Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece
Nao is blushing.
Nao is blushing really, really fuckin' hard.
Nao is blushing really, really fuckin' hard because she—being the internally twenty-something (or is it thirty-something by now?) year-old woman that she is—is currently draped over Kuzan's shoulder, awkwardly hanging off of him like a ragdoll. The only thing that brings some sense of comfort to her is the fact that Ace is in the same predicament, though the shoulder that he's slung over is Garp's.
"Can you put me down?" Nao asks, face burning despite the freezing temperatures around them. "I can walk with my own two legs."
"You're too slow," Kuzan grunts, using her small size in comparison to his and Garp's towering heights to deny her request.
She gives him a flat stare, though he would never be able to see it unless he suddenly sprouted eyes in the back of his head—a rather ironic thing to think when Robin, the girl whose life he always seems to be dragged into, is thought of. Her incredulous look is absolutely justified, though—she knows better than anyone (except for perhaps, Garp and Rosinante) about the future-Admiral's love of taking his time going places.
To be fair, though—and she admits this begrudgingly—she is somewhat grateful for the free ride, though their entire need to make a lengthy trek across a glacier is due to her ride anyways.
With the threat of Sengoku's lecturing motivating them, Garp had decided to move out towards Marineford before they'd be subjected to his endless chastising.
And so, in attempt to reach the fleet admiral before the news of the frozen ship in Mariejois did, the four of them began a march towards the base. Kuzan had, after all, nearly frozen the surrounding seas near Mariejois anyways—creating a makeshift path to the nearby island would be no biggie.
Nao feels herself growing lightheaded from the awkward way she's hanging off of his shoulder. She really, really does not want to ask him for a readjustment, but her want for a little comfort trumps her pride. "Can you at least let me sit on both of your shoulders instead of carrying me like a rucksack?"
He doesn't reply in anyway to indicate that he's okay with the request. Instead, he moves her without warning, nearly throwing her off of him in the process. After several startled shrieks and a new small welt appearing on his head, Nao finally finds herself in a somewhat comfortable position to laze around while the Vice-Admiral did all of the walking.
Beside her, Ace remains in the awkward pose that he had been in moments before, only now he somehow is idly sleeping.
She shakes her head, though she isn't quite sure whether the movement of incredulity is at Ace's unstoppable narcolepsy or at herself.
But this is a rare moment of peace that she can take advantage of to recoup.
Starting an impromptu, lengthy hike to the marine base gives her the time to really think about her situation for the first time in awhile. She rests her chin on top of Kuzan's head, drawing out an annoyed grunt from the man, but he allows her to ponder in peace.
In ways unbeknownst to her, she's been kicked out from under Rayleigh's care, thrown to the marines, has gotten herself involved in what was basically a war at Mariejois, has killed who knows how many people, and now she sits languidly on the shoulders of a man who could probably destroy an entire island on a whim. Calling her predicament preposterous would be an understatement—the mess she's dragged herself into this time around is destructive enough to be compared to a damn Greek tragedy.
She nearly splits her face in half with the grin that makes its way onto her face. For years she had dreaded the day she'd have to create her own entrance into the grande world—it was just too vast to even think about without feeling overwhelmed—but now that worry seems nonsensical.
Without even trying, she had somehow placed herself right in the midst of nearly everything that mattered in the timeline. (For once, she thinks that maybe Fate has decided to place a bet on the underdog in this shitshow.)
And like this, the hours pass by relatively quickly. Ace continues to doze away the journey, Kuzan continues to carry her without her having much of a say in the matter, Garp continues to walk on without much noise, simply sparing Kuzan an accusatory glare every once in awhile, and Nao continues to think about the mess that's accumulated near those that get close to her, all with a cheeky grin on her face.
Before she knows it, the four of them stand at the outskirts of Marineford. Unsurprisingly, someone is already waiting at the main entrance of the island—probably having been alerted by the random sheet of ice that had coated a good half mile of the waters surrounding the base.
Nao throws Ace a nervous glance. She knows it's nonsensical to be worried about something so far off in the future, but there's just something that doesn't sit right with her about bringing a kid to the place where he'd eventually be held for execution. Thankfully, though, the kid looks somewhat like Garp—a blessing in disguise that'd allow him to remain at Marineford without an entire fleet trying to send him to his death.
"So what are you gonna say to Sengoku?" Garp asks, looking expectantly at the uncharacteristically agitated Vice Admiral.
"That's precisely what I was going to ask you, Garp."
The two have a stare off, and Nao swears they're having a countdown in their head to set off a race to Sengoku to see who could tell their side of the story first. It's incredible, really, to see two terrifyingly powerful men act more childish than she has ever been in both this life and the last.
But before they can make a complete fool out of themselves, an exaggerated yawn stops both of them in their tracks.
"What're ya arguing 'bout? If yer gonna see who's gonna fight the Fleet Admiral guy, then just let me do it," Ace volunteers.
Amazingly enough, the two men actually consider Ace's offer.
"Sengoku can't put both of us on cleaning duties if your kid tells him what happened, right?" Kuzan asks, eyeing Ace with more relief than Nao has ever seen in her life.
Are they really about to use a kid as an out for their reckless behavior?
"Sure," Garp agrees, "but only if that kid on your shoulders can do the whole waterworks show and talk about how the ship just had to be frozen for us to rescue the brat."
Nao opens her mouth to kill their devious idea, but a young marine beats her to it.
"Vice Admiral Garp-san, Vice Admiral Aokiji-san, Sengoku-san wants both of you in his office to debrief about the frozen boat incident." The young man bows, holding his down to avoid the wrath of the two exposed vice admirals.
One of the most important abilities of a true leader is knowing when to admit defeat. There often comes a time in battle where surrendrence is one's best option, and now is definitely one of those times.
Garp and Kuzan turn to look at each other, moving Ace and I with them. Ace and I have little more than bored expressions on our faces, but below us, the vice admirals appear more dejected over facing Sengoku than they probably would have been in an actual losing war.
"If you help me with my section of the cleaning, I'll get rid of your paperwork duties," Garp offers.
Kuzan does a short hum. "Fair enough."
[linebreak]
Sengoku sits at his desk, elbows rested on it while his fingers met to intertwine. He rests his chin on top of his fingers, and though at first glance he seems relaxed, the ghost-white knuckles beneath his face tell a different story. His elbows are pressed against the mahogany wood with so much strength that Nao swears the table is one more gram away from breaking.
The two men in question are lazily slumped in the two chairs in front of his desk, while their respective children sit on the floor beside them.
"So please, tell me again why I have half of the Celestial Dragons calling in to complain about an iceberg ship stuck on their shore?" Sengoku asks, voice raising a pitch with each word that slips out of his mouth.
Garp laughs. "You see, it's funny—"
"What's funny is how many hours of cleaning duties that I'm assigning to you for the next five years—no, next decade," Sengoku barks, face tinted a bit more red than Nao thinks it probably should have been.
She giggles, knowing that the sound would trigger Sengoku into a whole other rant.
"And please, pray tell me why the Marine Headquarters became a babysitting business after you screwed up the very delicate relationship that we have with the Celestial Dragons," he shouts, and Nao swears he's angry enough to pull a Naruto move to enlarge his head.
Kuzan leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. He turns his head towards his now-partner-in-crime, signifying that it's all on Garp to pull them out of this disaster.
Garp laughs again. "Her? Oh, well, she's just my, er, goddaughter."
"Your goddaughter?" Sengoku repeats, not believing it one bit.
"Yep."
"You brought along your grandson and your goddaughter while you went to quell a slave rebellion?" Sengoku asks, knowing fully well that there's a hell of a lot more to the story than what Garp's letting him hear.
"It builds character."
Sengoku heaves a heavy sigh but refrains from throwing out any accusations with huge implications. Garp is his longtime friend—he'd go as far as to call him family, really—and he'd rather not be privy to whatever illegal bullshit Garp probably did to obtain the two most unfazed kids he'd ever set his eyes on.
Kuzan places a huge hand on Nao's head, making her seem like a dwarf despite her having grown to a size that would have been considered tall for her age in her past life. "This one's Rosinante's, though."
Sengoku eyes Nao with suspicion. "She's his kid?"
"Yes."
Garp laughs, almost hysterically at the misunderstanding. "Kuzan, you're still as shit with communication as ever. This kid is the brat that I put under Rosi's care while I went to deal with the main conflict, but Rosi left for the covert mission and passed the torch on to Kuz over here since he still owes him that favor."
"Which favor?"
"You know, that time a decade ago when Kuz helped approve of raiding Mama-san's domain without knowing who she was based on a little shop owner's testimony that ." Garp points to Nao. "This is the same little brat from that repor—"
"Shut it, Garp."
"Oops." Garp doesn't sound apologetic in the slightest.
"This is the same kid that had half a fleet stuck rebuilding a whore house in the North Blue? This one?"
"S'been a long time, hasn't it?" Nao greets, cheekily beaming at the disgruntled Fleet Admiral.
Sengoku's had enough.
He pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing for the billionth time that day. "Two months of cleaning duties. Garp, get your brat back onto Foosha. Kuzan, get whatever the hell you owe to Rosi done sometime before you start."
Kuzan lets a lazy smile spread across his face. "Sure."
Garp gives his comrades a short wave. "See ya', luck!"
Garp grabs ahold of Ace's wrist, tugging him towards the exit faster than Nao has ever seen Garp do anything. Meanwhile, Kuzan neary waltzes after them, pausing to beckon for Nao to follow sits there, pondering what in the hell Garp meant by his good luck.
As Nao and Kuzan disappear from Sengoku's view, the icey man gives his boss a rather important sidenote.
"I'll start cleaning in a few years, then. Rosi wants me to help the brat with her devil fruit—whatever it is."
Sengoku's desk breaks in half.
"Kuzan!"
Are y'all ready for Dad!kiji 'cause I definitely am! They're back in the marine base hehe and Snegoku's already losin' it.
This chapter was pretty light compared to the massacre a few chapters ago lol. Did you guys like it? Do you like the serious ones or lighthearted ones more?
Please leave a review! I get pretty bummed when I don't receive much feedback.
As always, have a good day. :)