Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece, I own this story.
"Hey… Oyaji?" Whitebeard was broken out of his musings when he heard the voice of one of the brats, he took in.
"Yeah?" He said while absently noting that there wasn't much sake left in the gourd he was rolling around.
"Do you think…" Sabo-brat bit his lip, "That we could go to… Gloom Island?"
Whitebeard would have doubled over laughing, and dropped his sake gourd for good measure, too, if he hadn't heard Gloom Island come from that kid's mouth.
"Why would you want to go there?" Whitebeard asked, his eyes imperceptibly wide, because, well, Gloom Island, he mused, would be the last place I would've thought a child to want to go.
Sabo frowned and skillfully (for his age) avoided the question, "That's not the point, the point is, can you go there, or not?"
Whitebeard frowned, "Well, yes, but—"
"Can we go there, then?" Sabo interrupted anxiously, shifting from side to side.
"but, why would you want to go to the island where Dracule Mihawk is living?" he questioned, long having forsaken the sake bottle, sitting on the armrest of his throne.
Sabo-brat frowned and tilted his head quizzically, "Dracule Mihawk?".
Whitebeard yawned, "Yeah, Dracule Mihawk, that one Warlord that is coincidentally the Greatest Swordsman in the World, too. Why do you want to go there?"
Sabo gaped before schooling his expression into a blank poker face, which would have been impressive to anyone that didn't know Observation Haki. Whitebeard could feel his unease spiking up every second he stayed silent.
"Well, if you want to go there, who am I to deny you?" Whitebeard shrugged.
"You're Whitebeard," Sabo pointed out, crossing his arms and staring skeptically at the old man, "'nuff said," he said sagely.
Whitebeard paused for a second, before letting out a hearty laugh, "GURARARARA!"
…
Sabo be shooketh.
(AN: XD Sorry I couldn't resist!)
…
"What?" Sabo shrunk in on himself, "Did I say something?"
Whitebeard felt a pang of worry in his heart, Once, this kid might have been bold enough to banter with Sengoku freely, even if he were a pirate… he scowled, I only have one regret:
Not finding that facility and burning it down myself.
"You said nothing wrong," Whitebeard assured, "Although, I personally, cannot bring you to Gloom Island, so you're going to have to travel with Shanks for the time being," he paused, "Are you okay with that?"
Sabo beamed a bright smile, "Yeah! That's good! Thanks!" and with that, he turned around, and disappeared in the crowd on deck.
Whitebeard looked up at the sky and savored the taste of the sake on his palette, before he choked on air, He called me… Oyaji!
A gushy, warm feeling arose from within himself, and he didn't bother hiding the look of pride and love on his face, He called me Oyaji!
o-o
TIMESKIP—
After an extremely tense call from Yonko to Yonko, Shanks agreed to arrive at the Moby Dick, if only because 'Anchor asked,'.
Marco sighed, he was not looking forward to seeing Shanks again, in fact, he was actively avoiding Shanks. Seeing him once was more than enough of a toll on his sanity. He still didn't understand how Shanks' liver was still intact what with all the drinking he did.
Mihawk, he could understand. He was still hanging on the inane theory that when the Swordsman was born, he was fed sake instead of milk. That's not even accounting for the insane healing factor the guy had!
Like, you give him one deep gash across his stomach, so deep that his insides would spill out, and the next day, when you arrive for a rematch, not even a scar is left behind!
In short, it was freaky.
Marco opened his eyes, to the sight of the vast Grand Line sea, and his heart swelled with some unidentifiable emotion. He loved this sea, he loved sailing on it, and he loved his brothers with whom he sailed it with. Even if the sea didn't quite love him back, what with the fact that he had a Devil Fruit and all…
Marco frowned, when a blip appeared just on the edge of his Haki. It could be a threat, he reasoned, momentarily forgetting that they had spent two hours asking Shanks to come over to the Moby Dick, repeatedly assuring him, that no, this was not a trap, and spending an extra half hour just explaining why Shanks had to come there to begin with.
For someone who was so carefree, he was deceptively paranoid.
He closed his eyes and zoomed in. It seemed to be a ship, filled to the brim with 30 people, but that wasn't what worried him, no. It was the fact that each of those people were insanely powerful, and one person's aura towered over everyone else's there. Most likely the captain.
Marco frowned, confusion and hesitation momentarily clouding his Haki, Who are these people? He wondered, stretching his arms and taking to the sky.
He followed a mixture of his instincts and the blip on his Haki, uncaring as it got bigger and bigger. No one could reach him while up in the sky. It was times like this, when the Phoenix inside him sang in praise of the wind against the flaming feathers attached to Marco like it was a second skin.
Marco gave a lazy smirk and evened out his wings, half floating, half gliding on the air. Contrary to popular belief, Zoan Devil Fruits weren't like the soul of the animal was living inside your body, no. More like, a fragment of that soul.
Enough to give you heightened instincts, enough to give you their form, enough to give you a distant sensation of what it would feel like if you were the real thing, but no. There was never a living guidebook attached like two souls housed in a body only meant for one.
Having one Devil Fruit alone already adds to your soul immensely, filling your body to the brim with power. But the backlash means that you won't be able to add anything else to your soul. It just can't happen. There's no more room.
Marco sighed, floating on the air, his mind having cleared from this day's worries. The kids' reaction to Teach, the blonde one calling Whitebeard 'Oyaji,' almost running into a Grand Line Cyclone… Having to call… Shanks… Marco's eyes opened wide, and he drastically paled.
How did I forget?! He panicked, and that split second lapse in concentration… was the end of him.
Or at least it would have been, had he not been saved from a watery grave by one very elaborately placed ship on the sea. One elaborately placed ship whose captain was one very certain Red-haired Shanks.
"Hey, birdbrain!" Marco suppressed a groan, "Join my crew!" and a smiling, scarred, dangerous face clouded his vision before all went black. His only thought—
Why do I have to see his smiling face before I pass out?
o-o
Marco woke up with a groan, he clutched his head, which was currently experiencing a splitting headache. He frowned, and tried to recall what it was exactly that he was doing, before it all came rushing back to him.
He gasped and sat up, distantly noting the arguing of two extremely powerful Yonko, over one Phoenix.
"I didn't hurt him, you delusional old man!" that was Shanks.
"Silence!" that was… Oyaji.
In his haze of befuddlement, Marco could only say the first thing that came to mind. Oh yeah, and his brain-to-mouth filter wasn't quite working at the moment, so…
"Would you two kindly, please, not go to war? And before you say anything, I'm pretty sure half the world, plus the heavens agrees with me as well," he said dryly.
A few silent moments passed, before Marco registered what he said, and the haze of befuddlement cleared.
"Uhhhh…" he said, so very intelligently.
Shanks looked at him blankly, before breaking out into a wide smile and laughing, "Yeah, he's right! I'm pretty sure we gave Sengoku quite the big heart attack, no?"
o…o
"Grab all your weapons!" Sengoku ordered, "We're all going to die!" he said resolutely when he saw absolutely no one move, still too entranced and fearful of the toiling heavens, the telltale sign of two Yonkos having a squabble. Mostly, it was Shanks and Whitebeard. Never Big Mom and Kaido, those two would always use their crew to fight for them.
They were firm believers of the saying 'what's the point of ruling, if there's no world to rule,'.
Shanks and Whitebeard, however, were not. And if those two were actually fighting, then Oda help us all.
Garp, too, was grim through all this, and that alone, made Sengoku almost pee his pants. We are so screwed, he felt like laughing like an idiot.
Then, all of a sudden, the toiling stopped, and the heavens became docile once more. Or at least, as docile as the heavens could be considering they were in the Grand Line… Either way, the change was so sudden, that it left the marines (read: Sengoku) reeling.
"What the—"
"POTATOES!" Garp blurted out, and Sengoku frowned.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Garp just gave a disturbing wink and giggled conspiratorially, "Gotta keep it for the kids, you know?"
Sengoku didn't talk to Garp for the rest of the day after that. Or the entire week, for that matter.
o…o
"So…" Shanks drawled, "Gloom Island, you say?" he raised an eyebrow at Sabo, who was fidgeting under the gaze. Gotta keep it secret, gotta keep it secret, he repeated like a mantra.
"I suppose I can bring you there," he nodded resolutely, "Yeah, it won't take too long, we're pretty close as is, we can make it in around… a few days or so,"
Sabo frowned, I don't have that much time, "Any way we can get there faster?"
Shanks raised an eyebrow, "Why are you so eager to get to Gloom Island though?"
Sabo's eyes widened, but before he could give away any more tells, he schooled his expression, "Personal reasons,"
Shanks took one look at him and got the message that he didn't want to be asked, so he just shrugged noncommittally and left it at that.
"Well, there are a few ways, but we're going to have to directly cut through the Calm Belt, and unless you're okay with seeing Sea Kings the size of the Moby Dick…?" Shanks trailed off into silence, just to let it sink in for his audience.
Sabo was silent for a moment, seemingly doing an internal debate with himself, before speaking up, "Sure, let's go. As long as we can get there fast,"
Shanks raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on the badly-hidden desperation in the kid's tone. He must've slipped on concentration, Shanks absently mused.
"Okay! Let's go!" Shanks got up from his crouching position, and began walking towards his ship, sending a few small flares in his aura as a signal.
In the three years that he was looking for Anchor, him and his crew created a means of signaling each other without actually speaking, and such a signal, that it worked within their range of Haki. Basically, you had to suppress your aura, then flare it periodically, like, for example, if Shanks flared his aura once, for a period of three seconds at full power, that meant he was in trouble.
Not like he ever had to actually use that signal though.
Once Sabo was on his ship, he yelled, "Hoist the sails!" there were a bunch of grunts, growls, and in general, responses that sent an affirmation.
Within seconds, the ship was far, far away from the Moby Dick, and setting a course for the Calm Belt. Then, Shanks heard a few noises.
"…Lu…sto…" then a grunt, and three children fell out of a barrel. He took a few moments to analyze their faces, which were currently stuck in a deer-in-the-headlights expression. One was Ace. Another was the Green-haired one, whose wrist seemed to be tied with some sort of string to Ace, and the last was Anchor. Nodding in affirmation to himself, he closed his eyes.
"What are you three doing here?"
"Make that four," Benn strode up to meet his captain.
"What?"
"Found this one hovering over our ship, cap'n," and then his first mate lifted up Usopp, who had all of his feathers out, and was currently smiling sheepishly.
"Hi?"
Shanks felt a headache coming on, Is this how Marco feels most of the time?
"Okay, what are you four doing here?" he amended.
Luffy stood up and puffed up his chest in pride, "We came here to spy on you!" he said shamelessly, and for a moment, Shanks thought he felt his heart stop.
The green-headed one—Zoro— groaned, and slapped a hand on his face, "That was a joke, Luffy, I never actually meant that we were going to spy on him,"
Luffy tilted his head and quickly fixed his words, "Sorry!" he said unapologetically, "Ignore what I said,"
Shanks felt like choking on air.
Then Sabo came along, "Luffy?" he muttered, then his eyes widened, "WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Luffy puffed his chest up in pride again, before Ace pushed him down and spoke, "We're here to escort you to Gloom Island,"
"Oh… Okay," Sabo hesitated, "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
For a moment, all was silent until Ace spoke up, "Yeah, Zoro, why didn't you say anything earlier?" he accused.
Zoro, let out an indignant screech of rage, and unintentionally shifted into Asura form, before jabbing three pointers into Ace's flaming chest, "What do you meant 'Zoro'? That was Usopp's job!" he said, accentuating the statement by pointing three pointers at Usopp's form, which was perching on the rail.
"What?" he said dumbly, looking at his friends, before catching onto the feud, "That wasn't my job, that was Ace's," he lied flawlessly, before going back to work, spying the fish swimming in the ocean.
So, tempting. He licked his lips, before flying up, trying to catch enough wind, but ultimately falling back down.
He frowned and tried again, this time flapping more wholesomely, being sure to catch the wind currents, but when he didn't feel so much as a breeze, he looked up with a look of confusion on his face.
And he was met with a Giant Sea King which was probably twice the size of the Moby Dick now that he thought about it, or maybe that was just his inner liar talking.
Either way, he screamed. Which was an extremely bad move, by the way, considering it caught the attention of the Sea King, causing the overgrown fish to lunge towards the ship, before it froze.
Then, it exploded. I kid you not, Usopp mentally announced a nonexistent crowd, The 500-ton sea monster—exploded.
Huh, he thought, absently flicking off a stray drop of blood on his eyebrow, My hero, he looked at the blurred form of someone on the edge of the ship, no doubt the one who had destroyed the entire Sea King.
The figure strode towards Usopp with long, regal, imperious strides, before stopping in front of him. The glare from the sun was still too bright to see the person's face, but that was quickly remedied when the person bent down, probably to get a better look at Usopp's face.
He saw a person who looked much like him, minus the fact that he had blonde hair, and a smaller, more normal-sized nose. He could hear the other man's breath hitch.
"Usopp?" he said in wonderment, "Is that you?"
Usopp's throat was too dry to say anything, so he just settled for a numb nod, and he became vaguely aware of the other man crying.
"You have your mother's nose, that's for sure," the other man—Yasopp—said, and all of a sudden, Usopp felt really proud.
o-o
Soon, they made it to Gloom Island. Over the trip, Luffy had an eating contest with Lucky Roo, Zoro sat with Benn, Usopp and Yasopp had some father-son bonding, and Shanks told Ace real, true stories about Gold Roger.
Still didn't change the little firecracker's opinion about the man, though.
All went silent on the ship when the Red Force pulled up next to an island, which could only be best described as… purple. And Gloomy.
At least it's well-deserved of its name, Sabo thought morbidly, because there is no way this island can be anything but Gloom Island.
"Well," Shanks announced, comically cheerful against the dark and gloomy atmosphere, "We're here!".
"Yes, Captain," Benn smiled amusedly, "Thank you for pointing out the obvious,"
Shanks' smile dimmed for a little, before it returned in full force, "You're welcome!" then, he did a 180o on his mood so fast, that Sabo almost got whiplash, "I'll try to distract Hawky, you do your business here, and then we leave, okay?" he looked over at the lone castle on the island, "I have a bad feeling about this place,"
You're not the only one, Sabo silently agreed.
Shanks put on a resolute face, and strode fearlessly towards the castle, mentally formulating a reason to tell Mihawk as to why he just suddenly showed up, on Gloom Island, no less, out of the blue, because even for him, that was out of the ordinary.
Especially if it was Gloom Island.
Just the name gave people shivers. Except maybe Whitebeard. But then again, that guy could sink the entire island at his own leisure, so he doesn't count. Marines, though, actively avoided the island. Big Mom and Kaido chose spots in the New World, just to avoid it. Shanks… had to constantly remind himself who he was here for, so as to not turn tail and run.
There was a rumor… about that island… that the one who lives in the broken castle is a monster who can and will suck you veins dry, and eat your heart as an appetizer. That those… who enter that island… never come out.
"Why are you here?" a dry voice spoke.
It was all Shanks could do, not to pull out his sabre, and cut whoever was behind him head off. Although, given who lives here, Shanks mused, he'd probably block me instead.
"I'm here for a spar!" Shanks cheerfully announced, inwardly worrying and hoping that Hawk-eyes would take the lie.
All Dracule Mihawk did in response was raise an eyebrow. But that was all he did. So far so good, Shanks thought.
"A spar?" Mihawk said slowly, "I suppose… It's been a while," he reached for his sword, but then stopped. His dull golden eyes, which were normally half-lidded, were now fully open, and more alive than Shanks had seen them in years.
Huh, Mihawk has pointed ears, he mused, Never noticed.
Said pointed ears were twitching at random moments in time, listening to something that Shanks couldn't hear. After a few moments of silence, Mihawk lunged towards Shanks at superhuman speeds.
"Wha-?" Shanks tried to dodge, but failed miserably.
In seconds, he was pinned down, and too confused to move, "Hawky?" he ventured cautiously, still looking at the heavily panting form of the Warlord above him, who was looking the most disheveled Shanks had seen him in ever, "Mihawk?" he said quietly, "What's-?"
"Shut up," the Warlord snarled venomously, and if Shanks was a lesser man, he would've flinched.
"What?"
Mihawk ignored him, "Where is the Werewolf?"
"What werewolf?" Shanks asked calmly, "Mihawk, take a moment, breathe, and explain,"
Mihawk did neither, "Where is the Werewolf?!" he screeched, an almost animalistic rage taking over his features, which looked terrifying on his normally prim and proper face. Couple that with the fact that his eyes suddenly turned red, and his canines suddenly sharpened into fangs, and yeah. Shanks was completely befuddled.
Shanks was about to flip and ask, 'What Werewolf?!' when his question was answered for him in the form of a howl.
It was harmonious. It was loud. It was blood-curdling. It caught Mihawk's attention.
That was the direction where Sabo, Anchor, and their brothers went, horror mounted in Shanks' stomach as pieces clicked together. He dared to take one more look at Mihawk, and what he saw chilled him to the bone.
His face was spread in a ghastly smile showing off sharpened fangs, and his ears were fully elongated, but all of that paled in the face of what he said,
"Found you, mutt,"
AN: Okay, so I'm still alive, yay. To be honest, I kind of forgot I had this as a story, but when I remembered, I realized that I forgot because I had a horrible writer's block. Thankfully, I managed to hit a butt-load of inspiration while taking my School Finals, which is really funny, because I probably should've been studying for the next test. Anyways, I've got the next two or three chapters more or less planned, now, all I need to do is write them, which will take a while...
~~Oracle Norzi