This time, Harry and crew meet someone unexpected after an attack by an inhuman foe.
HP an OP don't belong to me.
Will of D Chapter 7
With the Island of Centaurea far behind them, and the course set for the next island, Daphne Finally took the opportunity to rest while everyone else celebrated the wonderful addition of Luna to the crew.
"Hey Daph!" Harry shouts over the others laughter, "What's the next island?"
"The island of Garshaun, about five days from here." She answers with a smile, "You should be able to get in plenty of training on the way."
"And you should be able to recover from your wounds." Luna says happily, "Though I noticed something very important that needs to be addressed."
"What's that?" Neville asks, looking away from his new sword.
"Well, you're a pirate crew that still sails with a plain flag." She smirks, "You need to be recognizable even from a distance."
"Good idea." Daphne nods, grabbing a pen and some paper, "It'll give me something to do while we're at sea. I'll come up with a few ideas and we'll decide later."
"I can draw it on the full size sail if you can get me a design." Susan offers, "I think I saw some paint in the storage locker."
"Alright then. We got a plan." Harry laughs, "So, today we party, tomorrow we work."
This announcement was met with the general agreement of the crew and before long they were laughing and cheering together.
"Are you joking?" Sengoku asks, slamming his fist down onto Akainu's desk, "You're talking about the public execution of a War Hero!"
"Who she was is irrelevant." He says coldly, "She has broken the law, and by doing so has placed our entire world at risk. What happens if that Fruit falls into the hands of Kaido? Or Big Mom? Or worst of all, Dragon? The government would fall inside of a month if they gain that power! We must make an example out of her. Even better, the girl might come and try to save her."
"Don't be a fool!" Sengoku roars, "We've just finished battling Whitebeard, the Seven Warlords are the weakest they've been in history, and you want to pull this? With the number of islands saved by her actions, you are setting us up for a civil war!"
"Let me make this clear, Inspector." He growls, "This matter is not up for discussion. Amelia Bones is being taken to Azkaban to await her execution next month. As a precaution, it will take place entirely in the south blue. Inform every available Vice admiral and Warlord. You and Garp go as well."
Grinding his teeth in frustration, Sengoku nods, "Very well." And turns, leaving the Fleet admiral without a word.
"Neville!" Harry called while they were two days out from Centaurea, "You up for some training?"
"If you're sure." He answers, "Take into account that I'm not very good at stopping this sword yet."
"I'll be fine." Harry shrugs, "Don't forget that I can turn into wind."
"Alright." Neville grins, drawing his sword, "But just to be on the safe side, no dangerous technique for you, and I'll use the back of my blade."
"Works for me." Harry smirks, transforming his body into wind as Neville turns his blade.
For a tense moment, Neville looks around for some slight sign of where he would be attacking from. In the slight breeze, no doubt created by Harry's power, a voice echoed, "just to be fair, I won't attack while I'm invisible."
"I appreciate that." Neville grins, "It never hurts to have some experience fighting an invisible enemy, right captain?"
"Behind you." Luna says, and Neville turns around just in time to see Harry launch a ball of compressed air at him. Acting quickly, he sliced the ball in half, quickly twisting the blade and disrupting the remaining winds path.
"Impressive." Harry says as he turns back to wind, "And Luna, how did you where I was?"
Standing up from her seat on the deck, Luna walks over to Neville's side, "I can feel you. The same way as I knew that the marines were on the ship back on Centaurea. So, do you mind if I give Neville a hand?"
"Fine." Harry grins, though none of them could see it. He quietly crept around them, but Luna's eyes, and by extension, Neville's eyes, never left him. Deciding to spice it up, he sent a small ball of wind at Luna, which Neville tried to block. Expecting that, Harry sent a gust of wind at him, throwing him off balance. Unfortunately, he overestimated its strength, and it also knocked Luna over, inadvertently dodging the ball.
"Neville, he's ten feet to your left." Luna says as she climbs to her feet, and Neville nods, attacking the open air.
A moment after the sword slash, Harry reappeared, "You got me. Seriously good job, Luna."
"You know, I think I started getting a weird feeling towards the end." Neville shrugs, "Doubt I'd have won without her though."
Luna blushes slightly at the praise as Susan and Daphne clap, "Me next!" Susan grins, "You'll help me, right, Luna?"
"Hey!' Harry smirks, "She's too good. Neville, why don't we see how good those instincts of yours are?"
Nodding, Neville stood behind his friend as Harry disappeared again.
Susan shifted into her half cat form and started looking around while Neville closes his eyes in concentration.
"Anything?" Susan asks after a minute of nothing.
"Somewhere to the right." Neville mutters, "I can't get any more precise."
Susan nods to him and jumps to the right, perfectly slashing in half the place where Harry had been less than a minute earlier. In response, Harry sends a gust of wind that knocks her further away. By the time that she'd made it to his previous location, he was gone.
Suddenly, the air turned cold. Daphne and Luna started shaking. Susan, who should have been the most protected from the cold by virtue of her fur, was shivering worse than either of them. The cold got to the point that Harry couldn't even maintain his concentration to remain hidden.
"What's going on?" Neville shouts shakily, "This is the South Blue! There shouldn't be such a drastic change in weather so quickly! It's not like we're on the grand line!"
"I don't know!" She shouts back, "But be careful! This might be a Devil fruit!"
"There aren't any ships anywhere!" Luna whispers, "I can only feel two presences, and neither on a ship!"
Harry turns when he says a dark shape flying up onto the deck. All eyes were on the figure, cloaked entirely in black, its face hidden behind the hood of its cloak. A sudden sense of Foreboding blanketed the ship as it approached the captain. In desperation, Harry sends a gale towards the figure, but all it did was knock the hood off, revealing a horribly disfigured face and scabbed head. The feelings of despair increased as it came closer, and his vision faded. Inside his mind, he heard a woman screaming. Behind him, he heard four voices scream his name, followed by another voice.
"Ice Time."
The last thing he saw was the shadow of a man standing between him and the black robed monster before he fainted.
"Fleet Admiral!" The marine saluted, "I thought you would want to know that the Dementors have been set at Azkaban as requested."
"Very good." Akainu nods, "That should eliminate any threat from her Haki while she is there."
"But, sir…." The marine stuttered nervously, "There appears to be one fewer Dementor then there should have been…"
"What!" he growls, "Are you telling me that you let a Dementor go free!?
"N-n-no sir!" the marine cries, "no Dementor left the ship after they arrived at Azkaban! It must have been lost while at sea!"
"Send Vice Admiral Smoker to Find it and destroy it." He says angrily, "We cannot let something like that free in the south blue!"
"Yes sir!"
Harry gradually opened his eyes and found Daphne's tear covered face less than a foot from his.
"Harry!" she cried, wrapping her arms around him.
"Good to see you're alright." A voice said from the door. Looking, Harry saw that it was a very tall man with puffy black and a long dark blue overcoat, "You kids were lucky I happened to be in the area. That thing was a nasty piece of work."
"Who are you?" Harry mutters, sitting up from the bed he'd been placed in.
"My name is Kuzan, though at one point I also went by Aokiji." He shrugs, taking something out of the bag on his back, and tosses it to him, "Here, this should help."
Harry takes the bar and looks back at him, "Chocolate?"
"Believe me, it'll help." He nods and Harry takes a bite out of it. Immediately warmth spreads through his body, and the feeling he'd felt early seemed to like little more than a memory.
Thank you." Harry smiles, "What was that thing?"
"A dementor. It a monster found almost exclusively in the new World, on the island of sorrow. There have been reports of some being spotted on other islands in the new world, but never outside of the grand line. My only guess is that someone brought it here to guard something."
"Where is it now?"
"Dead. Like I said, it's luckily that I was in the area and decided to check it out." Kuzan answers, "Outside of the three admirals, I think only the yonko and maybe Doflamingo would be able to kill them."
'What about you?" Harry asks, "Which are you?"
"Former marine admiral." He answers, "Nowadays, I'm just a guy who likes riding his bike in the south blue. You've got devil fruit powers, don't you?' Harry nods, and he continues, "If you run into those guys again, keep your cool. I don't know how powerful you and your crew are, and I frankly don't want to know. But after almost thirty years in the marines, I consider myself a pretty good judge of power. You guys might actually be able to take one of them down if you work together."
"Thanks." Harry nods, "I thought you looked familiar. You were the one that froze the Bay during the war, weren't you?"
"Yeah, that was me." He sighs, "But I refuse to work for Akainu. Not now, not ever."
Susan and Neville walk in and after lots of smiling and laughing and telling Harry how worried they were, Susan turned to the admiral now trying to slink away from them, "You knew my aunt, right?"
"Aunt?" He stares, "What's her name?"
"Amelia Bones,"
"Amelia? Damn. It's been years since I heard that name." he grins, "Yeah I knew her. Toughest teacher you could ever dream of. Between her and Old man Zephyr, I can safely say that I had the best and the worst teachers. I learned more than I could ever hope to use, but barely survived at all. If she stayed in the marines, I'd wager she'd have been Fleet admiral during the war instead of Sengoku. But after what happened, it's probably better that she didn't. Mind you, I don't blame her. Probably would've done the same if I'd been there."
"Really?" Neville asks, "You seriously would've stolen the devil fruit?"
Kuzan turned to him, glaring slightly, "What exactly do you know about that devil fruit?"
"Only that it's a cat." Susan says, slightly scared of the suddenly serious attitude of the admiral of lazy justice.
"So, you ate it?' he sighs, "Do not let anyone else get that power. It's too powerful."
"What is it?" Daphne asks, "You seem to know a lot about it."
"I was in charge of investigating it. Which means that I got copies of all the logs and experiment journals that survived the fire. Cat-Cat Fruit Model: Liger, is Dr. Vegapunk's masterpiece. He combined two other devil fruits, and enhanced its capabilities, making a devil fruit that is built entirely for war. In the hands of a skilled user, it could be the equal of one of the admirals."
Wow." Susan gasps, "It's that powerful?"
"Its strong enough that I doubt anyone under the rank of captain could even cut you right now, and it would take an extraordinary Sniper to shoot you. Without using Haki, just about anything would just bounce right off you. Be careful. Akainu's going to come after it, and he'll kill you without hesitating."
"He already did." Susan says sadly, "He tried to get it from Auntie, but she helped us escape."
"He got Amelia!" He gasps, "No way."
"We don't know exactly what happened, but she held off two admirals so that we could escape." Neville says, comforting Susan, "She might have escaped."
"I hope so." He smiles, "And Amelia is one tough lady. I wouldn't have gone after her without all three admirals at least." Stepping out onto the deck, he shrugs, "Well, I'd better get moving. I've got some business in the area, and I don't want to be late."
Without waiting for a reply, he grabs his bike off the deck, "Ice ice ramp." Dropping his bag, he waves his hand, and a ramp of ice attached itself to the side to the ship and into the sea. After picking up his bag, he jumps onto it, climbs onto his bike and starts pedaling. The second the wheel connects with the water, it freezes and he rides across the surface of the water. The ramp shatters behind him.
"Well, that was weird." Susan smirks, "Who would have thought that there was such a decent guy in the marines?"
"Yeah, weird, but a good guy." Harry nods, "Someone want to tell me how he's riding a bike on the water?"
"I've heard that some Logia user have vehicles powered by their powers, so I think he's freezing the water as he rides over it." Daphne answers, "But that doesn't explain why he isn't sliding all over the place."
"I want something like that!' Harry grins, then spots something on the deck ,"What's this?" kneeling to pick it up, he finds it's a book.
"Devil fruit training journal…" He reads off the front, "where'd this come from?"
None of them have any clue, and he opens the front cover. Its signed Kuzan. "He must've dropped it when he left." Harry says as he walks over to the side of the ship. There was no sign of the bicycle or the trail of ice, "What should we do?"
"We might as well hold onto it." Luna answers, "We might see him again, and I don't think that an admiral would just leave something like that lying around. Maybe he left it on purpose in case we run into those things again."
"So, you think we should use it until we see him again?" Susan asks.
"Works for me." Harry shrugs, "But do you think that he knew we were pirates?"
"Probably not, he was a marine, so I doubt he'd try to help pirates." Daphne laughs, "In the meantime, let's choose our flag, shall we?"
"Understood." Smoker sighed, hanging up the transponder snail, "Tashigi! Prepare the warship!"
"Yes sir!" she says, running from the room.
"I'm not about to cry about leaving this cursed place." Smoker muttered, getting ready to depart, "Marines, until we return, no one is allowed in or out."
"Yes sir!" the marine salutes as smoker leaves the room.
As he walks towards the dock, he curses as those Dementors glide closer to him. Blasting them backwards with a concentrated pillar of smoke, he continues to the dock until he heard a voice behind him, "It's been a while, Smoker."
"And you as well, Admiral." He says, turning his head towards the tall man next to the door.
"it's just Kuzan. Don't forget that I resigned." He shrugs.
"Then what is your reason for coming to the marine's top secret prison in the south blue, Former Admiral Aokiji?" Smoker glares.
"Several reasons, really. First of all, it looks like one of your Dementors got away."
"I know, I've been ordered to deal with it."
"A little late for that. I dealt with it an hour ago." He answers, "Though I would appreciate it if you could keep my name out of it."
"Fine, what else?" Smoker growls.
"I need to talk to my old teacher." He says without missing a beat, "I have no intention of trying to free her. I just want to talk. Now, you can let me in, or I can defeat you and all the marines here, kill the Dementors, and leave this place in no position to defend against someone of her caliber."
After a quick staring contest between them, smoker relents, "Alright. But you're wearing Seastone while you're in there."
"Whatever you like." He shrugs, holding out his hands for the Seastone cuffs.
"Vice-admiral!" Tashigi yells from the top of the warship, "We are ready to leave whenever you are ready!"
"Hold your positions!" he shouts back, "I'm going to go and check on the prisoner!"
Leading the former admiral into the jail, he once more forces the Dementors back.
"It's obvious why they left you in charge." Aokiji observes, "You're the only powerful marine who could force them back without killing them."
"Say what you will." Smoker mutters, "I for one will be very happy once this job is over and done with."
"Stock up on chocolate." Aokiji shrugs as they push the door open. Seeing Smoker's expression, he adds, "It really helps in relieving the effects of their presence. I've got some in my bag, if you'd like to try it?"
"Anything to make this stupid mission easier." He sighs, handing him the bag. After a moment of searching, Aokiji hands him a bar of chocolate, which he takes a bite.
"Damn. That's good stuff." Smoker chuckles, "How'd you come by this?"
"I took a few jobs in the new world that ran across them. Chocolate always helped afterwards."
"Well, thanks." Smoker shrugs, locking the door behind them and opening a second door in front of them, "I'll wait here. Give you two some privacy."
"I appreciate it." He nods, stepping through the door.
"What is it this time?" a voice asks from one of the next cells, "Are you interrogating me again, or just here to gloat?"
"Neither, Sensei." He replies, stepping in front of her cell, "It's been far too long."
"Kuzan. How great to see you." She smiles, "You're right, it's been too long. I wish it were under better circumstances though."
"I never wanted this to happen." He sighs, "If did I'd have done it when I found out the truth. I stand by the fact that you did what was right."
"Don't worry about it." She chuckles, "I did what I did, and I've been ready to pay for it since then. Whatever happens from here on, I have no regrets."
"Not even about your niece?" he sighs, "I ran into her earlier."
"What!?" she growls, "You better not have hurt her!"
"I'm not a marine." He shrugs, "I really couldn't care less if she joined a pirate ship. If she had proved to be the same as any other pirate I've run across, I'd have killed her on principle, but her captain reminds me too much of that boy. Too kind and adventurous."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"Not really, but it makes him dangerous. For now, he can do as he likes. But if he crosses the line…"
"Susan won't let that happen." She says firmly, "Regardless, I don't think you came here just to tell me that you saw my niece."
"I had to lie to her." He answers, "I told that you must've escaped."
"Do you think so little of me?"
"Never. Quite frankly, you and I both know that there isn't a marine strong enough to defeat you. But you and I have the same problem. We're too soft. Once Susan had escaped, you subconsciously held yourself back because you didn't want to kill. I made the same mistake on Punk hazard and it cost me my leg. "
"Funny, I lost my eye." She chuckles, "maybe you're right. I'm guessing that that's why you lost at Punk Hazard? I always thought that you were the more skillful one."
"I didn't want to kill him." He nods, "in hindsight, I should've ended that fight before it began, but I didn't, and now you and your niece are paying for it."
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm not going to be released, am I?" taking his silence as an affirmative, she sighs, "I expected as much. He'll use me to prove a point, and probably to lure Susan out of hiding. I want to ask you a favor, Kuzan."
"I'll keep her out of it." He nods, walking back towards the door, "look after yourself, Amelia. There is still a slight chance that he might see reason. Oh, I almost forgot. I ran into an old woman the other day who asked me to pass along a message. She said, 'Help is on the way.' Apparently, it came from someone named Jackson."
Hearing a gasp, he could only assume that it meant something, but he didn't care what and left the room without another word.
"Thank you, Smoker." He nods as the handcuffs come off.
"So, now I just have to go sailing for an hour and claim credit for something I didn't do?"
"Think of it as my way of helping you get that promotion to G-5."
Grabbing his bike from where he left it, he got ready to leave, searching his bag for his last bar of chocolate, "Damn." He smirks, "Must've dropped my journal."
So, that's the last chapter for today. I've got a few more to upload some other time. For now, i hope you enjoyed this batch. Want more, just vote on my poll. Top three choices are guaranteed an update.
