Chapter 157: Welcome
"Hey, you, winged guy..." growled Kid, doing his best to appear menacing as he postured off to the side with five members from his crew, including a masked man with a long mane of spiky golden hair.
Understanding that Kid was speaking to him, even though he had already retracted his wings to prevent Luffy and Chopper from curiously messing with them, Vahn, still holding Camie, looked over and asked, "Do you need something...?"
"Your name..." responded Kid, his grim expression souring further as he remarked, "I don't recall reading about you in the newspaper or seeing any bounties for a twelve-winged birdman who can teleport. What kind of Devil Fruit did you eat...?"
"My name is Vahn Mason, and I didn't consume a Devil Fruit," responded Vahn, his expression and tone calm as he pointed out, "And if I were you and your crew, I would hurry and set sail or go into hiding. This place and time are a conflux point. If you do not want your journey to conclude here, you should depart before the Admiral invariably dispatched by Marine HQ arrives..."
"Vahn Mason, right? I'll remember it..." said Kid, looking back at his men over his left shoulder and gesturing for them to follow before turning back to the group and declaring, "And you, Straw Hat...you should pray that our paths do not cross in the New World. I will not show you or anyone else in your crew mercy..."
Sporting an uncharacteristically serious expression, Luffy precluded Kid's departure by stating, "Fine. But no matter what happens, I'm the one who will find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates."
Hearing Luffy's declaration, the expressions of Kid, Law, and many others present changed. Kid, in particular, cracked a rare, marginally less sadistic smile as he retorted, "Give it your best...but I'll be the one who prevails in the end..." before turning to resume his departure.
"We should get going as well..." stated Law, a slim man with tanned skin, distinctive grey eyes with prominent dark circles under them, short black hair that was mostly covered by a furry, white, brown-speckled hat, save for his sideburns and a goatee. A similar speckle pattern covered parts of his blue jean pants, while the rest of his outfit consisted of a long-sleeved yellow hoodie with elbow-length black sleeves and the smiling symbol of the Heart Pirates on the front, black dress shoes, and, as he was virtually never seen without it, an inordinately long katana with a pale lavender ito and a fluffy white tsuba(guard) sheathed in a black scabbard covered in white crosses and wrapped with a red sageo(the cord wrapped around a katana's sheathe).
"Try not to send yourselves to too early a grave," remarked Law, casually raising his left hand as he departed with his four crewmates, each of his fingers bearing a letter for the word death, befitting a man renowned as the Surgeon of Death.
'There they go...' thought Vahn, briefly following the two groups with his gaze before turning to meet the sharp gaze of the bespectacled, elderly, prominently goateed, curly, white-haired man Hatchan had been speaking to since they teleported. The man looked like a bum at a glance, modeling a ragged, two-layer cloak that was grey on the outside, olive green on the inside, and covered in holes, but any fan of One Piece would immediately recognize him as the First Mate of the legendary Roger Pirates and Gol D. Roger's right-hand man, famous throughout the world as Silvers Rayleigh, aka, the Dark King.
Noticing Vahn's gaze, the almost perpetual smile on Rayleigh's face broadened as he chimed in to remark, "We should be leaving as well. Hatchan here has informed me that you need your ship coated. Come with me. We can discuss the matter further once we're well outside the Marines' search area."