?' He didn't know jack shit. 'Sell trinkets and be a wandering merchant?' Now he's just scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Maybe... maybe there was an easier path. Perhaps, despite believing it to be so, he didn't need to go around like some barbarian, taking money and cashing in bounties. 'Still can't believe they didn't pay me for taking out the guy with the Pig-Pig Zoan.'

With a new, reformed mindset Dante began enacting his plan. The last place he had money was Sabaody, so he would go back there in the hopes of achieving financial supremacy once more. Maybe good old Jilky would have something for him too, an odd job or even some cash to steal while he wasn't looking.

Summoning the Yamato from his arsenal and unsheathing the blade, Dante focused his mind, slowing his breathing. He felt the world around him still, and his concentration increased every passing second.

Then, he unleashed two slashes into the wind, tearing through the fabric of reality and forming a portal, directly into Sabaody.

Sadly, he couldn't just spam Yamato portals to travel since he can only go to places he has a distinct mental image of, a rather silly limitation for such a powerful weapon and form of travel.

Considering his utter lack of knowledge about One Piece, he can't exactly form a proper image of almost all of the islands in the story, meaning he's still shit out of luck unless he wants to just fly around everywhere. Thankfully for Dante, he wanted the spirit of adventure to remain, so he wasn't keen on both of those options either way.

Walking through the portal, Dante began preparing his best greeting for the old bastard. Hopefully he wouldn't run into any unfriendly characters either.

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The portal lead directly into a bustling Grove in the Archipelago, causing Dante to be met with hundreds of people walking around, going about their day to day lives, uncaring for the wanted criminal walking through a gap in reality.

To be honest, he was surprised they didn't care at all, but given their proximity to pirates almost all the time, he assumed the citizens had become more than accustomed to the lifestyle.

Smiling at the familiar air, and the fresh scent of degeneracy, Dante walked on his merry way to the Golden Goose, eager to have a drink and reacquaint himself with Two Toes.

"Holy shit... I knew I wasn't seeing things!"

Turning his head at the loud proclamation, Dante noticed someone staring him down, with spikey red hair and a large fur coat of the same colour covering him.

Deciding it was none of his business, he looked away and went back to his stroll.

"Oi! I'm talking to you, Red Devil! Don't you walk away from me!"

Mentally groaning at the loud, gravelly voice calling out for him, Dante turned back once more and was met with the same man now much closer into his personal space, enough that Dante was close to punching out on instinct, likely killing the man.

"Can we stop with the whole Red Devil thing? I got a name, Redtop."

"Fuck you mean Redtop? You got any idea who you're talking to?"

Glancing up and down at the man, Dante noticed that he was a lot shorter than most strong folks he had met in this world, though he also knew height wasn't exactly everything. The guy was taller than him, too.

"I got no idea who the hell you are, some juiced up, genderbent Rias maybe? Listen, pal, I got places to be and a time to be there by so if we could hurry this up that'd be great."

Whispering to himself in a mix of shock and annoyance, the man looks at Dante in disdain.

"What the fuck is a Rias?..." His question receives no answer, so he decides to educate Dante on who exactly he is.

"Listen dumbass, you're talking to THE Eustass Kid. You don't just ignore someone like me, alright?"

The exclamation was met with a few moments of silence, being filled by a simple staring contest between the two men and the usual hubbub of Sabaody, though a small circle had been formed around them. People seemed to gravitate towards confrontation.

"You done?"

The atmosphere felt awkward to Dante. He had no idea who this man was, nor why he kept speaking to him, but in all honesty his impatience was only growing at time went on.

Before Kid could respond again, most likely planning to attack Dante in pure fury given the twitching of his eye, a helmeted man walked over and placed a hand on Kid's shoulder pulling him away despite the mans frustration. In the corner of his ear, Dante could hear their conversation.

"Captain, it isn't worth it. New bounties just came out, this guy is a lot more than we gave him credit. We aren't ready for him yet."

"What're you trying to say, Killer? You think I'm weak or something?"

"Captain this isn't a matter of pride. We ain't ready. Give up and get stronger, or die here and be forgotten. I'll follow you either way."

The conversation fizzles out from there, with Kid taking Killer's advice and simply walking away, though still frustrated to no end. Dante, intrigued by what the helmeted man, Killer, had meant went over to a nearby stall for todays newspaper, only to have his eyes widen in shock once more.

"Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me!"

Scrawled out on a brand new Wanted poster, though with the same picture as before, Dante saw his own name and a sum of money that brought him no end of confusion. 1.3 Billion Berries, a whole 500 million more than before.

The hell did he do that was so bad? Sure, he fucked up Enies Lobby and destroyed the Buster Call, but it wasn't like he killed Aokiji. God, they must really want him dead, huh? Maybe Aokiji snitched about his Devil Trigger.

Just as he was about to walk away and go back on his business, he heard another gravelly voice, though distinctly more aged than before, and saw a pair of ragged flip flops enter his peripheral.

"Well, you seem to be quite popular now, pal. Think you can spare some time for an old man like me?"

Looking up from the paper, he was met with an old man, donning a despicably well kept goatee and a pair of glasses hiding eyes that seemed to bore into Dante.

"I ain't interested, buddy."

The old man pulled the newspaper down so he could stare Dante in the face once more, his smile now replaced by a much grimmer thin line.

"This isn't a matter of choice. We need to talk."

Today was turning out to be a lot more difficult than Dante initially expected. First he had to deal with the Redtop, and now this old man wants a piece too? How droll.