Negotiation

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I did not expect Whitebeard to be so efficient in a week since his arrival. His years of experience on the sea and battling were on display. By now, he had squads practicing in large-scale battles on land and water.

Though not wholly out of the loop, I organized scouting parties to go out and plunder though I made sure they only targeted bandit camps and pirate ships. I also added a bonus that any devil fruit they brought back would reward them with a weapon or piece of armor.

There were a few doubts about my skill originally. It did not take long for word to spread, however. I had a sizable supply of devil fruits now reaching the high sixties. Some of them were useless others were overpowered, the latter of which I stored away in caution.

Once again, I found myself trying to find the secrets of the fruit. Each day I would attempt to induce a vision. None of my attempts proved successful as I would meditate for hours on end. That wasn't the limit of my experiments. I had started to record each devil fruit and the nature of their powers.

From my understanding, the only compendium of devil fruits was unfinished. Also, it came as a shock that I discovered that they were nearly impervious to damage. Heat or ice seemed to affect the strange object, and any physical wound healed mere moment afterward.

The only thing that affected the fruits was the bite of a living being. With another piece of the puzzle put together, I felt as if I was closer to my goal.

One day in my lab, I was interrupted by one of my generals, "Boss, this came in from one of the scouting parties. They came across a single man they say was floating on the water." Grabbing the letter, I opened it only to find a series of numbers, a timestamp, and a warning to come alone.

"What does it say, Boss." I smiled and pocketed the letter, "I have a meeting to attend. I'll be back soon, don't worry." Pulling on a coat, I opened a portal at the edge of my range. A few minutes later, I landed on the tiny speck of bare rock.

Looking around, I sighed, "I can already see all of you under the water, and don't think I missed you hovering up there, Dragon." All around the island edge, people rose from the water using pieces of coral to breathe underwater.

But most of my attention was the green cloaked figure floating down from above, "You arrived earlier than expected. You didn't give us much time to prepare." Dragon pulled off his hood, revealing his face and the signature red tattoo on the left side.

"I didn't think you would respond. After all, you ghosted me for almost a year." Dragon nodded unapologetically, "You were too much of an unknown, but I have to thank you we were able to accomplish quite a lot when all the government's attention was on you."

Smiling, I waved my hand and summoned three chairs and a table and took a seat for myself, "Won't you join me? Feel free to invite your second Sabo as well." Dragon took a chair with a stone face and waved over Sabo, pretending to be one of the grunts.

"How did you know my name?" The blond asked as he sat next to his commander. I looked at Sabo, pretending to be confused, "Because Ace told me about you, they think you're dead, you know?"

Sabo's brow furrowed, "Ace, I don't know anybody named Ace. The revolutionary army has trained me up from childhood." Of course, I knew all of this, but it was a sound bargaining chip to have. Looking at Dragon, I asked him a silent question, to which he slowly shook his head.

Deciding to hold my hand, I remained silent, "I assume that if you're here, you received my message." Dragon nodded, "Declaring you're raising an army and attacking the navy headquarters tends to get one's attention."

"So, are you in?" My directness surprised Sabo, who almost looked offended. But Dragon was intrigued, "Why should we? After all, you have a four less than a tenth of ours, not to mention the lack of resources and network."

What he said was true, which was why I wanted the army on my side. But I had more valuable things to offer, "I can supply you with weapons the like of which you have never seen before, and I think you'll find my soldiers a cut above even by your standards."

Still not convinced, Sabo snorted, "I doubt the arms you can provide are any different than the ones we can buy and smuggle ourselves." Smirking, I reached into my inventory and pulled out a small dagger, "This is what I'm offering."

I slid the weapon across the table, which Dragon caught under his hand, "While I admit it is an excellent blade, I do not see what's so special about it."

"Press the button on the pommel, but point it up in the air if you will." Dragon did so against Sabo's warning, which created a strong gust of wind that caused a hole to form overhead in the clouds.

After a second, the wind disappeared, leaving a grinning Dragon, "How did you design such a tool? I don't feel any weight from a mechanism?" I smiled at the success of my negotiation, "That's because it's not from a mechanism, no doubt you have heard of my devil fruits by now."

"The Niku Niku no Mi and the Yami Yami no Mi, at first our spy didn't believe it and after seeing it for myself I still don't," Sabo interjected. Clearing my throat I continued, "Well after surviving my ordeal, I found myself with a new gift. The ability to infuse devil fruit into items."

Sabo inhaled sharply, "We've been trying to figure that out for years, but so far we've discovered nothing."

"Well, then it looks like we might have an arrangement to make."