I don't own One Piece.
Akainu Goes to Hell
"Did I seriously die from choking on an egg?" Sakazuki muttered to himself as he looked down on his body. One moment he had been struggling against two of the despicable Strawhats and the insolent civilians and the next his world had gone dark. When he was finally aware of his surroundings again, Sakazuki realized that he was now an opaque spirit that no one could see or hear.
"He's dead," God Usopp stated firmly after he finally took his fingers off of Sakazuki's neck.
"I...I really did," Sakazuki said softly in a bit of shock as most of the ungrateful civilians began to either cry in obvious relief or cheer in absolute joy.
Then the shock ended.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" Sakazuki roared, pure rage coursing throughout his soul. Though he didn't expect otherwise, seeing his murderers not react to his roar only made him angrier.
"It was one thing to get defeated by Garp, that traitorous bastard," Sakazuki growled as he clenched his fists furiously. "But to actually get...killed by one of Strawhat Luffy's crewmates while another Strawhat and some untrained civilians assisted him? There is no way I was supposed to die this, I'm the Fleet Admiral for crying out loud! I'm too strong to die like this! I refuse to accept it!"
Sakazuki stood there for a few seconds, fuming silently while glaring at his murderers before he sighed. An action which now felt weird and unnecessary since he now had no lungs to expel air from.
"But I guess I have no other choice but to," Sakazuki murmured to himself as he unclenched his hands. Then he grunted as he folded his arms resignedly. "At least I never tossed my morals aside and stayed true to justice, unlike Garp. And at least I'm going to heaven unlike him and these unrighteous spawns of Satan. Speaking of which...how am I going to get up there?"
As soon as he said that, there was a clang followed by a loud click. Suddenly feeling something heavy on his ankle, Sakazuki looked down to see a black chain with a ghostly white glow attached to his ankle.
While Sakazuki did wonder how he felt the chain despite not having the sense of touch anymore, he was more concerned with how the chain seemed to go right through the dock without hurting the wood at all.
However, before Sakazuki could really begin to try to figure out what this meant, three more chains exactly like the first sprang up from the dock and attached themselves to his wrists and his other ankle.
"What the-ah!" Without any warning whatsoever, the chains grew taunt before pulling him straight down through the dock and into the water.
"What is this?!" Sakazuki yelled as the chains pulled him through the water. Sakazuki hardly spared a thought about how it felt weird how he couldn't get wet by the water anymore as he struggled. But no matter how much he fought against his ghostly chains, he couldn't get free.
Then, to make matters worse, the chains began to twirl him around like he was some doll of some excited little girl. While spinning around in circles thankfully didn't make him dizzy, it did make him more than a bit disoriented.
It only grew worse as his blue surroundings suddenly became completely dark as the chains not only seemed to pull him faster, but seemed to swing him around faster as well.
After several disconcerting minutes, Sakazuki noticed that the total darkness he had found himself was beginning to be tinted with a bright red glow. Then, before he knew it, Sakazuki could only see only bright red, so much so that he was able to deduce that he was surrounded by magma.
But he wasn't able to appreciate it because the chains stopped swinging him in circles only to swing him back and forth like he was a freaking pendulum. And if that wasn't enough, the chains would abruptly stop him before swinging him back and forth in the other direction. Then the chains would swing him in the original direction before swinging him around in circles again.
This pattern continued on as Sakazuki got dragged down through the earth, though the dead Fleet Admiral couldn't really call it a pattern since the times the chains would swing him in another way were completely random.
Several more minutes passed as the chains dragged him down faster and faster, and Sakazuki realized with growing horror that he was actually beginning to feel sick.
How?! He's dead! He doesn't have a stomach anymore, let alone have anything in his digestive tract to throw up!
Then suddenly, Sakazuki's red surroundings changed into a dull gray. Before Sakazuki could wonder what this meant, he felt himself slam into a cold, metallic surface.
Hard.
"Ah, that never gets old," said a grating yet shrill voice as Sakazuki felt a pure and sharp pain shoot through his body despite not having one anymore.
Then, before Sakazuki could decide whether he should reply to the voice or just lay on the floor for a couple of seconds to catch his bearings, his choice was made for him.
The chains quickly pulled him off the floor and gratefully, they stopped when Sakazuki was standing on the gray floor on his own two feet.
What was not good, however, was what Sakazuki was staring at.
The creature in front of him had dark red skin so thin that Sakazuki could see its bones and organs. It had leathery, black wings with three protruding bony points in each one, as well as a small clawed hand at the very tip of each bat-like wing. The creature also had two regular arms and legs, if having really long limbs compared to its normal-sized torso was considered to be regular. The fingers and toes were really long too, and Sakazuki knew with only one look that they were double-jointed. Maybe even triple-jointed, if that was a thing.
What really caught Sakazuki's attention was the creature's slanted black eyes with dark-golden pupils on top of a long, pointy nose and sharp and crooked teeth. Sakazuki also didn't fail to notice the big, black horns on top of the creature's head, that were curved so that their sharp ends were pointing straight at each other, without actually touching.
Even though Sakazuki had never seen anything like this creature before, he knew without a doubt what it was.
"You're a demon," Sakazuki growled with his teeth bared and his fists clenched.
"And you're Akainu," the demon replied right back, not fazed at all by Sakazuki's reaction. "Nice to finally meet you."
"It's Sakazuki act-"
"Oh, and my name is Ozabsahei," the demon introduced himself, causing Sakazuki to narrow his eyes in anger. Then he motioned his hand towards the dead marine. "And the one on your right is Sacab."
Sakazuki's eyes grew wide as he quickly looked down at his right side and saw a much smaller demon holding two of his chains in its hands. Sacab looked very similar to Ozabsahei, except that Sacab's skin was very wrinkly like it had too much skin for its thin body.
"And the one of your left is Daez." Sakazuki looked to his left and saw yet another demon that looked exactly identical to Sacab. It was also holding the other two chains.
"They're my little twin brothers, and this is their first job, aren't they adorable?" Ozabsahei cooed as he bent down so he could be at the same eye-level with his brothers.
As the twin demons either smiled or laughed in what was probably in agreement, Sakazuki thought that they were the complete opposite of that. And he would have told the demon that too, as well as ask him what was going on, if Ozabsahei hadn't continued talking.
"So be patient with them okay? But then again, I guess I shouldn't expect too much from you since, well, this is you we're talking about. Not only were you horribly impatient in your life, but you also had a thing against families."
"What...what are you talking about?!" Sakazuki defended, as his disgust and hatred of these demons and this whole strange situation rose higher and higher. "I don't have a thing against families! In fact, if anything, I made it my life's purpose to pro-"
Then suddenly, there was a loud burp. Sakazuki felt his right eye twitch as he looked down at his right side just in time to see Sacab finish his smacking his lips, large drops of spit flying out of his mouth as he did so.
"Oo, nice one Sacab!" Ozabsahei congratulated him as Sacab himself grinned up at Sakazuki with his crooked teeth as Daez laughed maniacally.
"I'll...I'll teach you to have respect," Sakazuki threatened him with a growl as he raised his right fist. "I'll teach you all to have respect!"
Sakazuki then threw a punch towards Sacab, his patience utterly and truly spent. He didn't know what he was doing here, with these horrible and disgusting creatures, but he was done with this whole situation.
He was going to get out of here and go where he was supposed to go. And no amount of annoying and disrespectful demons was going to stop him.
However, just when Sakazuki was about to hit the little demon who had dared to interrupt him with a disgusting belch...his fist kept on going. His fist went right through Sacab, like the demon was made out of thin air, causing Sakazuki to stumble a bit before he caught himself.
And during the whole time, Sacab just smiled widely and crookedly at him, like...like it knew better than him. Like Sakazuki was just some snot-nosed toddler in an amusing situation.
"Aw, did you forget that you're dead?" Ozabsahei asked condescendly.
"Of course I didn't," Sakazuki growled as he turned his head to face Ozabsahei. "I am not a fool."
"Then why did you try to hit my brother?"
Because if that demon could hold the chains keeping him prisoner, then why couldn't he hit the disgusting and disrespectful demon?!
"And also, didn't I say to be nice to my brothers?"
Right after Ozabsahei said that, Sakazuki felt something light yet burdensome land on his shoulders. Sakazuki turned his head just in time to see Daez sitting on his shoulders with his long finger in its mouth.
"Get off me!" Sakazuki almost roared as Daez plucked the middle finger out of its mouth with a loud squelch. Before the dead marine could even begin to try to punch the unperturbed demon off his shoulder, Daez poked the saliva-coated finger right into Sakazuki's right ear.
The result was instantaneous.
"Gah!" Sakazuki cried as he wiped at his violated ear while Daez jumped off of his shoulders, laughing maniacally in midair with two of the ghostly chains still in his hands.
"Why can you insufferable bastards touch me while I can't touch you?!" Sakazuki yelled in outrage as he kept on wiping at his ear, trying to resist the urge to dig into it in order to get the horrible demon saliva out.
"Oh that's because we're legit demons of Hell and you are our charge," Ozabsahei answered as he stepped forward. Sakazuki stopped wiping at his ear and looked at the older demon. "Our victim. Our prisoner."
"Are you saying...that," Sakazuki said slowly, his voice low as he took apart what Ozabsahei just said, piece by piece to see if there were any other meanings behind them beside the most obvious one.
"I got sent to Hell?"
As an answer, both Ozabsahei and Daez laughed maniacally. Sakazuki even heard Sacab let out a giggle full of malicious undertones.
"Wait...it took you this long to figure that out Akainu?!" Ozabsahei managed to cry out between laughs. "Did you honestly think that Hell was really going to be some pit of everlasting fire? Did you honestly think that after everything you've done...that you were going to heaven?!"
"IT'S SAKAZUKI!" Sakazuki corrected him with a roar. "And yes! I did expect to go to heaven, because that's where I belong! Everything I did and accomplished in my life, was for the good of the civilians-"
"But no it wasn't!" Ozabsahei intercepted him in a singsong voice with a waving finger, making Sakazuki's figurative blood boil even more. "I mean, oh sure, that's what you told yourself and all, that all you wanted was to have peace and true justice rule the world but when in reality..."
Before Sakazuki knew it, he was lying on the metallic floor on his back with Ozabsahei sitting on his chest with his legs crossed.
"You did it for yourself," Ozabsahei continued as he poked at Sakazuki's chin with one of its long and pointy fingernails. "You see, while you may or may not be aware of it, you have control issues. You also have great heaps of pride so if something doesn't go your way, you throw a tantrum, just like what God Usopp said to you before he killed you."
"That's not-"
"Shush shush," Ozabsahei interrupted him with a finger over the ex-Fleet Admiral's mouth. "Your better is talking."
Sakazuki felt his dark eyes go wide with indignance and speechlessness.
"Now let's see, where was I-oh yes. Because of your control and pride issues, you became very ruthless and merciless. A boat full of innocent civilians? Better blow them all up just on the off chance that a person who just wanted to know what happened a few centuries ago was on it! Can't have anyone like that escaping and tarnishing your good name! A marine who got cold feet, making him run from a horrible and bloody battlefield? Better melt him down to nothing instead of giving him a motivating pep talk! Can't have any deserters on your watch! What would people say if they found out?"
"Do you-"
"And oh, let's not forget your stance on the whole bloodline thing. If someone is a descendent of someone who you believe is dangerous and evil, then that means that they are dangerous and evil too. It doesn't matter if they are actually decent people or not, it's only a burning and horrible death for them! Because Heaven forbid the thought of them actually standing up against you and actually winning!"
"Are...are you saying that I'm a coward?!" Sakazuki yelled.
"Yes. Don't feel bad though, most prideful people like you are, because Heaven forbid people like you have to learn to be humble! That would just be too tragic!"
"Look...demon," Sakazuki growled, his dark eyes glaring right at the insufferable creature. "I don't know you are, thinking you have any right to lecture me when you are a literal spawn of Satan but you are wrong. I am Sakazuki, who once held the title of not only Admiral, but also Fleet Admiral, and I have lived my life serving the world to make it a better and more peaceful place. You may say otherwise, but that is the honest truth."
"If that is so, then why are you here, prisoner?" Ozabsahei sneered with a tilt of his head.
"It's a mistake," Sakazuki answered without hesitation. "And once it's cleared up, no, once I clear it up, I will make you pay for all the disrespect and horrible treatment you have given me. I swear it."
"You swear it?" Ozabsahei repeated softly before grinning widely and menacingly. "Okay. Let's see how this turns out."
Finally feeling like he was back in some kind of control, Sakazuki grinned fiercely right back at him. And he would have said something if Ozabsahei hadn't chosen that moment to continue.
"But for now...I'm gonna to have fun with you, my dear Akainu."
"It's Saka-"
Ozabsahei then proceeded to karate-chop his armpits, causing Sakazuki to let out a noise that despite the demons' taunts, was definitely not a squeal.
OP
Any kind of control that Sakazuki thought he might have had, was quickly being drained in the toilet. Both literally and figuratively, the demons gave him the job of deep-cleaning the toilets today and the only thing that was getting him through this awful and unjust ordeal was the thought of beating Ozabsahei and his brothers to a pulp when this whole misunderstanding was cleared up.
Sakazuki's original plan was to wait and scope Hell's layout before he made his move but after hours of cleaning the gray hall before hours of cleaning these blasted toilets, Sakazuki was really leaning towards just running the first chance he got and hoping for the best.
Maybe if cleaning that hall and the toilets were just simple, normal cleaning jobs, Sakazuki wouldn't have minded so much. His pride would be hurt a bit of course, but he would be able to push it aside and just wait until he formulated a nearly foolproof plan.
But...of course, the cleaning jobs were anything but normal.
First off, the gray hall, the same one he first found himself in, was apparently, according to Ozabsahei, endless. Sure, the hall had some locked doors and morbid pictures lining the walls but no matter how far Sakazuki moved down the blasted hall, he could not see the end.
And if that wasn't annoying enough, slimy, huge clumps of black mud would randomly spurt out from large nozzles on the ceiling, sometimes landing on the floor, sometimes on him. Not only was the mud very tedious to get rid of, but his demon guards, Sacab and Daez, would almost always play with mud making it get everywhere.
The one time Sakazuki lost it and yelled at them to stop, Daez just laughed while Sacab hit him upside the head with one of the pictures hanging on the wall while grinning.
There was no reasoning with lunatics.
Sakazuki wasn't sure how long he spent cleaning the hall, having lost all sense of time since coming to Hell, but he wouldn't be surprised if he spent about a day in there before Ozabsahei swooped in and switched his job to cleaning the toilets instead.
And if Sakazuki thought the hall was bad, the toilets were much, much worse.
Because at least the hall didn't stink like a diseased donkey and a flea-bitten cur had a baby right in the middle of a pile of rotting fish and seaweed in the middle of low tide. At least he also didn't have to deal with a variety of snakes, cockroaches, and spiders that liked to crawl out of the toilets. At least he didn't have to worry about his demon guards randomly pushing his head in the unclean toilet bowl and giving him a swirly.
If there was a way to slay these demons, Sakazuki was going to find it and do it maliciously.
"Ah, there you are Akainu! Just the vermin I wanted to see!" Sakazuki growled as he turned around and saw Ozabsahei grinning at him while flying in mid-air in front of the stall.
"It's Saka-"
"I know you're having so much fun cleaning our facilities but there's been a change in plans. We have a visitor from Heaven!"
At this, Sakazuki perked up and felt some hope and relief blossom in his chest.
Someone was visiting from Heaven? He didn't know why someone would visit Hell of all places, but at this point Sakazuki didn't care. He could talk to the visitor and get them to clear up this whole mistake. He could finally get out of here and punish these demons for continually messing with him and treating him like he was the lowest of the low!
"But first, we have to get you cleaned up!" With that as its only warning, Ozabsahei quickly reached beside him and pulled out a huge bucket before throwing its contents onto Sakazuki.
"Gah!" Sakazuki cried out as he instinctively brought up his arm to defend himself, which did nothing to stop the cold liquid from hitting him.
"Now, look at that, you're as good as new!" Ozabsahei cheered as Sakazuki shivered uncontrollably as he looked down at himself. When he saw how his ghostly body was once again clean, he surmised that it really was just water. "Except you're dead."
Exactly, so how was he being affected by physical substances like the water and the mud? Were they blessed by the demons or something?
"Now c'mon bros, we got no time to lose!" Ozabsahei ordered as he turned around and left the stall, still flying in mid-air. "Our visitor is still waiting for his drink!"
"Why didn't you give him one yourself before you came to get me?" Sakazuki asked as Sacab and Daez pulled him out of the stall using the chains that were still attached to him.
"Because that's not my job Akainu," Ozabsahei told him before he turned his man-eating gaze back towards him. "It's yours."
Sakazuki opened his mouth to both protest that Akainu wasn't his name anymore as well as that he wasn't some waterboy when he decided against it. He was still going to see the visitor from Heaven, he was still going to get his chance to clear up this whole misunderstanding, this mistake. And if all it took was to pour the guy a drink, then that's fine. That's a much better price to pay than cleaning those toilets for even one more second.
Ozabsahei led them out of the giant bathroom that Sakazuki had yet to see another demon use, and back into the endless hall. They silently walked down the endless hall for a few minutes before the older demon suddenly stopped in front of a door at his left. He then let out a loud, hacking cough before he put his hand in his mouth and took out a dripping wet key.
"Ugh," Sakazuki couldn't help but murmur with disgust even though this wasn't the first time he saw Ozabsahei cough up a key, since the bathroom also needed a key. The older demon then unlocked the door and opened it, revealing a long and seemingly endless staircase.
"We're almost there my dear victim!" Ozabsahei cried before he swallowed the key. The older demon then flew up the stairs without looking behind him. A manic chuckle from Daez was the only warning Sakazuki received before the twin demons flapped their wings and flew after their older brother.
However, they didn't fly high enough to stop Sakazuki from hitting each and every step with the back of his head.
"Would...you...fly...higher...you...imbeciles!" Sakazuki requested with several grunts full of pain. The only answer he got was a bloodthirsty smile from Sacab and a psychotic laugh from Daez.
He was going to enjoy every moment of their deaths once this was over.
Then finally, with an abrupt stop, their journey up the staircase was over. Sakazuki, who had been dumped unceremoniously at the top of the stairs, couldn't help but let out a groan.
At least this was all going to be over soon.
"Haha, well, well, look at what the demons dragged in!" Sakazuki scrunched his nose at the patronizing voice.
Why...why did that voice sounded familiar?
"Sorry that it took us so long Ace, but we had to clean him up first before dragging him here, and he's a big guy! In more ways than one!"
Wait, Ace?!
Sakazuki's dark eyes grew wide as he quickly sat up despite his aching head.
Fire Fist Ace was in front of him. Not only that, he was giving Sakazuki a wide and joyful smirk while lying sideways on top of a fluffy white cloud that hovered several feet above the ground.
"Yo," Ace greeted him with a mock salute. "It's been a while, huh Akainu?"
"You're...the visitor from Heaven?" Sakazuki said slowly, for once not caring that someone called him by the wrong name.
"Yep!" Ace confirmed with a firm nod and a wide, carefree grin.
"There's...THERE'S NO WAY THAT'S TRUE!" Sakazuki roared as a new and raging fire of fury burned inside of him. "YOU WERE A PIRATE! THE SON OF GOL D. ROGER!"
"I know, I was honestly kind of surprised too!" Ace replied with a joyful laugh, clearly not affected one bit by Sakazuki's rage. "But apparently, there's more to a person than just their bloodline, and according to the big man upstairs, I did enough good in my life to go straight up there when I died, and not down here. Unlike you."
"You...this can't..." Sakazuki spluttered as his brain felt like it was short-circuiting. He was so much in shock that he didn't react at all when Sacab and Daez pulled him up with their chains.
"Now, I know you two have a lot catching up to do so I will leave you to it while I visit my other victims," Ozabsahei said with a smile full of crooked teeth as he grabbed a pitcher full of some kind of drink from a nearby table before giving it to Sakazuki, who took it subconsciously.
"Thank you Ozabsahei for giving him a break from his chores!" Ace thanked him with a wave. "It really means a lot to me!"
"It's no problem at all Ace! You're welcome here any time, you're a riot!" Ozabsahei exclaimed before he flew out of the room with a backwards wave. "See you later!"
"See ya! Ah, he's a good demon, that one," Ace said to no one in particular. Then he faced the wall to his right, which Sakazuki just realized had a giant white projector screen hanging on it.
"Hey Proko," Ace called out to the giant Visual Den Den Mushi that Sakazuki just noticed was sitting a few feet beside him on his other side. "We're ready now! I wanna see Luffy!"
The Den Den Mushi instantly turned on, causing a video to play on the screen. Specifically, a video of Strawhat Luffy sitting up in bed with Pirate Hunter Zoro napping beside him.
"Oh thank goodness, he's looking so much better now. I hope we're not too late...oh good, I think we just barely made it!" Ace exclaimed as God Usopp suddenly burst into the room.
The sight of the man who killed him finally brought Sakazuki out of his shock.
"What are you doing here?! Couldn't you have watched this-"
"Luffy...he woke up! Sabo is gonna be okay!" God Usopp cried with teary yet happy eyes.
"Wha...what?! I didn't even kill that brat?!" Sakazuki yelled, his complete attention on the screen.
"Nope, thank the stars," Ace replied as a tender smile graced his face while Strawhat Luffy burst into joyful tears of relief. "Not that I don't want to be with him again, but not yet. I want him to stay alive along with Luffy for a good while longer at the very least."
Then Ace turned his attention onto him.
"And to answer your earlier question Akainu, I could have decided to see my little brother's reaction to Sabo surviving back up in Heaven after I saw Sabo wake up myself, but then I realized it would be so much more fun and enjoyable to watch it with you."
Fire Fist Ace, with a crap-eating smirk, then dug his hand into the cloud he was still lying on and plucked it out to reveal a golden cup in his hand.
"Now top me off, sucker!"
Sakazuki felt himself die all over again.
And it's only going to get worse for him from here folks:)
I had fun writing this fic and I can only hope that you all had at least some fun reading this too. Please leave a review on your way out.
Have a good day or night!