[ Third Person POV ]
0 Division Ship
The crew had just crossed into the New World. They didn't even bother stopping by Fishman island because they had already received news that the battle had already begun.
Stussy was sitting on a barrel nearby while reading a newspaper while drinking some tea. Ken, on the other hand, was busy training his new abilities as he continued keeping an eye on the crew. Occasionally, Stussy and the crew would occasionally hear Ken cackle maniacally for a bit.
"Ugh! I can't take this anymore! Can somebody tell lightning brain there to shut up?! I'm trying to nap here!" Pato eventually snapped and yelled.
Ken immediately caught wind of it and appeared right in front of Pato.
"That's rude of you to say! Training requires maximum effort!"
"Your maximum effort is annoying and dumb!" Pato snorted.
It looked like a fight was about to break out between the two, but it was Stussy who interrupted the both of them with a rather worried look as she looked towards the distance. There was a fleet of ships slowly making their way towards them, and Stussy felt that something was off with the fleet.
"Tell everyone to get up and man their stations. We might be in quite a bit of trouble from here on out," Stussy instructed as she put down her tea and newspaper.
She had come to have an intermediate understanding of her devil fruit since she got it from Boris. However, she knew well enough that it would take a long time for her to awaken the Devil Fruit's ability.
Whereas Ken was still getting to know the ropes for his abilities. He already knew the extent of his abilities. However, putting those theories into actual play was an entirely different task on its own.
Anyway, the rest of the crew grabbed their weapons as they stared at the oncoming fleet of ships. Stussy made sure to check that Whitebeard's Jolly Roger was high on their sails before hand. This acted like a repellant that kept most normal pirates away from the ship.
The fleet kept getting closer regardless until the ship leading the fleet stopped right in front of their's.
A ladder was dropped into the deck of the 0 Division, and a man with a open zipped jacket slowly walked onto the deck of the ship without any signs of caution.
"So this is the ship of the 0 Division of the Whitebeard Pirates.....fascinating!" The man remarked.
"Sorry, we weren't expecting visitors at the moment. Our ship is currently under construction back in Water 7. Are you in need of something?" Stussy asked kindly as she stood before the man.
"Oh-ho?! If it isn't the Vice-captain of the 0 Division! It's a dream come true to finally meet you!" The man remarked.
The rest of the man's crew slowly began to trickle onto the ship. The strange thing was that they weren't armed, nor did they seem to have malicous intentions towards the crew. An intention that was the exact opposite of what Stussy had sensed coming from the ship.
'Am I overreacting? I'll just keep my guard up for now..'
Stussy wasn't an idiot. Differentiating intentions with different people was almost like childsplay for her. So if the men of the fleet had malicous intentions hidden, she'd find out about it one way or another. For now, there was no harm of playing friendly with them to find out what they wanted.
"It's nice to know that my name has grown notoriety, but I still haven't caught your's yet.." Stussy said with an ever-so-pleasant smile that she always had for new people she met.
"Oh! My apologies, my name is Eustass Cassius. I hail from South Blue, and was only visiting the New World for some business before I heard about the upcoming battle between your pirate group and the Roger Pirates and the alliance of Big Mom, Shiki and Kaidou. It caused quite the panic for people like us!" Cassius introduced himself and explained.
Ken, who had been quiet and listened in to the conversation between Cassius and Stussy, was keeping an eye on every individual that was on the ship at the moment. He was itching for a fight, and this seemed to be a golden oppurtunity for him to stretch his legs and see how far he could push his new abilities.
"That doesn't explain what you are doing here. You should be grateful that we gave you the chance to land on our deck. The Division Commander would have made us sink you guys without second thoughts," Ken snorted while eyeing Cassius.
Cassius laughed for a bit before clearing his throat.
"Make no mistake, we aren't here with malicous intentions. We simply came here to introduce ourselves and offer you hospitality should you reach South Blue. We don't know how the Whitebeard Pirates operate, but one thing is certain for traders like us: We can never be too lax on security. So if you can put in a good word for us to your Division Captain and Captain, we would really appreciate it," Cassius said before he bowed.
"I'll see what I can do, Cassius. If there's an oppurtunity to ensure the prosperity of the Whitebeard Pirate's territory. We won't hesitate to explore that oppurtuinity to the max," Stussy replied with a smile before shaking Cassius' hand.
The two of them made a bit more of small talk before Cassius got back on his ship and left with his fleet.
The entire Division had remained on guard for the duration of Cassius stay, and didn't let it down up until they were clearly out of normal eyesight. It was a rare sight to see a fleet just stop by for greetings and leave without causing any trouble.
"Ms. Stussy, do you think that they had something in mind when they did that? They were pretty bold for landing on our ship like that," Ken commented while facing the direction that the fleet had gone in.
"I'm not sure what their goal was for stopping us out of the blue like that. However, we should remain vigilant for the meantime, and I'll make sure that Boris gets word of what just happened," Stussy commented.
With that, the Division proceeded to patrol around the territory that was closest to Whole cake island. Stussy had been coordinating with the few Division Commanders that Whitebeard had assigned to watch over the territory while they were fighting.
Nothing much had happened outside of the battle. The World Government and Marines had been strangely quiet throughout the entire ordeal, and other pirates simply didn't dare step foot on the Territory because they were fearful of earning Whitebeard's ire should he return to the seas after the battle.
It also didn't help that Whitebeard had a Division Commander who was almost if not equal to him in terms of strength. As of the moment, the Whitebeard Pirates were basically untouchable, nobody would be safe if they decided to start a conflict with them.
"Everything is looking good so far, I wonder when the battle will end..." Ken contemplating while setting down his transponder snail. He had been in contact with a Division commander who was patrolling a territory that was dangerously close to the battle.
"Division commander Kingdew just confirmed that the battle had reached its apex earlier on before he called," Ken reported to Stussy, "I think it won't be too soon before the war ends."
"That's good," Stussy remarked, "we can finally go and pick him up after the fight. I know he isn't too happy about having to sail about without his trusty crew."