"Whitebeard doesn't want anything from you," I replied politely.
"Then what brings you here then?" Tom replied, he was now slowly beginning to get curious, "it's rare for the Storm Dragon of the Whitebeard Pirates to leave the New World, you know?"
"I came because I need a new ship," I replied, "The ones that I've been using got wrecked one way or another."
"Then why don't you use one of the four ships that Whitebeard had commissioned from me?" Tom asked, "surely Whitebeard isn't that stingy with his ships?"
"If I wanted to sail with the Moby Dick, I wouldn't be here then," I replied calmly, "I don't like sailing on a huge whale."
"Fine! I'll make the ship for you!" Tom declared proudly, "However, I need payment, and a favor; and I'll make you a ship that will last you centuries!"
"How much do you want me to pay you?"
I was unfazed at the mention of payment, but I was curious as to what kind of favor he would be asking of me.
"Follow me, we can discuss the details inside," Tom replied, and slowly turned to the two young children, "as for you two, stop wrecking things so uphazardly! Someone can easily get hurt you know?"
With that, I followed the huge figure of Tom into one of his offices that was constructed within the harbor. It was a huge office that easily could contain the huge figure of Tom. In the center, a huge desk sat quietly, and behind it; an even larger chair that was large and comfortable.
Tom immediately sat down and beckoned me to sit on one of the chairs that were in front of the desk. It was then that he took something out of his desk, a transponder disrupter snail, and turned it on to tune out any potential eaves-droppers.
"You use Haki don't you?" Tom asked.
"I do"
"Sense if anyone is on the other side of the door, and make sure you keep it that way for the duration of this conversation," Tom immediately instructed.
I said nothing, and immediately placed the entire building under my Observation haki. I could only assume that the favor that he was trying to ask of me was a rather secretive one.
"Now, the payment is going to be a little higher than the regular price, but that comes with a good reason," Tom explained.
"Care to tell me what that reason is?"
"I've been reading a lot of newspapers about you, Boris," Tom explained, "Your activities against the World Government has been extremely noted by other fishmen, and they support it as well."
"That's great and all, but it doesn't explain why I'm paying extra money,"
"Would you shut up for a moment? I'm getting there," Tom exclaimed.
He slowly took out from his desk an old beat up manual with the words 'Pluton' written on the cover. My eyes widened slightly, but I didn't say anything.
"Looking at your expression, I see that you know what this is?" Tom asked curiously.
"I'm rather curious as to why you are showing this to me, this could easily put you on the World Government's must-kill list," I commented, "you know how persistant the World Government is."
"I do," Tom replied, "However, I have slowly come to realize that they already know that I have it."
This words rang like thunder in my ears. The World Government was supposed to actively search for the blueprints after Tom's death, and it would be there that they mistake Ice-burge for having those blueprints; not looking into Franky instead.
"Have they already began to act?" I asked.
"Yes, unfortunately," Tom replied, "We had multiple skirmishes with the Marines, and they would often fling multiple baseless charges on us, but most of them wouldn't stick. However, the ones that would stick would lead them into searching the entire harbor."
"They would wreck everything, as if they were desperately looking for something," Tom explained further, "and most of these searches were mainly situated within my offices, and room as well."
"That's a pain," I commented.
"It is, but they crossed the line last time when they abducted one of my apprentices," Tom stated darkly, "Apparently, the World Government had sent some agents over and tortured him to the brink of death. After seeing that they didn't know anything about it, they kicked him out to the streets and left him to die there."
"The only thing that the apprentice kept muttering as we brought him back to safety was the name 'Pluton', and that's when I finally decided to make a decision," Tom stated.
"What decision would that be?" I commented curiously.
"I'm getting rid of these blueprints, they are simply too dangerous for my apprentices," Tom solemnly declared.
"That's all well and good," I commented, "but I still don't understand why you're telling all of this to me."
"Simple," Tom suddenly stated with a smile, "I want to entrust you with the blueprints."
"That's a stupid idea," I instantly commented back at him, "You barely even know me, and you want to give me blueprints to a weapon of mass destruction?"
"You're right about the fact that I don't know you," Tom began, "Matter of fact, if you didn't come, I would have no choice but to entrust the plans to my apprentice like my master did to me. I wouldn't be happy doing this, but I planned to tell one of my apprentices to destroy it as soon as possible."
"Okay, that explains some part of it," I commented, "but that still doesn't explain why you want to give those blueprints to me."
"Though I don't know you," Tom commented, "I know the fact that you harbour a deep resentment towards the World Government. My master had instructed me that the last group of people that should ever get these blueprints is them."
"So who better to give it to than their number one opposition?" Tom asked brightly.
"Aren't you scared that I'll use it to conquer the World or something?" I asked skeptically.
"Well, I think you could've easily done that when you raided Mariejouise, you know?" Tom smiled before saying.
I looked at him in shock, my eyes were now wider than they were originally.
"How'd you find out?"
"Fishmen talk, word got around about what Whitebeard and you did," Tom laughed at my reaction, "it's like I said, the Fishmen greatly appreciate what you're doing against the World Government."
"There are plenty of organizations and groups that are against the World Government," I countered, "The Revolutionary army being one of them."
"However, the Revolutionary army is still young and naive. They wish to turn over the World Government's order kingdom by kingdom with reason, The World doesn't move on persuation. The only reason that they haven't been caught is because of that elusive brat Dragon." Tom explained, "Even then, they are just biding their time before the inevitable happens."
"Okay, but why a pirate?"
"If you really wanted to conquer the World, you had plenty of oppurtunities to do so, hell, the fact that you aren't a captain of your own crew says alot about your personality," Tom commented.
"What exactly can you tell about my personality, Tom?" I asked coldly. I was slowly getting tired of people assuming that they could read me like a book.
"Isn't it obvious?" Tom asked confused, "You don't care."