What Good Men Can Do...''
By IKnowNothing
"Are you sure this is where the log pose was pointing us?"
"Of course! Oden's journal would never lead us wrong!"
Izuku chuckled a little, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. The small town that they were in was hardly the great island that Oden's journal had described. This place looked no different than any other smaller island in the New World. A tiny corner of the ocean that people went to, got supplies from, and then moved on, barely big enough to count as a rest stop much less start something anywhere close to what Wano had.
"I know, but, Yamato."
"What!?" The oni girl asked, drawing more than a few stares from the locals.
"You said that the last two islands that we were on."
Yamato blinked once, twice.
She scanned the island around them, and frowned.
"Okay... this might not be where Lord Oden said that great warriors gathered."
'NO SHIT!' several vestiges screamed at once.
"But I can fix this!" the second coming of Oden declared, throwing a hand to the sky.
Izuku felt a bead of sweat run down his face.
"H-how?"
"By asking directions! TO THE TOWN SQUARE!"
And in a single bound, the oni girl left Izuku in a literal dust cloud, leaving him coughing and trying to fan away the smoke that came around him.
"You seem to have your hands full."
Izuku wiped the dust away from his eyes, letting him see the source of the voice. He was an impressive figure, with an open coat that showed a toned chest. A wide brimed hat covered his eyes, and from his neck, a cross necklace hanged limply in the air. The man was sitting outside of a bar, far out of the way of anyone else, everyone clearly scared of him for some reason or another.
Probably the sword that was bigger than him and Izuku put together.
Though, despite it, Izuku's danger sense didn't even peep, the man was just watching him, little more than curious.
Izuku tried not to stare at it as he scratched his cheek.
"She's... a bit of a handful, but she's one of the better friends you could ever have!"
The man hummed at that, lifting a glass of wine and taking a swig.
"A friend? A rare thing to have in this corner of the ocean."
He gesutred across from him.
"Take a seat while you wait for your friend."
Izuku glanced towards the direction that Yamato had run off too.
"But-"
"I know her type boy," the man interrupted, "Quick to action and slow to thought, she'll recognize that this is the town square in time."
He swirled the wine in the glass absently.
"And there's no one on this island anymore that's a threat to her."
"Oh, okay then."
'Pretty quick to trust him there,' the second user commented.
'He sounds genuine,' Nana said, 'And would you look at that chest? You could grind meat on those-'
'Down girl.' Yoichi ordered.
Izuku tried not to laugh at the bickering as he took a seat. The man across from him set down his glass, sitting comfortably in his chair as he observed Izuku.
"So, what do I call the boy with nine souls within him?"
Izuku flinched, anther haki user?
"Oh, Izuku."
The name struck a cord with the man.
"The Green Demon?" he commented, "You don't look as impressive as your posters would suggest."
"I... wear a mask?" Izuku said awkwardly.
The man's look was flatter than paper.
"I suppose that helps," he comments dryly, "Mihawk is my name."
"Nice to meet you," Izuku said with a little nod.
Mihawk's brow went up slightly, the curiosity in the man's gaze growing.
"You don't recognize the name?"
Izuku shook his head. Yamato talked about all of the Yanko, the Emperors of the sea, but the name Mihawk never really came up.
The man tapped the table.
"I'll admit, it's been a while since I've talked to someone that didn't know me. Especially someone in this part of the world."
Izuku let out a little nervous laugh.
"I'm a bit new."
"Clearly, but what brings you to this corner of the New World, Izuku?"
"Oh, my friend and I are trying to find help."
Mihawk nodded.
"For what?"
Izuku looked at him utterly seriously.
"To help my friend take back her country from the Emperor Kaido."
With that one declaration, everything went quiet. The entire street seemingly faded away, Mihawk not even twitching from across the table.
And then... he laughed.
A full belly laugh that seemed utterly at odds with his seemingly stoic demeaner.
"You intend to bring down an Emperor?" Mihawk asked. His smile was playful, but his eyes regained their serious tint.
"Your plans will move titanic forces that were not meant to fight one another. A single misstep would change the fragile peace that protects so many."
Izuku couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
"This is peace?"
He remembered the islands under the thumb of warlords, of marines sacking and breaking islands just for insulting someone from a royal family. Pirates destroying homes, ruining lives.
How could that be peace?
"Of a kind," Mihawk said, "The closest to something that could be made since Roger set the pieces in motion. Despite the flaws and the atrocities that you've no doubt seen, trust a man that has seen both ages and let me say that it can get worse. A single power vacumm will cause the scales to tip one way or another."
"Then it's a good thing that they're swinging the right way," Izuku argued.
The man's brow raised further.
"Quite a claim, to know the right way."
"It's justice."
Mihawk rolled his eyes.
"So is every other action that the marines put their minds to. What makes you so different from them if you seek justice?"
Izuku opened his mouth, but the man held up a hand.
"I am not saying that you don't believe, but belief and ambition alone do not decide the course of the world. They are motivators, the tools to sharpen the steels of action and purpose. To give justice to the world is a dangerous goal, because while you think that you are doing what is right, the world around you will not simply sit by and let you have your way."
"But that isn't a reason to not try," Izuku declared.
He clenched a fist in front of him. With it, he's helped, and hurt a lot of people. All for the sake of justice, to help people.
To be a hero.
"If the world wants to stop me, then I'll just grit my teeth. The only thing that lets evil and bad things in this world happen, are good men doing nothing. So I'll be that good man, I'll go beyond, plus ultra until I achieve that justice, and be a hero!"
Mihawk stared at him, his entire face as still as stone with his declaration.
"Even if someone like me stood against you?"
He reached for his sword, and the instant that Mihawk's fingers wrapped around the blade, Izuku's danger sense screamed!
Once, there was a simple man enjoying his wine outside of a bar.
The next, it was a demon.
But still, Izuku didn't back down.
He stared forwards, and nodded.
The pressure didn't let up from Mihawk, the danger all to real. With one swing of that sword, he would cut Izuku down.
No, he would cut the entire island in half and the heavens with it.
And in a blink, the danger was gone, and in it's place, a small smile on his lips.
"Then I shall wait for your justice to reach me at the top," he said, getting up from his seat, "I will be witness to whatever your ambition brings about. If you are true to your words, you will find me and others like you waiting."
He put the sword on his back, and flicked something onto the table. A log pose.
"That will lead you within two islands of several major trading lanes," he said, "Beyond that, it's up to you."
Izuku stared at it, and took it with a small bow.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Mihawk."
The swordsman's lips quirked up again.
"You are the first one in a long time to thank me, Izuku."
The marine ships could see it.
Wano was burning, forces from a dozen pirates converged on the island to bring down an Emperor. Great Pirates like the Straw Hat, the Surgeon of Death, the Green Demon. It was too much for the Navy to ignore, so an entire armada was coming closer, to take the chance of bringing down so many great pirates.
"Admiral," A marine said to Admiral Greenbull, "We're almost at Wano!"
"Yeah, I can see that!" the man said, practically eating his cigarette as he watched the island come into view.
It was so close. Soon enough, he'll get that pat on the back that he'd been waiting for-
Wait, what's that before the island?
It looked like... a small raft.
A single figure stood on top of it, brought something out of his back.
And Greenbull had one second to recognize the figure on that raft before the great black blade Yoru swung.
A hundred ships were cut apart in a single swing, the ocean splitting in two as the strongest slash from the strongest swordsman brought low an entire fleet.
Greenbull flew above it, panting from the effort of dodging and looking down at the floating wreckage of so many ships, and more than a thousand marines screaming for help as the ocean hit them with it's fury from the aftermath of the swing.
"No further."
The admiral looked down, at Mihawk starting back at him.
"I want to see what good men can do," the strongest swordsman said.
His eyes gleamed in the twilight.
"And you will not sully that ambition."
Greenbull's cigarette fell out of his mouth as he stared.
And then the heavens split as Yoru cut the sky.