"So it was him?" Douglas Barrett muttered thoughtfully after hearing the name.
But in the very next moment, his eyes widened as he looked directly at Renji Kai.
Renji was startled by the sudden stare. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Captain Renji," Barrett said, narrowing his eyes. "It's true that I fought Crocodile, but that was more than twenty years ago. It's not strange that you know I once sailed with Captain Roger—he was famous enough that even his crew became known to the world. But how do you know what happened to me after I set out alone?"
Renji froze. He realized he had let something slip. Indeed, by normal logic, there was no way he should know about Barrett's past encounter with Crocodile.
"Let's just say... some things are better left unknown. In time, you'll come to understand."
Of course, Renji couldn't very well admit he learned all this by watching the anime—no one would believe that, and it would sound completely insane. So he chose to act mysterious.
Sure enough, Barrett was visibly affected by Renji's cryptic words. Before seeing Renji in action, he might've thought this was a bluff. But after witnessing the terrifying power Renji unleashed in Impel Down, he now believed Renji might truly possess some kind of terrifying ability—perhaps even one that let him peer into the secrets of the world.
And that was terrifying.
At this point, Douglas Barrett began to feel a deep respect—and even a hint of fear—towards Renji Kai. That fear stemmed from the unknown.
"Captain Renji, where are we headed next?"
"To the Kingdom of Alabasta," Renji replied calmly. "To meet Crocodile."
"He's in Alabasta? And what do we need to see him for?"
"To beat him up," Renji grinned. "Then ask him to join us. If he refuses, I don't mind opening up a vacancy in the Warlords of the Sea."
"You're going to take his place and become a dog of the World Government?" Barrett asked warily.
While he had accepted Renji as his captain, that didn't mean he had any intention of bowing to the World Government.
"Hah, you're overthinking it. That Warlord title means nothing. But in the New World, pirates mobilize fleets of dozens of ships. It's just the two of us right now—if we go to war, we'll exhaust ourselves. That's why I plan to recruit more members and form our own pirate crew."
Barrett still seemed unconvinced. "Does that guy really have the strength to be worth cooperating with?"
"He's decent. He is, after all, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. And he's a Logia-type Devil Fruit user. You know how powerful those can be, right?"
In the pirate world, Devil Fruits are classified into three types: Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan. Eating one grants special abilities. Of them, Logia are considered the strongest. Their defining feature is the ability to become 'elemental,' making physical attacks ineffective.
Unless someone has specific countermeasures or uses advanced Armament Haki, they can't even touch Logia users. That makes them particularly powerful.
Even someone as strong as Douglas Barrett only possessed a Paramecia-type Fusion Devil Fruit. It allowed him to combine his body with any inorganic material, reshaping it into new weapons and forms.
Despite that, Barrett wasn't afraid of Logia users.
"Logia Fruit or not, I'll crush him with my own hands," he said coldly.
Time passed aboard the warship as they headed toward the Kingdom of Alabasta, guided by Renji's memories. After drifting at sea for two days, they suddenly spotted a massive ship on the horizon.
"It looks like a pirate ship. Should we intercept it?" Barrett asked.
Renji took a glance. The prow of the ship bore the figure of a red dragon. On its twin masts flew a skull emblem, crossed with two swords.
"No way… we ran into one of your old acquaintances again," Renji said, chuckling.
"My acquaintance?"
"Someone who once sailed with you. Though back then, he might've still been a trainee—you might not remember him."
"Who is it?"
"Red-Haired Shanks. He's now one of the most prominent pirates in the New World. Before long, he might even rule it. That makes him one of our targets too," Renji explained.
The ship they saw was identical in scale and design to the Red Force, the flagship of the Red-Haired Pirates. Judging by the timeline, Shanks had recently lost an arm at Foosha Village.
If everything was going as expected, they were probably now headed for the New World.