Ace gave a light flinch as twelve enraged glares turned pointedly towards him. It had been several days since the release of their bounties and the Spades had planned on stopping at a nearby island to celebrate. Unfortunately plans had a way of falling apart when a D got involved.
"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Alice took a step in front of the recently formed mob (formerly known as the Spade pirates) and smiled sweetly. "Don't know what you're talking about Captain. It's not like you accidentally became the Fire God of a cannibalistic native tribe, who then tried to sacrifice us in your honour!"
Ace took another nervous step away from his enraged crew mate "Well when you say it like that, it sounds really bad. But I rescued you all eventually! Shouldn't that count for something?"
Judging by the way his crew took a step closer to the logia, evil grins decorating their faces, it didn't count for much. "Come to think of it, we still haven't repaid you for the hellish training sessions yet, have we Captain?" Ace continued to back away "C'mon guys, let's just calm down a minute and,"
The knife flew past his face, and embedded itself in the mast before Ace even finished his sentence. Liam (a former circus man with incredible aim) smiled, another three knives clearly visible in his hands "It's payback time Captain!" Ace didn't bother to mention the fact that he was a logia and the knives would just go through him.
Something in his crew's expressions told him that they would find a way. Why did he decide it was a good idea to teach them the basics of armament haki again?!
This was not good. Sure Ace could outfight all of his crew easily, but it would be difficult to do so in a non-lethal manner. Which pretty much ruled out all use of his devil fruit. His best option was to escape until his crew calmed down.
Unfortunately, he'd also started training most of them in observation haki which would make escape far more difficult...
He really needed to start thinking these things through, didn't he?
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) Ace's escape attempt was foiled before it even began, as the young logia felt the telling pull of sleep.
With his last waking thought Ace cursed his narcolepsy.
This could not end well for him.
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Ace learned his assumptions were completely correct when he awoke ten minutes later, firmly strapped to an infirmary bed with seastone handcuffs. After a quick and futile attempt to escape his binds, Ace admitted temporary defeat and instead looked up at his crew's all too innocent smiles.
"Is this a mutiny? Because if so, I'd like to point out that I really doubt any of you could survive replacing me, as the leader of this madness." Dusty chuckled as Alice approached the infirmary bed, strange looking items in hand.
"Don't worry Captain, it's not mutiny. This is just some well-deserved payback."
Hearing the slightly demented laughter of the petite shipwright, Ace decided that once this (whatever this was) was over he'd lay off the training for a bit.
The harsh training paired with Ace's usual madness against the marines, seemed to have had the unintentional side effect of pushing his crew closer to insanity...
Oops.
As his crew drew closer, Ace couldn't help but regret his life choices.
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Shanks took one look at the newest bounty posters before bursting out into full bellied laughter, and grabbing the nearest Den Den Mushi. Ignoring his crews' curious looks, the Emperor wasted no time in ringing up the number of his favourite fire logia.
"This is Ace." The red-haired man grinned at the grumpy tone on the other end of the line "Hey kiddo, care to explain the newest bounty poster?" The answering groan was more than a little bit amusing. "I may have pushed my crew a little too far. This was their revenge."
Shanks's laughter increased in volume "So as revenge they dressed you in incredibly convincing drag, painted a spade on your cheek, took a photo and sold it to the Marines claiming it was Lady Spade's new look after an encounter with a fruit user?"
The groan on the other end of the line was answer enough, "Aw it's not so bad kiddo. I wouldn't have recognised you at all if you didn't resemble your mother so much! If it makes you feel any better, you make a very pretty girl!" Shanks could hear the logias teeth grinding "Shanks. Shut. Up."
Shanks merely laughed at the threatening tone whilst the rest of the Red force, who had finally caught on as to what was going on, crowded round the poster and yelled unnecessary feedback at the Den DeDen Mushi.
"Gramps is never going to let me live this down." Shanks paused, Roger's parents were dead and Rouge had never mentioned any other family. Though it made sense that someone had, had to help Ace escape certain death "Gramps?" Ace froze momentarily "I thought you knew?"
"Knew what?" The teen giggled and Shanks was suddenly overcome with a large sense of foreboding "Do you know Luffy's last name?" Shanks found himself nodding before remembering Ace couldn't see him, and forced himself to reply vocally.
"Yeah it's Monkey, what's that got to do with it?" The giggling intensified "Well Luffy's gramps adopted me too. But anyway, think about someone else you know with the surname Monkey. Someone who likes to throw cannonballs at unsuspecting pirates."
The sentence clicked, and Shanks felt his jaw drop "Holy shit, you're joking right?" Ace's laughter confirmed that no, he was very much not joking "Oh God it all makes so much sense now! That's why the old geezer kept yelling about vengeance every time he saw me."
It also explained how Ace had survived all this time. No one would expect a Marine hero to adopt his former rivals kid. Not unless the person knew said Marine hero personally, and understood just how batshit insane the old man could be.
Unaware of Shanks's revelations, Ace continued to laugh "I can't believe you didn't know! You converted the grandson of a Marine hero to piracy, and you didn't even know?!" The emperor let out a small huff "In hindsight that explains a hell of a lot though." The Den Den Mushi reflected the teen's grin "Doesn't it just?"
The conversation trailed off into easy silence, but after a few seconds, Ace gave a small sigh "I hate to bring it up, but I don't suppose you've managed to find anything concrete on Teach?" The Red haired man clenched his fists.
"No such luck kiddo, we've managed to match up the timings of Blackbeards deals with Teach's travel. So your info about them being one and the same is most likely correct. The issue is, it's nowhere near conclusive enough for us to bring it to old man Newgate."
The face on the other end of the Den Den Mushi scowled "That's what I was afraid of." The two Captains remained silent for a moment before Shanks grinned "Nothing that can be done about it for now Brat. We'll keep looking. You just enjoy spreading your chaos for now."
The Emperor was relieved to hear the teen laugh "I plan to! On the note of chaos though, I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to fully unlock conquerors Haki?" Shanks let out a low whistle, that was a surprise "So you have it? Should've expected that."
The snail echoed Ace's grin "I used it once as a kid but I only figured out what it was recently. Don't suppose you have any tips?" The bloodthirsty grin on Shanks's face would've sent any government agent running for the hills, but Ace merely mirrored it. "Sure thing Kiddo."
After giving the kid everything he could on training his Haki, Shanks finally hung up, a soft smile on his face. In another world, one where Roger had lived, Ace might have grown up like Shanks's little brother or nephew.
Unfortunately, that was not their world.
But the least Shanks could do, was watch out for the Kid now. The world had no clue what was coming, and Shanks for one, would thoroughly enjoy the chaos.
Afterall, Ace was a D on both sides of the family.
And D would always bring a storm.
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Sengoku closed his eyes and desperately tried to will away his latest headache.
Unfortunately, this was not an effective method when said headache, came in the form of a Marine hero invading your personal office to laugh at a pirate's bounty poster...seriously what the fuck was Garp even doing here?!
Attempting to block out the laughing nuisance, Sengoku stared down at the latest bounty poster of the infamous Lady Spade and frowned. While many of the Marine officers had been relieved to finally pair a face/photo to the name, the fleet commander was more annoyed than anything else.
Ok no, that was a lie, Sengoku was downright pissed.
Because instead of following proper procedure and making sure the photographer who turned in the photo was someone who had a contract with the world government, some hotshot Marine base idiot had accepted the photo at face value and proceeded to print it immediately.
And based off the spade's previous actions, as well as the fact they had been unable to track down the photographer since, there was an extremely high probability that the photo came from the Pirate crew themselves.
Meaning that Marines and bounty hunters all over the Grandline would be searching for the woman in the photograph, a woman who most likely didn't exist. Because despite all the rumours, and the photo, the fact remained that not a single Marine had actually met, or even seen, the woman in question.
Sengoku couldn't quite help but give a heavy sigh. Because while he couldn't prove the existence of Lady Spade, he also couldn't disprove it (not with that menace, Shanks's glowing endorsement of the woman). And that was rapidly spiralling into a dangerous situation.
Because as long as the Spade pirates kept picking fights (which is pretty much all they'd been doing since they announced themselves on the Grandline) and growing in infamy the Marines would be forced to raise the bounty on Lady Spade's head as the supposed Captain of the crew.
Meaning that if Lady Spade was revealed to be a fake the marines would be a laughing stock.
At current time the Spade's hadn't done enough damage, nor were they far enough through the Grandline, for the fleet Admiral to justify sending anyone to track them down specifically.
(Which was secretly somewhat relieving because Sengoku could admit to finding the rumors about Akainu hilarious)
So Sengoku was stuck. He couldn't not raise Lady Spade's bounty on the off chance the woman was real. But raising the bounty could do irreparable damage to the Marines image if she was in fact a fake.
So, for now Sengoku had no choice but to wait.
Wait and attempt to figure out why the woman in the poster looked so familiar.
And why the hell Garp was laughing so God damn hard.
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Marco couldn't quite help his grin. After all the stress that Haruta and Thatch put him through on a daily basis, Marco found it somewhat therapeutic to see Haruta so worked up.
Haruta could not agree less with the sentiment but couldn't currently retaliate, due to being moments away from tearing his hair out.
It didn't make any sense! The Spades didn't make any fucking sense! After the first five bounty posters had been released, Haruta had wasted no time in using his not inconsiderable resources, to try and figure out all he could on the Spade crew. And the information he had found, was baffling to say the least.
"It doesn't make any sense!"
Marco gave a small snort and turned to face the smallest Commander "Still obsessing over the Spade pirates yoi?" Haruta glared at his oldest sibling "Yes. Now shut up and help me figure this out!"
Giving a reluctant sigh, the phoenix settled down next to the other Commander "So what is it that doesn't make sense?" Haruta frowned and pulled out the newest bounty poster for Lady Spade, before gesturing to the pretty blonde woman in its centre.
(Marco couldn't help but feel that there was something achingly familiar about the woman. But pushed it to the back of his mind for now.)
"I can't find anything about the woman in the picture." Marco's stared at the twelth divisiom Commander in obvious interest, Haruta being unable to find any information after being given a picture was incredibly rare. "I doubt she's the actual Lady Spade."
"In fact I'm almost positive the Spades deliberately leaked the picture to the marines themselves. But even if they just chose a random woman to play the part, we still should have been able to find some information on her. Instead there's nothing. It's as if she's a ghost."
"But the real issue is the rest of the crew." A slightly uneasy look appeared on the younger Commander's face "According to my sources, some of the Spade's fighting techniques looked an awful lot like the basics of Haki."
Marco stared at Haruta, eyes widened slightly in shock "You're certain yoi?" The twelth division Commander nodded, a serious expression on his face "As certain as I can be without seeing them fight in person." Marco let out a light grimance.
Haki was not a well-known skill anywhere outside of the second half of the grandline. And while one of the spades accidentally unlocking the basics of haki could be overlooked as a (highly unusual) coincidence, all of the Spades accidentally unlocking it, was about as likely as Whitebeard giving up alcohol.
Meaning that at least one of the Spades either was, or had contact with, someone from the new world who had deliberately taught them Haki. A hypothesis that was not only highly unlikely, but one that should have left at least some evidence behind.
And seeing as the Spade's had demonstrated their knowledge of Haki before their hypothesised meeting with Shanks, the Emporer wasn't the one to teach them.
Haruta was right. The Spade's didn't make any fucking sense. "You're right, something doesn't add up here yoi. Go ask Izou if any of our allies are in the same area and see if they can find any more information on the Spades."
Haruta gave a quick nod "Will do. Should I tell them to engage if they get the chance?" Marco paused consideringly for a moment. On one hand letting their allies fight the Spades, would go far in assessing their skill level, as well as possibly helping to reveal any allegiances the Spades might have.
On the other hand, it wouldn't do for the Whitebeard's to start randomly attacking a rookie crew unprovoked. Because even if they had unlocked the basics of Haki, the Spade's were still a rookies. Meaning it was highly unlikely they'd be able to defeat a hardened pirate crew like one of the Whitebeard allied crews.
And the Spades were far too interesting to let them fall so soon. "Just observe for now." Haruta nodded, and Marco couldn't quite help his smirk.
If Haruta was right and the Spade's had unlocked Haki, it meant things had just gotten much more interesting.
Author's note
Hi guys! So I tried to make this chapter a bit longer than usual to make up for last times shorter one! Thank you so much for all the comments I really love reading through them :) Next chapter brings the Whitebeard's allies! Hope you liked the chapter and please leave a review!