Chapter 24 Negotiations Begin

FISHMAN ISLAND- VISTA POV

"Phew, it's nice being back here, it's been months," Haurta said as he walked up next to me.

"Come now, we made good time, all things considered. Three months isn't bad from the Blues to the New World." I replied back with a smirk.

"Mhmmm, I wonder if you're going to keep that smirk when you give Pops the full report" The little demon replied with a toothy grin.

"What do you mean? Everything went how I said it would: I got my sword and I was back within half a year" I replied, mildly confused.

"You're really going to act dumb? Well how about the kid that somehow sold us four Devil fruits, you haven't even told Pops you bought them without permission!" Haruta said as he turned to look at the great ship itself, The Moby Dick situated right outside of the palace. Even being still outside the bubble protecting the city the ship could be seen from this far away. 'It's not like he wouldn't have said 'don't do it'' I thought to myself with a sigh over my minor lie.

"It's not like I could call him over the Snail, the marines would intercept a call from the Blues to the New World in seconds. Plus I'm sure he won't be too mad, for less than a billion Berries he received four fruits, not to mention the Kid himself. You think he'll like him?" I asked with a toothy grin, Haruta looked at me annoyed for a second before he sighed.

"How am I supposed to know that? Pops is weird sometimes…" With his reply most of the conversation ended, and soon we changed our course from the city towards what I like to call the 'Royal Bubble'. Within ten minutes I was back on the main ship with the Old man looking at me expectantly, paying close attention to the amount of loot I brought aboard and set in front of him.

"Ughhhh, who are we at war with Vista?" The old man said with a tired sigh, obviously coming to his own conclusion on the matter at hand. Raising an eyebrow at his deduction I reply with a smile.

"No one? I bought these in the North Blue during my trip…" I said extremely vaguely, eyeing everyone on the main deck, asking with my eyes for them to leave. Pops caught on quickly.

"Alright kids, give us some privacy. Go patrol the island!" Pops ordered, causing everyone to jump with a start and rush towards one of the Commander's ships, well everyone besides Marco. 'They may be my 'family', but sometimes fewer people should know certain things'

"So….. how did you pull this one off Vista?" Marco asked with a lazy expression, leaning against the while eyeing the pile of fruits and graded swords with curiosity.

"Gurarara, I'd like to know that too, I thought I'd have to repel Kaido for you to bring a haul like this" Whitebeard said with his signature laugh before turning to me and asking for an explanation.

"Ok ok, well that's the really odd thing about it. It's just a kid no older than 16." I replied to which they both eyed me with annoyed expressions.

"Explain…" Pops ordered with a tick mark appearing above his brow, obviously wanting to lose the suspense and get the explanation over with.

"Ok but just let me give you a brief explanation of this little monster I found. His name is Fate D. Kal, he's a 'novice' bounty hunter in the North Blue" I replied.

"A bounty hunter eh? What's so scary about him for you to call him a monster?" Marco asked curiously.

"Well, I actually met the kid at the location where I was supposed to buy my sword. Imagine my surprise when we pulled to the Island and all I saw was a bounty ship and burned remains of a pirate ship. The thing that surprised me the most however was that he docked his ship and sent his crew running, staying behind himself and waiting for us" I said with a chuckle as Whitebeard's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"So he stayed to face you by himself, Loyalty, an extremely rare characteristic on this sea. I can only assume that was what piqued your interest in him to lead to whatever 'this' is." Pops deducted to which I nodded confirming his conclusion.

"Yes, but when I arrived I was surprised to see a boy releasing his Haki in all directions. A complete Novice, but with a sentence from me he figured it out in seconds, Observation Haki figured out that quickly is insane…."

"Yeah he sounds pretty interesting, but nothing too crazy. Hell, Kaido was strong enough to take down Marine captains as a child." Marco said not sounding very impressed as he drank from a bottle of rum, Pops nodded in agreement while he took a sip from his giant sake saucer.

"Well if you would let me finish you'd know he took out half my guys and stabbed me hilt deep in the stomach" I said while jumping back to avoid the flood of liquor that would've drenched me, turning towards their reactions I can't help but laugh at them. You rarely see seasoned warriors like them surprised after all.

"Vista… Continue" Pops said, forgetting about his drink and giving me his full attention, Marco quickly followed suit.

"I challenged the boy, obviously hoping to take him away and bring him into the family. I pushed him a little harder than I should have, but the kid was like a sponge. With every strike, I could see weeks of Observation progress, so I pushed. It was about 7 strikes later where the boy was on his knees with a busted arm and hand, but months of training finished in less than ten minutes...." I said with a sigh causing both of my superiors to raise a brow, obviously impressed with the situation.

"Ok, maybe I spoke too soon. But how did him on his knees defeated lead to your crew halved and a sword in your gut?" Marco asked genuinely confused.

"He's a conqueror, he thought you were going to kill him, you either forced him to awaken or tap into it subconsciously," Pops said with a surprised expression. Leading me to do a spit-take at his quick deduction. 'Well, the man has fought in the big leagues for almost 50 years…'

'What! You found one and you didn't bring him with you!" Marco straight up yelled losing his lazy demeanor and turning straight into his Vice-Captain persona. 'That would've been the ideal scenario

"I couldn't just kidnap the kid and force him to join, it wouldn't have worked out. But the problem is his 'Will of the Kings' is like nothing I've ever seen before" I said, not really sure how to explain it.

"Just tell me what happened son," Whitebeard said while leaning forward, focusing even more intently on what I had to say.

"I've been there when you've clashed with Kaido and Big Mom, I've experienced what masters of Conquerors Haki can do, but what he did was different. I had my blades to his neck and just as I was about to pull them away, his eyes lost their sight. In the next millisecond he screamed forcing half the crew on their knees and the others knocked out. Obviously I stood my ground and continued standing over him, then it happened."

"He turn his eyes to me and command I move away from him, I lost all control over my arms as my swords fell from my grasp, in the next second a sword was in my gut and the little prick flicked me off" I said finishing the last part with a smile, looking up from the memories I can see pops sitting there like he's seen a ghost. A glaze over his eyes signifies he's reliving an old memory or something similar.

"Call the boy, set up the precautions to avoid detection..." Pops ordered swiftly causing me to look at him curiously. "Now Vista!" He yelled, causing me to fumble out of my stupor and rush to my ship to grab the snail.

SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTH BLUE

Just as I finished imparting Monet the idea to create a snow tornado I headed for the office, intent on finishing up a few plans before I completely focused on evolving my Observation Haki. Honestly impressed with my patience, considering it has been two months since I received the temptation of my first Epic grade skill orb. But I knew I would lose focus on my Haki training if I got something too good, it's just that Observation Haki is crucial to have a solid foundation, at least in my opinion.

'Still, it would be a boon no matter what I ended up receiving, not to mention the other Rare grade skill orb I have saved as well.' I finished the thought as I walked into my office, surprised to see my snail ringing off the hook.

*Peryperypery* *Peryperypery* *peryper CLICK*

"Hello?" I asked into the snail, visible confusion in my voice as to who could be calling me randomly.

"Hey kid, how have you been? It's been about 2 months since I last heard from ya." Vista answered, honestly surprised me because I'm usually the one to contact him.

"Just training and gathering crew members, nothing too crazy" I replied.

"Crew members? Last I remember you just had the Ancient Zoan boy and one other, how many do you have now?" Vista asked curiously. 'Jeez Haki is crazy, he was able to pick that up from at least two kilometers away, at sea no less' I thought, impressed as I began to answer him.

"In the last few weeks, I managed to get eight, I even managed to secure an extremely competent doctor believe it or not. Still don't have all the ship roles filled but I'm sure I'll get it figured out in no time." I said with faith in my new crew members.

"But what's going on? You never call out of the Blue like this?" I asked confused, he seemed to sweat a little as he began to explain his situation a little, at least that was the vibe I got from the snail.

"Well I hate to spring this on you kid, but Pops would like to speak with you, Immediately…" Vista said, almost sounding apologetic. 'Why…. were the fruits not to his liking? Well I needed to speak with him anyway'

"Uh… ok, I was going to ask to talk with him anyway next time I called you" I said to which he seemed surprised before confirming and passing the snail.

"Gurarara, so you're the boy that's selling devil fruits and graded blades?" I hear a powerful voice ask.

"Yeah…. Didn't you already know that?" I was confused because Vista told me he was already in the loop.

"Hmmmm? Not at all, my son just returned with enough firepower to start a small army..." The old man said, confused as I imagined him turning to Vista with a questioning gaze

"Nevermind that, I heard over the snail you had something you would like to ask me. We're in the same boat actually, so I'll humor whatever you have to say, Gurarara" Whitebeard said with a laugh. Deciding now was the best time seeing as how he seemed to in a good mood, I started the plan.

"It's actually a job request, oddly enough. There is something I desperately want that I am sure is in the New Word. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in your territory" I began describing my request as I could feel the Yonkos' eyebrows raise in curiosity at my odd proposal.

"Well aren't you an odd one….. To ask a Yonko crew to do a job for you, how prosperous, Gurarara" He said not condescendingly but more a poke at my ignorance, obviously expecting me to not realize the magnitude of my request.

"I'm willing to pay with the Smoke Logia and an Ancient Zoan once the item is in my possession" I said to which his laugh ended and I could even hear him spilling liquor in surprise.

"Vista….. Are you one hundred percent sure this call isn't being monitored" I heard him ask as in the background I could hear a bunch of fumbling before he received his answer. "Go ahead kid, what is the job?"

"I want the Darkness Logia, it is a purple-colored fruit that kind of looks like it used to be a bundle of grapes that have been fused together. It's in the encyclopedia" I said to which I received pin-drop silence in return. I waited a minute or so before I heard a rough sigh.

"You want the fruit of catastrophe? A good choice if there ever was one, but I hate to say that your trade doesn't hold weight….." Whitebeard replied while thinking it over.

"A Mythical Zoan and the Smoke Logia, I will also sell you four Zoans and the Ancient Zoan if you personally guarantee my request." I said putting all the cards on the table. Obviously, I know that even with the Mythical Zoan is still not the best trade for them. But with the promise of five more fruits I'd sell to them, I'd say it was easily a fair trade, not even to mention they currently have a stronghold on my business. I could hear him move the snail away to talk it over with what I can guess is his Vice-Captain, Marco the Phoenix.

That was honestly the best deal a man with a crew of his size could ask for, sure the Darkness fruit could easily put one of his commanders at Marco's level or even Admiral level. But with the seven fruits added into the equation, he could possibly add at least 4 Commander-level fighters to his ranks. I'm sure any Captain with decent intelligence would quickly take the deal.

"You have a deal boy, I personally guarantee the success of the mission. I will be sending out my Vice-Captain to personally carry out the search. Now tell me about these Zoans and I will offer you a price" The Yonko 'asked' no, ordered.

"Well, I'll start with the least impressive of the five, which is a goat, bear, and a lizard, all 'base' Zoans. Moving on to the more impressive Zoan, it is a snake model called the Black Mamba, one if not the most deadly snake in terms of venom and speed respectively. Finally the Ryu Ryu No Mi Model: Allosaurus, insanely powerful attack and defensive capabilities." I finished ending with the powerful Anceint Zoan with a brief description, obviously more information was useless on a fruit this powerful.

"500,000,000 for the three normal Zoans, 600,000,000 for the Snake model. 1.9 Billion for the Ancient Zoan" Whitebeard said his offer, seconds later my hands began shaking as I dropped the snail in my stupor. '....Holy shit, I knew there would be a price discrepancy for an Ancient Zoan but I didn't think it would be this big... I just made 10X what I spent and completed my deal. Three Billion Berries.... I can do three guarantied Legendary draws with that much money.'

Looking down I notice the snail looking up at me impatiently, quickly grabbing it I give my answer without a second thought. "Deal"

"Good, I will send a News Bird to pick up the items, expect him to arrive in the morning" Whitebeard said, causing me to realize something I didn't even know I overlooked. 'So that's how Morgan keeps his business running, it doubles as a black market delivery service... ingenious. Always wondered how he kept his business running on cheap newspapers with the government breath down his neck at every turn'

"Now onto my questions, who the hell are you? A conqueror at your age is as rare as they come, not even to mention your ability to find treasures. It's almost more impressive than being one of the few chosen, Gurarara" He finished with a laugh, but out of everything he said the obvious point caused me to break out in a cold sweat.

"..What do you mean by that? I barely have Observation Haki...."