I do not own One Piece.

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Beta read by the wonderful rose7anne101, who has written some pretty amazing stuff for One Piece.

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Matt

Giving it a try :-)

Here is the newest chapter, and I hope it was worth it! Looking forward to hearing your newest thoughts! :-D

Thank you for your Review and Support! :-D

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The Gokou

Sorry for the long wait, and yeah I am saddened by what we saw of canon Whitebeard Pirates.

Here is the newest chapter, and I hope it was worth it! Looking forward to hearing your newest thoughts! :-D

Thank you for your Review and Support! :-D

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Rise from the Ashes

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Chapter 16: The Fifth Emperor

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Warning: This contains spoilers for up to chapter 931.

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To a civilian, the seas of the New World may look comparatively tiny.

A small strip of water, which the Blues tower over.

To anyone with a basic understanding of the ways of what life is really all about, it is clear the New World is in fact vast, and filled with wonders and terrors.

It seems even larger when you are searching for a brat who will not stay still long enough for people to catch up and offer him aid!

"So," Marco concluded as he rubbed his brow. "You have no clues as to where Straw Hat is going. Not only will Kaidou already hold a grudge against him, one of Big Mom's biggest, most important ships was spotted giving chase to his own. And the traitor's ships were in the area?"

"Pretty much," grunted Jozu.

Groaning, Marco rubbed his forehead. "Well that at least helps explain another little tidbit we picked up while you were gone. Apparently Big Mom's next tea party is going to involve a wedding. Specifically between one of her daughters and one of the Vinsmokes. Specifically Vinsmoke Sanji."

Jozu, Esmirel, Rakuyo, and Doma all blinked in surprise as their minds connected the dots, particularly how 'Blackfoot's' particularly unusual bounty poster . . . and now retroactively registered his unusual eyebrow. "Noooo," gaped Jozu. "Him!?"

"Near as we can figure," sighed Marco.

"But. What. How!?" cried Rakuyo. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Does this mean that Straw Hat's allying with Big Mom now?" Doma wondered aloud, his monkey scratching its head in confusion.

Shaking his head, Haruta spoke up. "We don't think so. First of all, Straw Hat challenged her at Fishman Island. So why'd he do that if he was planning on his crewmember being in a marriage alliance with her? That was only, what, a week ago?" The Dressrosa team slowly nodded. That was a fair point, especially given how they doubted anyone related to Ace would suddenly make nice to an Emperor like that. "So yeah, we don't think it's his idea. Second of all, that whole bit on wanting Blackfoot only alive makes sense if someone with influence was putting pressure on the World Government to keep him safe so they can abduct him themselves."

"Wow, wow, slow down," Esmirel said. "You think that Blackfoot was captured by that ship of Big Mom's?" It was not an unreasonable assumption given how many of Big Mom's 'husband's' had been coerced into marrying her. She had a particular taste for royals from nations she had conquered, or non-Humans (minus giants) for diversity. For her children though, she tended to be pickier, aiming more for alliances with noteworthy individuals. "He could've just left to fulfill his family obligations, or something. Maybe a family rift that they patched up?"

"No," grunted Jozu, eyes looking into the distance as he thought it out. "Not with the Vinsmokes. Especially one no one's seen hide or hair of for, what, a decade? I can't place him, that's for sure. And you can bet that someone like Straw Hat wouldn't want someone like Sparking Red, Electric Shock Blue, Winch Green, or Poison Pink on his crew. So I'm betting that he was the black sheep. Besides, we've all seen how loyal strangers are to Straw Hat, so what do you think his crew are like?"

Marco was morbidly impressed at how well they were putting it all together. When the news had first broken back with the fleet, it had been nothing but chaotic speculation.

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[Flashback]

"Maybe Big Mom decided that Luffy was worthy as an ally, so offered the marriage?"

"So they marry one of his nakama to her daughter?"

"But what about the Germa 66? How'd yah think they'll react to this?"

"Who cares? If Big Mom says something, they'll go along."

"Dunno man."

"Hey, if they do have an alliance, think Straw Hat'll eat all Big Mom's candies?"

"Ooooh yeah. That not something she would forgive."

"He already did that, didn't he? At Fishman Island?"

"That's my point."

"Focus, guys. There's no way that's what's happening. If he stood up to Pops to say he's going to be the Pirate King, then he'd never ally himself like that!"

"Got a point there. His history doesn't support it."

"Yeah, he's not the type to back off like that after picking a fight."

"Ace did say his brother more stubborn than even him, and Ace'd never back down from a fight."

"Besides, he don't seem the type to sacrifice one of his nakama like that."

"You saying he's too noble?"

"Hah no! Anyone like Ace, is way too rough to be like that!"

"Total irony right there!"

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Present

Sooooo much speculation.

"Which means that they must've already gotten him before the announcement went out, so yeah, Big Mom has one of the Straw Hats captive. Probably being kept cooperative through any number of threats to people he cares about. So of course based on what we already know about Straw Hat, you can bet where the man himself's heading next."

Now Jozu felt a headache coming on of his own as he reached the same conclusion that his brothers and sisters had obviously reached while waiting for him and the others to return to Dressrosa. "He's going to Wholecake Island to rescue his nakama."

"Well marriage is a fate worse than death," muttered Rakuyo, to which Esmirel nodded in agreement.

"So what's the plan?" Doma asked.

"Well," Marco scratched his head idly, checking over his shoulder to see that the rest of the Division Commanders and allied captains had gathered around. "I'm thinking that we should go to Wano."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

"Explain," Izo gritted out as everyone else stared dumbfounded at their de-facto leader. A leader who was enjoying their confusion far too much for his own good—regenerative Devil Fruit or no.

After all, the prospect of returning home like this was something he was very much invested in. Especially as it was now the headquarters of Kaidou's empire.

Marco waved a cheeky hand to tell them to relax, and explained. "Alright, first things first, I had a . . . vision, if you will. New World weirdness, don't worry about it. But it suggested that Straw Hat, Law, and Nekomamushi are in an alliance together, and the sea cat is out looking for us to join in."

"You're joking," deadpanned Vista.

"It does kinds make sense," Izo reluctantly said. "If they're going after Kaido I mean. He and Inuarashi would unquestionably a grudge against him." It had only been a few years ago they had learnt that, something passed on by another Mink sailor.

"Yep, and I checked the Vivre Cards we still have on them." Marco held up the two pieces of paper in the palm of his hand, showing them moving in two radically different directions. "You can be sure neither of them would leave Zou without good reason. Not to mention I double-checked, and you wanna guess where Inuarashi's is pointing towards?"

"Wano," marveled Jozu. Evidently the New World could still surprise them.

"Bingo. Plus, think about what he's been up to since hitting the New World. Punk Hazard and then Dresrossa. Kaido's source of advanced weapons and artificial Devil Fruits, and his delivery system for the weapons he sells all over. So his forces are no longer getting stronger, and for the short term his ships are going to be busy trying to be handling the distribution themselves; which is going to be tougher if he wants to keep it hidden he's responsible, now that his middleman, Doflamingo, is locked up. So Straw Hat's best bet is to strike while he's still got the momentum, and Kaido's forces are weakened, however slightly. For that though, he needs an army."

"Like a whole army of Minks," finished Izo.

Minks were terrifying when roused to anger, and that was even when there was no full moon.

Minks from Zou . . . an entire nation of them with a standing military? Who were said to have total control over their Moon Lion form?

No. Just no.

Best to simply turn around, and forget you even saw the giant elephant.

Unless you were their friends of course.

"Exactly. After us, his best chance of finding major allies would be the Minks of Zou. Provided of course he knew that Nekomamushi and Inuarashi are holding a grudge against a certain Emperor."

Slowly heads began to nod. While it was still a bit of a stretch, if this had been planned out at all beforehand, in hindsight it came off as a fairly solid plan. Moreover, it would not be the first time Straw Hat managed to pull together allies like that.

Silently Marco also enjoyed their expressions ranging from incredulity, stunned surprise, painful hindsight, and outright frustration towards the guy they were chasing after.

It said a lot about how convoluted yet simplistic, predictable and unpredictable, and flat out reality-warping Straw Hat was, that such twisted and tangled argument, based upon a series of 'visions' and epiphanies . . . actually made sense!

They believed him.

Izo dared not say a word, yet they could all hear the creak of his grip upon his guns with white knuckles. Straw Hat was heading to do something they had all only dreamed of.

"So," continued Marco, "if the dog's anything like he was, then there's no way he's just rushing into things. Not without some way to win, like a couple of rookies while also looking for us."

Hungry grins started to spread across the pirates arrayed before him, overriding their well-justified concern for the likes of Kaidou.

"Looks like there might be something to your vision then," admitted Namur, thinking about Madam Shyarly back on Fishman Island.

Only then someone pointed out a flaw in all this. "That's fine and all," spoke up Curiel, "except that doesn't explain why we're not going to Wholecake Island when we know it's Straw Hat's next destination!"

"Hello, have you been paying attention to all our last attempts at finding Straw Hat—yoi? He's always moved on to the next island by we get there. No, this time we're anticipating where he'll go after that."

"Wait, wait, wait," Haruta butted in. "So we're just going to assume that he's going to waltze in and out of Big Mom's territory, before heading to Wano where we meet him at last? Because yeah, he's done crazier things and succeeded. It's just that, well . . ."

"It's Big Mom," grunted Kingdew in agreement. "We hear yah."

"Unfortunately, by this point it's probably too late," pointed out Vista. "Knowing him, he's already well into whatever insane rescue mission he's pulling off. For better or worse, it'll take us too long to get there. Besides, we don't really have any infiltrators of our own, and we can't fight a war getting him out and expect to survive."

"Heh," chuckled Namur. "Don't you worry though, Straw Hat's got an ace up his sleeves: Jinbe."

What followed was a flurry of "Oh rights," "Jinbe," "With Big Mom," "Oooh yeah," "How'd we forget?"

"Jinbe won't break his oath to Big Mom unless he's decided she's broken faith first," grunted Fossa. "But yeah, he'll find a way."

"Alrighty then," sighed Haruta. "We're assuming Straw Hat's going to break in and out of an Emperor's territory. Then what? 'Cause you realize, if he is going after Kaidou, especially after pulling all those stunts . . . there's no turning back. It'll be do or die within the home territory of an enraged Emperor, and the same'll hold true for us if we go in after him."

They all stopped to consider this for a long, loooong moment.

They all knew deep in their bones what a war with Kaidou would mean.

But, well, they had put their faith in Straw Hat already, and if the Strongest Creature was to go down, there was no way they wanted to miss the party.

So the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies stiffened their spines, and barred their teeth in acceptance of the challenge. Even Haruta as he could not deny it either.

"Yah know," said Haruta ruefully, "all of Ace's stories about all the chaos his idiot little brother stirred up, sure seemed funnier when it was other people caught up in the middle of it all!"

Everyone shared a laugh at that, bleeding off some stress.

Except for the ones who had come back from Dressrosa. In fact they were wincing now.

"About that," managed Jozu. "We learned a surprising thing or two that we haven't mentioned yet. Apparently there was another brother, and he now has Ace's Devil Fruit power?"

Pandemonium exploded.

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After a few hours of pointless back and forth chatter (i.e. yelling fest) over how Ace had another brother, Marco ordered everybody to get sailing. They could figure it all out later.

Especially since he really only needed confirmation of one thing: the one they had wagered everything on to lead in the New Age had proved himself once again.

That Ace had said nothing about another sibling had initially been painful, until he realized that was actually probably why Ace had been so uncharacteristically silent on the matter. Something very bad had happened in the past, and was the reason he did not want to dwell on it. It might even be related to how for the tattoo of his name on his shoulder, there was an 'S' crossed out. Maybe it had always been more than an embarrassing error by a tattoo artist, and instead been intentional?

'S' for 'Sabo'?

The Chief of Staff for the Revolutionary Army, Monkey D. Dragon's highest subordinate. Who would have thought?

What a family.

Of course that put the recent news article about the Blackbeard Pirates attacking the Revolutionaries into a new and even more personal perspective. Even more reason to kill the traitor.

Given how Burgess was involved, he must have found some way to track them. Hopefully Sabo is alright, because we've got some serious questions for him. After all, at the end of the day, the brother of our brother is our brother.

(Ace had always been a little unique in that he had family outside of the crew that he still acknowledged as such. The majority of them preferred to forget the lives they had left behind.)

More to the point, he not only helped Straw Hat, but from the hints we're getting, I'd say he had the pirate's approval to take up that Devil Fruit. We'll have to judge for ourselves of course if we meet up, although I'm sure we'll be satisfied.

Not that an alliance was at all possible. Dragon's people were aiming to replace the World Government, and pirates were pirates. Sure, maybe by some miracle Ace's other brother would make a better, freer world where people faced less oppression, and Marco was rooting for them on that score. Goodness knows, too many pirates were at sea less to explore the beauty of it, and more because staying at home involved too much poverty and hardship as the local leaders squeezed the life out of them. Facing sea kings and other hazards became preferable to that. Or learnt from the brutality they suffered and concluded it was acceptable to set sail to murder and pillage in turn.

But even if the Revolutionaries managed to improve things though, doubtless the Whitebeard Pirates would still be regarded as criminals. Ho hum.

Taking one more glance at the picture of Sabo from the newspaper, who was also definitely adopted with those features, Marco put it away and started to slowly head to his cabin and bed.

Idle gossip from the night-hands drifted across the deck.

"I'm almost jealous of the stuff the Straw Hats get into."

"I know, right! Imagine if they'd come to the New World when Pops and Ace were still alive!?"

"Hah! Oh man, they'd probably've burnt the whole place down!"

"Nah, Ace would've been all proud and giddy, while making plans for when his precious little brother 'I'm going to be King of the Pirates,' got around to challenging Pops!"

"Ooooh yeah. Y'know, at this rate he'd probably've given us a pretty good show even!"

"Uh huh. Maybe save us for last for th' most fun or somethin.'"

"Yah can bet Ace woulda sent 'im a note askin' that. So 'e could 'ave fun watchin' tha punk waste tha others!"

"Har har har! Darn tootin'!"

"Wonder what he'll pull off next!?"

"We should make a betting pool!"

"Yar!"

"Four hundred beli that he steals Big Mom's personal ship to escape!"

"Five hundred on him accidentally marrying the bride instead of Blackfoot!"

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In the end, none of them won the betting pool.

"ALL DIVISION COMMANDERS AND CAPTAINS TO THE DECK. I REPEAT, ALL DIVISION COMMANDERS AND CAPTAINS TO THE DECK. NOW."

Marco was just about to turn over in his hammock (a hard earned skill) and go back to sleep to teach someone a lesson about ordering him around, when his idiot brother (too sleepy to identify which one) on the loudspeaker seemed to realize his mistake.

"UHM, SORRY, IT'S JUST THAT, UHM, STRAW HAT, HE, UH—WHAT? Oh yeah that's right! Pass it here! AHEM! TO QUOTE THE MORNING HEADLINE, 'FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON BIG MOM! STRAW HAT LUFFY BECOMES THE FIFTH EMPEROR!'"

The door to Marco's quarters burst straight off its hinges in his rush to reach the deck.

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It takes some judicious elbowing and yelling for even Marco to force his way to the newspaper through a crowd of pirates mostly still in their nightclothes.

(Times like this is he is relieved none of them slept in the nude. Far too many remain in their underwear and boxers though, and too many sweaty from sleep.)

Grabbing the newspaper from the cowering brother who has found himself the center of all the attention and shouting questions, he starts to read out loud, snippets of it carrying out across the rapidly quieting mob.

"Straw Hat Luffy barred his fangs at Big Mom, Emperor of the Sea, by masterminding an assassination scheme to challenge her within the heart of the kingdom she has reigned over for decades. Through staggering personal magnetism and strategic leadership, he came the closest to killing the Emperor since Gold Roger himself!"

Yada yada, re-hashing about who Luffy was related to by blood and adoption. Yada yada.

"—ate all the candy on Fishman Island as part of his celebratory victory. When Big Mom's representatives came for their tribute though, he offered —and this is an important part to remember dear readers— several sacks of treasure as compensation so that no harm would befall the island. Including the legendary Tamatebako Box. The Emperor graciously accepted this exchange, with Straw Hat finishing the conversation with a bold declaration that the Ryugu Kingdom would one day be under his protection.

"—fresh from his defeat of Doflamingo, unravelling his vast criminal empire. In the process also abducting the criminal scientist Caesar Clown, who was a key subordinate for the Donquixote Pirates. More pertinently, someone highly desired by Big Mom for his expertise as a former colleague of Dr. Vegapunk himself. While her men did capture Caesar, in reality it placed him under the control of Straw Hat's own secret ally 'Gang' Bege, acting as a mole within her forces. Bege recruited Caesar aid their escape, but also create a dangerous chemical warheads for bazookas.

"—can only wonder how long this was all planned out. Was Jinbe given orders to infiltrate Big Mom's forces from the moment he parted ways with Straw Hat following their parting of ways after Marineford? Did he covertly aid the rise of his allies the Firetank Pirates to ensure they would be in charge of wedding security? For certain though, once Jinbe's betrayal was clear, he proudly boasted he was a member of Straw Hat's crew.

"The masterstroke of this scheme spanning years in the planning, lies with how one of Straw Hat's crewmembers was secretly a family member of the infamous criminal organization, Germa 66. 'Blackfoot' Sanji is really Vinsmoke Sanji, and through him, Straw Hat assumed leadership over the entire organization. Once Jinbe and Bege had the necessary trust and authority, Vinsmoke Sanji was dangled in front of Big Mom as a temptation for wedding alliance with the Germa 66, providing the access necessary to bring everything together.

"—failed because of Big Mom's own incredible power allowed her—

"—when all hope seemed lost though, Straw Hat played yet another trump card. The Tamatebako Box, which had been set aside with the other royal presents in recognition of its own legendary grandeur, actually contained a massive bomb. Its detonation would have killed many of the Tea Party guests, and would have served as a brilliant distraction. Instead, one of the guests had gotten greedy and tried to take the legendary treasure for themselves, and accidentally dropped it off of the top of the palace where the wedding was taking place. Consequently, the subsequent detonation went off halfway down the side of Big Mom's palace, and cracked the central tower in two.

"You read that right dear readers, the bomb made the palace of an Emperor, within their very capital, topple over.

"Only thanks to the last minute efforts of one of her crew kept the gigantic tower from killing thousands of her citizens. As it was, Straw Hat and his allies successfully retreated from the island in the subsequent chaos.

"—the entirety of the Big Mom Pirates Grand Fleet, with Straw Hat dueling first Sweet Commander Charlotte Cracker (bounty of 860 million beli), and later their top officer, Sweet Commander Charlotte Katakuri (bounty of 1.057 billion beli), besting them both.

"—the Germa 66 and Sun Pirates holding back the heavily damaged Big Mom Fleet while Straw Hat successfully escaped and claimed his resounding series of victories over the fearsome Emperor."

Unfortunately for the sake of all of their nerves, it did not end there.

"—light of new evidence, if Trafalgar Law did not become a Warlord under Straw Hat's instructions. All to help take down Doflamingo, and—

"—further testimony has arisen to highlight his status as more than just a regular pirate, as he has also silently crafted together an armada. Seven powerful pirate groups having sworn themselves to his cause, commanding over 5,000 subordinates. While the identities of most of them remain a secret, we have identified the two supernovas, Bartolomeo the Cannibal (bounty of 200 million beli) and Cavendish of the White Horse (bounty of 330 million beli).

"From this series of astounding achievements, there can be but one conclusion:

"The Fifth Emperor of the Seas has emerged!"

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Silence reigned.

.

.

.

"This is either about an entirely different person, or the author was on some very interesting drugs at the time," Marco finally deadpanned.

Izo gave a sharp nod. "That definitely doesn't sound anything like the little brother Ace would go on and on and on and on and," —Vista gave him a light smack on the head— "on about. To say nothing of the stories we've been picking up throughout the New World."

Haruta took a hard look at Straw Hat's new bounty poster, before passing it down the line.

"The part about Jinbe's a lie," Namur gruffly declared. "If he gave his word to Big Mom, he'd have stuck by it. Not unless she broke faith first. So he would have been loyal to her until the very end, not be Straw Hat's agent."

None of them wondered aloud if their brother had made it out alive, as the newspaper did not say. The Knight of the Sea was too much of a survivor to do anything else. Moreover, they were not in a position to do anything if . . . If anything had happened to him, so they would patiently for news for now.

"Of course he would," agreed Vista and everyone else with a series of nods and muttered assent.

"Right, so that part's definitely a lie," Blamenco grinned. "Now what else?"

"Well hold on—yoi," Marco said. "I agree that Jinbe is not that treacherous, but if he felt that Big Mom broke faith first for whatever reason like Namur said, then he's certainly cunning enough to help make this possible. Plus, that whole bit about holding off the Big Mom Pirates? That's in character for him. So we can't just say it's entirely all made-up."

"Right," said Blenheim. "Using small truths to make a big lie or something."

"Or even a lot of truth, with a small lie to twist about the whole perception of it," threw in Fossa. This was something they were annoyingly familiar with, as the World Government's newspapers either ignored whatever the Whitebeard Pirates accomplished, or printed it to paint them in a negative light.

Annoyance and outright grimaces blossomed across faces as they all realized that this was going to be more complicated than any of them wanted to handle right after getting out of bed. Without coffee. Or booze. Booze would be nice. Booze and coffee together?

"Whelp," Haruta said, rubbing his head, before making a sharp nod to Marco. "Yeah you were right. Glad we didn't get caught up in that mess. And yeah, that lunatic pulled it off."

"Not crazy if it worked," grinned Vista.

"Unless luck plays a big role," deadpanned Haruta. "And you know it totally did."

"You really think luck could've made that big of a difference for something this huge?" countered Vista not unkindly.

"Not enough to tell either way," interrupted Marco, stalling that discussion before it got too distracting.

"Well, at least they seem sure about the Germa 66 angle," said 'Thunder Lord' McGuy, holding up two new bounty posters. 'Blackfoot's' bounty was now 330 million, an impressive sum in its own right, and declared him a Vinsmoke.

"With a bounty of 1.5 billion, you can bet Ace's rolling in his grave out of jealously," Fossa sagely noted, to general laughter. Although there was a nervous touch to it.

While Straw Hat's worth remained below the 'other' Emperors, and even with all the rookie had accomplished already, it was hard for them to accept. After all, in only a few years, Ace's little brother was now ranked within the same tier that Pop's had been in. That kind of growth . . . was insane.

Scary even.

Sensing the mood, Jozu looked for another avenue to explore, and quickly found one as something in the article nagged at him. "Y'know, it's always kinda bugged me," he said, "but we've known there's four Vinsmoke siblings who've been going around conquering islands for pay. However in the comics about them, there's always been five for some reason, and now we've learnt about the fifth one. So why was it in the comic from the start? Did the newspaper somehow know about Blackfoot, or were the Germa 66 teasing us about it?"

"If the second one, that's pretty twisted," grimaced Fossa. None of them had anything polite to say about that rogue nation. Upon learning what the real Germa 66 were like, even those who were from the North Blue tended to lose their fanboy love of Sora, Warrior of the Sea's main villains. Real life could very easily be more gruesome than fiction.

"Except Blackfoot joined Straw Hat in the East Blue," piped up Haruta. "So how's that work out? I mean, the secret son of the Germa 66 just happens to join up with Ace's little brother? Even if we think he's the black sheep of the bunch? What're the odds of that?"

"Careful," warned Marco. "We're probably missing details. Besides, the paper's already slanting it to look like some grand conspiracy. I mean, honestly, what're the odds that Straw Hat's been secretly in cahoots with the Germa since before he hit Paradise? Honestly."

Everyone rumbled in agreement. It was far more of a relief to imagine there was a simple detail they were missing that would make everything perfectly clear and reasonable. Otherwise their choices seemed to be either that Ace's 'idiot' sibling was in fact the greatest criminal mastermind in the world, or Fate was playing a frankly absurd game with their lives, and Straw Hat Luffy's in particular.

"Well," said Atmos, "they also have Nico Robin, right? The only woman alive who can read the Poneglyphs to reach Raftel and become the Pirate King? Pretty big coincidence there!"

People were surprised at the reminder, and Doma pointed out, "Big Mom has one of the Road Poneglyphs. Do you think they had a chance to steal a rubbing of it?"

"At this point," an anonymous brother called out, "I wouldn't put it pass this crazy awesome crew! Whooo!" Chuckles and more cheers went out at that for a little bit before they calmed down to figure everything out more.

"There's something else," Haruta spoke up uneasily. "The Germa supposedly helped the Sun Pirates buy time for the Straw Hats to escape. Would you ever imagine they'd do anything like that?"

Dark looks were his answers. No, that bunch of sociopaths would sail by while widows and orphans burned, and merely laugh.

"Huh, yeah, that don't make sense," grunted Curiel.

Swallowing, Haruta continued. "No, they wouldn't not unless they were ordered to do so, and they only take orders from the Vinsmokes. Of which only one got away."

Dry mouthed, Marco stared bug eyed at his brother. ". . . Are you insinuating that they did so because Blackfoot's the one in charge of them!?"

The rest reeled back in shock. Yet . . . it made a weird kind of sense. Those heartless scum had no sense of honour like regular people, and not even wanting revenge against Big Mom could justify sticking around to fight it out with the bulk of her military!

". . . Who is Straw Hat?"

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The next big news that followed only an hour or so later, racked their nerves even worse, as Big Mom initiated an open, unencrypted call to Kaido.

As in everybody in the New World who was by a Black Den-Den Mushi heard it.

The two of them were simply too furious and too powerful to care about that. Worse, they wanted the world to know what they were saying. The threat of two Emperors meeting up was terrifying in itself, outclassed only by what they were arguing about:

Which one of them was going to kill Straw Hat Luffy.

How they were each planning to do it in Wano to avenge themselves.

Even Marco felt a shiver go down his spine. Even when the World Government had hunted down Roger, it had never been personal.

Moreover, the very idea those two might work together!? The marines had to be screaming in terror right now! Not even Pops could've handled something like that!

Before today, people would have been panicking at the sheer thought that Kaido owed Big Mom a massive favour from over twenty years ago, but this was inconceivably worse!

"Well," he managed. "Looks like Wano's definitely our next destination after all. Let's hope we get there before the kid decides to challenge the Strongest Creature to a solo battle."

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At all speed the Whitebeard armada sailed for Wano. Fortunately Marco knew the tricks to get up the waterfalls.

Of course, it was now a lot trickier than that, given how the all the stone spires around there were now manned by ship-killing cannons. Except there were a few former Spade Pirates available who knew a sweet-spot they left uncovered. Or at least from a few years ago.

To say nothing of how if they were spotted, it was likely Kaidou himself who would come out for the pleasure of killing them all.

Something to worry about when they got there though. For now, Marco was just going to enjoy a calm, clear night, the familiar stars laid out like diamonds he never tired of.

He did not react as Izo came up to join him. "So, Wano eh?"

"Mhmm," he solemnly agreed. "Going to be quite the reunion—yoi."

". . . Yes," said Izo gravely, refusing to believe all his brothers-in-arms were dead. His sister. Oden's family. Even if he would also have to answer to them for his absence. No matter. Them being alive would all be worth it.

"It's going to be messy, y'know? There's no way even Straw Hat can finish Kaido off before we get there. This isn't an assassination mission, by the way they've been building this up it's more like he's girding up for war. So with any luck we'll be there in time to lend a hand."

In the background they heard someone mutter, "And get a Vivre Card for him so we can keep track!" and tried to ignore that increasingly attractive idea.

Izou snorted, and then with a great sigh leaned against the rail beside his ship-brother. "No, you're right. One way or another, it'll all come to a head here, and we'll have what we need."

"Can't wait," Marco happily sighed, a hint of a smile on his lips. Then a crease appeared between his eyes as a thought occurred to him. ". . . Or are you talking about finally having the answer for the bet about Tony-Tony Chopper—yoi?"

"That's important!"

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Author Notes:

This diverges from the snippets of the news article in episodes 878 and the manga, but frankly this was more fun.

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Yes, Luffy bested Cracker first in an initial failed infiltration of Wholecake Island, yet that would ruin the image of Luffy being a strategic genius that the paper was gunning for :-P

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As much as I despise the Germa 66, I have to acknowledge that they followed their own code of honour/pride at the end. In contrast, the Whitebeard Pirates do not have the proper context, hence why they are unwilling to attribute it to the story they are hearing.

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Next chapter: 'Jinbe'

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Please Review, and I will get back to you!