The Grandline, Jaya, Mock Town. The main hub of pirates in the paradise side of the Grandline.

This place was a lot worse than a certain dark mantle could have expected it to be. But even amidst those filthy streets, powerhouses sat unconcealed. One such was Crocodile, a pirate with a bounty of eighty million bellies and a candidate to become warlord, yet to be confirmed.

He sat in a bar reading newspapers and smoking tobacco, next to him was another man drinking booze, a baldy.

"Thanks to those bastards now there are marines everywhere" He groaned and brushed through the pages, still recalling the incident that took place in Sabaody two years ago and the reason why he hadn't been able to mobilize with his plans for two years.

It was all thanks to the dark mantle brat with mental health issues. 

"These damned rookies causing a ruckus all over the place and making things more difficult for us" Mr 1 downed his cup, the two had an objective but many hurdles. Crocodile becoming a warlord would mean that they could move unhindered within their destination, Alabasta. But now, due to the incident two years ago there were more marines sailing in the region than ever before, The recruitment processes hastened up and promising marines were joining the fleet on a daily basis.

"I heard marine fleets were sent to each kingdom as a security measure".

"That is just a temporary measure. All that matters is that I become a warlord now, and then... the first step to obtain Pluton can be achieved".

"Where did you even hear that rumour, Mr 0?".

"From a crewmate, a long time ago".

"Did you belong to a crew?" The baldy frowned as from the start Crocodile didn't look like someone who followed orders.

"Stop prying up my past, bastard... the past is the past and as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist" It was clear he didn't want to share details about his earlier days.

"Let's stand by in Mock Town for now. There is another objective I need to accomplish if I want to become a warlord, we need more reputation or else some of those rookies are going to become more prominent candidates".

"And how exactly are you going to do that?"

"There is a certain pirate here that's causing a bit of commission and also, he is being considered by the Marines to take a spot as Warlord, his name is Peter Hornigold. What a bunch of madlads, to consider such an evil beast as a candidate..."

"You want to hunt him? we wouldn't be the only ones" Mr 1 looked around, there were dozens of crews all over the area and they all seemed to be looking for a single person.

"This Hornigold seems to have made an enemy out of a load of crews. It is going to make things easier, once he's weak after fighting all of them, we reap the profits and go. Simple and concise".

"Standard procedure..." Mr. 1 downed his cup and their plan was set, the only thing they needed was to wait for the commotion to start.

**

**

In one of the darkest and most putrid alleyways of Mock Town, a young beauty with a curvaceous body, short dark hair and blue eyes was walking long strides away from the main spots in Mock Town.

She had worked as an informant here for the better part of three years after giving up on joining any pirate crew. As long as she concealed her accursed face, there couldn't be a problem. She was literate and capable of processing information quickly, the beauty had her way with words and could easily attain what she wanted in terms of data.

But recently things had become more complicated in Mock Town with powerful pirates rushing in one after the other and corpses found all over the streets. For even a place filled with pirates and tyrants, things were starting to get a little bit insecure.

"It is not safe for me to stay here anymore, too much attention. I need to find an opportunity to flee..."

The biggest question in her mind was where to go. She had some money saved that could allow her to sail to a nearby country, but the job she had partaken in until now was most profitable in Jaya.

Just as she tried to cross a corner, she ended up bumping against somebody.

!!!

For her, it felt like she bumped into a mountain, but the opposite party was a taller slender lady. However, when she saw the white coat on her back, the cloaked lady panicked.

'Marine!'.

"Are you alright?" The marine lady in question bent down to help the person whom she bumped into but the opposite party had no business with her.

'Rear Admiral Momousagi Gion and also...Vice Admiral Tsuru... what are they doing in Mock Town?!'.

This place was notorious for one thing, Marines didn't like stepping here if they could help it and yet one of the most infamous ones was here, concealed in the shadows of a creepy alleyway.

The old lady Tsuru watched the cloaked girl leave without exchanging even a word, she frowned profusely while Gion frowned in distaste, "Hmph! Could have at least been polite".

"You expect too much from a hurting girl".

"Do you know who she is?"

"The Demon Child from Ohara, Nico Robin".

"Shouldn't we apprehend her!?" Momousagi prepared to go, the person in question had a bounty of eighty million bellies, but Tsuru stopped her and shook her head.

"We're not here for her today, we're here for the ex-member of SWORD, Peter Hornigold".

Tsuru was holding a wanted poster. It was Peter Hornigold, the man in question had a black hat, and tux and his face had a skull mask. His eyes were grey and lifeless and beneath that mask a smile could be seen.

"He has gone insane, with a crew of two more pirates he has been seen plundering goods and shamelessly slaughtering anyone that crosses the path of his desires, he must be eliminated before his identity as an ex-marine unveils" Momousagi sighed and brushed her coat, Both of them kept walking seamlessly through these alleyways, trying to not get too much attention.

"He deserted SWORD. It is our responsibility to hunt the monster that we created".

"But he has eaten a devil fruit, and a logia at that... it is said to be one of the most powerful ones that exist. The Yami Yami no Mi".

"I can't believe that such a horrible bastard is being recommended to be a Warlord after what he did to Zephyr, What in the world is Sengoku thinking?" Tsuru rubbed her forehead in a mixture of confusion and disappointment, this wasn't the justice she stood up for dozens of years ago.

"You know more than anyone that he has orders to follow, Tsuru".

"The justice of this organisation has dulled over time, to the point it doesn't resemble the same organisation I joined fifty years ago".

"When I become an admiral, I'll make sure to thoroughly clean it!".

"If only it was easy to become an admiral, more so to clean years and years of corruption".

"We won't know until we try".

Tsuru smiled, at least she had hope that amongst the new generations of marines, there were those that genuinely wanted a change, 'For old farts like you and me it is impossible Garp, but these new fellows if lead correctly, could change the world'.

"Keep your eyes open. This man is dangerous, swift and merciless... don't even think of chatting or entertaining him, the moment you see him, engage immediately... we can't allow ourselves to be seen in public if we can help it. This is Mock Town, we're the only clean souls around these borders".

***

If we reach the top 10 by the end of this week, I’ll mass release seven chapters, let’s go!

For every 300 stones in webnovel, I’ll deliver an extra chapter. The schedule is one chapter a day during the week and if ya’all lucky then I’ll post during the weekend as well.
Feel free to look for my http://pa-tre-on.com/photosphere for advanced chapter tiers: (5 x 2$), (15 x 13$) and (30x 23$)