A Home

"Do we have a deal? I think 80 million Belly is quite a fair number personally." John spoke, voice sounding unconcerned as he slowly tapped his index finger against the chair he was in, creating a pleasing rhythm.

"Fair is not the problem, good sir. I will have to wait quite some time to find a buyer for all this gold, and that could take months if I am unlucky." Stated a larger, greasy man from across the table, who was starting to get quite nervous as he was shifting around in a nice business suite and flexing his sweaty hands.

He was one of the appraisers of the currency exchange shop 'Cashing' who introduced himself as Jakka, and was currently haggling to purchase John's gold that he brought in. Both were currently in a back office, trying to make a deal about John's 'found' gold from Banaro Island.

Originally, John was going to sell about 20 million Belly worth of gold to get his head start, but when asking about real estate prices from the hotel employee Doug the night before, he realized that 20 million would be too little to get a reasonable start. So, he decided to take a risk and sell a bit more, he could always claim that the amount he tried to sell on Banaro Island was not everything he had.

"But it has a high purity, and you mentioned yourself that people would kill to get such a large chunk of gold. How could you not find a buyer?"

"Well, um…"

"Besides, you and I both know you can get a solid 100 million from this easily, more if you wait for the right buyer. Why so obstinate?"

"I am not trying to be obstinate sir! We just have limits we can sell to, and you are just barely below our acceptable profit margin!"

John could not help but smile at Jakka. This man may be a good appraiser, but he was a bit to honest when someone who knew what they were doing came along. Now that he said that, it was time to pull back a little.

"So, in the end it is profits after all." John closed his eyes, putting on a little show for Mr. Jakka. Then he slowly opened them again. "You know, I was planning to buy a house in town with this money, set up a shop down the line if I could get my act together."

Jakka pulls back slightly, looking surprised at this new information that was just presented. At first, he looked a bit relieved, before then looking at John a bit more wearily.

"Is that so?"

"It is. To be honest though, I am quite new in town and my reputation does not carry much weight." A small pause, before John casts a somewhat predatory glance at the greasy lender, "Yet, at least."

Jakka frowns at the insinuation, thinking a bit towards John, before narrowing his eyes a bit and speaking. "Yet, huh? So, what are you suggesting?"

John stopped his glancing and put on a cheerier smile. "I will take 75 million instead of the 80. In exchange, I want you to get me a recommendation to a great realtor in town I can meet today who won't mess around and waste my time. Additionally," John looks up at the man making sure to soften his look a bit more, "…I believe I will have need of Cashing's services more in the future, and I would like to be your exclusive client."

Jakka, looking at John while he spoke, finally has a flash of recognition in his eyes as John was speaking. "…an 'in' huh…" Was all the man mumbled to himself.

Jakka stood up and turned towards walked past John towards the exit of the office. "Give me a few minutes." He said, not looking at John but continuing through the front door of the office, into the main hallway.

10 minutes passed as John waited in his chair, twiddling his thumbs, and adjusting his own clothes, a suit he bought from a store on the way here.

Then, Jakka came back through the door, holding a briefcase in his hands before heading towards his manager chair and sitting back down, placing the case on the table.

He opened the briefcase for John to see, and it seemed to contain a large amount of Belly. Then, he pulled out a piece of paper from one of his desk drawers, and a business card from the top of his desk by his name plaque. He took out a pencil to write something on the paper before placing that and his business card on the open briefcase.

"75 million Belly in bills, which you can take now, as well as my personal den den mushi number and the location of a realtor here who can help you out. I will call them in a few minutes to let them know you are coming and you can tell them to call me if they have a problem with something."

He looks expectantly at John, still wary but having a little hope behind his eyes. He then extends his hand to John, fishing for a handshake.

"Do we have a deal?"

John smiles at Jakka. "Indeed, we do."

Two hands clasp as the deal is made.

A few minutes later John is seen exiting Cashing with his smile slowly sliding off his face and holding an empty briefcase in his right hand. Eventually, his face settled on a neutral expression as he walked down the street. He had already sold the money inside the briefcase to his Devil Fruit, so it was 'safe', no point pulling an Usopp and risk getting his money nabbed by someone.

John was honestly surprised by how quickly they were willing to meet with him and take the gold off his hands. He thought that Luffy and Nami got served quickly in the series because they were wanted pirates, but it seemed Cashing just took anyone off the street that they could make a profit off. And John with his lack of reputation was supposed to be an easy target, or so they thought.

It is hard to swindle a man who knows the exact prices things are worth.

He slowly sighed to himself as he walked away from the exchange shop, following the new directions given to him by Jakka to meet with this suggested realtor. If all went well, John would have a house today too.

His day wasn't even half over yet and he was exhausted.

The plan of the day was the boring task of selling the gold he 'found' to create a trail of wealth that people could find in case they wanted to look at his past.

If John were anywhere else, he would not be too worried about treading so carefully like this. It was almost to the point of paranoia, that John honestly could trace all the way back to Banaro Island. In some moments, John wondered why he tried so hard to hide himself and his power. The world of One Piece had a lot of cool and understanding people in it, surely everyone had a few secrets to hide, right? What was one more suspicious person?

But then John thought about the CP9 here at Water 7 and decided to keep being paranoid.

The last thing John wanted was a group of assassins sponsored by the military who had spent years undercover for the blueprints of a mega-weapon to suddenly be suspicious of him, at least with his current prowess. Especially with a man like Blueno around who's Devil Fruit could be used to spy on John from some weird alternate dimension. No, that didn't make him nervous at all!

Sure, he could try to take the fight to them by somehow trying to poison them or shoot them down when they would least suspect it, but if he failed any attempt to take them out, he would surely be dead, or captured.

And when John thought of that, he wasn't sure what would be worse, dying quickly and ending his journey right away, or the government learning about his power and enslaving him to be some sort of factory with his Devil Fruit.

He was going to act paranoid for a bit.

Still, with all his worrying combined with his walking, John finally found himself in front of a building down the road with a large, gaudy sign that read 'Houses 4 U'.

John looked at the place and sighed loudly, making a lady walking by him jump at the sudden noise and almost dropping her groceries. John apologized as the lady gave him a dirty look.

John knew this place was most likely a legitimate business with good deals and contacts, the name just sucked.

John approached the entrance and opened the door, setting off a jingle of bells to let the employees know a customer was here. Looking around, John noticed the tacky white walls, the motivational posters, the certificates that were out of date, and a pretty secretary who was reading a book behind a poorly maintained desk with detritus all over it.

John had somehow walked into a used car shop.

The lady behind the desk looked up from her book at John, and after noticing his fancy suit and briefcase gave him a goofy smile as a fire was lit in her eyes.

John thought that she was attractive woman. She had a gorgeous face with a lovely smile, great posture, some nice curves…

"Like, welcome! Houses 4 U, 'cuz, like, who else will, like, you know. What can I, like, do for you, stud-man?" The woman spoke with an incredibly grating voice that John's imagination equated to a fiend from the pits of the Earth pretending to be a young schoolgirl. It sounded like a mix of a Southern California valley-girl accent, and a dumpster fire.

Suddenly, John was not as interested anymore.

"Why hello there. My name is John, and I am looking for a house to buy. I believe someone may have called earlier on my behalf?"

The girl flashed a lovely smile at John which could have melted a man like Sanji in an instant, though all John could think of was a voice that was the embodiment of a drowning rubber chicken.

"Like, yeah, we've been waiting for you! Boss in the back through the door, go on ahead!"

Mercifully, the woman pointed to the door and then sat back down. She gave John another lovely smile before returning to her book.

John mentally sighed to himself as he went around the lady and towards the back door, before pulling it open and entering. Once again, John noticed the room was full of cheap furniture, too many things on the walls, and smelled heavily of smoke.

As he continued to look around, John finally noticed a man sitting at the shoddy desk in the center of the room holding two cigars, one in each hand, and taking turns smoking each one individually. He was a shorter man dressed in a poorly fitting suit that was too big for his size he had short spiky hair that was orange in color, and he somehow looked too lanky for his body.

John didn't realize he had entered some Bizarro land.

"John, right? Take a seat, I don't got all day, and I was told you were probably in a hurry too."

John considered the man sitting in front of him and smiled. While a bit off-putting, it was nice to finally meet someone who was blunt and to the point, kind of like Billy was. Maybe those were the people he worked with the best?

John took the seat opposite the man, who didn't bother to offer it, and placed the empty suitcase on the ground. Then, John started speaking.

"I am looking for a building that I can use as a half-house, half-business. Whether the house part is behind the shop portion or on another floor, I don't really care. It has to have 2 bathrooms, one for personal use and one for customer use, and I would prefer if it had enough space for a study or a gym, though that is optional."

The man looked at John as he spoke, though he never stopped inhaling his cigars. After a few seconds once John put out his request, he finally put out his cigars with a nearby ashtray, which John was sure was not proper for smoking cigars.

"Price range?"

"Preferably 60 million, but I can go up to 70 if need be."

The man nodded at the answer. "I got the perfect place then."

The man turned his chair around and started scooting over to a counter nearby, filled with a large amount of disorganized papers. Digging through them, the man eventually pulls out a folder, scoots back towards the desk, and places it in front of John.

Opening it up, John sees a what seems to be a blueprint of a floor plan, as well as a picture of the front of a canal side home.

"Capet house, a palazzo style loft house that was converted into a bakery before the couple that ran it went broke and had to sell it. It is off the waterway on Dock 1 connecting to Dock 2, just off the main thoroughfare. With good word of mouth and a few signs it is prime real estate for a shop."

The man grabbed a cigar from the ashtray and started to play with it in his hands, perhaps to keep himself occupied.

"It has 3 floors, 5 rooms with two of them being the bathroom, and an unfinished basement that you could make that the study or gym you wanted. The first floor has two rooms, an entryway which has the first bathroom with a toilet and sink and could be used for your shop proper. The connecting room behind it would be great for an office and contains the connecting double staircase leading to both the upstairs and basement levels."

The man then puts the cigar in his mouth, and then starts inhaling. John was not quite sure what he was trying to do, the cigar was no longer lit.

"The upstairs is a studio room, only really good for a bedroom. It also has the second bathroom that is the same layout as the one downstairs only with an added shower. Nothing too special."

"Overall, this is a basic house that could work well for a small business and living space. Prime location, great view and lighting, and minimal utilities to help keep costs down. The only problem is that it is unfurnished, you would need to redo the office space since the old tile for the kitchen that was there was ripped out, and you would need to finish the basement. It has also been inspected already, so no mold or a decaying foundation."

The man put his cigar back down and looked at John straight in the eyes, pushing the folder forward so John could get a better look at the floor plan and see the pictures. "57 million, plus a 2 million Belly fee for me finding it for you. Thoughts?"

With all that explanation going on about the space, John was honestly enthralled by the man and what was said.

Firstly, the space was perfect! It was exactly what he needed, an entryway where he could put a secretary to butter up customers and keep guests at the front of the store, then an office where he could then bring them in and give them a deal on their pawned goods. He could already see the set-up now!

Plus, a small studio space was all he needed with the basement available. He could use the upstairs to eat and sleep, and he could set up the basement with some soundproofing and shock absorbing materials where he could train and do experiments with his power. It was the perfect space.

Secondly, it was a good price. John assumed he could get a much cheaper home if he were to be on a different dock or off the main roads a bit, but if he wanted to make money fast his shops location would be a big help. Besides, this would only deplete his 'known' money that he was using for his alibi, he still would have 165 million Bely stored within himself, ready to be used at any time.

Thirdly, and perhaps more worryingly to John was the house's name, "Capet' house. Capet was his last name, and he had gone out of his way to not tell that to anyone, not even Billy. Was it truly a coincidence? A set-up? Fate?

Unfortunately, even though the name gave him some pause, the place was too good to pass up. It was all he needed.

After looking at the pictures some more and thinking about it, he looked up back to the man.

"I can see now what Jakka referred me to you." The man continued to sit straight and look at John with a neutral face, though John could have sworn he started to smirk a little bit.

John handed back the folder.

"I think you have me sold." John smiled at the man. "Though I would like to see it first."