Gabriel crossed his arms and waited patiently as he leant against the ships main mast as the Merry made its way up the small river that cut into the island.
Fog was all around them thick enough to keep them from seeing more than a few meters ahead of the ship on every side so they were taking it slowly on their approach.
Gabriel tilted his hat down not bothering to look ahead, he knew what awaited them ahead and didn't have to wait much longer before the sounds of cheering greeted his ears as the towns folk "welcomed" them to their town greeting them as the hero's of the sea and other such cheers.
Gabriel shook his head, 'I can't believe people actually fall for this' he thought to himself before looking over to see that Luffy, Usopp and Sanji had all evidently fallen for it making him sigh, 'idiots'
The going merry made port after a few more minutes of sailing, as the crew started to disembark they were met by a welcoming party lead by a tall man that Gabriel immediately recognised as Igaram or as others here knew him Igarappoi or Mr eight.
"Well…"*cough* "Ma~ma~ma~" the man started before trying again, "Welcome, my name is Igarappoi, it is my honour, as mayor, to welcome you to Whiskey Peak." he greeted the group.
Luffy blinked owlishly before smiling, "Oh, great I'm Luffy" Luffy introduced himself, "Nice hair I like the curls." he then stated out of the blue.
Gabriel shook his head and ignored the rest of the conversation and instead casually glanced around, there seemed to be a lot of people here, all the better for his AP farming then.
Soon enough the crew was lead to one of the buildings and a party was under way. Gabriel made an excuse of being tired before accepting a drink and going off to find himself a comfortable spot to sit down.
He made a show of taking a drink from the mug he had been given though didn't actually drink any of it for risk of it being dosed with something before he pulled his hat down and pretended to fall asleep.
He knew it would take a while for the others to tire themselves out from partying so decided to drop into his mind palace to do some grinding to pass the time.
It was a number of hours later that the moon was rising high in the sky as the party finally came to an end.
Gabriel kept his eyes closed but his ears open as he listened for his moment to move.
As he heard the doors close repeatedly for what he counted was the fourth time he raised his head and hat to see that Igaram and his partner, along with Nami and Zoro had already left.
Gabriel smirked before rising and sneaking out himself, opening his inventory as he left to retrieve his newly finished staff. 'Time for the real party to start'
Outside Gabriel made his way around the backs of the buildings as stealthy as he could before he found a ladder and began to make his way up to the rooftops to get a better vantage point.
As he took his position he noticed the four on the ground and glanced over to see Zoro was watching them just like him from an opposite roof. He made it just in time as the conversation was getting well underway.
"Well why don't you go and try to kill that damn whale and see how you fair." Mister Nine said heatedly as he turned glaring at the woman, "We gave it our best you know." Mr Nine defended himself loudly to something miss Monday had said.
"Both of you calm yourselves," Mister Eight said as he looked at both of them, "before you question the validity of my plan you should see these." he said as he reached into his blazer pocket taking out two sheets of paper and holding them up for the other three to see the bounty posters.
The trio's eye's widened seeing the numbers on them, "What twenty three and thirty million berries!" the three yelled in shock.
"For these guys!" Mister Nine says unable to fathom just how that was possible.
"yes and now that they're in our clutches now, we have them trapped and they'll be handed over to the marines for public execution so we get their full bounties, now" "Ma~ma~ma~", "Now go take everything of value from their ship and cast them all in chains we need them alive" Mister Eight ordered, as the other three nodded.
That was when a Zoro chose to speak up making them all jump and turn to the source of his voice, "Hey, sorry to interrupt would you mind letting my friends sleep, the journey here was exhausting, or so I've been told," Zoro sounded from the highest rooftop one of his swords gleaming in the moonlight.
Gabriel chuckled as he stood on his own roof top, "well you wouldn't know would you, you slept for the entire trip" he spoke up getting their attention as well.
At that the door to the building and one of the civilians came out holding a rifle, "hey Mister Eight, Miss Monday, three of the pirates have escaped when we weren't looking."
Miss Monday sneered, "They're up on the roof you idiot."
Zoro smirked as he looked over to Gabriel, "thought it was strange you fell asleep so fast, you were onto them as well hm?" He mused.
Gabriel nodded, "well their little trap was just so obvious from the beginning I couldn't help but want to play a long, turns out they're nothing but a bunch of bounty hunters" he said before eying the four down on the ground, "isn't that right Baroque work?"
As they had been talking the civilians had all gathered outside with weapons at the ready but upon hearing Gabriel announce their organisations name they all froze.
Hearing him so casualty call out their organizations name the officer agent's look at him in shock, "How do you know our name!" Mister Eight yells in shock.
Vivi for her part swallowed as she looked at Gabriel with worry, 'what's he thinking saying that so openly'
Gabriel gave a crooked smile in response, "not telling, but it doesn't matter" he said before looking to Zoro on the other roof, "hey Zoro, I wager there's about a hundred of em give or take, want to split the fighting" he said as he gripped his staff, "I could use the fun after that party was so boring" he grinned.
In truth he had just really wanted to test out his new weapon, after hours of pounding on the limited number of enemies in his mind palace he had farmed a couple hundred points worth of AP and a fair amount of beri, and before he left his mind palace he had dropped the lot of it into his bōjutsu skill and really wanted to cut loose with it.
Zoro grinned back at him, "sound good to me" he said their words making all of the bounty hunters freeze on the ground.
These guys couldn't be serious right, there was over a hundred of them and they had four officer agents with them. They were only two guys and yet they thought they could beat all of them, they must be insane…. if only they knew what was coming.
Mr eight gritted his teeth in anger hearing the pair of them, 'they dare look down on us' he thought before yelling aloud, "kill them!!!!"
But the next second both Gabriel and Zoro had disappeared from their respected roof tops.
Mr eights eyes were wide seeing the both of them disappear, "where did they…" he said before freezing on the spot as a blade stuck through one of the curls on his head.
The very next second seven men were sent flying into the air as Gabriel made his first attack.
And with that utter chaos ensued as billets began flying and swords cut through the air as the real party began.
Twenty minutes later Gabriel was walking down between a row of houses whistling to himself as he looked around casually as he opened his quests to check his count, forty nine, 'just one more then' he thought to himself before he heard foot steps and something whistling through the air behind him.
He ducked just in time to avoid a ladder being swung like a baseball bat at his head. The ladder hit the wall next to him and broke into splinters as he turned to face miss Monday who stood glaring at him with anger filled eyes.
'Hmmm wasn't she meant to go after Zoro on some roof top? Guess she decided to come after me since I'm the one with the bounty' Gabriel mused.
"Evening, nice night for a stroll isn't it" Gabriel greeted her which only seemed to piss her off more.
"Shut up, that smart mouth of yours is really starting to get on my last nerves" she said as she put on a pair of brass knuckles.
Gabriel shrugged, "fair enough," he said and spun his staff before taking a stance with his legs spread even on the ground and his staff in front of him, he considered her for a moment before speaking again, "say how about after I beat you I make you an offer, you seem strong enough"
"Tsk," She grit her teeth, "arrogant bastard!" She yelled before she started swinging at him.
Gabriel braced himself and began to deflect her punches with his staff keeping her at a distance as he began to manoeuvre them out of the alley to somewhere with more room. She had a long reach given her hight but he was able to match it with his staff.
Seeing her attacks being easily deflected only made miss Monday even more angry as she kept swinging harder and faster to try and hit this smart mouthed punk and pound him into the dirt no longer caring about getting his full bounty.
"Someone's angry? Did you not drink enough of what~" Gabriel taunted again easily keeping up with her punches as they reached the mouth of the alley.
"Do you ever shut up!" Miss Monday yelled as she drew back her fist and took a heavy handed swing at him.
Gabriel smirked that was what he was waiting for as he put his staff to the side and let the punch come before he phased through it.
Miss Mondays eyes widened as her punches went right through him throwing her off balance as she over reached.
Gabriel stepped forward and into her reach as she stumbled forward and as she finished passing through him he turned becoming solid again and turned and swung his staff catching her foot and with taking away her last bit of balance, as she began to fall he spun his staff and caught her in the lower ribs hard making her cry out in pain from the force of the blow and clutched at her chest.
In doing so she left her head wide open as she hit the ground only to hear him cry out as he raised his staff, her eyes widened as it fell for her head and impacted… right beside her head with a loud crash
Miss Mondays eyes were wide as she looked up at him with fear, there was no doubt in her mind that had his staff landed he would have crushed her skull with that stroke and that would have been the end of her.
Seeing her on the ground Gabriel smirked as he looked down at her before taking his staff back.
"So about that offer," he said casually, "as it happens I'm looking for some strong people with potential to join my pirate crew, you interested"