The whole world was shocked on that morning.

It was summer when the Pirate King announced his crew was officially dismissed. Gol D. Roger was last seen in South Blue before disappearing forever from sight. His crew scattered, some gave up their piracy life while the rest continued to conquer the world. Everyone tried to explain why the world's most wanted man came up with such decision: he was imprisoned secretly in Impel Down, Dark King Rayleigh assassinated him to dethrone his position, he took One Piece for himself and abandoned his crew, he was dead and the crew wanted to keep it a secret,…

A few, very few, dared to say he found a woman, and desired to settle down.

Marco remembered his Pops spent that day looking distantly at the sea with so many emotions in his eyes. Roger had been Whitebeard's biggest rival, but somehow they also came quite close to the definition of friends. Frenemies, Rouge once said.

Ah yes, Rouge. A firecracker she was, chasing both Roger Pirate and Whitebeard Pirate to the very edge of New World, yet still managed to sit down and chatting with both captains from dusk to dawn. In the shock of Roger's announcement, no one seemed to notice Rear Admiral "Hibiscus" Monkey D. Rouge had resigned from her position in the Marine.

.

Marco was amused, and he hadn't feel amused for quite a long time.

The young man sitting right opposite him suddenly collapsed. He was face-first in his unfinished plate while his right hand still holding a fork on mid-air. Next to him, there was a stack of bowls and plates so high it could feed five people.

The other guests started to panic, some even screamed, having no idea why such a healthy young man could drop dead mid-eating. Then someone pointed at the tattoo on Marco's chest and murmured about "a ruthless pirate commits murder in daylight". Marco liked to show off his pride but he didn't like being accused of something he didn't commit. But what could he say, it wasn't like a member from an Emperor ship would appear in this town every day.

Marco knew the young man was alive, he could sense it, just that his breath was too light and his body seemed to be paralyzed. Food poison, Marco assumed, or maybe being bitten by a venomous insect. Either way, it was bad for Marco if he just let it be, the last thing he needed in this town was attracting public attention. He was about to do some check-up when the young man suddenly woke up, grabbed the nearby maid's dress to wipe off his face and resumed his eating like nothing happened.

"Is there something wrong? Why is everyone looking at me?" The man asked after swallowing his food, grey eyes scanned around the room innocently. That was a very polite gesture to Marco, he was used to people talking and chewing at the same time.

Calling him "a man" would be an exaggeration. He was only nineteen, and those freckles on his cheeks made him look even much younger.

"You just passed out yoi. They thought you were dead because I killed you."

"Oh, that. Sorry everyone, I felt asleep."

The young man grinned sheepishly at the other guests but no one answered. Marco could tell they didn't get over their shock yet. He'd seen this condition while fighting a monstrous marine. The fact he had narcolepsy made Marco interested in him even more. Narcolepsy was supposed to be a disadvantage if you wanted to rock the sea, but Garp were ridiculously strong his opponents felt happy he had that sleeping disorder.

Said young man continued his eating and looked at Marco.

"So Marco, where are we again?"

"Sea King in the South Blue yoi. The giant toad with a chicken comb above his head."

"Ah yes. That's one. That toad also had claws and saber-teeth. He could jumped like fifteen meters above sea level and…."

Listening to the man had been interesting. Sometimes Marco would sipped his rum and made a small comment. This young man was an unexpected surprise since he got to this town.

Not an hour ago Marco was sitting alone in a corner of the restaurants when this young man asked to sit with him. He introduced himself as Portgas D. Ace, nineteen years old, a delivery man from East Blues that just got to Grand Line a few months ago. He wore a ridiculously catchy orange cowboy hat, got his shirt open-front like Marco with a dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. With a quick look anyone could tell Ace was a decent fighter. Ace gave a wild yet innocent impression made it hard to say no to him. There was absolute confidence in his voice. He was charming in Marco's opinion, the type of young man who could woo any barmaid even with the worst pick-up line.

At first Marco thought Ace was a clueless young man who wanted to sit with him since there was no other seat, but it turned out Ace did know who he was. He even had a proper knowledge about New World and the Four Emperors. Marco asked whether he should be scared of a notorious pirate, especially said pirate was an Emperor's first mate, and Ace simply shook his head saying not all pirates were bad people.

That was a strange statement from someone had to fight pirates daily to protect his merchandises. As the conversation went on Marco found out Ace's little brother was once saved by a pirate; therefore to Ace, there were good guys and there were bad guys in piracy just like any other occupations.

The conversation was mostly about their own adventures. They went on and on about the Sea Kings and how different it was between the Blues and Grand Line. Marco was in East Blue a few months ago, but he didn't have much time to catch up on the news. It was fun to know what was going on outside the Grand Line. Despite being so young, Ace had defeated lots of tough pirates. His team, the Spade Delivery Service, was bodyguard for many incorporations in East Blue, accompanying and leading their ships to safety. Since Ace took the pirates he defeated to the Marine for reward, he considered himself a part-time bounty hunter, but he only beat those attacked him first.

Their conversation was enjoyable. Marco had to admit he didn't expected to meet someone as interesting as Ace when he set sail to Paradise. He could have said he had a lovely time, if it wasn't because of a bird kept cooing annoyingly inside his head.

A very, very, very annoying bird he couldn't shake it off.

Not only devil fruit users gain a special power after consuming the fruit, but they can also communicate with the devil in it. Phoenix wasn't just his power, the avian was a living being in his mind. He could feel its emotion. They even talked even though what he heard was mostly chirp and caw. Sometimes the flaming bird would take over his body for a few minutes just to please its own pleasure, like nesting on the crow nest on a sunny day. It was annoying at first, although Marco knew Phoenix would never hurt him, mostly because of the constant bird jokes. Phoenix was easy to tame when Marco was young, but as he got stronger and relied more to his physical ability, the bird started to become a lazy ass, only came out when he forced it with his will power or when he was in a dangerous situation.

Since the moment Ace came to him and said hi, for only god knew why, the slothful avian began cooing excitedly, so loud Marco had to resist yelling it to shut up. For some reasons, his power was very fond of the black hair man.

Maybe because of those cute freckles.

In his inner world, Phoenix nodded in agreement.

When Marco was about to comment about the Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna, a very popular main course in South Blue, he sensed some living creature approaching the restaurant really fast. Too fast to be a normal human, more like an animal, some kind of four-leg creature. Ace seemed to sense it too as he turned around and looked at the door.

A lynx burst in and some guests immediately yelled jumped off their seat. Its muscular limbs suggested it was a nasty hunter, and it might have an owner since it was wearing a dark-colored belt. The lynx scanned the room attentively, nearly choked a lot of people, until it spotted their seats and run toward them. Or more precisely, towards a grinning Ace.

"Hey there Kotatsu. What are you doing here? Miss me?"

It came to Ace and meowed as if it wasn't a carnivorous feline but was just a harmless house cat. Ace rubbed it chin gently and the lynx purred in delight.

A young man came in right after. He had spiky long light blue hair and wore a mask over his eyes. He looked relieved at the sight of Ace, but soon his expression turned worried when he noticed Marco, probably recognized the tattoo on his chest. Still, Blue Hair approached them.

"There you are, Ace."

"What's wrong Deuce? Something happened?"

Marco saw Blue Hair, Deuce, clenched his hand a bit before answering. The young man seemed to tense by Marco's presence. He must be from Ace's crew. His physical appearance suggested he was also a fighter, but it was easy to tell Ace was stronger. The black hair man didn't state it directly, but Marco guessed he was the leader of Spade Delivery Service.

"Not really, but we're short-handed. It seems like the spoiled idiot had taken a few men somewhere and the old man want us to help with the unloading."

Ace rolled his eyes. "Please don't tell me that idiot want to provoke someone again. And loading isn't in our contract."

"The old man promised to pay us more. And if we don't finish all the loading this afternoon, we'll delay tomorrow departure."

"-tsk." Ace looked annoyed, but he still stood up and looked apologetically a Marco. "I'm sorry, but I have to leave."

"It's okay. I didn't expect to meet such a charming and interesting guy on this island yoi." Marco chuckled, deliberately ignored the bang in his head on purpose. Phoenix cawed furiously demanding him to do something. The bird was in haste. He found it entertaining since his power had never be interested in someone this much.

Ace grinned cheerfully. His smile was so bright Marco wouldn't surprise if the young man received compliments on daily basic. "It was lovely talking to you Marco. Have a good day. Hope that we'll meet again. Maybe we'll able to continue about South Blue's dishes."

"I hope that too-" Marco replied, then suddenly everything went quiet and a wave of power rushed to his mind. Oh no, he managed to think before feeling his body went numb. He felt his mouth open against his will but he couldn't do anything to stop it. "-but here's a small tip. Do not foretell in the Grand Line because we never know what the sea may deliver us."

Marco gained back the power to control his body. Phoenix singsong triumphantly and Marco just wanted to kick its butt. Damn the flaming pigeon. He wouldn't mind holding their conversation a bit longer, but making him a fool shouldn't be an option. He'd never been a flirtatious man but he certainly could come up with a better pickup line, not the one happened to be what Pops said to him when they first met.

Silence was deafening for two seconds before it was replaced by Ace's laughter.

"Oh my, I didn't expect that." Ace held his stomach, tears streaming down his face. "My mother said the same thing when I set sail too." The young man wiped a joyful tear off his eye. "If that's the case, let hope we are on the same side when we meet again."

The blue hair man looked at them warily but he didn't say anything. He followed Ace outside along with the lynx.

"He… didn't pay." – murmured the restaurant's owner.

.

"One more time and I'm not going to any tropical island in the next three years".

"…" Phoenix rejected, but Marco could feel a bit satisfaction in its tone. Of course the flaming bird wasn't sorry for taking over his body at all. Its attachment to the young man was interesting at first, but Marco wasn't sure whether he wanted to see his body moving on Phoenix's will again. That was the first time Phoenix used his body to interact with someone. Even it only lasted for a few seconds, the feeling of being out of control of his body actually terrified him. Nesting under the sun was comfortable, but talking to a stranger could be dangerous.

"You want me to raise to six months?"

"…" Phoenix cawed in defeat, knowing too well not to bargain when Marco was angry.

"Why are you so fond of Ace? Is this a thing with devil fruit?"

"…"

"Phoenix?"

"…"

Marco mentally sighed. Phoenix's silence mean that really is a devil thing and he had to accept what the hell happened between the bird and the young man, either he like it or not.

"I won't push, but let me know if you want to do this again. You know I don't like being the passive side."

Phoenix nodded and Marco continued to walk to a pottery shop while holding a giant stuffed otter.

The First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirate loved his family more than anything in this world, but with a family with more than one-thousand members, being the second-in-command came with a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes things get overwhelmed and Marco was desperate for a short break. Pops easily saw through him, the old man always did. He ordered Marco to get him the finest drink in Paradise. It was a stupid excuse to free him from his work. Even though he appreciated it, he refused to leave his family for so long or let his father be involved with any kind of alcohol. Yet his brothers were too eager kicking him out of the ship and enthusiastically demanded for what they also wanted from Paradise.

It was worrisome and delighted at the same time.

Since moving from one side of Grand Line Wall to the other took a lot effort, not many ships willing to dive deep down to Fishman Island on a daily basis, most merchandises in New World were self-sufficient. There were still companies shipping here and there yet Paradise's products were quite rare. Marco had come to Paradise with an extremely long shopping list. He had spent two days just to draw the most efficient route to buy all of the items in the shortest time. So far he had finished half of the list. As the current progress, he would got to New World in the next four months.

He was on this island to collect the items that Jozu and some other brothers had requested secretly the night before he left, deep red blush wide spread on the paramecia's face.

It turned out Jozu had a collection of mini pottery animals and he wanted pottery unicorns from a specific shop on a specific island in the Paradise. Walking with a bag full of pottery unicorns wasn't the strangest thing Marco had ever done so far. Walking with said bag to a doll shop, a stationery shop, a witchcraft shop with a giant stuffed otter might was.

In comparison with Jozu's, the other requests weren't more normal. Marco didn't expect to learn that much about his brothers' guilty pleasures before he left. He'd thought after two decades of sailing the New World couldn't surprise him anymore.

Except for Izou's. Izou pointed straight to his face demanding a brother-in-law.

.

Marco got back to his ship in the afternoon with five bags of cute decorative items in his hands, and what he saw made anger flood his veins.

His ship was attacked. The ship body was covered in paint and the mainsail was torn apart by sword.

Marco gritted his teeth. He hopped on board and searched around. He couldn't sense anyone with Haki, which mean the attacker had left. The engine were fine, but the wheel was ripped off and tossed away and the door of the storage room was smashed. Some of the items was gone. His bedroom was tampered and his maps scattered on the floor.

Yet that wasn't the worst of it.

Marco looked up and had the urge to dip his talons into someone's chest and rip their heart out.

The flag was burned.

Some goddamn fucker just burned his ship's flag. His family's insignia. His pride.

Marco regretted being over-confident that no one would dare to attack a Whitebeard's ship. The world knew attack a Whitebeard member mean become enemy with the whole crew. Since he brought nothing important on the journey - only the items his brothers requested could be considered valuable, but most of them weren't expensive at all - he didn't hesitate leave them all behind. Marine certainly don't want to provoke an Emperor and Emperors' crew don't attack each other for no reason. Ignorant rookies who wanted to make their name would leave a distinguish mark, but Marco found nothing, no drawing, no writing, no jolly roger and no symbol.

This was not a war-trigger, it was simply sabotaging and nothing more. Marco wasn't sure the attacker whether aiming at him and the Whitebeard pirate or just playing around.

Either the way, it was a pure act of stupidity.

.

It didn't take Marco long to find out the identity of the attackers, in fact, he knew their names after just fifteen minutes of asking around. He only said his ship was attacked and a local woman guessed he was a pirate immediately. An old fisherman looked at him up and down and stated he shouldn't go after the attackers otherwise he would receive massive failure like other pirates crew.

The Gonzalez was a local trading company specialized in construction equipment and their young master had a habit of provoking pirate crews stopping at this port. He broke pirate ships, waiting for pirates show up at his door and beat the shit out of them. Since only pirate ships were attacked, the local just let it be, as long as didn't affect their lives. Gonzalez had some pretty strong fighters up his sleeve because no pirate had their vengeance yet.

"All came back covered in blood and bruises", said a fisherman.

Asking for his whereabouts was even easier. Just before Marco reached the Gonzalez mansion, he eavesdropped some guys, whom he guessed were servants based on their clothes, walking from the opposite direction saying the young master had left the island and would come to the company's warehouse at night. Marco preferred going rampage with the guy's presence, so he spent the afternoon cleaning his room and redrawing a few maps.

When First Division Commander finished, he noticed the sun was diving into the sea. A sun-ray speared through the window and created a circular shape of light on his map. For an instant his mind wandered to the day his father introduced the Moby Dick. The day still fresh in his mind, the moustache man spread his arms wide and laughed triumphantly under the glorious twilight. He sat on Pops' shoulder, dreaming about the place he would called home.

Marco wondered what his family was doing, it must be dinner now, with Thatch running around organize the dining room. Although the chief was a happy-go-lucky guy, he took pride in his job of making sure everyone was healthy. Everyone would cheered and laughed joyfully. There was always a story to tell on Moby Dick, maybe about a loved one, a long gone memory, a sin, a regret, or maybe just some prank Haruta pulled earlier. Pops would sit at his corner laughing all the times. Maro hoped the nurses were able to keep him away from alcohol.

He sat on the railing, puffed out cigar smoke and watched them fading slowly toward the horizon through his half-lidded eyes. He'd been sailing for decades, but he still admired the hue sky when the last sun-ray kissed the ocean goodbye.

When the light drained away, leaving nothing more than the gloomy darkness, his Phoenix cooed eagerly for the incoming hunt.

.

He stood in front of the Gonzalez's warehouse. Not to his surprise, the guards stopped him. There were three of them. A muscular man with a white cowboy hat, a short man wearing grey turban and a large man with his arm replaced by a three barrel gun. They drew their weapons out as they saw Marco approached. Cowboy Hat tensed a bit when he recognized Marco's tattoo, but he held his stand firm alongside his comrades.

"I'm here for the young master of the Gonzalez yoi. I believe he's here and I'd like to talk to him." Marco said in a flat tone. He didn't mind the guards, but it would be more convenient if he didn't have to deal with them.

"Young master had ordered to not let anyone bother him tonight. So mister, you may come again tomorrow." Cowboy Hat said politely.

"I believe he's holding something belong to me and I want to take them back. You see, I found out my ship was attacked this afternoon and some items on board went missing yoi."

The three guards looked like they just tasted something disgusting. Marco took it as they understood what happened to him. Cowboy Hat nodded hesitantly and the other two followed like they finally reached an agreement. Looking at their eyes, Marco knew the answer before Cowboy Hat rose his voice.

"We're sorry for your… loss. But we cannot let you pass this gate no matter what."

"No matter what?" Marco repeated sarcastically. His lips twisted up and he put some strength to his legs. "In that case, I'm sorry too, yoi."

Within the next second, he kicked Grey Turban and the guy slammed to the concrete wall.

"Pinnacle!" Cowboy Hat hollered.

Barrel Gun lifted his arm and aimed at Marco, but before he could fire, Marco approached from below and kicked his barrel up. The big guy lost his balance and stumbled backward. Another kick right to his chest sent him straight to the ground. Cowboy Hat charged at Marco with his sabers upheld. The Zoan dodged easily and literally stepped on the guy's face. Cowboy yelped in pain before Marco kicked him hard to his chest.

Marco liked to fight with his physical ability, it stretched his muscles and made him feel energetic. New World had taught him not to rely on his power too much. He wouldn't use Phoenix if it wasn't necessary (goddamn this habit of him had turned Phoenix into a sloth), although it was fun seeing the hopelessness in his opponents' eyes when they realized they couldn't hurt him.

As he was about to strike Barrel again, he suddenly heard gunshot. Firework bloomed brightly in the night sky. Grey Turban was back on his feet holding a small gun. He turned at the sound of running feet on the rooftop.

"Chivalry, yoi?"

Marco smirked as he saw a bullet coming and leaned his head to avoid it, then he duck another one and another one. The sniper kept him busy so that his comrades could attack him in close-range. Barrel was back in the field. His steps wasn't solid, but they was fire in his eyes as he held his barrel firmly. Cowboy Hat and Grey Turban tried to tackle him from both sides. They all aimed for important part that wouldn't kill him but would surely knock him down.

Well trained together and very good durability, Marco applauded. They would give some Paradise pirates a hard time, but they were nowhere near the level of New World.

He dodged the rifle shots, taking advantages of the open space and kicked Barrel much harder than last time. The big guy smashed to the ground again with a disturbing noise. Grey Turban charged at him from below and he jumped then kicked the guy in the back. When he was about to kick the Cowboy Hat right to his face again, he felt a very strong existence approached. A column of fire coming straight to him from his right side. He immediately leaped on, barely avoided the destructive attack. The ground where he stood earlier was now black ashen.

Phoenix suddenly cooed in excitement and Marco immediately understood why.

He turned around to face his attacker, Portgas D. Ace, both arms covered in fire, looking straight at Marco with a sullen expression. He looked like a royal prince coming up to the battle ground all geared up for war. Fire crawled on his skin, illuminated the young man in a majestic and glorious aura.

Marco felt his power singsong to react. Realization dawned upon him why the avian attached to the young man. Phoenix had always been fond of fire, legend said the bird was born from fire after all.

"Marco the Phoenix." Ace grimaced.

"See what I mean earlier Ace?" Marco chuckled, he couldn't help finding the situation hilarious. "We don't foretell in the Grand Line."

The blue hair young man, Deuce if he was correct, was right behind Ace. He was shocked noticing Marco and immediately drew out his weapon.

Ace didn't answer, instead he looked around with his eyebrow arched. His eyes went dark when he saw Barrel lying unconscious. He took one step forward and raised his arms.

"Deuce, go check Aggie, and none of you is allowed to interfere. I'll take it from here."

"Ace, what the fuck?!" Deuce protested. "What do you mean we're not allowed to-"

Before the blue hair man could finish his sentence, Ace clapped his hands. A circle of fire rose, trapping him and Marco inside.