Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months while I continued my crusade. Before I had the time to completely clean up the west the reporters got wind of what I had done in the south and realized why I had come to the west. They started camping out at the marine bases waiting for me to turn in more bounties and take a few pictures for their articles.
The Blues were quickly becoming a bit less dangerous for the civilians of the world. The pirates on the other hand were being hunted down like dogs. So far only a handful of those forced to help the pirates had survived to tell the tale from the safe confines of their prison cells where they believed I couldn't get them.
The stories they told said that I was a giant with a living fire chain that could burn anything, and that I hunted and skinned pirates for fun because one made the mistake of looking at my food one day. Now this was obviously exaggerated nonsense as I have yet to skin anyone and I'm not a giant either. I did catch a pirate at a bar while I was eating but that was just because I recognized him and it was better than chasing him down, which I had realized was the most irritating part of hunting pirates. Since I didn't have geppo yet I couldn't fly to the pirate ships and had to catch them, then jump aboard without accidentally splitting my ship in half.
When people asked who I was I just told them I am vengeance, and that those who harmed the innocent would feel the wrath of the Ghost Rider. This spread the name of the Rider across the world, the civilians were excited as they felt they had a new guardian that they could trust. The pirates on the other hand felt a chill when they heard my name, i had become their new boogeyman.
When I was finished with the west I set off for the north with my stockpile of beli and a new transponder snail so I could chat with Vegapunk. He sounded like a surprisingly alright guy and using a few sketches I sent through the Marines he already finished the shotgun and chain. He was using a special alloy he had just created that was far better than steel to make those and the motorcycle, which intrigued him greatly. I had to send him all my body measurements to make sure the bike was built right but judging by the way he sounded he was off in lala land thinking about things.
Hopefully I didn't just start another industrial revolution by basically telling him how to make a internal combustion engine. O well I told him I would power it with my devil fruit so maybe he'd leave it alone but, just incase it was out of the bag so to speak, I went ahead and had him add it to the ship design as well as some side thrusters at the front for faster turning speed. This excited him as he new it could make ships far more maneuverable than before if he could make it work.
In exchange for that idea I talked him into making all the metal parts and engine for the ship like the battleship cannons I had him make for me. Those also threw him into another round of day dreaming about how much more efficient they would be just with rifling. By the time it was done it would be an old school sailing ship with a modern propulsion and maneuvering system, and have adjustable battleship turrets like off a modern battleship. Add on she'll be the size of the Yonta Maria and made of Adam wood she'll be the most dangerous ship around, then after I fully imbue her she'll most likely be on par with Pluton which will really piss off the government when they find out. Not gonna lie I'm really looking forward to hellfire battleship turrets and the ridiculous amount of destruction they'll put out.
In the north I managed to get ahold of some more Adam wood but I still need about four times what I had. My arrival had caused the pirates to panick and organize a mass ambush on about two dozen marine ships for supplies so they could make for the grandline. I saved them all and gave them the pirate ships in exchange for transporting the wood to Marineford to store, which Sengoku signed off on.
The east really was the weakest and it only took me three weeks to get rid of the big names I also had to deal with nobles from the Goa kingdom since they ambushed me one day while I was turning in bounties.
I got something in return though, apparently people had realized I was gathering Adam wood and they tried to use that to make me work under them. I however had different plans, trying to impress me they took me to one of their mansions. They got shit faced and I managed to get them to spill a bunch of dirt on all their rival families, just enough that I was able to pressure them to sell me the rather large stock pile they had in their kingdoms vault. They didn't want to deal with another scandal and the wood was more a status symbol than anything for them so it wasnt a loss when I paid them three hundred million beli for it.
With this I only needed a little more wood and I'd be ready to head to water seven to have the ship built. Everything was slowly coming together, my chain and gun were already done, and the design for the ship and the bike were almost done to. I could honestly barely contain my excitement while I pondered our next move.
I could go meet luffy but honestly I'd rather wait till the Marineford war so I just took my temporary crew back to the south blue. After I paid them, the chef and Fenrir were the only ones left. Now if this was before we would be in a bit of trouble but we had been learning how to sail by watching the others during this eleven month long journey. We should be good to go now and headed toward the grandline.
On the way there I went over to check on my partner who seemed like he hadn't really done anything since we started almost a year ago. I of course knew that wasnt true as he was training his haki the whole time, constantly cycling it around his body and attempting to use ryuo. He had managed to completely master the first stage of observation right before we went to sea, and he'd had armament mastered for years now. We couldn't fight on the ship so this was all he could do to improve since they say you need to fight strong opponents to get stronger. I have a feeling when he gets into a real fight with people that can actually cause him some trouble and want to harm him, that he'll really start to shine.
And just like that we arrived at reverse mountain. The grandline was about to have one more powerhouse enter the fray.