Chapter 05: Hi de koroshimasu! Takusan no FIRE! Tokuni sore de totemo umaku iku kudamono to issho ni!(Kill it with Fire! Lots and Lots of FIRE! ESPECIALLY WITH A FRUIT THAT HELPS SO WELL WITH THAT!)
4 Years BPKC (Before Pirate King's Challenge)
"Captain, I found a bottle in the water!" Spanner approached his captain while waving a corked bottle with both two rolled up papers and an Eternal Pose in it.
Rocks D. Bell(28) hummed as he promptly broke apart the surprisingly durable bottle and fished out the contents, revealing the papers to be a map and a letter. When he spread it out on the deck and let his crew gather around, they all said the name in confused unison. "Omatsuri Island?"
"Weird name, though." Donquixote Elizabeth crossed her arms in thought. "I've never heard of it, at least."
Akame shook her head. "That name doesn't strike me as familiar either."
Kurome shrugged. "Nor me."
"What about the letter that came with it?" Dracule Mihawk asked.
"I'll read it out loud." Oregano picked it up and unfurled it fully. "It's a challenge...? Or an invitation...? It goes like this:"
"If you are a pirate among pirates…
Among pirates…
Among pirates…
Then gather your steadfast crew of nakama…
And set sail for our island...
The name of the island is…
OMATSURI ISLAND."
When Oregano finished reading, Bell's mind went terrifyingly blank.
There was danger in those words... but he couldn't remember it. Was it a non-canon event?! All of those usually happened with the Straw Hat Pirates, though! Or with Luffy, at least!
'Dammit, I should've paid more attention to the movies and filler episodes before the time skip!' Bell hummed as he wracked his memories, grimacing at how many years he'd spent not thinking about the world he left behind. 'What's the timetable right now? There's still four years to go before Roger's execution... Around next year, Roger would either discover or contract his fatal sickness... Robin's mom would also start off on that expedition of hers...'
"The letter is suspicious." Mihawk stated.
"Indeed." Kurome nodded in agreement. "This could be a Marine tactic."
"Bell-sama, what do you think?" Oregano turned only to see Bell's troubled expression as the man kept rubbing his forehead vigorously. "Bell-sama, are you alright?"
"...Kurome, take the Eternal Pose and change course for Omatsuri Island." Bell finally ordered as he took the letter and glared down at it. "This letter sounds scarily familiar for some reason, so I'm really interested in having a word with the writer."
Elizabeth frowned at the warning in his words. "Don't you... have a bad feeling about this?"
"Of course, I do." Bell rolled up the paper and pocketed it before picking up the map. "I mean, sure, this thing screams honeypot and pirate flytrap, but it's familiar to me and I don't feel okay ignoring it."
"...okay, then." Elizabeth acquiesced. "Let's go there, then."
Bell nodded back before clearing his throat. "We're now headed for Omatsuri! Set sail!"
"False advertising at it's finest, yet." Elizabeth huffed as she and her crew gazed at the lines of dolled up transvestites with plants on their heads. Although, Bell seemed to get increasingly paler the more he saw. "Where's the exquisite beauty salon, damnit?!"
First was when they'd arrived at the island only to find a huge growth of plants blocking them from observing the inhabitants from afar.
Second was when they'd discovered the plants to be seemed unnaturally seeped in sea water. Oregano had leaned against a tree for support, only to immediately sag against it in instant exhaustion.
Third was when they'd met the 'writer'. While the inhabitants looked 'normal' despite all having plants on their head, this 'Baron Omatsuri' had a small palm tree growing out of his, along with what looked a small flower growing from his shoulder with an innocently looking smiling face and a white neckerchief.
But the flower couldn't possibly be- Ah, wait. It was alive. It just gave all of her crew once-overs. In it's defense, it had been unnaturally quick at it. But Elizabeth was her crew's unofficial Sniper. Nobody else had a better eye at figuring out small details than her except maybe Spanner. Besides, both Bell and Oregano seemed to have realized something as well.
While the nurse shifted closer to her captain, Bell himself had turned to marble the moment he laid his eyes on the smiling flower.
The only other time Elizabeth had ever seen him go that pale was that day when they'd both had a one night stand threesome with a pretty attractive girl with an afro, only learning the next morning that her name was Ivankov.
It was the first and only time she'd ever witnessed her captain screaming as he jumped through a window and smashed his head through a wall until it broke.
The wall, that is.
"Pirates!" Omatsuri yelled from atop his elephant, which made Elizabeth pang for her World Noble days when she'd often rode them as a child. "Courageous pirates who traverse the Grand-!"
*BWOOSH!*
Bell suddenly stepped forward and swiped his arm wide, unleashing a billowing wave of gold and white that seared outwards until all of the island's residents in view had been engulfed in brilliant sunfire.
"Time to leave." Bell declared stonily. "Now."
"Now why would you go and do that?!" Omatsuri's voice suddenly barked from the flames. All signs of his previous good cheer were gone, and only frigid, malicious rage remained as the golden fire suddenly cleared away, revealing him in his burnt lonesome. "You've gone and killed all of my friends and subordinates, you bastard!"
"If that's the case, why is it that I'm smelling the odor of burning plants rather than corpses?" Bell shot back, causing Elizabeth and the others to flinch in surprise as they finally realized why their captain had acted so irrationally.
Whenever a person died around them, their Observation Haki would pick up on it. The fact that their Haki hadn't so much had pinged despite Bell supposedly massacring an entire crowd of civilians right before them spoke volumes.
"So this was a trap, after all." Mihawk stated, sword already in hand while covering Spanner's side as the mechanic furiously checked something on his radar after fishing it out.
"I don't get it." Spanner chewed on his lip in frustration. "My readings... This can't be right...!"
"Your readings aren't likely to be lying to you, Spanner." Bell muttered, licks of sunfire burning off his skin as he hefted his spear. "As of this moment, I want everyone of you to retreat to the ship. Oregano, Spanner, the moment you get a clear space, I want the Romance Dawn airborne in an instant. We will not be spending a second longer than we have to on this island!"
"I disagree! Welcome, Taiyō Kaizoku-dan, to Omatsuri Island!" Omatsuri roared, his roaring voice ringing awfully false to Elizabeth's ears. "We pride ourselves on giving the best festivals to our guests!"
"Quit while you're ahead, you flowery zombie!" The air shimmered as Bell's apparent hold on his temper frayed, the already high temperature ascending even further around him as he shot forward and stabbed into Omatsuri's chest, blasting a wide hole through it.
"Let the festival begin!"
Something in Elizabeth went cold, and she drew her guns as something shuddered beneath her feet, warning practically screaming through her Observation Haki. Everyone else felt it too, tensing as one and looking down-
*CRACK!*
*RUMBLE!*
The huge tremor did nothing to help them as roots of unidentified type erupted from the ground, latching onto the crewmates and dragging them away and separated with slimy, near invincible roots, chaos in every action as they writhe around.
It's only by a miracle that the sole noncombatants on their crew managed to latch on to somebody else, ensuring that they weren't alone wherever they were being dragged to.
And with another snap, the earth ripped apart beneath Elizabeth's feet, crumbling and shuddering before there was nothing left between her and a deep, dark pit.
So it's into the dark abyss she went, falling until her head smacked against the dirt with a thunk, and all she knew is the darkness of unconsciousness.
There were many, many, many words that Bell would've loved to use from the moment he saw that damn flower on the baron's shoulder. From his previous job as a world travelling mercenary, his mental voice screamed all manner of profanities he'd learned in English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Hindi and Turkish.
What? Bell April couldn't have been good at his former career if he wasn't a top-class polyglot. Maybe he should keep at it and learn the Poneglyph language, too-
"No!" Bell slapped his cheeks. "Focus! Remember the three steps, Bell. Step one: Save crewmembers. Step two: Get off the island. Step three: Incinerate Lily Carnation along with the baron and spare the Straw Hat Pirates, Tearoom Pirates and Toothbrush Mustache Pirates from ever encountering this abomination in the future."
Nodding to himself in assurance, Bell cast a baleful look at his wrist, powerless from the slimy vine wrapped tightly around it. Bell didn't know how but it seemed that Lily Incarnation had somehow managed to use these seawater soaked vines as a makeshift Seastone cuff.
Normally, this wouldn't have been enough to deter Bell in any way. Unfortunately, they were dealing with a demon plant that was somehow even more powerful than he had remembered it being in the movie, so much so that it could somehow affect the very earth and make something to hinder him of all people from ripping it off.
"Bell-sama?" Oregano stirred awake beside him, a similar vine tendril wrapped around her wrist as well. He hadn't been able to see who Spanner had latched onto, but thankfully as Bell and Oregano were the only Devil Fruit users in their crew, nobody else would be as weakened as them. "Where are we...?"
"Underground." Bell answered as he lifted her up so that she could leaned against him. Unlike him, Oregano could never handle the weakening effects of the sea well. "We can't stay here, though. Our priority is to find our nakama, preferably one of our swordswomen or Mihawk."
Oregano blinked before raising up her vine covered wrist in the darkness. Of course, while Bell was getting by with copious amount of Observation Haki while cautiously using his spear like a walking stick, Oregano was simply a homunculus with inbuilt night vision. "To cut these off?"
"Yup."
Throughout the entire time they traversed through the cave system, Bell let himself be dragged along by Oregano, letting his doctor lead on with her night vision. Throughout their walk, Bell told as much as he could to Oregano about Lily Carnation.
The Lily Carnation was a demonic, sentient plant known as the flower of death and rebirth. The flower attached to a host in a form of symbiosis, and used their memories to create golems of people in order to lure in more people for it's food, setting up the entire island as a masquerade to lure pirate crews to since nobody would seem to care about large amounts of pirates disappearing. It was supposed to resemble a stem more than anything else, with it's affection of the island being mostly illusionary...
"This isn't the Lily Carnation I know. It's something stronger, more bestial than plant-like in it's behavior and... harder to predict."
Every now and then, their walk was disturbed by slight rumbling and impacts, assuring Bell that his crewmates were most likely dealing with Lily Carnation just fine on their own. It's just as the sixth rumble started that the two noticed when light started to seep into the cavern.
Picking their pace, Bell and Oregano started to spring through the now brightening cavern. Getting a bit impatient, Bell carried Oregano into a piggy back and sped up exponentially, rushing towards the brightening light he could see-
"Bell-sama, stop!"
-until Oregano's shrill warning made Bell instantly take heed, coming to an abrupt halt before a very deep hole in the ground, the 'light' coming from the large hole in the ceiling several meters up in the air.
The massive hole itself was unnaturally round and smooth and uninterrupted towards the surface, allowing Bell and Oregano to see the many 'entrances' to the underground network around the hole.
Without his Devil Fruit, Bell saw no way of flying up. "Shit. I can't fly with this on."
Oregano tilted her head in confusion... before willing her large wings to unfurl. "I think I can carry the both of us, though. We will have to be fast due to this vine sucking away my stamina."
'Ah... I almost forgot that flying is a natural thing for her.' Bell patted Oregano's thigh as he stepped forward, preparing to aid her by leaping up as high as he could.
He was just about tensing the muscles in his legs when a series of particular sharp cracks resounded behind and caused Bell's Observation to spike uncomfortably high, drawing their attention to many pointed spires of rock emerging jutting up from the earth and converging on them, whitish and glistening-
"Are those teeth?" Oregano noted in rare panic.
"Oh, thank Goda. I thought I was imagining it." Bell leapt into the air. "Fly us up!"
Oregano's wings glowed and flapped furiously as the two shot up, narrowly dodging more teeth and vine tendrils that reached out for them.
The rumbling grew to even higher a pitch, somehow resounding in Bell's bones just as Oregano suddenly veered to the right into one of the caverns just as something massive and reddish purple plunged upwards where they'd been seconds ago, encompassing the entire 'smooth space' in the earth and scrapping along the protruding white rocks from the walls. It writhed and contorted in the sky, rocky and fluid all at once, before plummeting back down.
The two of them stared at the pit as the rumbling quieted to a low tremor, then down to nothing at all. Bell's bones were still shaking from the aftermath, an echo reverberating through them. "That was... That was..."
"I believe... that was a tongue, Bell-sama." Oregano finished what her captain was hesitant to vocalize as he hesitantly looked over the edge to peer downwards. "Lily Carnation didn't just infect Omatsuri Island you believed... It has become Omatsuri Island in it's entirety."
"And we're in it's mouth." Bell finished grimly. "This place is a death trap waiting to happen."
"...so, back into the tunnels?" Oregano turned around to peer into the rocky pathway.
Bell's shoulders drooped. "Yeah."
They walked on for minutes after that, the smell of rotting plants filling the damp air. There were quite a few moments when the Voices of his nakama would enter the edge of his Observation, but would leave before Bell could start punching through the walls to reach them.
He'd actually tried once before, but the reappearance of the teeth erupting of the ground to chase Bell and Oregano again dissuaded him swiftly. It was only the occasional checks of the Sun Pirates' respective vivre cards that kept the pirate captain in a calm-ish state.
Every single one of them had slight singed edges reflecting their physical states, but it's a small relief that it's only Akame's vivre card that threatened to pass the halfway mark. If Lily Carnation is focusing on one of their strongest fighters that much, it means that it's not quite good at effectively splitting it's attention.
It's only when Oregano gently steers him into a corner that Bell realized that they'd been walking around for hours now.
"Are you alright, Bell-sama?" Oregano asked with her head laid against his shoulder, gently rubbing her fingers around his. "Your neurotransmitter levels are getting rather low."
"No." Bell replied honestly, never having bothered to lie to his doctor. "Until we get off the island and deal with Lily Carnation, I won't be okay."
"...I see." Oregano hummed. "Will eliminating Lily Carnation improve your emotional state?"
"Absolutely." Bell chuckled. "It definitely will. The Lily Carnation is an abominatio I'm so very glad is not canon."
Bell didn't normally talk to the other members of his crew like this. Despite not being his First Mate, Oregano had somehow become the closest thing to a confidant for him. From time to time, Bell would casually allude to events and tidbits that either weren't supposed to be related to this world around Oregano. From time to time, Oregano patiently soaked them up, always eager for knowledge she didn't know, always accepting of what she gained from him.
She was Bell's personal Angeloid after all.
When Bell woke up, it was to him spooning Oregano with his body adjusted in a way that if anything attacked them, he would've been the barrier between it and her. Even now, Oregano still smelt like clean air and a bit of the spice she was named after, granting him a nice reprieve from the constant smell of rotting plants.
It went without saying, but Bell was quite sure that he would be avoiding all vegetable dishes for at least the next week.
Akame might probably even agree with him.
Taking a moment to pull at the vine at his wrist (and once again silently panic at how not even his haki was able to remove it), Bell woke up Oregano and began their walk through the tunnels again.
Therefore, it was with great displeasure that they ran into the 'mouth' again. This time, Bell didn't bother to keep his profanities inside, especially as he can see how the sky above has turned into dusk.
It's at that moment that a horribly reckless idea struck Bell. If it failed, they would die. If it worked...
"Bell-sama?"
"Hold on tight and cover your ears." Bell hugged Oregano close and took a deep breath.
And roared with as much Conqueror's he could put out.
"LILY CARNATION! GET THE FUCK OVER HERE! A D. BEAT YOU BEFORE AND I'M GONNA DO HIM PROUD BY CONTINUING THAT TREND!"
The rumbling returned with a vengeance. Just as the teeth and tongue rushed towards him as expected, Bell Hardened his spear and promptly leapt off, enduring the tightening of Oregano's arms around his neck as he stabbed into the fleshy appendage.
"PGHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Bell-sama, you maniac!" Bell laughed at Oregano's scream, hanging on tight as the thrashing tongue bled (a disgusting mix of green and purple blood) and carried the two through the air, the pressure nearly pressing them flat against it's surface.
In seconds, the grey walls turned into open air and Bell nearly cried from seeing open air again. In seconds, the tongue finally stopped, sending Bell and Oregano flinging into the air.
There was a moment that Bell took to appreciate the sight of swirling blue oceans, the sandy white beaches, the flashes of steel and spirit against demonic wood-
Ah, there they were. Elizabeth, Akame, Kurome, Spanner and Mihawk. All members of the Sun Pirates separated but all accounted for while fighting what seemed like Omatsuri clones.
Even as he and Oregano halted in their ascent, Bell's shoulders felt a tension leave them as Oregano unfurled her wings and began to glide downwards towards them.
(Vivre cards could only tell so much.)
"Akame!" The air pushed at him, Bell's voice loud and eager and vindictive as he dropkicked her Omatsuri opponent hard enough to smash him through a boulder. "Cut them off!"
Taking a swift glance at their held up wrists, Akame's haki succeeded where his own and failed, instantly freeing Bell and Oregano of the vile vines.
The moment the vines fell off, all of his exhaustion Bell hadn't even known he'd been carrying seemed to have fallen off with them. His body feels light and springy again, the confident headiness of the most powerful natural force clouding his mind again as licks of sunfire wafted off him.
A feral grin, one symbolic of all who beared the Will of D., crossed his face as Bell felt Oregano shudder and breathe deeply, already recovering her lost stamina. "ALL OF YOU, GET OVER HERE!"
The atmosphere shifted and warped under the power of his Conqueror's Haki, sending two very different messages.
To the Sun Pirates(and his allies), it was like the gold of a dawning horizon, the brilliant and ambient presence that demanded nothing, only reassuring them of the welcoming warmth.
I'm here. I'm still here. I'm over here.
To his enemies(which now included Lily Carnation), it was the stifling, choking insistence to submit, to kneel before the scorching midday sun and be set ablaze.
YOU. IMPUDENT. SCUM.
As Lily Carnation trembled and raged against the Haki, the Sun Pirates all rushed up towards him with cheers.
"Captain! Oregano!"
"We missed you guys! Where the hell were you?!"
"We had to fight plant clones of that Omatsuri mongrel! Do you know how many bullets I've used up?!"
"It also kept screaming something about not losing again to a Devil Fruit user! How many people came here before us?!"
Bell welcomed their chatter like a soothing balm, with even Elizabeth's complaints losing their sharpness as she'd buried her face into his chest while everyone else tried to hug him from various angles.
It was nice, and Bell was just… so, so very glad his crew is safe.
So much so that his grin was still present as he batted away the massive vine that would've smashed into Spanner's head.
"Yo." There was no person to answer Bell's mirthless greeting. Only a mess of massive vines flailing in the air as the entire island literally uprooted itself to fight. "All of you, follow Oregano off this island. As soon as you can, get airborne. As soon as you're clear, this entire island is going to become ash."
The Sun Pirates gave each other various looks before running away immediately, with only Spanner left behind as he slapped a comms into Bell's hand. "Here. Use this so that we know to come get you when it's over."
Giving his shipwright a reassuring nod, Spanner finally ran away as well, leaving Bell alone just as Lily Carnation appeared.
Baron Omatsuri stood before him, his eyes blank with rage. However, he was now almost completely 'worn' by Lily Carnation, leaving Bell little doubt that Omatsuri was little more than a corpse that hadn't gotten the memo that it was supposed to drop dead.
"D..." The growl that escaped Omatsuri Carnation was demonic and dissonant, both the man and flower speaking in unison. "Once again, one of your wretched kind stands before me as my enemy."
Bell tilted his head curiously, he and the symbiote beginning to circle each other. "Really? How so? Who's the previous D. that had the honor of beating your ass before me?"
"Sparrow D. Jack, that bastard who trapped me onto a deserted island... Fortune D. Sarah, that redhaired wench..." Omatsuri Carnation stopped to grab at his cheek, rage growing into a fervor as he declared his last and most shocking name. "Monkey D. Luffy, that stretchy bastard who killed my meal ticket...!"
'...WHAT.' For the second time that day, Bell's mind went hauntingly blank as several forgotten facts rearranged themselves with this information.
The saturation of seawater in the trees, along with the makeshift cuffs: Lily Carnation somehow remembered fighting Luffy and had prepared accordingly.
The terraforming of the island: Lily Carnation somehow remembered the problem of Brief of the Toothbrush Mustache Pirates making tunnels everywhere underneath the island, making sure that this time, it became the island itself.
It's sheer increase in power and aggression: Lily Carnation somehow remembered fighting and losing to Luffy, who had only needed one physical hit to kill Omatsuri after spending most of the battle dodging and surviving. It also explained the lack of arrows. If the arrows had failed before, they'd been abandoned.
But...
But...
Bell had to really make sure.
Swiftly positioning his arms, a bow and arrow of sunfire manifested in his arms as Bell screamed as shrilly and girly as he could.
"Papa, shoot! Shoot!"
The reaction was instant, a vine nearly breaking the sound barrier to pulverize the area where Bell had been standing 0.5 seconds ago, eating through the ground like acid.
Well, that confirmed it.
Bell wasn't fighting this world's stronger version of Lily Carnation and Baron Omatsuri.
Bell was fighting the original Lily Carnation and Baron Omatsuri, with it's very clear memories of it's last defeat.
...
...
...
...
"HOW IN THE NAME OF GODA AND EVERY FUCKING DEITY DID YOU EVEN GET HERE?! THIS MIGHT BE AN ALTERNATE WORLD, BUT WHAT THE FUCK, AUTHOR?!"
"Not again! Not! Again! STUPID ARROWS!" Omatsuri Carnation roared, clapping their hands together. When they separated, an orb of greenish purple liquid hovered between them, glowing malevolently before it was shot forward at Bell.
Wasting no time in counterattacking with a stream of sunfire, the resultant clash created a blast of noxious looking steam that still forced Bell to cautiously retreat. Unlike Bell, Omatsuri Carnation had no such problems, bursting out of the mist to land a powerful but hastily blocked uppercut.
Bell growled as he instantly retaliated, stabbing against Omatsuri's head only for the baron's haki to repel his own and leave a miniscule gash. "Aren't you practically a corpse at this point?! With everything that has happened to you, why do you still fight like this?!"
Omatsuri roared as he smashed against a left hook into Bell's ribs, barely reacting as Bell's spear carved up his forearms with every block. "Do you know how long I suffered after that storm?! How much all those pirate crews taunted me with their bonds and dreams?!"
"Omatsuri..." Bell trapped Omatsuri into a hold, spearhead pressed against Lily Carnation's fangs. "Enough already. Many people have suffered already. You've suffered enough already. Why are you still like this? Why won't you just rest?"
"I... I thought I could after Monkey D. Luffy killed me... After that cowardly father perforated Lily with my own weapons... But..." Omatsuri's eyes lost their rage as something haunting replaced them. "Lily won't let me rest...! Lily Carnation is still a plant of demonic origin. Even if his nakama were saved, Lily's remains hadn't been properly destroyed. Given enough time, it simply grew back agai-"
Omatsuri choked, his eyes widening as they rolled back into their sockets, before a voice that was not his own spoke through his lips. "You have spoken enough, meatbag."
Lily Carnation growled Omatsuri completely disappeared within it, becoming nothing more than nourishment for it as many had before him. "You meatbags can be so frustrating. Nakama? Pirates? Dreams? Such distinctions are meaningless to me. Humans, Atlanteans, Giants, Merfolk, Skylanders, Minks, Dwarves, Lunarians - you are all prey to feed me. Omatsuri was so pathetic in his mourning, throwing tantrums like a child!"
Lily Carnation charged forward, attacking with it's acidic sap coating it's claws as Bell blocked each swipe with a sunfire-enhanced punch that vaporized the acidic sap.
As Bell kept fighting, he came to a silent observation: Lily Carnation was a complete novice at fighting like a human. Despite it's physical abilities being a bit higher than Bell's, he'd already flipped the demon into the ground three times now.
After he just finished the fourth, Lily Carnation shot forward a massive wave of acidic sap, aiming to engulf Bell totally. Looking almost bored, Bell swiped forward, unleashing a concentrated slash of sunfire that cut through the sap and slammed home into Lily Carnation's chest.
Unfortunately, it seemed that considering it's last death, Lily Carnation had put it's all into durability, for the best damage Bell gave him was just scorch marks as if he'd been fighting against regular fire.
'It looks like I'll have to use one of my extreme moves on you.' Casting a cautionary eye to the side, Bell noted with some relief that the Romance Dawn was quite far away now in the air, being just close enough that Bell knew that they were still waiting for him. Holding his spear so that it was pressed against his feet like he was about to ride a hoverboard, Bell let loose a smirk that didn't reach his eyes. "Looks like I might be getting the chance to obliterate the whole island after all."
The spear's end ignited, shooting Bell forward so that Lily Carnation was immediately impaled and lifted into the air. "As a little precaution, let's get you very separated from this island."
Lily Carnation roared furiously as it tried to swipe at Bell, it's efforts being rebuffed by the logia as they nearly got close enough to reach the clouds.
"Listen, Lily Carnation. I don't care that you're some demonic villain from a non-canon movie, or how you transcended worlds to come into this one." Bell clenched his fists as the sunfire spiraled and converged inside his palm, actually changing color from the intensity. "There are many reasons for why I'm about to kill you so spectacularly. It's not because you're a misanthrope supreme, or an extreme omnivore, or a demonic fungus with a sadistic streak. It's probably not even because of how much trauma and trouble you caused the Straw Hat Pirates, Tearoom Pirates and the Toothbrush Mustache Pirates. There's one reason you're about to die to my strongest technique, Lily. One simple reason. You really pissed me off."
Bell blasted Lily Carnation away and once it was far away enough-
"[Sunny Prominence: Black Hole.]"
-used the gravity aspect on his solar abilities to their extreme. The space around the monstrous plant warped and fell in on itself, and he felt the distinct sensation of being pulled. The air, the seas, the island, the light itself... there was nothing.
Everything was being taken into the nothingness. Someone was calling for Bell, but there was no sound itself for him to hear. He could only drift towards the darkness-
Bell woke up to the familiar scent of spices and the sounds of beating wings that hummed. "Oregano..."
"Bell-sama..." Oregano sounded breathless, whether out of exhaustion or shock was unknown as her eyes were fixed on what Bell had just done. "The darkness is too dark..."
"Phew, that was a close one." Bell sighed as he let himself relax in Oregano's bridal carry. "This is the first time I ever used this on an opponent."
"Wh-What is this, Bell-sama?" Oregano asked, her eyes wide with a mix between terror and wonder at the cosmic event happening before her.
Bell couldn't blame her for people of his own world would've been just as stunned.
The nothingness was merely the core, for surrounding it was a spiral of light and burning supercompressed mass being rapidly dragged into the darkness. From the center of it all, a pillar of cosmic energy shot upwards, lighting the night sky above. It was captivating in a way that words could barely describe.
"What you're looking at is a black hole." Bell explained. "They're the most terrifying things in the known universe. They're huge masses of concentrated gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can travel fast enough to escape their pull. Normally, something like this would tear the whole planet apart, but thanks to dear old Irrationalium, it's conveniently destroying just the person I concentrated it on, along with that island trapped in it's event horizon. Enjoy the event while you can, Oregano. It's formed from a relatively small mass, so it should disappear in a minute."
"I see..." Oregano numbly nodded, her memory banks already working to make sure that she never forgot this sight. "This is breathtaking."
"I'm glad you think so." Bell's head started to lull. "Now take us home. I'm going to faint now."
And then he did so.
When next Bell awoke, it was in the Oregano's medical bay, with the doctor herself sharing the bed with him while everyone else watched him with a variety of emotions.
"Is it really necessary to interrogate Bell-sama at this moment?" Oregano mildly protested. "He is still recovering."
"So are we, Oregano." Elizabeth stated flatly. "If he's really the captain we know and love, he won't deny us this."
"Bell, we heard what you were saying to that... plant thing through the comms... which was on throughout everything." Akame sighed morosely as she eyed Bell. "We've been patient... We've waited... We're on the Dawn..."
She spread her arms helplessly. "Please don't stall, Bell. It's time to talk."
Bell chuckled mirthlessly as he shook his head. "Yeah, yeah... I know... No putting it off."
Bell was silent for a second more before scratching his head sheepishly. "Alright then... where to start... Oh!"
He clapped his hands in realization. "How about this: Who here has heard of the multiverse theory?"
There was silence before Oregano and Spanner silently raised their hands.
"Are you...?" Spanner started uncertainly, actually ridding his lollipop to speak. "Are you saying you're truly...?"
"Let's see now... Let's take the instant we found that bottle that led us to Omatsuri Island." Bell gestured. "Multiverse theory states that from that moment, the world would essentially split into two entirely separate yet parallel universes. One universe in which we accepted the invitation and sought out Omatsuri, which we just lived through. And the other universe in which we could've rejected the invitation and kept on living our lives, most likely believing it to be a marine trap and not springing it. Essentially, two worlds exactly alike save for the flip of a coin, and any differences that might arise thereafter. Assuming this theory can be applied to any action or event, then there exists the possibility that there is, at minimum, one universe in existence for every individual eventuality in existence, bar none."
Aside from Oregano and Spanner, it looked like nobody else was getting it.
"Okay..." Bell sighed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. "There's essentially infinite other worlds in existence, one world for every possible possibility. A world where I did not exist. A world where none of us would ever meet each other for any reason. A world where Rakurai is just a harmless civilian instead of a badass pirate. A world where... a man named Eiichiro Oda, although some of us know him as Goda, wrote a comic book about an entirely different world. A comic book he titled One Piece... about one pirate trying to become Pirate King. A comic book... that features him as an important character."
Mihawk blinked at the finger pointed at him, his golden eyes losing their sharp edge. "You don't mean...!"
"Holy shit..." Kurome breathed in shock.
"No way!" Kurome gaped at the Logia.
Bell let out a heavy huff as he nervously looked over the crew, trying to accurately gauge their reactions. It was... in between, as far as he could tell. Nervous, worried...
The only one who looked completely accepting was Oregano, who had tightened her hug against his arm. Admittedly, it did go far to keeping Bell calm. "Look.. guys..."
"I just want to know something." Elizabeth's hair shadowed her eyes, rendering most of her expression unseen. "Other than Mihawk here, if we were in some fictional book, did you read about us?"
"That's the thing." Bell chuckled a bit. "Other than Mihawk, none of you got featured in the story. You might exist in there- it is a world, after all- but Mihawk was the only one I ever saw. And he was already an adult then."
"Adult?" Mihawk's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that from your perspective, this... 'One Piece' story hasn't even begun yet?"
"Nope." Bell shook his head. "All the years we've spent together, it's all been pre-canon." 'The story truly begins with Roger's execution.'
For a minute, everything was silent, with everyone looking at each other with unreadable expressions.
Finally, Elizabeth slowly walked up to Bell and went down until their faces were inches from each other. "So... the first time we met, with you bashing down my door and tossing me into a prison filled with my slaves... was truly the first time you'd seen me?"
Bell gulped. "Yeah. Other than Mihawk, there was really nothing from the source material that influenced me recruiting you all."
Elizabeth sighed before turning around and flopping over his bed. "So, what's your endgame, captain?"
"To be honest, there wasn't really an endgame." Bell shrugged. "I just wanted to enjoy myself here... and maybe change some events I didn't like. I didn't even plan to get here after dying-"
"You died?" Oregano sharply asked, her and everyone else's expression fully united in worry. "It took your death to traverse across worlds?"
"...yeah. I died without knowing that I would be reborn here." Bell admitted.
"...well, there's only one thing to ask then." Mihawk suddenly stated as he unsheathed his sword and stabbed it before him. "I will not ask you whether I become the strongest swordsman or not. What I want to know, as a character featured in One Piece, will I find worthy opponents on my journey?"
Bell's grin was weaker than normal, but it was still a hint to the one the Sun Pirates wanted. "You will meet all kinds of opponents, Mihawk, and your greatest one yet as far as I knew... attained the title of 'Emperor'. Believe me when I tell you, that title was only granted to the four strongest pirates in the world."
Mihawk's hungry grin would've reminded others of a shark better than the bird of prey he was often associated with. "Wonderful."
Kurome blinked. "Does that mean that you're technically an Emperor, captain?"
"Not yet, Kurome." Bell slowly shook his head. "Right now, I'm just a MonStar."
"...well, in that case, I better go whip up a feast!" Akame got to her feet. "After all, we just beat a world travelling demon and learned that our captain is literally the most unique man in the world! If we can't celebrate to that, what would we celebrate to?!"
And with that, the Romance Dawn roared into a full-blown celebration, the party lasting straight on through the night until the next afternoon.
It couldn't last forever, but for the time being... the Sun Pirates were happy and at peace.
There once was a flower, the poisonous sickness of a despicable Baron...
Both wanted to prey on those who were free...
Both had been defeated... The Flower by a father... the Baron by a King-to-be...
Then, they came back, daring to gaze at the Sun, mad in their power and rage...
Lily Carnation had lost to a Devil of Human Origin before, a boy with Rubber (Sun) that would not allow him to break...
Then the Flower challenged a Devil of Human Origin once more, a man with a Sun of his own...
And this time, the plant was neither beaten nor burned...
The Baron was put to rest... and the Flower was ironically Devoured by something with a Hunger superior to it...
KingVessel: And the secret is out of the way! Give me your reviews!