Marco wakes up before dawn to chaos. He slams his door open to see Ace marching off to Whitebeard's cabin in righteous fury, while Izou has only two layers of make up on. It's enough to warn him that last night shit hit the fan.
He's right in all the worst ways. Thatch is nearly dead, kept alive only with the best equipment that the Moby Dick could offer what with a dagger piercing close to his spine and loss of blood that would probably haunt the rest of his days, because the Moby Dick was supposed to be safe from all that when not in battle. Ace is a fiery pillar of rage, and explosions could be heard from five rooms away.
The wanderer is in the infirmary when he finds out that Ace, despite Pops' objections, had decided to chase down Teach on a one-man raft and left the Moby Dick. Marco's frustrated, and has every right to storm off and sulk beside the fourth division commander's bedside.
The wanderer offers him a snack of badly toasted bread and dry corned beef. Despite his heavy mood, he accepts the makeshift breakfast.
"You found him." The wanderer nods in acknowledgement, sipping some water from a satchel. Marco heard from his brothers that the wanderer was the first on the scene, trying to staunch the flow by pressing against the wound and preventing anyone from removing the dagger until the doctors had arrived. The head doctor explains that for stabbings, the protruding object has to remain, otherwise blood would continue to flow and flow and flow
He finds an arm wrapped in gloves on his shoulder, the wanderer looking at him.
"He's going to live." He says, as though it's really important that Thatch does so. He looks furtively at Thatch, who looks older than he usually is.
"I'm not losing a nakama like this." The wanderer mutters.
"If you consider us your nakama," Marco asks, "Why do you not join us?"
"I'm an unlucky wanderer."
"Bullshit. You have enough dumb luck to fill this ship."
"No." He says, and unlike all other times. he's hiding his face with his hair. "I'm unlucky to my nakama." He stares at Thatch. "Maybe that's why Thatch's like this." The wanderer stares at the opposing wall, his expression downcast.
"No, if not for you, our brother could have died." A voice comes out from behind them, and Izou, now with his full set of makeup on full display walks in. "You know how to handle stab wounds and stop bleeding. You also know how to allocate duties. You were able to get aid to Thatch in the shortest time possible, and you never took eyes off him even when it would have been better to arrest Teach on the spot. You prioritize the lives of others over yourself." He looks at the wanderer in a new light. What Izou says makes sense.
"I lost a nakama that way." The wanderer says tonelessly. "I didn't know what else to do. Why did Ace chase after Teach?"
"Pops' rules." Marco explains, remembering that this guy is a newcomer. "The leader of the division has to go after the person who harms his brothers. It's to dissuade others from doing the same."
"Pops was worried about Ace. With the new fruit, Teach may be too strong to handle for him alone. We don't even know what the devil fruit does-"
"-Yami Yami no Mi." The wanderer explains. "It's a fruit that sucks and destroys people. Drains people of their strength."
Marco starts. "You knew that fruit?"
"Teach tried to use it on me."
"Oh." Well, why didn't the wanderer die yet? Izou voices this question.
To their surprise, the wanderer grins.
"I'll show you." He turns his glove inside out, to reveal tips of a grey material sunken into the seams of the glove.
"Seastone gloves. The navy uses it to line their money, but not enough to weaken a Devil Fruit user. My nakama decided to apply the same principles in making a weapon against Devil Fruit Users." He turns the glove back to its proper orientation. "However, it can't affect people in this form."
Somehow, the expression the wanderer wears makes it perfectly clear that the whole explanation is complete bullshit. Marco's really too tired to care; after all, his co-conspirator is lying unconscious on that bed.
Thatch wakes up and he thinks that this must be some before-death hallucination.
His eyes are all wonky, because he sees the wanderer (both he and Marco decided on the name ages ago out of a lack of things to call him, and Coby's obviously a stupid name) conversing with something next to his bedside.
"Go, it's not his time yet-"
"Do you know the consequences of snatching a soul-"
"Yes I know. But that only applies for important souls to me. He's not that important." Aw. Did he really has to say that? Thatch feels mildly insulted, even if they had only known each other for a couple of months.
"Not to 'you' but you continue to stay at his bedside for the last two days. Though you may be a bearer of the initial, that doesn't imply that you can order me around like this!"
"No, I can. I don't fear death."
"But you do for your nakama, which this person definitely is." Okay, no need for apology. Apparently the wanderer is trying to lie to himself, but seriously? Wanderer, you're not a very good liar at all aren't you?
"I fear being alone more than being dead. I'm no hero"; he sighs, "I'm selfish. I want to protect my nakama, but I can't see them yet. Away with you." The figure scowls.
"Fine. I will come calling anyway."
"It's a matter of when." With that, the figure departs in a wisp of smoke, while the wanderer is left staring emptily into the wall. He raises his hand as though reaching for something, and lowers it as though it doesn't exist anymore.
Okay, so the wanderer can call on Death. And dismiss him. Or scare him away.
Thatch could feel the darkness stretching him down down down beyond the abyss, and he's not sure if he would ever wake up again. His last conscious thought, before he finally sinks, is What is he?
While Luffy is busy fighting alongside his nakama (how curious. To use the same reference to his crew.), Ace is watching his brother closely. He recognises some of the movements that his brother makes as being similar to the wanderer's.
But the wanderer's fighting style uses bo-staffs, similar to what the navigator carries. The use of multiple weapons is present in both the swordsman, and the kicks the chef makes, if more precise and less flamboyant, could have echoed one of the fights he had with the wanderer.
He doesn't like what this implies.
Flashback:
"Most of my nakama have vanished beneath the depth of the waters." The wanderer notes as he nurses a cup of water, "I would only see them again once a certain person arrives.
"Certain person? Can't you just drag the guy over?" Ace replies as he tosses his weapon aside. Every attempt he makes to move closer to the wanderer out of sparring, the wanderer retreats a few steps back.
The wanderer shakes his head ruefully.
"I can't rush him, it's up to him to decide how he wishes to make his journey. I really wish that the guy before him hadn't destroyed half my home island in his own quest; it would make things more difficult for the next guy." Once again, the wanderer is stepping around specifics. It's so annoying.
"It's really been a long time since I saw them. I can't wait to see them again." He says, and smiles widely.
He compares the smile to what his brother wears constantly. What event could have occurred such that this wanderer doesn't smile anymore?
