I could feel a shifting in the wind on the day I first met that strange brat. My intuition told me everything would change from the moment that odd window vanished. The kid had information that he shouldn't and shared it for next to nothing. Gold was cheap, something I could get without much effort. The lives of my sons and daughters though? That was irreplaceable. I admit that I thought the kid was full of it when he introduced himself as a wizard. After he went and turned my gold into that odd elixir though I knew he was being honest. -
This world is a strange place sometimes and i've seen my fair share of oddities in my time here. But stuff like that elixir that gave me back my peak strength at no cost to me? That stuffs almost unheard of. Closest that counts is Pure gold but that was lost long ago with Alchemi island. When I traded away those odd things as well my belief he was being honest only increased. He was young and kind of naïve as he bumbled through each of these "deals" but he tried. -
More than anything though he was valuable. Not the sort of value you'd find in a measly piece of treasure or from a powerful fighter but from potential. It's why I helped him without asking for much in return. Helping him helped me in a round about sort of way. The most recent deal we'd struck alone was going to cause a storm once it got sniffed out by those dogs in the World government. Devil fruits were always valuable, powerful ones even more so. The problem was always that finding them in raw form was a matter of luck and even then there was no telling whether or not it was good if you couldn't identify it.-
Thanks to this new deal though that wasn't the case anymore. Turns out the brat can somehow strip devil fruit users of their fruits and even identify unknown devil fruits through this system thing of his. Once he trades them back the fruits are immediately ready for use. Already a few of my sons and daughters have gained fruits that they liked thanks to this. The lightning logia was a small price to pay for something like this in my opinion. Though the man who had it originally may not think so.-
We tossed him in the sea after the fruit was taken from him and from the bounties that recently came out he made it to an island in the end. Not that he seemed to learn how to keep his nose clean as he already had a bounty for beating up some folk and stealing. I wasn't worried about him coming after us though. If he still had his fruit he'd have been a slight nuisance but that was it. Now though he was no more a threat than any other glory seeker who has come to kill me for my title.-
The worlds strongest man. A farce of a title, a useful one but a farce all the same. I knew what monster really pulled the leash of the World government. I could fight any of the five elders but that thing would kill me as it had almost killed Xebec back in the day. It didn't matter though I was strong enough not to be crushed but not threatening enough to try for them. I was old and until recently slowly fading away. -
They knew and had tried to orchestrate that plan to take me down using one of my sons as bait. They probably didn't realize Teaches ambitions though to use them to claim my fruit for himself. Not that it mattered now I suppose. I was brimming with strength and my disease was gone thanks to that strange elixir. My sons were beginning to push back the other Yonko and reclaim the territory that was once ours. New strongmen were rising in our ranks with these devil fruits and life was good. And it was all thanks to one brat who showed up out of nowhere like a storm on the grand line to shake things up.-
(Normal POV)
Malfoy quickly scurried off once it was clear he wasn't going to be playing his little trick on me. Of course there was quite the "my father will hear of this!" as well but really that threat was ridiculous. Seriously all telling his father would accomplish here would be to make the man think his son was a useless waste that couldn't even solve his own problems. Though to be fair that was kinda his fathers fault to begin with. Despite how it may seem Draco had been all but conditioned to think that the world revolved around his father and not told WHY it seemed that way.-
Lucius Malfoy was a tricky character to pin down from his depictions in the books and movies. He was ruthless, bold, cowardly, clever and equally foolish all at the same time. The key I believe was the circumstances he was found in that decided his attitude. He could grovel and brownnose in the face of someone who could and might destroy him. At the same time he could all but spit in Dumbledores face without a care since the old man had a long fuse. -
His biggest ability however was on the political stage. The man was an A grade politician as far as the magical world was concerned as he skirted laws, greased the right hands in his favor and had a wide network of contacts for anything he might need. He was also smart enough not to show off most of this openly because just as it was his greatest power it was also his greatest weakness. Second of course to the fact his bloodline was tied to Draco's continued survival, a fragile line of succession to say the least.