Sabaody Archipelago___
Inside a large bar, many pirates were enjoying the alcohol and talking about different pirate matters.
At one such table near the window, five pirates were drinking rum and conversing loudly.
"Hey, you heard of the 'Devil' right?"
The pirate with a black eye patch on his left eye, with thick black beard, held on his rum bottle and asked.
"The Devil? Of course I have heard of him! Who hasn't!"
Opposite to the eye patched pirate, a blond hair pirate said with a smirk on his face.
"Is it true that the Devil is immortal?"
Beside the blonde pirate, a female pirate wearing seductive clothes, questioned.
Seeing her ask, the eye patched pirate grinned and leaned forward towards her.
"It's true. Don't tell anyone but I have this information from my friend who is part of the Devil's Pirates. He said that the Devil is truly immortal."
He leaned even further towards the female pirate while showing as if he was only giving an answer instead of trying to take advantage.
Bam!
"Whatever! If he has courage! Come fight me! Lubin Bahu! I shall beat the shit out of that Devil or Demon!"
The one opposite to the female pirate, a pink haired pirate who was small in size declared while hitting the rum bottle on the table.
"Haha! Exactly! Let him come here get a beating from me as well!"
The last one, a young pirate with a very handsome face who was getting glances from the female pirate spoke.
"Idiot! What if someone heard us? If the Devil's Pirates knew what you said, they would kill your entire family or even bloodline!"
The eye patched pirate was pale as he looked around the bar to see if anyone had heard the two from their group.
"It's not like the Devil is here!"
The blonde said with a smile and tried to console the eye patched pirate.
Not far from them, a tall man about 4 meters in height sat all alone next to the window.
Because there were many tall and big pirates present in the bar, this particular man didn't stand out.
"I heard itโฆ"
Muttered the man with a tiny smile on his face as he lifted the wine glass and looked towards the five pirates who talked about him just now.
His eyes shone in a multi-color light. Each color represents a certain emotion.
๐๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ? ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐, ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฐ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ. ๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ, ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ. ๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅโฆ
Akuma took a sip and placed the wine glass on the table again. The bar was quite rowdy because of all the pirates.
"It's about time for me to meet a legend from the past, "Right Hand of the Pirate King"."
As he stood up, few other individuals amongst the people together with the pirates also stood up.
The bar turned quiet as Akuma walked with slow steps to the front door and then stopped.
Following him were Joker with a mask to cover his face from being recognized.
Beauty and Lancelot, who stood on the side to give Akuma the way as they were nearest to the door.
Not one of the people in the bar expected these individuals to be personally present here and now.
"The wine is good. A little quiet atmosphere would have been perfect."
Saying so, Akuma turned and exited the bar with Joker, Beauty and Lancelot.
* * *
Gulp.
The pirates and waiters, they all stared at the front door with horror in their eyes.
"W-was he t-the De-"
The blonde had his eyes wide open, his legs shaking like leaves in a storm.
"G-Guys, do you think h-he heard me say t-that?"
The young pirate who not long ago was showing off his courage and pride, asked while he held his chest in terror.
He felt as if his heart was going to jump out of his chest when Akuma's eyes met his.
"Hey! Hey! Lubin has fainted!"
The pink haired pirate who was declaring to fight against Akuma was now cold on the floor.
"Wasn't he the Devil!"
"That was Joker and Lancelot!"
"Who was she with the Devil? I haven't seen her before?"
The bar immediately turned into an uproar as all the people inside expressed themselves.
Some were scared, some were excited, some were worried and some were in despair.
But one thing was sure, that the news of the appearance of the Devil was going to spread like wildfire.
* * *
Akuma looked up at the top of the high ground where there was a bar with a round roof.
Shakky's Rip-off Bar, It is infamous for its high prices. It is run by Shakuyaku, most commonly known by her nickname Shakky.
"I can feel two people inside."
Akuma stared at the bar from below the stairs, his eyes scanned throughout.
With the help of his logia devil fruit, he could feel the presence of anything in the air around him or till a certain distance from him.
"One is a female, it should be Shakky but the other? This one is different from what I am expecting."
Akuma pulled out a cigar from the system and lit it. White smoke rose as he exhaled.
"Captain, how do we enter?"
Joker walked next to Akuma and rubbed his palms together showing his excitement.
"Do we need a way to enter? Go go straight from the front door."
Akuma stepped on the stairs as Joker, Lancelot and Beauty immediately followed.
Clank.
The front door opened as Akuma lowered his body to enter inside the bar.
As he had felt, there were two figures inside the bar. One was Shakky and the other was a familiar one.
A relatively slim and tall woman with short black hair, with two tufts pointing upwards and is always seen smoking a cigarette. Shakky looks very young despite her old age.
Behind the counter, Shakky gulped as she stared at the people who entered her bar.
Not just her, the other one was also thinking about the current situation with a grave expression.
"What do they call you? Ah! Wasn't it, "Magician"."
Akuma looked at the man, called Basil Hawkins. an infamous pirate from North Blue and the captain of the Hawkins Pirates.
He is one of pirates who are referred to as the "Worst Generation", with a bounty of 249 million berries.
"How lucky you are to have come here today at this time."
Akuma pulled a chair closer and sat on it in the middle of the bar while glancing around.
"What has attracted such a big person to this extremely small bar in Sabaody Archipelago?"
Shakky sat straight and asked with a worried expression. It definitely wasn't good news for the Devil to visit their home.
All that could come might be just destruction.
"Right Hand of the Pirate King, where is he?"
Akuma stared at Shakky as he smoked his cigar, the atmosphere in the bar had turned silent.
Joker found a seat beside the window, Lancelot stood next to the front door guarding it.
Beauty observed the two, Shakky and Hawkins with great interest.
๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ?... Hawkins glanced towards Shakky with some surprise not expecting this small bar to have such a secret.
"How can I know that?"
Shakky tried to give a bitter smile but Akuma's indifferent face made her fear the possibilities of what he might do if she didn't tell him the truth.
"You must know me, Akuma. That's my name. I am not someone who can be lied to so easily.
I will ask again, this time more specific. Where's the "Dark King", Silvers Rayleigh?"
Akuma stood up and walked towards the counter, his shadow covered Shakky entirely.
"I-I, I really don't know! He hasn't been back in almost a year!"
Shakky answered with a terrified face, her hands shaking as she backed away from Akuma.
"Really? If so, you are unlucky."
Akuma said in an emotionless tone. Joker, who was sitting beside a window, vanished suddenly and appeared behind Shakky.
"No! Please no! N-No!"
A solid metal chain tied around her neck, Shakky with her eyes wide open tried to free herself but Joker didn't let her to.
"Hahaha! Feel it! The Death! Welcome it! Welcome with open arms!"
Joker pulled the ends of the chains with more strength as Shakky's struggle slowly started decreasing.
"P-Please! Save m-me! N-No!"
With her last effort of kicking on the floor, Shakky's life left her body as it fell without any resistance.
The bar was quiet once again. Hawkins was sweating as he watched the entire process of Shakky's death and her struggle.
His eyes moved towards Akuma to see that he was looking at him with a plain look.