A demon pirate!?

A Plan

The games finally start!
The demon makes a plan
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Azrael finally made his way over to the corn inn, to him it felt nice to be back in a place that was so welcoming. He didn't see Maíz or his daughter around, they were probably at the bar.

He looked around trying to find a lost and found station, establishments usually had those just in case someone forgot their stuff back home, so he thought maybe it would be the same here. The station was mainly for people who had a forgetful streak. Azrael sweat dropped at the thought, 'I'm the one of those people'.

He walked a little further in towards the front desk, that's when he saw his box, thankfully it didn't seemed to be opened by the owner, or whoever took it down here. He walked over and grabbed the latch to the box, he opened it and saw that everything was how he left it, the book was still there and so we're his dirty clothes, ew.

"Hey Azrael? Back so soon?" A familiar voice said.

Azrael looked the source of the voice to see Marta. She wore a whitecrop top with purple stripes, her long hair tied up into a ponytail. She walked from the back, where the kitchen is Azrael assumed, towards him.

"Y-yeah, sorry but I was looking for my box and I guess I left it here." Azrael quickly explained while laughing nervously.

"Oh yeah, Gramps was cleaning the room when he found it and went out looking for you. Guess I should find him before he goes searching in the forest."

'Was he really that determined to find me?' Azrael sweat dropped at the thought, he only nodded as she left him and headed outside to find her grandpa. Azrael grabbed the wooden box and put it over his shoulders, with the box secured he walked towards the door, only to be stopped when it was suddenly opened. Maíz had opened the door with his daughter right behind him, and stopped walking when he saw Azrael in front of him.

"Ah well, glad you came back, Azrael! I see you got your box, and don't worry I made sure no one tried taking it!" The old man said with a large grin. Azrael nodded before thank him for taking care of his belongings, to which the old man shook his head and laughed. "Don't worry about it, Azrael. Anyways I'm guessing your now heading back with Azul for that game, right?"

That was a surprise. 'maybe he ran into Azul on the way back here, or overheard Luffy talking about it with his crew. Wherever they might be.' Azrael thought, he nodded at Maíz while the man held his grin.

"We'll count us in, we're gonna help you!" Maíz cheerfully said while his daughter behind him nodded and put a thumbs up.

"Wait, what?! But why?" Azrael said stunned, he knew why Azul is helping to make a fair game since Luffy has his crew but why did they want to join? "I-I don't mean any harm by that? It's just- you guys have to run the inn and I don't want you guys to leave it unattended!" He stumbled over his words trying to put his erratic thoughts into words.

"Well, our inn won't be in any harm if we leave it unattended for a few hours, no one in their right mind would steal anything here knowing that this is one Azul's favorite places." Maíz explained, "and as for why, we want to  help you, Azrael. I don't know what this bet involves but hey, a challenge between two people is always a good show."

'Alright, I guess I can't complain about that...' Azrael admitted in his head.

"Well thank you for wanting to help." Azrael smiled, though neither Maíz or Marta could see his smile, they could feel that he was through his mask. "Well I was about to head back out there to go to Azul so-" he was cut off by Marta.