What's with pirates today?

|Farid's POV:|

...

"Huh, it's quite noisy outside... Are they having a festival or something?"

As the sound of someone shouting "food" reached my and John's ears, I raised an eyebrow in wonder as I muttered in contemplation, before then John massaged his chin while seemingly trying to remember something.

However, after a few seconds, he rapidly shook his head and looked at me with a worried expression.

"I don't remember there being a festival or something like that today. Since you are a bounty hunter, what if you go to check? Maybe a crew of pirates is wreaking havoc"

Pirates?

They better not be. I was actually enjoying myself for once in here, and it would annoy me to have to stop just because of some dumbasses that couldn't act civilized amongst other people.

Therefore, not wanting to stand up from my seat, I closed my eyes for a brief moment and rapidly activated my Observation Haki to see what was happening out there.

However, once I did, I furrowed my eyebrows, and a confused expression appeared on my face.

'Someone's is running...? Well, at least it doesn't seem like he is creating trouble. So I guess it doesn't really concern me...'

What I saw then, was just a strange young man with a straw hat running across the city seemingly in look for something. Which I suspect was for somewhere to eat, given his shouts about food earlier.

Shaking my head in disinterest after seeing that it wasn't anything significant, I sighed, before then I opened my eyes again and looked at John's worried face.

"I think it's only someone hungry and looking for somewhere to eat... Don't pay attention to it"

"Ah, a potential customer! I have to bring him here if that's the case!"

"He is already far away, don't waste your time"

"And how do you know that? I didn't even see you get up from your seat"

"Could you believe me if I told you I'm omnipresent?"

"No"

"Yeah, me neither"

"..."

-Chuckle-

Laughing slightly at him, I then continued to drink some of the booze that he had given me, as I relaxed calmly in my chair and started thinking about my own things without minding the grumpy John.

The most important at the moment since it was already on the verge of happening, was fulfilling Nico Robin's wish. For that, I had to do a lot of things in preparation, as everything pointed out that we would have to infiltrate the castle to see that Poneglyph or whatever.

For the past few days, apart from getting my hands on some useful tools that would be useful in case we needed to run, I have also been getting some information about how the Royal guards move, and mostly what time is the best to infiltrate.

Thankfully, I already had a lot of that information previously since I worked there. But some confirmation in case they changed anything since I left didn't hurt anyone.

Watching and memorizing their patrolling patterns for a few days, and trying to see what kind of place would be the most probable for them to have something like a giant stone block, that was what I had been doing for the past days, except, of course, from pirate hunting from time to time with Nico Robin.

And I had come to a few conclusions during that time.

First of all, there was no place in the whole castle where a giant stone block could be kept. There was no room like that, the castle was simply too small for that. And honestly, I didn't think that they would simply have it on the exterior, free for anyone to see, since it was supposedly a very important and secret object.

Thus, there were only two options left.

The first one being that the Poneglyph was not actually in the castle, and instead, was kept in another secret place of Arabasta, where no one would have access to it.

It would be in the middle of the desert, under the Sandora River, at the borders of Arabasta, or even at more crazy places.

There was a possibility that it wasn't even in Arabasta. However, in summary, for getting to that Poneglyph it would be necessary for us to interrogate the king, which I was really reluctant to do.

I didn't want to add more crimes to the list of the ones that I had already committed, after all.

And then there was the second option, which was the one I hoped for the most to be true.

The second option was that the Poneglyph was indeed in the castle... But, hidden underground, away from all prying eyes.

After all, if the castle didn't have enough space for a giant stone block, then all they needed to do was to dig underground and hide it there.

That one would be the easiest to find between both options. However, for the time being, I was still pondering which place would be the most probable to have a secret passageway that led underground.

The upper rooms of the castle were out of the question. Why? Because they weren't connected to the ground, and thus, it would be impossible for there to be a passageway to the underground of the castle.

And thus, the only options left were the lower floors, like the throne room or the kitchen for example, or in exterior places like the Tombs of Kings.

We would have to check which one of those was once the operation began. However, for the time being, my guess was on the Tomb of Kings since it was a place related to the history of Arabasta, and Nico Robin had told me that those stone blocks had the history of this world written in them.

Which in my head was something like: History + History = Epic place to hide stone blocks.

Also, I had a feeling. If you know what I mean.

With all that, you could say I was pretty much prepared. But who knows... Fate doesn't work my way, after all.

Anything would happen once we infiltrated the castle.

-Sigh...-

"Hopefully it will all go without a problem"

Muttering that with a pensive expression on my face, I sighed exhaustingly, before then I drank the last sip of liquid in my glass, and proceeded to stand up from my chair. Ready to leave right away.

"Oh, you are leaving already Farid?"

Hearing John call out to me, I smiled slightly as I took out some money from my pocket and gave it to him, before then I opened my mouth and I nodded my head.

"Yeah, I just wanted to have a drink today. Maybe I will come back soon, though"

"Come whenever you like"

"Yeah"

Waving my hand at him briefly, I then turned around, and got out of the bar. Going into the crowded streets of Nanohana once again.

"Now then... Let's go home and sort everything left for the plan..."

Saying that as I looked at the sky in contemplation, I then nodded my head in satisfaction seeing that it was a good idea, before then I sighed and prepared to leave right away.

However, just as I was about to walk away, someone placed his hand on my shoulder and called out to me. Making me turn around in confusion.

"Hey mate, have you perhaps seen this person?"

There, I saw a man with curly black hair, of probably a similar age to me, maybe even a little older, showing the wanted poster of Monkey D Luffy that I had seen weeks ago when I was just about to start my vacation.

He had an orange hat with two blue smileys and was mostly shirtless apart from a small purple bag he was carrying over his right shoulder.

All in all, he seemed like a pretty chill guy... If it wasn't because of my great memory.

The moment I saw him, a familiar wanted poster resurfaced in my memory and involuntarily made me mutter in surprise the name of the person in front of me.

"Fire Fist Ace..."

...

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|3rd POV:|

...

As Farid pronounced Ace's name with a surprised expression on his face, the latter rapidly tensed up slightly, before he then glanced at Farid and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Have we met before?"

Scratching the back of his head, Ace tried remembering if he had ever seen someone like Farid but frowned when he noticed that no matter how he tried he couldn't recall meeting someone like him.

Soon, however, Farid answered his doubts, as he replied with a curious gaze in his eyes.

"No, I just have a great memory, and you are quite a prominent figure amongst pirates. So recognizing you certainly wasn't a hard task"

"I see..."

Saying that, Ace then rapidly started analyzing Farid to know what he was dealing with, before soon he became aware to a certain extent of Farid's strength, and tensed up when he noticed that he would be a troublesome opponent if both of them were to fight.

Farid, just like Ace, immediately began analyzing the pirate in front of him and raised an eyebrow when he noticed Ace's strength.

With Observation Haki, it was easy to feel that he was far stronger than Crocodile in a lot of ways, and it surprised Farid that a person would have so much strength.

In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say that he was the strongest person he had ever met.

However, when he considered Ace's status, it was normal for him to be so strong. He was, after all, the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. If one of the commanders from the crew of a Yonko wasn't this strong, then who would?

Then again, he had yet to see how strong a Yonko could be... But seeing Ace's strength, really made Farid reconsider his thoughts about how strong one could be.

He had thought that he would be pretty close to defeating one at the moment. However, seeing Ace's strength, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Furthermore, even at that moment, he didn't know who would win if he and Ace would fight. The amount of strength that could be felt from Observation was too ambiguous to make assumptions, and there were a lot of other factors that would affect the fight. However, even then, he was sure that he himself couldn't lose.

But even being sure of that...

'It would be too much of a hassle to fight him...'

.... Farid was reluctant to fight him.

If they both fought there and then, surely, there would be a lot of affected people and a lot of buildings destroyed. And since Ace was a pirate, surely the one who would have to pay for the damage would be him.

Moreover, like with Robin, Farid couldn't get any bad vibes from Ace, despite him being a pirate and all that. Which only made him even more reluctant to pick a fight with him.

As long as he didn't cause trouble, Farid couldn't care less about capturing him. Money wasn't something he was lacking, after all.

The only thing that made him consider fighting him for a second, was to know how strong a commander from the crew of a Yonko would be.

However, it was far from being enough to make Farid take the risk. And as such, being the lazy bastard that he was, Farid sighed while closing his eyes in disappointment and relaxed his body, making Ace notice that he didn't seem to want to fight.

Thus, relaxing as well, Ace then smiled amiably, as he looked with an interested gaze at Farid, who now only had a bored look in his eyes.

"You are quite strong... How come I haven't heard of someone like you?"

Hearing Ace, Farid shook his head briefly, before he then answered with an ambiguous tone.

"I like to be in anonymity. It's not a surprise that you haven't heard about me"

"It's that so? Then I guess that's fine"

Sighing slightly, Farid then remembered the question that Ace had asked him before, and looked at the wanted poster in his hand with a raised eyebrow.

"You said you were looking for Monkey D Luffy, right? Does he owe you money or something?"

At that, Ace laughed loudly, as he patted Farid's shoulder with an amiable expression on his face, seemingly finding what Farid had said funny.

"Hahahaha! No... I'm just looking for him because of personal reasons. I suspect that he might be in this city... Have you seen him around? He is quite a noisy person"

"No, I don't think I have...- Wait..."

As Farid was about to say something, suddenly he stopped and scratched the back of his head while reminiscing something that had happened an hour ago.

When he had been drinking to his heart's content, a young man with a straw hat had passed running by outside the tavern while shouting the word Food. At that time, he hadn't thought much of that event, as someone using a straw hat wasn't something unusual. Because of that, he had simply shrugged the matter off and simply went back to minding his business.

Not even considering examining the guy's face for a second.

However, now that he thought about it, there was indeed a possibility for that young man to be the said pirate. The age was similar, and well... he had a straw hat.

"... I think I saw him running around shouting "food"... Maybe he is at a restaurant or something... Though I could be wrong"

Pointing at one of the most famous restaurants in the city, Farid shrugged, as he looked at Ace with an impassive expression.

Seeing that, Ace smiled as he nodded his head in gratefulness, before he then fixed the position of the bag on his shoulder, and turned around to leave.

"You helped a lot, thanks. Though, I'm in a bit of a hurry to find him, so sorry for not being able to talk more"

Seeing that he was about to leave, Farid nodded his head, as he turned around to leave as well. Not minding the curious gaze of Ace as he looked at him.

"Yeah, whatever. Just don't cause trouble"

Saying that, Farid and Ace both started walking away. Both in different directions, and quite troubled by the meeting they had just had.

Ace, on one hand, was surprised at the sudden appearance of someone so strong out of the blue.

'Such a strong person was in Arabasta...? I guess there are all kinds of strong people around the world that we don't know about simply because they don't show themselves...'

Farid, on the other hand, was having a headache imagining possible outcomes when dealing with pirates.

'Man... Won't I get my ass kicked if I end up fighting a Yonko? And here I thought that Crocodile was at the top of the chain in terms of strength...'

Lost in their thoughts, both men disappeared into the crowd and went in their own way.

...

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|A few minutes later...|

...

"Hmm... I already bought everything I needed... Let's go home then"

Getting out of the market, Farid looked at the bags in his hands, as he sighed exhaustingly while thinking about the long way ahead to his home.

'It was fine during the first times, but I'm already getting annoyed...'

After the meeting with Ace, he remembered that he was running out of supplies in his home, and thus decided to pass by the market to buy some vegetables and meat.

However, after buying everything, Farid remembered the long distance between Nanohana and his house and felt a lot of annoyance knowing that he would have to travel a lot of kilometers to arrive.

'Yeah, now I remember why I didn't spend much time at home before going on vacation... Though, I have already cleaned that house so much, it feels like a waste to just abandon it again...'

Shaking his head to shrug the annoyance aside, Farid let out a resigned sigh, before soon he started walking through the streets of Nanohana, in direction of the outskirts.

However, as he was walking, suddenly the sound of several shouts reached his ears and made him raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

Then, suddenly from behind him, an enormous amount of marines appeared out of nowhere and started running through the street while seemingly looking for someone.

"Catch him!!"

"Where did Straw Hat go?"

"Damnit, he escaped!"

...

"What in the world?"

Muttering that, as he watched the group of Marines pass, Farid frowned, before he then muttered in a low and annoyed tone voice.

"Straw hat... That guy... It seems like he is causing some sort of trouble..."

Massaging his temples as he watched the marines run in the distance, Farid soon entered into deep thought.

'Should I just leave this to them?'

It seemed like they were looking for just one pirate, so it certainly didn't seem like they would need his help. However, he had a slight feeling that they would not be able to catch him, which made him doubt whether to stay there or simply go back home.

'This feeling of mine is never wrong... Should I look for that guy then?'

As Farid was considering his options, suddenly from an alleyway a few meters away from him, a tired and carefree voice reached his ears and made him raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"That was closeee..."

"...?"

Then, turning around, Farid saw the figure of a young man with a straw hat emerge from the alleyway, probably hiding from the marines that had passed just a few seconds ago, and then sigh in relief once these got far away.

"Hmph"

Seeing this, Farid couldn't help but snort in amusement.

'It's as if the world is telling me to capture him...'

Not caring anymore, Farid walked up to the youth, before he stood up in front of him and called out to him.

"Monkey D. Luffy..."

"...?"

Hearing his name, the carefree young man turned his head to look at Farid, before he then tilted it and frowned when he saw someone unknown standing in front of him.

"Who are you?"

...

-To be Continued-

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(A/N: I've mastered the power of the cliffhanger...)