dragon pauses. the wind chittering in his ears.
he is on a warship, and no amount of flying jollyrogers can distract from the obvious distinction.
the figurehead is of a dog and the towers shape into doghouses. it is an almost exact replica of his father's previous pride and joy.
almost due to the fact that now chairs and tables are stationed across the deck. the atmosphere is of leisure. no barking orders or the sharp reprimand of a fist.
he knows that his father mellowed with age, a word he would use lightly considering the man still hits like a bull at the ripe age of 70.
dragon holds the belief with the chance at a second life, the old man improved his strength. for what could take down warships can now demolish mountains.
he's getting ahead of himself.
though the deck is scattered with tables, his son and his group of friends are gathered around one. well to be more precise they are gathered around sabo.
the boy's hands shape letters and motions accompanied by moving lips.
but sabo's focus is on luffy, repeating words and correcting the youngers hands. this is more for him than it is for the other spectators. favoritism does not die out it seems, neither does the sparkle in sabo's eyes when luffy signs correctly.
thump.
dragon startles from his thoughts. he turns his head to left and peers down at the fallen form of rocinante. and the plumes of smoke lead him to be engulfed in flames.
the man sits up and pats out the inferno on his coat, unbothered by the acrid smell of burnt feathers.
"do you know our course?"
"youre luffy's dad."
they both pause.
dragon, one to never be embarrassed, turns away from the man. he should have kept his mouth shut it seems.
corazon rummages through his coat, fumbling with a crumpled pack of cigarettes. he doesn't know what to do. should he persist or answer the mans question.
'kureha,' corazon decides, 'for your son. he says she can help him.'
'the witch of drum island,' the words fall out of his mouth before he can stop them. its the sakura kingdom now, dragon reminds himself, or it will be.
'hmm', the transponder snail stares into his soul.
garp is stuck.
he needs to place a call, but the only man he trusts to help is passed out in his cabin, recovering from the night watch, and snails have never liked him.
they tolerated him but there was so much time he had before one latched its teeth into him.
he weighs his options, make that call and possibly lose the usage of his hand or, and he is leaning towards this one, ask one of his grandsons for help.
even in that route he had to choose carefully. luffy was out of the question, between the boy's brashness and the seemingly constant silence, there was no chance.
ace would gripe. that boy would find a way to hold it over his head, figuratively of course the brat barely reached his knees.
and sabo, well there was no way that he would be able to drag the boy away from his brothers for longer than 2 minutes. and if he did, the chance of his brothers following along was through the roof.
garp scratched his head. his mind was spinning from all this thinking.
he would just wait til his first mate was up.
..or not.
the signature ringing of a den den pulled him from his thoughts. he reached to accept the dial before his mind caught up.
smirking lips were the last he saw before a searing pain in his hand took over. the one thing he wanted to avoid.
'christ garp stop screeching in my ears, its not as if you've been taken over by a hoard of den den again.'
garp had three thoughts in his head.
1. not again.
2. sengoku would pay.
and number 3, what was that burning smell.
it would be dealt with later, he decided, after he caught his death via infection. that was a solid plan.
ace.. felt remorseful. mildly mind you. his monster of a gramps had done far worse for him to feel guilt. but this was a vessel. a vessel that no doubt holds a klabautermann. the creak of the hull reminds him of the Moby.
thats besides the point, he feels that the more pressing matter is the fact that he burst into flames. which would normally be unnerving if he wasn't a previous user of the mera mera.
and he cant recall ever biting into bitter fruit in this life. the taste of a devil fruit chased him to the afterlife. what a rotten deal.
corazon stumbles over, feet dragging as law leads him by the collar. he's never felt more powerless.
'apologize cora-san,' are the words that bring him back to the present. what did that bumbling fool have to apologize for now.
rosinante's eyes dart between the two boys, confusion creasing his brows. he has no idea whats going on. one minute hes enjoying a smoke overlooking the crew and the next law yanked him down to earth.
'you set him on fire, cora-san,' his confusion tenfolds.
ace drowns them out. the explanation going over his head.
he still hasn't figured out a way to fix the scorch marks his outburst created.
long time with no update but the story has a set pace now. next few chapters will move away from dragon and focus on the other poor souls roger sent back.