Rascal, Reacquainted

He probably should have at least found out when the meeting was set to happen, because right now he had been sat down for around a half hour if the clock on the wall was anything to go by, which more often than not it was.

At least he didn't have to deal with any Marines invading the room. For some reason, one he assumed to be fear, they were unwilling to forcefully remove him, instead sending letters via several birds in the window. Each of them requested he surrender himself, so he immediately declined.

Dante had no plans to be executed, or enslaved, no thank you. There was only really one plan that he had, and that was to simply be happy and financially stable. This was a... side quest of sorts. 'A bit of tomfoolery' he thought, chuckling to himself slightly at the unusual word choice.

Despite Dante's admittedly childish nature, he was still an extreme threat, which is why when the first group of people entered the room he was met with a pleasant surprise. It was just a trio of old people. 'The hell is this?'

"Listen I get that the Marines aren't exactly being funded well but is this really good work practice? Using the elderly?"

"You got a lot of nerve putting your shoes on this pristine table, Dante. I should put you in the ground just for breathing near me, let alone getting dirt on my furniture."

Dante needed to do a double take, the voice he most certainly knew as Sengoku belonged to one of those old bastards! No wonder, old men in this kind of profession must be strong. If that's anything to go by, the old bastard picking his nose and the old woman watching him in disgust should be damn strong themselves as well.

"Well, well well. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were mad at me, Sengoku."

The twitching eye, clenched fist and tightly held jaw certainly made that easier to notice, but Sengoku managed to steel his fury and withhold it temporarily. Emphasis on temporarily, though, as the glare he gave Dante upon sitting down spoke volumes of his patience.

"You may not be the first pirate to come here willingly, but after today I will make sure you are the last. I grow tired of these scoundrels believing themselves higher than justice."

"Heh, that ain't my problem pal. Now, I say introductions are in order. After all, you'll be seeing quite a lot of me if all goes well."

Pointing a shaky finger at himself and his colleagues, Sengoku had to mentally restrain himself from reaching over and strangling Dante there on the spot. He didn't want to start a battle he might not win, or one that would cause such damage to the fortress.

"Sengoku. Fleet Admiral. Garp. Vice Admiral. Tsuru. Vice Admiral. Now just what exactly do you want? Most pirates don't use diplomacy, and this just feels like a thinly veiled intimidation tactic."

"Pfft. Nah, I ain't here for none of that. If I wanted to intimidate you I'd do some cliche shit like hostages or something. Nope, I'm just here to meet the Shichibukai and make a request."

"We don't offer pirates any assistance."

"Oh, Sengoku, you sweet summer child. If I needed your help with anything, I'd question how I let myself go so much. All I ask is that you get a message to me if you spot my brother."

"And why should we agree?"

For the first time since arriving, Garp had spoken. His expression was stern, and seemingly held a glint of resentment which was to be expected of a high ranking marine.

"Well, that's pretty simple actually. Cause if you don't, then you'll have to deal with him yourselves, and he holds far less reservations about staging a one man coup than I do."

Despite how it may seem, Dante had a plan with this move. Not only would he introduce himself to the Shichibukai and see if he could get his hands on government immunity, but he would also shift the heat from himself to Vergil.

He didn't need their information of his whereabouts, he could probably spend 10 minutes looking and find him, no he simply wanted to have the Marines fuck with Vergil and see how much it annoys the bastard. It was, for all intents and purposes, extremely petty. Then again, it would also be nice to have updates on what he's doing.

"Anyways, now that we've gotten all acquainted with each other, I think I'll be waiting for those Shichibukai to come. You guys do refreshments?"

In the middle of talking Dante had risen from his chair and walked around the table, patting Sengoku on the shoulder as he went. By the time he passed the man, he had been all but expecting the fist that was sent careening towards his spine.

Spinning around on his foot, Dante immediately threw the fist upwards with a straight knee, fracturing the bone despite the Haki hardening coating it. From there, he tucked under the arm and placed his palm over Sengoku's face, violently smashing the mans head down against the table, shattering both his nose and the table itself.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Sengoku. The same still applies. You'll lose, no matter what."

With that final piece, Dante left the room, glad that the other elderly folk hadn't tried to assault him either despite his expectations.

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'Well... now what?' Dante questioned into the empty abyss that was his mind, unable to find anything he could do to pass the time. His first real option was to simply sit in the lobby and wait for another couple hours.

The second, more rational option, was to see what he could find around here. Its not everyday a pirate gets to explore this place, and Dante had expected to be rummaging through its ruins right about now so it was a somewhat pleasant idea.

'Kinda boring though. Not exactly the most pulse-pounding activity. Just walking.' He groaned in utter dismay that a man with as much power as he had nothing fun to do.

Looking around and being met with the frightened gaze of several Marines who wanted nothing more than to go about their day, he decided that this wasn't all he chalked it up to be. The only real fun that could be had would be utterly destroying the Marine command infrastructure and he quite liked that old bastard Sengoku.

'Screw it, I'll go find something to eat. I'm sure they got good food here.'

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It seemes that going to the mess hall was a mistake. The second he opened those long double doors he was met with a sea of faces, each paling in terror except for one distinct man, current resting and on medical leave.

"you... YOU!"

The resounding fury in Admiral Sakazuki's face was a sight to behold, one that Dante would remember for decades to come. Akainu was boiling over with anger, literally given the piping hot magma spilling from his sleeves.

"Ah! Hey Akainu, fancy seeing you here. Say, is it getting a little hot in here?"

Damn near every Marine had evacuated the building by that point. The only remnants were the valiant chefs who refused to leave their kitchen behind.

"I've been waiting for this moment. The day where I get to crush your mongrel skull between my palms, burn you alive from the inside out and liquefy you! My hands will relish ending you, here and now!"

Shifting into a lazy unarmed stance, Dante decided to humour Akainu. Admittedly he wanted to see just how much he could piss off the man before he gave up and accepted that Dante was stronger, see how much of an ass whooping it would take to curb that ego.

"Heh, alright then. I'm on a time limit, let's make it snappy, yeah?"

Several hundred droplets of magma were thrown at Dante, with hundreds more directly above him, each hot enough to melt through the floors of the fortress as Dante danced around them, elegantly bouncing from foot to foot in a well practiced routine.

He bounced on a table covered in trays of food from those who ran before the battle could start, bowing to an imaginary audience before abruptly ducking beneath a Haki coated punch, followed by several tens more that were blocked hastily by Dante's boot.

With the tempo shifted, Dante Tricked above Akainu and spun himself in the air, using the added momentum to land a devastating kick to Akainu's shoulder, rendering his left arm utterly useless for the remainder of the battle.

From there he continued dodging the much sloppier attacks and throwing simple jabs in between, doing his best to piss Akainu off as much as possible through his 'mosquito combat' as he had dubbed it. Then, after using his singular brain cell to make a cohesive plan, Dante grinned.

Summoning a Doppelganger, Dante had his clone unleash a kick on both of Akainu's knees, dropping him to the ground before following up with a kick to the back of the head, throwing him into the stone floor of the base, all the while the original Dante had grabbed a metal tray to use.

Rolling the tray into a makeshift bat, he nodded to his Doppelganger who lifted Akainu, whose wounds had long since reopened and begun to bleed extensively, by the feet before grinning and hurling the man towards himself face first, watching with glee and anticipation.

Dante took a deep breath, held his bat tight and closed his eyes... then swung with the might of Zeus and watched with awe as the bat shattered upon impact with Akainu's form, sending the man directly into a wall, leaving him a crumpled mess against it.

"Woo! Home run, baby! MVP: Dante Sparda!"

Yet again, in a mirror of their first meeting, Dante stood strong and with a smile on his face, while Sakazuki lay bloody and broken on the floor.

Dante looked around for any remnants of his bat, until awkwardly he noticed that the angle with which he had whacked Sakazuki had led to his lower jaw being torn off his face in a grizzly fashion, with it now being sat against Dante's boot.

"Talk about jaw dropping."

...

'That was weak as hell. I gotta work on my puns, I've become an amateur.'

And with that, Dante left the mess hall, having been thoroughly entertained. It was starting to become a game at this point, 'How many times will Akainu get back up?'.

It was, quite honestly, a very one sided game that basically tested how much Akainu was willing to live. If the man challenged Dante again then it would more than likely be his last action taken.

Alas, the game was currently put aside, as Dante now had to explain that it was simply a goof and that he almost murdered a Marine Admiral in self defence.

'Wait a minute... I don't have to explain shit. I'm only here for the Shichibukai. The hell do I gotta care for? He started it anyway.' His genius grew with every second.

He had been using far too much diplomacy for the joint strongest being in this universe.