SailorStar9: With Chapter 243 uploaded, I present Chapter 244 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.

Pairings: Married!Ace/Sasha, Sibling!Luffy/Sasha, Sibling!Sabo/Sasha, Background Protector!Law/Sasha

Disclaimers: One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichirō-sensei. Me, on the other hand, own absolutely nothing, except my OC, the pairing and the fic idea.

Chapter 244: Arc 15: The Exterminated Capital! The Twirly Hat Crew Arrive!


"Duke Dogstorm is awesome." Usopp gushed, after Wanda related the battle against Jack.

"He's strong like I thought." Luffy agreed.

"But the enemy gave even the mightiest warrior in this country and the Three Musketeers a hard time..." Usopp mused.

"Jack the Drought." Franky noted. "Sounds super bad."

"Especially since Jack is most probably an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit user." Sasha added.

"A Devil Fruit user?" Robin echoed. "That... actually does makes sense."

"He's got a billion Berri bounty." Usopp exclaimed. "That's twice Luffy's, you know."

"Doesn't matter." Luffy retorted. "I'll kick his ass someday."

"And how did the battle go?" Zoro asked.

"It got more intense from there." Wanda answered. "Thanks to the Rain-Ruption, we briefly gained the upper hand, but once the water drained away, they came back again. Day and night, without break, the battle went on for five days. We rotated our combatants by day and night and continued fighting for two days, three days, four days, and so on. But Jack's reinforcements kept coming from the sea and we could hardly fight them off. It was like fighting a wave of countless zombies. However, we were steadily overwhelming the enemy. I can say there was only one that we couldn't take down and that was Jack. He is, indeed, a monster."

"Is he that strong?" Usopp stammered.

"He is." Wanda nodded. "But the enemy was also having a hard time too. I think Jack got tired of the two rulers who he couldn't take down, so he finally brought out a weapon on the fifth day. It was a poison gas weapon."

"Gas?" Luffy echoed.

"That's right, Luffy." Chopper confirmed. "This country was ruined by Caesar's poison gas weapon."

"Caesar created the weapon and Doflamingo trafficked it, and it made it all the way to Kaido." Robin reasoned.

"It all happened so quickly." Wanda recalled. "The deadly gas was filling the whole country at the speed of a blast wave. How could anyone escape that?"

"That's horrible." Usopp hissed.

"Strong old man..." Luffy looked at Dogstorm. "He must've felt frustrated."

"The gas filled up the whole city and half the forest and totally paralyzed us." Wanda recounted. "Except for the people who evacuate to the back of the fortress, nearly everyone was killed. I don't even want to remember what happened after that. They kept asking questions they knew the answer to." she sobbed. "Then they brutalized our soldiers and ruined our country. We heard people screaming and crying throughout the country. Then they found Master Cat Viper and the Guardians who were paralyzed by the gas and did the same to them. But when they saw they weren't getting anywhere, our tough ones were crucified and tortured. Those tragic events happened one whole day, and on the sixth day, maybe because Jack was satisfied with the destruction or tired of hearing the same answer, he left a few dozen of his men behind and departed from the island."

"That actually saved us." Dogstorm cut in. "I noticed that when I read Jack's obituary in the newspaper.

"So this is Jack." Luffy noted, flipping open to Jack's obituary page.

"The day you-gara people killed Doflamingo, Jack left the country." Dogstorm explained. "He left here to attack the Navy who were taking the remnants of the Quixote Family to Impel Down. I guess they had some sort of a deep connection. So the ones who drove that monster out of here were you-gara people."

"I see." Wanda sighed after Dogstorm dropped off the sleep again. "Given all that, I'm even more grateful to you all and felt it was truly a miracle. We're alive now, really thanks to you-tiea people."

"We arrived here the very next day after Jack left." Chopper took over. "It was a terrible sight. We wanted to do something right away, but the gas is still there and it could've put our lives in jeopardy too. That's why we left the city temporarily."

"What happened then?" Robin asked.

"Well..." Chopper trailed, recalling how Sanji had forced Caesar to use his ability to neutralize the poison gas. "It was a race against time from there." he added, remembering how the small group of healers had rushed to create the antidote.

"You didn't even know who we were." Wanda wept. "But you saved us without giving up. We'll never forget what you did for us. We'll pay our debt to you someday."

"Anyways, that Jack guy makes me mad." Luffy fumed. "I'll kick his butt someday, as well as Kaido's."

"But he said there was an obituary." Brook pointed out.

"Well, it's hard to believe if you had seen him with your own eyes." Wanda stated.

"Do you believe he's alive?" Franky asked.

"I don't know." Wanda admitted.

"Guys, will you say here and talk?" Chopper jumped off Dogstorm's bed. "It's night now, so I'll go with Sasha to examine Cat Viper, the King of the Night and the Guardians of the Whale Forest."

"I'll take you there on my Wany." Wanda offered.

"Come to think of it, Wanda." Robin mused. "Isn't it time for you to sleep, too?"

"I work as a Kingsbird." Wanda explained. "And aide to the Kings and the only office that is allowed to go back and forth between them, regardless of whether it is day or night. I have to tell him that Duke Dogstorm is okay. He'd probably say it's unnecessary."


SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.