Chương 25: -The straw hats reach water 7

Once Ian ended his tour of the new ship along with Paulie, who had been sporting a proud smile on his face all this time, he jumped off of it. With the blond guy following him soon after noticing his actions.

Once they landed on the ground, Paulie looked at the ship for a while, before he turned back to Ian and addressed him.

"Do you like it Mr. Ian? We have done our best as we were building it. Although it is not the very best we have built on this dock, it is still one of our top ships" Paulie said with pride practically oozing off him.

"Of course I like it. It's exactly what I need. In the first place I requested only a normal ship" Ian replied with a smile. He knew that what Paulie said was true, as many much better ships were constructed in this dock. But he was content with the new ship he had.

And also, he had no need for the various gimmicks Franky's ship, the thousand sunny, had. All he needed was a good ship. The rest of the things he could do it himself, and a good ship was what he got.

"Then I'm glad you find it good. Tell me Mr. Ian when will you be sailing with it? So that I can get things ready" Paulie asked after giving Ian a smile.

He had to know this so that he can get his men to launch the ship to the sea. It was already loaded on the platform responsible for that. All they needed was for Ian to tell them when he needed it to be ready to sail.

Once the ship was launched it will go through a sea route that will get it to the piers of Water 7, from which it will be easy to sail off with it.

"Let me think for a bit." Ian replied to Paulie.

He had to think on this.

As first of all, he had to meet Whitebeard as soon as possible.

And then the thing he remembered earlier before meeting Paulie, was that this is the exact time for the Enies lobby arc in the original story.

Well he was not absolutely sure, but he could guess so by the timeline. As far as he knows, the straw hats had spent almost a month and a week to reach water seven from the start of their journey.

And he had spent a month and 4 days so far since he left the island he grew up on. So it should be the time for the day Robin will be saved and join the straw hats to be a part of their crew officially.

Once Ian thought of that he couldn't help but smile bitterly, and think inside his mind.

'Robin is important to the story, being the only one alive capable of reading the Poneglyphs… perhaps it was fated for her to join the pirate king's crew since she was born…'

But even so, this did not mean that he will just sit by during that time. There were some places and some events he will have to be part of in this world. Saving Robin, was one of them.

There was an easy way to check if this is the time for it though. And that was to see if Smoker's news of saving Alabasta is circulating or not. Of course it was not smoker who saved the country but rather Luffy but since the marines will never admit of a pirate saving a country to the public, it was announced as smoker's deed. And this was precisely what will enable Ian to know whether it is time for the Enies lobby incident or not yet.

So he had to check as soon as possible on the newspapers. Then if it turned out right, then he would have to stay here on water 7 until he help's Robin. Even if they did not know each other well, he was a close fan of her, therefore he absolutely wanted to be part of this.

As such he could not sail yet and search for Whitebeard. However the ship can be launched to the sea all the same. As it will not affect anything either ways. And once it is ready, he would store it in his ring. He did not want his new ship to be destroyed by the oncoming Aqua Laguna after all. And the reason he did not do it now, was just to not expose the existence of the ring yet. But once it was in the piers, he could sneak around and do it.

So having made his mind, Ian replies to Paulie with a smile.

"I think the sooner you can do it, the better. Also I want to ask you, do you have a newspaper?" Ian.

"Alright then, I'll tell the men. We already have the name of the hotel you are staying on, as such when it is ready, I'll have someone go and find you." Paulie said before he went away for a bit and returned with a newspaper that he gave to Ian.

Ian took it and started reading.

While Paulie stood there and thought of his next words, before finally speaking.

"If you want to leave, you better do it the next 2 days. As the annual aqua Laguna is near. And when it comes it will be hard to leave then." He said.

Ian had seen in the newspaper the news of saving smoker saving Alabasta from the former Warlord crocodile.

As such he returned the newspaper to Paulie.

"I already know about it, don't worry. And thank you for your consideration" Ian replied with a smile as he thanked him. He knew that Luffy and his crew will possibly be here in the next two days. And on the third day it will be the aqua Laguna event.

Then after Ian bid Paulie goodbye, he went to where he was staying, and cooked something to eat, before finally entering his bedroom to sleep as he was tired. And it was evening already.

.....

Two days later, the straw hats finally entered water 7, and Ian who had been idling about, with nothing to do other than trying new foods, took notice of them.