Baroque Works

Note: Updates will be slower, sorry. I'll try and aim for 3/4 chapters a week.

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With August's superhuman strength and speed combined with Robin's devil fruit, they were able to clear the vault of treasures in a little under a day.

Robin stood in the former Warlord's base massaging her muscles. After a day of hard work she wanted nothing more than to have a nice relaxing bath.

"Are we leaving soon?" Robin looked towards August who carried the last bag full of valuables. August grunted, sitting the bag down next to the others and looked towards Robin with a wide grin.

"Not exactly." He chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Robin questioned, not understanding him.

"If you're going to join the Revolutionary Army, then you need to be strong, which is something you aren't." August said bluntly, making Robin flinch at the sudden insult. She crossed her arms in a huff and walked over to August with a stride in her step.

"What! Who are you to say i'm no–"

She froze at the cold sensation that suddenly appeared around her neck. Looking down , she saw a cold sharp knife made of glass touching her throat. She felt the sensation grow colder as the knife pushed further into her neck, not enough to draw blood, but enough to get August's point across.

"See? Dead." August walked away from Robin, leaving Robin in a completely shocked state. August walked away, twirling the knife in his hand.

'I need to get my point across. She needs to know how outclassed she is right now. Without her 4 years as Crocodile's assistant, she is much weaker than she was.'

August dispersed the knife into jagged pieces of glass and suddenly turned around. He thrusted the shards of glass towards Robin who still had just managed to escape her daze.

Robin's eyes widened in shock at the attack, and her body tried to follow by moving out of the way, but her fear kept her in place and she could only resort herself to closing her eyes at the looming possibility of death.

Just before the wave of glass hit, August halted its movement and dispersed the glass into thin air. Looking towards Robin who stood still like an open duck with her eyes closed, he sighed.

'Looks like I really have my work cut out for me, but it's nothing unsalvageable.'

He poked Robin's forehead which made her open her eyes to August's stare which screamed 'I told you so'

"Do you see my point?" August asked, to which Robin meekly nodded, feeling the crimson flush to her cheeks and her head lower in shame.

"I'm sorry…"

August shook his head, "It's not your fault. You were on the run for 20 years and never experienced a proper fight outside of your quick little skirmishes. In the couple of weeks we stay here, I will train you to think like a fighter, fight like a fighter, and to use your devil fruit properly. Are you ready?"

The crimson flushes that were on her cheeks disappeared and were instead replaced with a face full of determination and a desire to get stronger.

'If I need to get stronger, then I will. I will pursue power just as much as knowledge if it means I get to live another day.' With those thoughts, Robin crossed her arms and activated her devil fruit, looking towards August with an intent stare.

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(1 week later, Rainbase)

"So the boss called us all here?" Daz sat with his eyes closed and his arms crossed.

"All I got was a message." Galdino said.

"Me too." Zala piped in.

"Damn it!" Bentham slammed his hands against the table, "Why are they making us wait so long? I'm a swan, I'm delicate and peaceful, how can the leader keep me waiting so long!" Bentham slammed his hands against the table again while Babe laughed at Bentham's eccentric personality.

"What a loud person, should I kill him?" Gem spoke from the side, and Mikita giggled at the thought, "Maybe I should just squash him?"

Galdino grumbled in annoyance before he distracted himself with some wax making, while Daz bones ignored the commotion entirely.

"You all look like a lively bunch."

All of the agents turned their head to the source of the deep, distorted voice. The source of the voice came from the top of the stairs, where there stood a man in a dark outfit paired with his mask that truly made him look like the god of hell.

"Hello, my name is Hades." The man said, walking down the stairs.

'Fitting name.' were the thoughts of all the agents.

"Now I'm sure you're all curious as to why I've randomly called this meeting. Now, I believe in honesty first and foremost, especially between working associates. So let me just start of saying that I killed your previous boss, which makes me your new boss."

"Killed him!?"

Hades did not respond and carried on his way downstairs in slow, methodical steps.

"Now that the Baroque Works is under new management, some things obviously have to change."

Hades took a seat at the head table, relaxing back in the king chair with his legs crossed.

"Any questions?" Galdino raised his hand.

"Who was the previous owner of Baroque Works? And also who are you?" Galdino asked, and many of the members found themselves nodding at the questions as they were curious too. A man barging in and telling them they killed their previous boss, they were intrigued.

"I'm afraid I cannot answer both of these questions. If the answer to the first question came out of this room then the consequences would be dire…for both me and you. For the second question, I'm sure the reason is pretty obvious. I have a secret identity for a reason."

"Grrr…" Daz growled, and the true personality of the man under the calm demeanor finally came out, "Do you think I would just let you become my boss all because of a few lies and honey laced words!?"

His body glimmered a sharp sheen and his fingers expanded and were replaced with a set of 5 honed claws.

"Do you think I would let a weakling order me around!?" Daz shouted. His fingers sharpened even more, and he shot up from his position and pounced onto Hades who had sat still. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife, and all the agents watched the situation unfold with wavering amounts of fear, curiosity and enjoyment.

The spectators couldn't tell you what happened in the next couple of seconds. They believed their new 'leader' Hades would be chopped to mince meat under the power of Daz Bonez, but it was the opposite. Instead of Hades, it was Daz Bones who was on the floor.

"Ughh…cough…cough" Daz clutched his stomach, reeling back from the pain of Hades' attack.

'How? How can he hurt me!? I'm made of steel?' Daz thought, looking towards his new boss with a new look of respect in admiration in his eyes. Ever since he ate the Dice Dice fruit, he had practically been invincible in the first half of the Grandline, taking out all of his targets without fail, so to see Hades so effortlessly injure him was a surprise to be sure.

Daz recovered from his of shock and bowed towards Hades from his position on the floor.

"I'm yours to command, boss."

Hades, who barely showed a hint of emotion during the whole exchange, placed a reassuring hand on Daz's shoulder.

"You will be treated well, Daz." Hades said calmly before looking towards the rest of the agents, "You all will be treated well, I promise."

Hades walked back to his seat and with a playful clap he got everyone's undivided attention. After the recent display of power, they now truly knew this guy was the boss.

"Now, there are a few things we need to discuss. First and foremost is the situation with Alabasta. Instead of working against Alabasta, we will try and have a working relationship with them. I have a meeting with Cobra soon, and I hope to establish a beneficial connection between us."

"So what should we do?" Asked Galbino.

Hades sat further into his chair, crossing his arms, "For now, spread the message that all operations against Alabasta will be put on hold indefinitely. I will call you with more information in the next month on how our missions and way of working will change. Some things will stay the same, such as being given missions and hunting named pirates with bounties." Hades explained, and the group nodded, happy that their main objective of bounty hunting hasn't changed.

"Any more questions?" Hades asked, and when no one had raised their hand or spoken up, Hades deemed it was the end of the meeting.

He sat up from his chair, looking each of the members in the eye before leaving, "I look forward to working with you all." Were his final words before he left.