AN: I thought I posted this in August of 2019. Sorry. Guess you're getting two chapters in a single day.
-1 year and three months before Gold Rogers execution Tesla Focus-
Petty Officers Tesla and Shu gazed at the nearing Island of Asuka through the setting sun. Their ship pulled in for a bit of shoreleave having just spent the last few months preventing any more pirates from entering the grand line proper. Tesla then pushed Shu (and herself) down out of the way of a flying shortsword. Tesla glanced up at the hilt to see Shu's name on it. Shu made a noise of confusion as he pondered on why his old shortsword wasn't on his home island.
"Wait, Sage is alive?" Shu muttered to himself upon remembering the trade of a few years ago.
Tesla squinted at the island the glorified knife came from before determining that it was safe to stand back up again. Mostly because her comrades who hadn't ducked didn't get their heads pierced. Shu ran over the shortsword with his finger and looked up trying to figure out what part of the island it came from. Thankfully there were no other flying objects coming towards them as the Marine ship pulled into the harbor.
"I'm going to this 'Marine Dojo' and see if they have any ideas on Sage's whereabouts." Shu said at the crossroads between the Marketplace and the aforementioned base.
Tesla nodded and waved him goodbye. She followed the signs to the library and went to the local history session. Mostly to hide a dating psychology book she had been trying to find for the past week. Yes she was taught as a noblewoman on 'dating' but 4 years of combat (3 years as a bounty hunter, half a year in the Calm Belt and the last half in boot camp) dulled her edge for lack of a better word. And b, those were under the assumption of the couples being arranged.
Tesla's eye twitched as instead of anything helpful the book only contained sex scenes. Shuffling off the jacket cover thing Tesla realized some idiot forgot to put the psychology book back in place. Tesla power walked over to the erotic section and ploped the book down on shelf and hurried out of there after checking all of the other self help books and finding the same thing happened to all of them. Hoping there were ACTUAL dating self help books, Tesla followed the roads to the local hermit village that existed on every island.
Tesla hoped that the library would be near the main marketplace and passed by the statue of a woman with strange markings near the bottom. Tesla sighed as there were no signs announcing, well anything. The downsides of coming to a small town where everyone knows everyone and everything. The shine of gems caught her eye and Tesla not wanting to waste a half hour walk to this town went over. The jewels on display were ...overpriced if the half remembered rants of her brother had anything to say.
Tesla had the urge to go to the nearest patch of dirt and rip out a gem from there. ...wait precut and perfect gems in dirt only happened in fiction. Shuffling out the cash for diamonds of suitable ring sizes, Tesla meandered over to the ingot stall. Or at least she would have if everyone didn't start screaming and pushing her into a twirl as they shoved past her. Tesla leapt upon a nearby roof after stabilizing herself and bounced along the rooftops to the source of the disturbance.
Coming to a stop near the treeline Tesla saw an oversized beach ball with a human stitched over it, a guy who will rethink his defense choices when the lightning starts flying (if it does), and a wannabe gangster. Oh and her boyfriend standing over a young woman clutching a blanket.
"Because Pirates weren't causing enough chaos already." Tesla sarcastically thought to herself. She ignored the mental chanting of her sisters 'give a shit'.
Dropping down between them, Tesla just gave a deadpan questioning look to Shu. "Look. The friend I thought dead for years survived an explosion and has been living here ever since and some orbs are causing him pain."
Shu gestured at Tesla's whole body in response to her raised disbelieving eyebrow. "Said Orbs are also a part of my town's religion." Said the young woman as she eyed the ring of Marines around them.
Tesla rubbed the bridge of her nose. The Pale red moonlight engulfed the town as the Moon ascended past the treetops. Shu and Tesla (now with her tinted goggles on) glanced at the cursing townsfolk and Marines as they raced towards the young woman. Said woman bolted into the treeline. The men and women tackled (or tried to tackle in the case of the lieutenants) the various Marines around them.
Shu groaned. "Shall we shuffle what else happens tonight under 'Grandline BS'?"
Tesla nodded before picking him up in a piggy back carry and bounced along the tree limbs. Deciding to let momentum/gravity carry her, Tesla leapt above the treeline and saw a large shrine temple that the horde below was heading towards. Assuming (because the temple wasn't at the center of the island) there was more than one temple, Tesla spun around spotting the other two temples. She spotted the horde split in three each heading for a temple. Only problem was that there were only two certified not insane. The other marines from their ship seemed to either be in a deep sleep or making sure the insane folk didn't get to the cities.
Well considering that the moon was red (at least Tesla thought so. She hadn't fully grasped 'actual colors through dark tint' just yet) maybe there was an actual reason for this oddity. "So this 'friend' of yours, did they act strange?"
Shu snorted. "Well there was this weird greenish katana that he wouldn't allow me to touch. I mean come on dude I only accidentally rusted your sword ONCE! All of the other times were training!" Shu rested his head between Tesla's rabbit ears. "Oh and he kept talking about the moon and the thousand years and power. I just chalked it up to sleep deprivation that being a CO generates."
"So would that be him?" Tesla stopped on a tree branch and pointed at the man in the clearing.
The man laughed maniacally as he held up the 'weird greenish katana' up to the red moonlight. Shu and Tesla made quiet noises of distress as seven white points of light appeared on the blade. They heard the noise of combat rise from the nearest temple as a white light seared its way to the moon. The sounds of distress grew louder as a constellation grew lines between them organizing the component stars into rings.
"I am not explaining this to our superiors." Tesla whispered.
Shu leaned over and looked at the upside down (from his perspective) Tesla. "But you're the former author! Surely you can somehow Bullshit this chain of events into something sensible."
The man let loose a shout of rage as two other beams trapped the moon in a triangle and sealed the island under a dome. His scream of rage continued as he fled towards the closest light. They intercepted him a few minutes later at the base of a shrine. Tesla deposited Shu on the stairs before bouncing off to another shrine. Unfortunately for the horde of corrupted marines below, they all were wielding the giant slabs of metal known as Swords so Tesla didn't need to aim her lightning bolts as she passed over them.
Tesla curled into a ball at the top of her intercept trajectory arc. The poor beach ball didn't even realize she was close before Tesla's legs sprung into his back. Flipping into a handstand Tesla saw the beach ball man tumble down the steps and collided with his subordinates. Lightning arced between Tesla's ears in a jacob's ladder and she hid a smile as the clump of idiots were zapped into slumber. Relying upon her mental map Tesla beelined for the other shrine.
The wannabe gangster merely shook his head as his armored coworker collapsed. Hoping that Tesla was still distracted/disappointed at the anticlimactic 'fight', the wannabe rushed her and cut her in half. Suppressed neurons started firing when he felt no resistance and hesitant laughter spilled out of his mouth when the bisected Tesla reformed herself out of lightning. Toma dropped his sword and put his hands on his head, surrendering.
Happy that she had some left over materials from her flash forging of handcuffs, Tesla had a small smile on her face as she bounced back to the original temple. Tesla came to a stop at the bottom of the temple and plopped down on the steps. She took out the spare ingots and the diamonds from earlier gripping them in golden lightning. The ingots melted into bands and the top section opened into a spiral grasping the diamonds.
Shu pulled the unconscious Sage to the bottom of the steps and bonelessly flopped down next to Tesla. ...who opened her mouth to propose then remembered it was bumfuck'o'clock in the morning. Tesla pulled Shu closer and folded her ears over them. The other sane folk merely took pictures of them and plopped a blanket on them.
-1 year 2 months before Roger's execution-
The Five Elder Stars groaned in unison after they read the report on Asuka. The youngest looking one glanced again at the report on Gold Roger's whereabouts and sighed in relief as the Redline was between him and the stars apparently capable of haki. Because the universe must hate them or something.
"So this 'Seven Star sword' can we replicate it without the whole mindraping the user thing?" asked the Swordsman.
"According to Rust's report no. not unless we want to give up the fire aspects." replied the eldest looking one.
The swordsman tsked and looked out the window.
"Vegapunk has devised a way to circumvent the need for 'Pure' Blood in the forging." The Eldest one assured. "We may be able to retrofit the Mind control aspects into more 'Obedience' aspects, instead of pure slaughter them all."
The swordsman rubbed his chin. "We can use them to bootstrap our number of Haki able combatants. And if not, well we do have a few islands of Kuja that the populace is unaware of." The swordsman twirled to face his peers. "I do think that John Giant (and the various other sword wielders) will appreciate his due reward for siding with Justice."
…and then there's the electric werewolf animals. And there's 8 moons, that's what? Every four days a Sulong happens? Can we throw them against the Giants or the Kuja or the Fishmen or HELL even the Skylanders? ANYONE while we figure out a way to destroy the moons. Or limit them?..
-Void Century.
-[Location Retracted] Baratie arc Kinusa Focus-
Sheathed in the shadow of the Redline laid a wasteland of an island that went by the name of Training Ground #5. TG5 had only two features. #1 was the fact that it was almost completely sandblasted to bedrock and filled with many potholes. #2 was the sole half-mile tall swiss cheese-like mountain that occupied the western corner of the large oval shaped island. TG5 was for 500 years and still is the sole training ground for Marines Vice Admirals and up. Fleet Admiral Sengoku sat in the shade underneath the mountain eating some rice crackers facing his minions. To his right lay Admiral Aokiji on his right side facing inward with his left arm covering his eyes. To Aokiji's right Kinusagi laid on her back with her head near Aokiji's feet reading the latest issue of Sora, Warrior of the Sea! To Kinusa's right and across from Aokiji sat Kizaru playing a flute swaying to his own tune.
From a bird's eye view they formed the Four Pointed Star of Justice, of course that was a completely unofficial title that the lower ranks of Marines called that particular pain train of doooom. Certainly not encouraged by a certain Dog-like Monkey nor by a certain Goat Owner. Sengoku snapped into his Buddha form slamming his palm against the ground, disorienting his subordinates before launching himself at Kizaru. Kizaru infused his flute with invisible Armament and blocked Sengoku's blows before edging in a kick of his own.
Aokiji frowned as he couldn't spot Kinusa anywhere and then sighed as the island was cast in shadow. Aokiji twirled in place as he morphed into an Ice Lance and a large cannon of ice formed around him launching him skyward. His velocity carried him halfway to his goal but that was enough for a combatant of his caliber anyways. Growing a human body on the side of the Ice Lance Aokiji tensed as Hardened Armament transfigured the peak of the Lance into the glossy black that was all the rage in the New World. The Lance shattered the sound barrier in its rush to destabilize the growing storm or wretch it from Kinusa's Control to his. Unfortunately for everyone else Kinusa heard the lance's approach and unleashed the storm's charge.
Kizaru disappeared into ricocheting light dodging a fishing grasp from Sengoku. Sengoku frowned as many lightning bolts struck the ground forming into small electric rabbits. The Kinusagi detected the combatants' bioelectric field and Haki reserves leaping at them with their gaping maws wide open. One golden rabbit bit down on Sengoku's left ankle and started draining all it could. Sengoku raised his foot as the rabbit multiplied, increasing the drainage of his ability to fight and care. The island shook as he slammed his foot down shaking off and dispelling most of the Island Suppression pests.(1)
Sengoku clasped his knees as he took note of his new reserves. He then headbutted the incoming kick from Kizaru. Sengoku grabbed the following kick before slamming the attached Admiral and stomping on Kizaru's midsection. An Infernal cold blossomed across behind Sengoku as Ice sprawled across the island once more. Sengoku leapt before the ice could trap his feet and Kizaru groaned as he got engulfed.
Kinusa hissed as Aokiji evaporated into steam around her spine bending kick. She squeaked as Sengoku dropkicked her into the mountain. Kinusa sighed as Sengoku slapped away her retaliatory El Thor and dissolved into an Ion Path before Sengoku could body slam her into the mountain.
"Ya know" Kizaru said while putting away his flute. "One day you will face someone who can't be captured and isn't on our side."
Aokiji nodded. Before pointing up and smirking at Kizaru's cursing. Ice Storm unleashed its load on the poor battered island and its citizens. Kizaru sighed and blasted a hole in the freezing rain above him. Meanwhile Kinusa was dangling in Sengoku's left hand by her neck.
"Different rank. Just an act. different rank. Just an act. differentrankjustanactdifferentrankjustanact." Kinusa ignored her semi gibbering mind and shimmied her legs into the hold before pushing with all her acting might.
Kinusa did a series of backflips until she was in line with her fellow admirals facing their superior. A burnt orange flash from the ship just off the island signaled the end of recording. They all dropped from their poses and worked out the kinks in their bodies.
In summary, Solidified willpower is bullshit.
-Vice Admiral Garp's essay on Armament Haki and its uses.
(1)Weaponized Tribbles or Paraspites that drain your willpower. Sure she may not kill an island directly (she can, just take one of Garp's Meteor balls, go up into space and rail gun it back down or transform into that Asura Form and start spamming El Thor. or start ripping off electrons to form a plasma field only which she or Kizaru could survive in.) buuuuuut.
=AN:fuck writing this scene anymore. If I want to actually write about them sparring/fighting, I'll just do a flashback here. Otherwise FUCK THIS SCENE AND THE BURNOUT ITS CAUSING=
-Marine HQ. Baratie arc. Hokosaki POV-
Hokosaki looked at the various Star weapons and mentally fist pumped when she saw there was FINALLY a spear. Unfortunately for her it was Human sized and while the mental image of holding it between her index finger and thumb was amusing, it wouldn't count for her exam. Withholding a groan Hokosaki picked up the Giant sized katana and shuffled over to the training grounds. Vice Admiral John Giant merely sighed into his palm at the sight of his subordinate hunched over, nearly dragging her feet and sword into the training grounds.
At the very least Hokosaki remembered her starting stance and how to properly grip a katana. Hokosaki slashed at the training dummy, displacing a semi-visible wave of air. Unfortunately for her it did no damage. 1 out of 3 tests failed. Yay!
Hokosaki gritted her teeth before lunging at her superior who blocked her expected strike. Hokosaki twirled around hooking her blade around John's before yanking it out of his grip. Hokosaki smiled in relief and waited while John got the special haki visual snail. Hokosaki breathed in and out as a blue outline appeared around her sword's tip. The outline projected by the snail traveled down the sword as Hokosaki pulled her Armament Haki to her bidding.
It felt like she was wading through hardening mud on one of the Giant sized islands. Haki trying to coat a Spear that didn't exist, it felt like Hokosaki was trying to push through hardened cement when she got to the handle. Hokosaki fell to her knees and the outline of Haki snapped back to the tip. John merely rested a hand on Hokosaki's shoulder as he waited for his subordinate to get her breath back.
"Hey! At least it increased from Half a second to a full second." John comforted her. "Now you just need to hold it for five more seconds and Vice Admiralty is yours!"
Tests. They just get worse when you are in the military. Nooo. I know the required one Haki type but still I don't rank up because no one has the time to make a Me sized Seven Star Spear. And yes I know I could just curse my regular spear but do you know how much blood (and other classified materials) is required to Curse a Giant sized weapon? IT'S A LOT I TELL YOU! And humans have so little blood it makes me wish more Giants went the "Moragainer" route or whatever BS the Gold Flag Pirates pull out their ass to justify their sailing.
AND IF I do curse my personal weapon I would have to give it up to Vegapunk to see how I did it in the field/make sure it wouldn't mindrape me into being evil!/how my dials coping with being cursed Then I would be issued another spear whose forging would take like a few weeks on its own. Then I would have to get used to the new spear and adapt my timings to it. Which would take a month or two on its own. Then ordering/securing more dials to retrofit the spear to my standards. And then!...
-Rear Admiral Hokosaki.