After days adrift, Dimon was fine, but Kaido was starving. He snatched bread and fruit from the table and shoveled them in like a ravenous beast.
"Not hungry," Kaido mumbled around a mouthful, still gulping food as if it might vanish.
"I am fine." Dimon peeled a banana and took a slow bite. "Fortunate too. We ran into destiny in just a few days."
On the open sea, stumbling across a passing ship was a lottery win.
Kaido grinned. "World Government transport. Looks like intelligence personnel aboard."
"Cipher Pol. How do you know," Dimon asked, surprised.
Cipher Pol, formally CIPHER POL, was the World Government's covert service, the hand behind every kind of secret operation.
At the mention, Kaido's expression shifted. "I have been caught by the World Government before. Rode one of these more than once."
Dimon understood. No wonder he had slipped aboard so easily with Dimon in tow. Kaido had once been the strongest warrior of a small nation. To present their strength at the Reverie, the king sold him to the Government. He escaped more than once, only to sneak back when hunger drove him, raiding the galley. Escape and return, again and again, until he was branded a criminal with a first bounty of seventy million.
"Cipher Pol. Escorting treasure," Dimon mused.
An idea flickered. "Keep eating. I will look for the treasure."
He rose from the table and sauntered out to search the ship.
Out in the corridor he nearly ran into a man in a black suit. They met eye to eye. The man froze.
"Who are you. I do not recognize you."
"You do not know me. I am Dimon."
Dimon. No such name on the crew list. The agent frowned, thinking hard, then remembered a recent news sheet. His face drained.
"You are the brewer"
He never finished. Dimon was already there, a hand at his throat, lifting him effortlessly off his feet.
"Relax. Tell me who is aboard."
"CP 4."
"And the treasure," Dimon asked. "Devil Fruits or the like."
The man's face went red. He forced the words out. "No such cargo. We are only escorting a person."
No Devil Fruits.
Dimon felt a twinge of disappointment. Luck had its limits. A fated meeting was boon enough.
"Who. A Celestial Dragon's slave."
"No. A child."
Now Dimon was interested. A Cipher Pol escort for a child was no ordinary child.
He let the man down. "Take me to him."
The agent clutched his neck, panting, terror in his eyes. Then he clenched his jaw and bolted the other way.
"Soru."
Dimon paused and snorted. "Rokushiki too. Fast."
He did not bother to chase. This was the sea. Where could the man run.
Dimon spread his senses. Observation Haki washed through the corridors like sound. A faint, singular presence lit below.
Lower deck.
He moved. Every guard in his path went down to a single punch. He cut through the ship like open plain, dropping a dozen men before he reached a cell.
Inside, a child hung in chains from the wall. Brown skin. Silver white hair. A distinctive mark on his brow.
Most striking of all, a pair of black wings at his back.
"A Lunarian," Dimon said, eyes narrowing. "Hey, kid, what is your name."
The boy's face was bloodless. He stirred at the sound, lifted his head, and peered through the blur.
"Alber. Who are you."
His voice was a whisper.
So this was the one who would one day be Kaido's right hand, the Conflagration called King.
He looked eight, maybe nine. Already in the World Government's cage.
Dimon gripped a bar and twisted. Iron screamed and split. He stepped through and stood over the boy.
The child stared up, bewildered. "Bare hands. Are you a monster."
"Calling your rescuer a monster is rude. You should call me Lord Dimon."
Dimon crouched and repeated the trick on the chains. One after another, they snapped like brittle twigs.
Three Sea Kings devoured had pushed his strength far past the point where shipyard iron was any obstacle.
A look of stunned disbelief opened on Alber's face, as if he could not accept that he was free.
"Do not stare. Come with me."
Dimon jerked his chin and walked out of the cell.
With a thud Alber dropped to his knees. "Lord Dimon. Thank you for saving me."
Back in the mess.
Kaido was still eating. He turned and blinked at the boy behind Dimon. "Who is that."
"A Lunarian. My new recruit. This is Kaido. We are the Rocks Pirates."
Dimon sat and bit into an apple. "Shame there were no Devil Fruits aboard."
Alber bowed politely. "Lord Kaido. My name is Alber."
Even he had heard the name Rocks Pirates. In the New World there was no one stronger.
"A Lunarian," Kaido murmured, studying him. "A legendary race. Once lived atop the Red Line. So he is what this ship was moving."
"I felt sorry for him, so I took him," Dimon said, as if talking about a stray cat.
The door slammed open. A squad of armed soldiers burst in, Cipher Pol 4 agents at the fore. The suit Dimon had choked led them.
"That is him. The Rocks brewer" He sucked air. "And Kaido."
"Fire," he snapped. "Now."
Gunfire crashed through the room. A sudden rain of bullets in a matter of seconds.
Alber folded his wings to shield himself.
Most rounds were aimed at Kaido and Dimon.
Silence fell.
"Trash. Out," Kaido said, eyes gone flat. Conqueror's Haki surged like a gale. The intruders' eyes rolled white and they collapsed in a heap.
Alber stared. So this was the legend called Rocks Pirates.
Dimon sighed. "Why knock them out. Who is going to helm the ship now."
Every crewman on board had just been relieved of duty.