Hey everybody,

yes, the day has come, this is it! Sorry, it's the end! (but I want to point out that this is not the reason, why it took me a day longer to post it. I just came back from work really late yesterday and just finished my weekly practice Exam today, and in ten minutes I will head back to work, so I just want to point out, that I saw those lovely messsages I received, but I will not be able to answer them just now, I'm sorry, please be patient with me, I want to! and will answer all of them. Thank you so much for your support!)

And now, I have to get to the most important part of this note! Before posting I was slightly worried it might come across as bragging, but you know what, I love it and I got so emotional so I really wanted to share it with you guys and I feel it's such a great way of ending this story, so here it comes:

The lovely Kuneruru has shared some amazing art with me and allowed me to share it with you guys (so of course I had to!) and as I have told you guys before, I never was one of those writers, I'm happy writing in my little niche about things I want to, even if it's not the big deal, but damn it (sorry) all the love and appreciation I have gotten over the last few months with you guys, and actually receiving art! That's like a fucking dream for every freaking writer (sorry again), so I must share it with you!

Pleas be so kind and check Kuneruru, the amazing artist of these pictures, out on tumblr and/or twitter, and say Hi from me ;-)


Epilogue

"Hey, watch out, you hit my stool."

The addressed primate looked up in horror and jumped aside, both hands raised apologetically and making horrified noises.

"Yes, yes, fine. Stop looking like that and keep working," he murmured, waving as the Humandrill bent for the rake it had dropped and continued to do its job.

Mihawk, on the other hand, pushed his stool back into the right position and leaned back on Perona's garden chair, on the small side table stood a glass of his favorite wine – a very exquisite discovery Jiroushin's, which Mihawk had tried at the christening of his godchild and had immediately bought several bottles for himself because he was very fond of the surprising light spice in the aftertaste - and the transponder snail of Kuraigana, next to one of the books that Roronoa had translated, and his sunglasses.

It was another one of those rare sunny days, during the late afternoon the spring air was even warmer than during the last few weeks, and Mihawk had decided to enjoy the precious sun rays. Also, because he hoped he would relax a little.

However, he was also aware of what a day it was, so of course his attempt was in vain. Today was the official day when the straw hats would leave and before Perona or Jiroushin would contact him, Mihawk would not know if everything had gone well.

Even his excellent wine could only help so far.

The primates had worked like nonstop in the gardens for the last few days, initially accompanied by a wistful weeping, which had only gotten better after he had explained and threatened them that the ghost girl would not return until the Humandrills could be independent. This statement was, of course, nothing but a lie, if and when Perona would really come back, only she knew, and he had much more important things that occupied him. In the end, he did not care if a parasite more or less was on this island, and he knew that she wanted to find out where Gecko Moria was and would definitely not return before Roronoa and his crew had left.

Since that day, Mihawk had lived on a construction site. The primates had polished the entire front garden and also the main garden behind the castle, had even begun to clear away the ruins down at the forest.

In the middle of the garden, four primates worked for two days to replace the old well, which had long since been destroyed, with a new one, and Mihawk watched them. Firstly, because this was still his island and in the end he made the decisions about what would and would not happen, but also because it was somehow entertaining.

In fact, after the first week of self-pity and feeling sorry, he had realized that his life would not change in the near future, and even though Jiroushin occasionally called – to keep him informed of recent events and certainly to check up on him – and the newspaper had been promisingly interesting for a few days, none of this changed the fact that he was just wasting his current days without making good use of the time.

Therefore and for the lack of a better idea – none of Roronoa's suggestions had inspired him – he had actually started to dig through the dirt himself, in a sad attempt not to be consumed by his gnawing feelings.

It was still hurting, and his worries were still great, kept rising every second, but he did not want to be controlled by them.

So he lay here in the sun, the newspaper on the ground to his right, his wine and the book to his left, but his thoughts far away; he had just come to the conclusion that he had made a mistake, but now it was too late. Even if he left now, he would not make it in time and that was probably a good thing, because otherwise, he knew that, he would...

A quiet beeping interrupted his brooding.

Instead of the large transponder snail, the little one called, which he always carried in his pocket. Almost frantically, he pulled it out, hesitated for a second, but then pressed the button.

For a moment it was absolutely quiet, even the primates within call range seemed to be silent.

"Hello," he finally said breathlessly, after the agreed two seconds of waiting.

For another second, the line was quiet.

"Hey," came redemption, and Mihawk could not hinder feeling relieved while he exhaled deeply, "it took me a little longer to get in touch. Sorry, some busy days."

The connection was bad, but it did not matter, on the other side of the twin snail was Roronoa, and only that counted.

"It is okay, Roronoa, Jiroushin had contacted me and warned me that you were very busy during the last few days. Can you talk freely?"

Quietly, the other laughed.

" I can."

"Where are you? I thought you were going to leave today and according to the bad connection you are already on your way to the Fish Man Island. Should you not be with your friends instead of talking to me?"

"On the way, by all means, we've already reach it a long time ago."

"Oh, and were you warmly welcomed?"

"Depends. I'm in some palace, or something."

"The Ryuuguu Palace?"

He could hardly hide his surprise. Roronoa, however, sounded extremely relaxed, like he had during the evenings by the fire, and somehow that relaxed him too. However, he wondered what the younger man had done to be summoned by the king.

"Hmm," the other muttered approvingly, "I'm in jail right now."

"What?!" Why was he even surprised? "Roronoa, what is..."

"Back off. It's alright."

"You are in jail!"

The stool flipped over when Mihawk jumped up, halfway on the way to his ship.

"Wouldn't be my first time," it came far too calmly from the other side, "don't worry."

"And again: You are in jail! And you tell me not to worry?"

"Yes, it's alright. I had some booze, took a nap, could rest a little bit as Loreen without being seen and after our little conversation here, I think I'll leave."

"Breaking out?"

Again came this little laugh from the other side, which made Mihawk smile immediately, even as tense as he was right now.

"Yes, as I said, I have nothing left to do and my bottle is empty. I think I'm going to look for the others now."

"You're in jail."

"So?"

Now Mihawk was laughing as he sat down again. He sometimes forgot how straight-forward Roronoa could think. Using a prison cell for regeneration before searching for his friends – whom he had undoubtedly lost sight of because of his lacking sense of direction – was so naturally unusual that only Roronoa or perhaps his captain could come up with such a ridiculous idea. And that he had used the moment to call him, at least long enough to think of him to come up with the idea of calling him, it warmed his cold heart.

"Well, Roronoa, I do not want to delay your breakout for long, but please tell me how you are doing? You have not contacted me since your arrival at the Sabaody Archipelago, contrary to our agreement. If Jiroushin had not called me, I would not have..."

"Relax, what are you so stressed about today?" Roronoa murmured, unimpressed. "Nothing special happened, okay? As always, Eizen was annoying and I could have done without the meetings, Comil wasn't much better and Rayleigh is as bad as Perona."

Mihawk paused over this unusual comparison, he could hardly imagine what the Dark King and the ghost princess might have in common.

"But his coating for the Sunny was good, after all we arrived down here without dying. Oh, and did you hear about the Pacifista?"

"Excuse me?"

He did not know why Roronoa suddenly mentioned the humanoid weapons of the World Government, but it did not calm him the least.

"Yes, I crushed one of them today," remarked the other, and Mihawk could hear the proud grin in his voice, before adding an annoyed second sentence, "well, the cook jumped in my way, almost cut him in half, so annoying, I tell you, and after that..."

Smiling, he listened to the unusually enthusiastic narrative of his little frog over the past day, about how he had met his crew, that they had fought the Marines – and he did not even miss to praise Perona for her new techniques, not that Mihawk cared – and how they had finally sunken into the depths of the ocean. He told of the deep-sea monsters they had seen and the competition he had wanted to hold with his captain, but had been stopped by the crew's scarety cats.

Mihawk liked it when the younger one sounded so enthusiastic and pretended not to be, but it was more than obvious that he had missed his friends and was just incredibly happy, and if Mihawk was quite honest, that made him happy.

Maybe, only maybe it had not been a mistake to let him go on his own.

Just as the newspaper seagull arrived at Kuraigana, they ended their conversation and for the first time in more than a week peace and serenity, Mihawk otherwise took for granted, and a feeling of happiness that was so precious filled him.

Roronoa promised to call as soon as they arrived safely on the other side of the Red Line and Mihawk promised to lie low until then.

Much more relaxed than before, Mihawk put the little white transponder snail back in his pocket while the seagull landed on a branch of the cherry tree seedling.

It was not surprising to him that the seagull had three letters for him in addition to the newspaper, unlike ordinary newspaper seagulls, this one was assigned to him as a Shichibukai and served not only to supply the newspaper, but also to enable quick correspondence between him and the World Government, no matter where he was.

He was not surprised that one of the letters informed him that an increased level of security would be introduced on Mary Joa as a result of the upcoming Reverie, and that, as he was the only Shichibukai living in the immediate area, he was on standby for unforeseen events and should not leave his residence.

As always, the letter was signed and sealed, testified to the importance that the five elders gave to this arrangement. He had almost expected that such an instruction would be given, which prevented him from accompanying Lady Loreen and at the same time restricted his freedom of movement.

Mihawk had guessed that something great was imminent, but this letter was confirmation enough. With a shrug of his shoulder, he crumbled the letter and threw it over his shoulder onto the field, where a Humandrill came almost immediately and fetched the letter, carrying it to the compost.

The second letter, a message from Jiroushin about the events of the morning, about which Roronoa had already informed him in detail, but apparently not particularly objectively, did not surprise him much.

The last letter, however, quickly diminished his bliss when he saw Eizen's seal in the wax. Displeased he tore the letter open and started to read, and with every word of Eizen thanking him for dispensing Lady Loreen for such a long time until the Reverie, he grew more furious.

Eizen assured him that Lady Loreen would be a great help to complete all the preparations over the next few days, but that he should not worry about her, as Eizen would take care of Mihawk's acquaintance.

In the last sentence, the politician apologized for demanding so much time from the esteemed Lady Loreen, but that things would change after the Reverie and that they should all look forward to those times with confidence.

Mihawk rose and stomped towards the castle.

"What?" He growled as one of the primates tried to stop him. "Get out of the way!"

But then he stopped for a second and turned to the remaining primates.

"Listen up, Humandrills." Immediately, the addressees saluted like soldiers. "I will now be gone for a few days and when I come back you are finished with the work in the garden and down by the ruins and do not dare to slack off or enter the castle, understood?"

He paid tribute to their salute with a brief nod and stormed into the castle to fetch his belongings.

He would teach this bastard a lesson about lying and deceiving him. This time he would not hold back, enough was enough. He could take a lot of things, but he would not be taken for a fool!

Angry, he grabbed his sword and the few things he needed.

"Oh, stop your compromising and well-meaning! I allow nobody to treat me like that," he grumbled at his weapon as he rushed back the long corridors. "You won't get away with that, Roronoa!"

So this is it, it's over, the end!

Well, who am I kidding, you probably already guessed that there will be a third part (I mean we got so many lose ends to take care of, right?!) so yeah, the third part will be a thing and of course it will be all about secrets ;-)
Few days ago I actually just finished the 23rd chapter (will probably need a lot of fixing, it's over 11k words long, so actually way too long, but who knows what it's good for) and at the moment I'm planning to start uploading during the late summer. As some of you know I will have my big exam in April or May (depending how bold I will be) so I don't know how much time I will have for writing, revising, and translating, so once again, please be patient with me. The last part will come! I promise!

Until then, have a great time, don't do anything our two favorite idiots wouldn't do (which actually doesn't leave a lot^^') and take care of yourselves. I really hope to see you guys soon and I really hope you enjoyed the journey so far and I really, really hope you will like what's to come ;-)

With all the love
Sharry