31 Some People Never Change

Roughly 8 hours after the crew left Whiskey Peak Abel who was reading the morning newspaper frowned. ' They are going to implement warlord system in 1 week? İs it because Shanks gained a territory that they became anxious and speed up the process? Well... I need to speed up my plan then.'

'' Dark Moon gather! I am announcing our first big mission.'' Abel declared to the crew. A few minutes later whole crew gathered. They seemed sleepy, it was still very early in the morning. Cavendish looked at Abel's comfy chair jealously.

'' Hey, do you have one more of that chair?''

'' No. Captain privilages, you can sit on the deck.''

Cavendish glared at Abel furiously but sat on the deck in the end with rest of the crew. Abel looked at his crew and started speaking casually.

'' There are 3 things I will talk about today. Firstly, I am tired of cooking for you, I am not your mother. One of you go and learn cooking. Nana you learn it.''

Nana looked at him aggrievedly.

'' I am already the navigator! Choose someone else.''

''Ok. Bernard, you learn it.''

'' BOSS! Why don't we just eat it raw?''

Whole crew sighed except for Cavendish who looked at Bernard horrified. Abel deeply sighed at his incompetent crew.

'' Forget about it, I will keep cooking. But anyone who needs to eat needs to train for extra 2 hours as payment. Anyways, now the second thing is about your training. İn the past I didn't mention it because you were trash but now that you are slowly getting decent, you should learn about the existence of haki.'' Abel continued.

'' Oh? İs this thing very useful? Did I lose to you because of that?'' Cavendish asked curiously.

'' Nah. I didn't use haki when fighting you. İt is just that I am significantly more handsome. Fortune favors the handsome after all.''

Cavendish glared at him with a red face while cursing inside. ' That cold and prideful person from before is the same as this prick?'

'' I wrote some manuels for you, read it and implement it in your training program. İf you reach a bottleneck, come and find me. I will kick your ass and fix it.''

Barbossa looked at Abel with a pale face '' C-Captain we are already training for 14 hours a day...''

'' So what? There are 24 hours a day, find a way. The talk about training is over, now let's discuss our first major operation as a crew.'' Before Abel could continue Cavendish interjected with a red face.

'' Didn't you say you were going to train me? Talk about my training!''

'' Well... I wrote the manuels myself, it should count, no?'' Abel made up an excuse as he was a little lazy to train Cavendish himself.

'' YOU! We didn't talk like that! '' Cavendish was furious. He thought he joined a prideful and arrogant person's crew that would shake the world. But this man seemed more and more like a scammer to him.

Abel glanced at him disdainfully.

'' Don't get caught on to small details! Also if you get so angry you won't be handsome anymore and won't be able keep second place! You need to keep second place to highlight my handsomeness more!'' Abel talked trash casually as he waved his hands. Cavendish was furious but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't beat him, he could also not jump into the ocean.

There was actually not much thing Abel could teach someone like Cavendish. His op skills were special to him, as for swordmanship Cavendish was actually even better than Abel. The only reason he lost was all his other attributes were significantly lower. Abel looked at his crew calmly and started explaining.

'' I made a plan to pick up our vice-captain. But this plan has several stages. ''

'' When you recruit him, I will challenge him to a duel! İf he loses he has to give the position to me!'' Cavendish still didn't get over the matter of vice-captain position. He couldn't understand how anyone else was more worthy than him.

'' I will beat him up!'' Bernard supported Cavendish

Nana glared at Abel with jealousy. ' We worked so hard yet not even real crew-members. Who is that vice-captain?'

Barbossa didn't say anything but cursed inside. ' I had designs on that position...'

'' Stop speaking nonsense! The reason I selected her as our vice-captain has obviously a reason. She has an important quality that none of you have!'' Abel talked while looking at them disdainfully. There was silence for a dew seconds as the crew waited for Abel to continue.

'' The reason is... She is smart! I want someone smart on the crew!'' Abel declared exasperated. ' These guys are really not good.'

The crew looked at him indignantly but didn't say anything as Abel continued.

'' Well, she is a person that whole world searches for. Even if we search her for our lifes we might not find her.'' Even in canon she appeared at Alabasta 2 years later not to mention Abel messed the canon. İt was simply too hard to find her.

'' Then, how do we find her?''

'' We don't. She will come to us herself. Have you heard of Crocodile?''

Barbossa shivered as he spoke with a shaky tone. '' C-Captain, are you talking about the rising pirate who has a 80 million bounty? There are rumors that government is considering him for the position of a warlord. He has immense prestige in the first half of grand-line. You are very wise, we should indeed stay away from such a pirate.'' Barbossa spoke and also flattered Abel.

Abel glared at him disdainfully.

'' No! We are taking him down in this 1 week before he becomes a worlord and gets allied to world government. We will also reveal his underground operations to the public and become famous in the process!'' ' I will also get rid of my bottlenecks in the process hopefully.'

Barbossa's face turned pale immediately while others had various reactions.

Cavendish was very happy with this arrengement. '' Good! Let's do it like this. I didn't misjudge you after all. You are a heroic and chivalirous person like me!''

Abel made a weird face. '' What are you talking about? The plan is not over yet! How could we get Nico Robin to find us with just defeating Crocodile? There are many strong people in this world. İt is not like she visits every single one of them. We are also not doing it to be heroes!''

Crew looked at Abel for him to continue. Abel took a sip from his wine as he continued casually.

'' After we become the heroes of Alabasta and gain the royal familie's trust, I will somehow learn about the location of their ancestral treasure, a ponegliph. We are robbing the royal family of Alabasta! Be glad! You are working with the prince of thieves from the legends!'' Abel declared while laughing happily.

Everyone looked at him shocked. ' What the hell?'

Abel actually wanted to take the ponegliph from skypiea since the purpose of attracting Robin would be still completed. But he needed to obtain some sort of fame as well to convince Robin. Otherwise she might feel he was not reliable. Abel continued casually.

'' Anyways, the plan is still not over yet. Even if we obtain the ponegliph, we can't keep it to ourselves. Whole world will want to obtain it. So... to gather everyone's attention to one place, we will sell it on one of the greates auction houses in the world. Robin will also be there definitely. Of course there will be people trying to steal it along the way as well. But we can't let anyone steal it or buy it. After getting Robin to the ship we are ditching everyone and getting out of there without giving anyone the ponegliph! Anyways, any questions?''

Everyone was so stunned that they forgot to ask questions. They just watched Abel with blank faces.

' Defeating a warlord candidate...'

'Robbing a royal family...'

'Scamming everyone at the auction house...'

' What do we do next, captain? Pierce a hole in heavens?'

'' Anyways, Nana what devil fruit did you eat?'' Abel asked curiously

Nana who was stunned came back to earth as she looked at Abel with a red face without speaking.

'' What's wrong? I know you ate a devil fruit. Do you think you can hide it from your captain? Come on tell me!'' Abel's eyes shined brightly as he made a guess. ' Can it be...'

''İt... İt is a cat devil fruit.'' Nana finally admitted with a red face. She knew where this would go.

''OH... A cat devil fruit you say. Not bad, not bad. Come find me when you can transform fully.'' Abel looked at Nana with bright eyes.

' As expected...'

Whole crew watched as their captain act like a kid after explaining his plan to scam the whole world.

'Some people never change...'