"Over here!" The airship landed with barely a bump, a testament to the navigator's ability to transfer her experience in steering normal ships (as well as the general crew) to other modes of transport.
"FLYING SHIP!" the boys crowed, starry-eyes locked onto the flying vessel. Nami could spot the two adults standing behind them. One easily familiar, one rather difficult to place.
"Permission to board?" Tashigi was practically vibrating in her position with frustration and painfully maintained tolerance. No wonder, boarding a ship full of pirates in order to rescue kidnapped children. But Nami respected the woman; it took guts to disobey the orders one was given in order to do what was right. It was nice to see that at least this particular officer did not turn out to be an outright monster like the others were.
(Nami could not bear the thought of Bell-mere, or at least a proxy of her, killing whole islands.)
Nami hastily calculated the amount of weight. Thankfully, none of them had grown larger than the average adult, so she could easily make a rough estimation. Around twenty to thirty children, two females, a body...
Wait a minute. "Huh?" She peered at the beaten-up, heavily bruised figure that had been dismissively piled into a heap of flesh. "That's weird. Isn't that-"
"Caesar Clown. That's sea-stone, so get some non Devil-Fruit users to lug him up." Answered Usopp, who was busy assessing their new passengers. Then he froze, his jaw dropping to the ground.
"Got him." Thatch experimentally lifted the unconscious criminal scientist, before stopping.
"Feels lighter than I expected."
"I would be surprised if you hadn't." Smoker answered, chugging on probably the fifth cigar. "The Marine Science Department were able to get a good balance between effectiveness and weight."
"Sir, may I assume that we are in an alliance?" Tashigi asked, saluting Smoker as soon as the last of the children had boarded the airship. "Otherwise, I would prepare to arrest them."
"What?" Squawked the Whitebeard Pirates as one.
"Temporary alliance, Sniper." Smoker corrected her, as a collective sigh of relief hissed out. "Similar to our position about the Straw Hats."
"You're not the typical Marine, are you?" Thatch commented as he sat on the bruised figure. Nami might have felt a twinge of sympathy for him were it not for the fact he was probably the one who caused the massive explosion. And she still remembered what he did to the kids. Or his secretary for that matter!
"Hmph." Smoker grunted. "If I actually cared to count the number of times I've had to deal with Straw Hat helping the world at large, it far outweighed the times that Straw Hat was a pain in the posterior."
"What do you mean, pain in the ass?" Ace shot back. "How was Luffy—"
"Alabasta." An image of Smoker being thrown through several walls along with Luffy's brother was enough to make Nami choke with giggles. "Loguetown, before that."
"What happened at Loguetown?" Asked Jiro in confusion as Zoro snickered.
"To make the story simple—Luffy was about to be executed, saved by lightning, got captured by him, and saved by a passing Dragon." Sanji flicked a finger with each point at Smoker, who grumbled and looked away. "What I'm more interested in is actually why you proposed this, Smoker. You're more of the kind who would try to do everything himself first, and the last time round it was pretty unofficial for an alliance."
Which was true, come to think about it. The alliance had been initiated by Trafalgar Law, only for Luffy to modify its terms to a friendship pact.
"Just a heads up guys! You don't have to bow your heads to us ever again! Or kneel! Being in an alliance means...being friends!" Luffy delivered the half-assed explanation with a cheerful smile.
"Not even close!" Trafalgar Law, still trying to retrieve the dregs of his dignity shot back, even as those who had been in Punk Hazard shared a giggle at the poor image-maintenance he was trying to carry out.
No one was safe from Luffy's influence. They could all attest to that.
Come to think about it, when they were rescuing their captain from Marineford, Zoro and Usopp had caught no trace of Trafalgar Law. Would he still be allies with them, given the rapid changes of events? Nami was slightly worried; Trafalgar Law had been an excellent ally (read: friend, minion and general tagalong) throughout the quest for One Piece. Given that the current versions of them had not met since Sabaody, how was Luffy going to form the alliance in the first place?
"It's my choice on who I ally with. That's all there is to it." Smoker cryptically replied. Nami arched an eyebrow. Something was not right with how Smoker had phrased it. Add that to the suspicious behavior that he had been exhibiting thus far, she was tempted to further question him, only for something else to capture her attention.
For one, Usopp had not spoken at all since spotting their newest series of passengers. For another, he was visibly wilting under the glare that the other woman was giving him.
"Usopp." A quiet cool retort rang out as curious onlookers hastily took several steps back from what looked like a growing scene of domestic violence. The calm before the storm, if Nami were more poetic.
"Hi, it's nice to see you?" Their sniper wrung his hands as he nervously backed away. The woman advanced towards him, her fists clenched, one raised at his head.
"You left me." Nami could practically feel the temperature drop a few degrees at the frigidity of her tone. Wordlessly, Usopp raised his hands in a conciliatory manner, only to wince as the other woman's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I'm sorry. I truly am sorry for abandoning you." He quietly said. "I wasn't intending to be killed."
"Evidently." She replied. "I would have been more angry at you, if you had intentionally left me on the wedding altar." For once, Sanji did not appear distressed and about to defend the woman against another man who had harmed her. Instead, he was leaning against the railing, watching the scene with weary eyes.
He knows as well as I do that we have no right to intervene in this. Nami thought as the other woman tilted her head back, her nostrils flaring.
"Jinbe once told me that our captain wanted to die after his brother had sacrificed his life for him." She softly whispered. "what you did was even worse—how did you think he would react to seeing his closest crew members dead?"
"...We made a mistake." Usopp answered, closing his eyes, bowing his head. "We were more focused on rescuing him. Dying was not on our schedule."
"I know. But the cost was way too high, at least for him. Luffy has never dealt with losing his precious people, his nakama very well." She said, even as she leveled a glare at all of the former Straw Hat Pirates. Nami felt as though she had been soundly rebuked with her eyes alone, and she wasn't the only one, judging from how Zoro had flinched even when he was asleep on deck.
The woman finally sighed, raking her hands through her hair. "It wasn't just him. Usopp, I forgave you a long time ago for skipping our wedding to rescue your captain." A shy yet bittersweet smile spread across her face, lovely and yet heartbreaking. "But you should have never left him alone."
"Hold on!" Haruta, one of Whitebeard's Commanders interrupted as she held out a palm. 'What do you mean, when Ace died." There were similar expressions of confusion and shock upon the faces of those surrounding them. Marco in particular had turned grey; Ace was blankly staring in horror at the woman.
Oh, they did not tell them. No wonder.
The grown, bitter woman that was the former master of Syrup Village grimly smiled.
"It's best that I explain. Hand me a large plate and some sake. Don't bother about the quality, I don't quite need it to be good."
"Was it alright for me to be born?"
"I can't be the strongest man in the world forever..."
"Thank you all for loving me..."
"Jinbe! Take Ace's little brother with you!"
"Oi! I'm coming in whether you're ready or not!" Whitebeard jolted as a clear and distinctive North Blue voice rang out across the landscape.
He had been sitting in that field for what seemed like days, months even. A replay of events that had never happened. Could never happened. He didn't know what was truth, and what were illusions. But Whitebeard had never forgotten what existed on the outside, even as he saw the death of his family and his sons repeatedly.
Whitebeard knew that his sons were waiting for him. And he refused to give up.
The bright flash of metal, and the constantly replaying events (memories? illusions? reality?) shattered into tiny pieces. The source? A katana striking through the center.
"A hallucinatory cocktail designed to immobilize one's muscular system and distort one's sense of time and reality." The voice pronounced with disgust lacing his tone. A lanky man poked his head through the hole that his sword had made. "Impressive, but I've dealt with worst drugs."
"Who are you?" He rasped out, the effect of shouting for several hours taking its toll on him.
"One victim of an extremely pushy reindeer, if that actually makes sense to you." The cheeky brat answered as he lifted one foot into the area.
"Can you move? No, probably not." He muttered to himself. "I've gotten rid of most of the drug, but you'll need to do the hard part yourself."
Whitebeard gave him an incredulous look, complete with arched eyebrow. The man huffed, scratching at the back of his furry spotted hat.
"This is a drug-induced hallucination. I could give a far more detailed explanation, but simply put, I'm not allowed to do anything beyond breaking the hallucination. And in the flicks I've watched, you can probably do it yourself anyway."
"How exactly?" Whitebeard growled. Because he had tried to break the illusion. And his efforts evidently weren't successful.
"You're a 'Quake' man, are you not?" The brat rolled his eyes.
"That would require me to be able to move in the first place, brat." Whitebeard said wryly. The fellow had the gall to tut disapprovingly, shaking his head.
"Fair enough." A sharp, evil grin on par with the time Ace was still on his daily killing operation spread across the face of the kid from North Blue.
"Back-up plan it is. Enjoy the ride!" He whipped out his katana and threw it at the jar of sake barely inches away from Whitebeard. The world around them started to bend, distort, and warp around the edges, creeping ever closer to to their location.
"You cheeky brat!" Even as Whitebeard growled, the boy continued to cackle with laughter.
"Ro?" Rosinante looked up as his boss sat down next to him. The various Whitebeard Commanders had crept to various spots, still filled with shock over what they had heard from the mouth of his time-travelling boss.
Time-travelling. Dear gods of the sea.
"Hmm?" He said, making space (distancing, his mind echoed traitorously) from the woman who had beaten all laws of physics and common sense. Not to mention the fact that she had hid that, only choosing to serve the customers with a warm smile without revealing the depths beneath.
"I'm sorry for keeping this from you, and Law. But we had to keep it close to our chest. There would have been terrible consequences if we hadn't kept silent."
"Hmm." He was determinedly not answering in words. Because Rosinante did not know how to feel about the fact that his lady boss had looked after the two of them when she could have been rescuing others. Or herself, if what he read between the lines of the argument that had taken place between her and her fiance was correct.
Former fiance, as it turned out. Apparently, she did not take him abandoning her at the altar very lightly. Pettiness aside, there was the fact that he died before he could apologise. And was revived.
A thought occurred to him.
"Merry?" Rosinante asked quietly. "Was I supposed to die?" He turned to see his lady boss covering her face with her hands, revealing no part of her face to him. So she was also trying to hide her own feelings from him. Not that it mattered; her body emanated fatigue and sorrow like a shimmering lantern after all.
"...If captain wasn't walking by, then yes. You would have." She finally said, after a few minutes of silence. "He was good friends with Law, in the future. And he knew how important you were to Law. And the only thing that was stopping him was the fact that he didn't know how to look after you. I, who was sealed for a very long time, was his answer to the conundrum that he faced."
"Sealed?" Rosinante asked, trying to ignore the fact that his own existence was in question on that day. He was that close to dying? And to think it was only the altruistic motives of a pirate that he had survived past Minion Island. Were he the man fifteen years back, he would never have believed that a pirate could have have been that selfless.
But he had. He had Law, and Merry, and Shakky (even when the woman still scared him witless) and Rayleigh (he could still remember the sleepless nights, the bright office where Sengoku pored over papers, attempting to succeed in capturing Gold Roger and his men, and each failed plan where officers were wheeled into the Marine Hospital after each clash) and maybe even Kuma. His circle of friends had downgraded in respectability, but when he tried to find his platoon mates, they had honorable promotions to go with their dismal deaths.
Even if they were the worst scum of the sea, he could not think of Merry being part of that. She was always so gentle with others, polite and warm towards others. That was the first time he had seen her reveal a grudge.
How well did he know her then? What had necessitated her being sealed away?
"I was not quite in the right mind to make decisions." She hesitated, before revealing her face. Tears welling up in the eyes, tracks running down her cheeks.
"I hated the world for taking my fiance away just because of 'justice'." She shook her head. "I have never heard of such an empty value of justice. What justice?" She hollowly laughed. "It's always a matter of which side wins the propaganda battle. And those who win are the ones who write the history."
Rosinante winced, because that had come close to what he and Doffy had thought during their worst moments between mobs.
"Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!"
That had rung throughout those who had watched the broadcast from Marineford. People discussed it behind closed doors. In quiet bars on the wayside. Even in the market place, when Merry and he were looking for supplies, he had heard the speech being discussed. Implications and all.
"I don't think that anyone could agree on their forms of justice." Sengoku had frequently rested upon Justice in order to justify some of the deeds he was forced to carry out on the behalf of the World Government. Rosinante could not blame him; it was often a choice between life and death. On the other hand, he called 'Absolute Justice' bullshit, for there was no reason to go after others just to keep a secret for the Celestial Dragons.
"But I believe justice should never be limited to what they think is right or wrong. Or that others have the right to control one's life." For Rosinante had seen the slave auction houses, and while not actively tearing them down, he had passed down information that could help free some slaves, a little at a time.
"You sound like quite the Revolutionary yourself when you say that." Merry laughed, wiping away her tears. "I think that's true as well." She looked at him thoughtfully.
"Hey, when I asked something of Law, he instantly rejected me." She pouted at the memory, and Rosinante couldn't quite bury the humor and started to chuckle. "Oh come on!"
"What did you ask him then?" There was a twinkle in Merry's eye that heralded extremely bad luck.
"Well—"
The back of his metaphorical neck abruptly chilled.
"Brat, where the hell are we?" Whitebeard called out as they continued to trudge across the path towards reality.
F—ing hell, he did not ask for this when all he wanted was to stare and watch as Punk Hazard went down in a blizzard of flames. Even when he had spotted the gaseous monster (which he so wanted to dissect), he had been thwarted by a stupid tanuki with a conscience.
And now he was stuck grabbing this guy out. Why was he stuck with this.
Think of the expensive equipment you saw lying next to this guy. Yes, the latest defibrillators, catheters, and all those sharp, surgical knives...Were he more short-sighted, he would have stolen them all and hide to look over those interesting machines...
"How did you manage to come here?" Whitebeard interrupted his thought process. Bother, and he was getting to the good part about that iron lung. So sophisticated...
"My Devil Fruit makes me a 'Free Modification Human'." Trafalgar Law said testily. "This would be its second level."
"Second level?" Whitebeard asked, a tone of curiosity in his voice. "What second level?"
"The old hag called it 'Awakening', but it's a bit different from what she described than that." Because he had not even heard of things like an 'Awakening' to begin with. As well documented as the Ope Ope no Mi, there was little about its abilities. Only legends. And he was a man who dealt with fact and not opinion. Past experiences taught him that rumours only had the barest hint of truth, but it was up to the general public to search the reality behind the lies.
Pity the rest of the world was apathetic as f—.
"Like for example, my first level allows me to manipulate objects within a room as well as switch around the hearts of others. But on a higher level, I'm able to open up more things." Best not to go into too much detail. After all, it could be used against him. Law did not fancy dying just because someone wanted to get his Devil Fruit.
He had too much of that from Doflamingo, thank you very much.
"Hmph." The Emperor grunted. "Then you know of other examples as well?"
"Probably." He was quite sure that there had to be other secrets lying behind Doflamingo's powers. The Ito Ito no Mi allowed the user to manipulate strings. Which meant that there had to be another aspect that he could have failed to consider about Doflamingo.
Law needed to do a bit more research. Wouldn't do to let that bastard escape, after all. Law had planned to use Punk Hazard as a way of getting Doflamingo cornered, before blackmailing him into leaving the Warlords. Unfortunately, that devil woman had came to them, and Cora-san was so soft-hearted that he agreed, and there was no way that Law was going to allow Cora-san to be in danger without him nearby to flatten him for being stupid.
(Of course, Law would patch him up after that. Part of the reasons why Law had gone into surgery was because Cora-san got injured so often. )
"That old hag would probably know." Because the owner of Merry's Bar had more information about the Devil Fruits than the book itself. If anything else, she was useful in the information network that was part of a bartender's lifestyle. Case in point, Punk Hazard's location itself. Law valued the network she maintained, even if he did not like her. Period.
Merry was a scary woman all right. An ommivore with the experience of tasting meat, hidden among the herbivores. Sweet and gentle to those who know her, but Law could spot someone who was grieving and angry at the world.
(He was one as well. Hatred behind smiles, a joke to cover killing intent.)
As an expert in such matters, it was his duty to guard Cora-san against that menace of a woman. If left alone, Cora-san would succumb to her wiles, and Law would follow him to the depths of hell itself. Were he a more honest person, Law might have even acknowledged that the woman did Cora-san a world of good. However, he could never forget those claws, the shiny steel beneath smooth silk.
"Whitebeard, we'll be continuing on this path until we—" The whole world jolted, (Law would never admit that he had let out a girlish scream at that point), and the world rolled and the ground shook, and Law scowled at the ceiling above.
Probably Merry's fault.
"F—." Was the thought on Thatch's mind as he walked over to where Marco was sitting, no, slumped against the railing. "This has been going on for quite a while. What's going on, man?"
"..." Marco was all but dead to the world by this time.
"Marco, Ace is safe and alive. Well, I'm alive too. In any case, whatever happened in that future probably would not happen again! So get a hold of yourself, idiot!"
Marco curled up into a ball.
Ace wandered over, equally displeased at Marco's behaviour. He nudged him, making him roll away a little before stopping. Tilting his head to one side, he stared at Marco-ball intensely. Then, reaching some unknown conclusion, Ace proceeded to roll Marco all around the floor.
As hilarious as it appeared, Thatch should put a stop to it. Maybe. Hmm. Might let it go on a bit longer.
"No, Thatch." Marco finally said, his face a grey pallor. "I completely deserve that. To think that we could have actually..."
"Take that thought out of your head." Thatch shook his head. "What would have been the point of crying over what's gone?"
"If Goku had not intervened..."
"From what I can tell, there were plenty of events that did not match up." Ace interjected. "For one, Sabo appearing while Luffy was mid-route. For another, Moby Dick 3's destruction. And even before that, things were different. So whatever happened in that future cannot be applied to what we are experiencing in the here and now."
"And didn't you hear what they said?" Thatch pointed out, "They can't predict the turning point as much as we can! So it's not as though things are completely useless in the future!" Thatch wanted to say more, only for Marco to hold out a palm.
"No, it hasn't anything to do with that. Can't you see? I'm not a captain. My kind of power is meant for supporting, not for leading. I can't be sure that I will be able to protect anyone." Marco's face fell. "It's Goku who was busy baring his neck for us!"
"We. never. asked. you. to protect us from harm and danger!" Ace groaned.
"We're pirates. We look out for each other. But that doesn't mean that we baby ourselves, requiring our captain to get ourselves out of a tangle without injury!" Thatch shook his head in bewilderment. "Pops knows this. You should know this as well!"
"But—"
"Remember what we promised? Live with no regrets." A familiar voice spoke out. Thatch looked aside, where their ship-brothers had been gradually surrounding them.
"Yeah! And it's not like you expect us to pull you out of the ocean—" Namur thumped Marco's back. "Unlike this idiot!" He pointedly glanced towards Ace, who scowled.
"Hey!"
"Or that time when we blew up that bar with the blonde bartender, and you had to fly at full speed in order to grab our asses to safety."
"That's different!" Marco shouted back. "I don't know how I can substitute for Pops!"
"Not like anyone's asking you to, idiot." Haruta banged Marco's forehead before huffing. "What's more important is that we look out for each other."
"That's right! We're brothers, we drink together, raid together—"
"Sleep together, totally in the non-suggestive manner—"
"Oh god, the images that just come up once you say that—"
"Guys, keep it clean here..."
"Anyway," Vista coughed, twirling his mustache, "I, for one, think that you're a good leader."
"Yeah! You're the one who keeps flying from ship to ship to pass on messages—"
"Announce shift changes—"
"Generally keep the booze in the infirmary—"
"Shouldn't it be out of the infirmary?"
"It's Pops, what do you expect? The ship shall know no peace while Pops is dry. "
"True, true."
"Guys," Marco's expression is heartbreaking to say the least.
"What we're all trying to say is." As one, the surrounding commanders cleared their throat.
"Who cares if you screw up! We're all in this, like it or not!" That, Thatch believed, was the straw that broke the camel's back, as tears flowed freely from Marco's eyes. Silently, Thatch offered a shoulder, and quickly felt his collar growing wet.
But that smile on Marco's face? Probably the most grateful Thatch had ever seen.
Unfortunately, the heartwarming movement ended with a blast that shook the air around them.
Marco's face was set in a determined expression, and he proceeded to bark out orders to stabilize the ship; find out if it could get faster to the Moby Dick; and to see if they would be able to ensure further co-operation from the Marine unit which had temporarily allied with them.
As Thatch hurried to the place where the Marines were gathered, Ace sneakily gave him a thumbs up. Thatch smirked, returning the gesture. Time waited for no pirate, even if he was worried as a busy little bumblebee about the welfare of Pops.
Kuzan was exhausted as hell. Three days since the start of the battle, and even if his stamina still kept him up and running, it was no pleasure to stay without a nap for the last few days. Not to mention the lack of sleep.
Speaking of rest, his own colleague appeared to be tiring as well. Not surprising considering the amount of effort that Sakazuki had expended on keeping his magma from cooling. Why? Oh yeah. Kuzan was still keeping "Sub Zero" on in order to freeze his opponent's nerves, forcing the other admiral to consistently keep part of his hand alight to prevent heat loss.
Kuzan was also having a spot of difficulty. Having a burn on his arm heavily hindered his movement when he was trying "Ice Block: Partisan", and he can't quite feel his leg after Akainu had burnt the nerves.
Kuzan dodged as another magma blast. He was seriously considering if it was worth the effort to keep fighting with this hard-headed zealot of justice. But he remembered Ohara. How an island had died due to the World Government, and how Sakazuki had brutally executed the civilians without mercy just on the barest suspicion that someone on board might be an archaeologist.
He could not allow this guy to become Fleet Admiral. His battered conscience demanded it, even as he could feel the toll of battle on his own body.
Then, the ground shook. Kuzan glanced upwards as his own Haki cried out in alarm. To his surprise, a flying ship was currently on top of the two of them.
There was a silent moment of truce as Sakazuki and he stared as the ship rocked from side to side, the result of air currents being suddenly disrupted. Then, Sakazuki's eyes narrowed.
"This place is supposed to have been secure!" He snarled, disappearing in the next second. Kuzan immediately collapsed. A time for a breather if he ever saw one. But the back of his neck tingled, and out of curiosity, he reached inward for the sixth sense that was Observation Haki, and paused. That was strange. He could detect newly-made Vice Admiral Smoker on board that ship.
While he was not exactly close to Smoker (their paths were very different, Smoker being so far from headquarters and he being stationed, and they had only been grouped together recently after the farce that was the so-called 'War of the Best'. Last he checked, Smoker was busy preparing to be stationed in the New World. What was he doing here?
The ground rocked yet again with another series of explosions. Great, so apparently abandoned bases still had working bombs. And apparently, flying ships. That relied on balloons.
Huh, the Marine Science Department had mentioned the usage of airships in transportation. Something about being banned due to its flammability?
Kuzan was just about to stand up again, when his vision appeared to spin. The fact that some purple thing was emitting flames and heat didn't help either.
Joy, he thought. Death by smoke inhalation. And the world went black.
Meanwhile, Akainu continued his speedy ascent towards the ship. He knew those presences, and this time, he would not fail.
Portgas, no, Gold Roger's son, would die that day.
A/N: I LIVE! After a month of scholarship and university applications, I finally have the time. And I'm now left with the quandary of having slower updates due to university, but trying to make it up with longer chapters. And Punk Hazard looks to be finally reaching its conclusion!
While Oda has given off several 'bombs' in terms of plot development during the past few weeks, I'm happy to say that the story is still in line with canon! I've tried to give everyone ample time, but I don't want another Dressarosa (aka time spent on certain characters, while others are neglected). What are your thoughts on how the newest chapters could develop? I'm especially excited by the upcoming Four Emperors Arc, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Shanks might be the one to die. (We all know Oda's planning on killing someone important, and I really don't want it to be a member of the Straw Hat Crew. It's going to be another Ace episode again.)
Have you guys wondered why Smoker /Kitsuen has not been given a POV yet? There's something suspicious about this logia user, that's for sure...:)
And Jacob, is, as always, lurking behind the scenes, though he is not Jaguar D. Saul. Caesar is heavily beaten up, as promised. And we see Law A) Obsessed with Medical Equipment, and B) Really hating the Hippocratic Oath. Fun times indeed!