"Great, eating sweets until you burst" Judal made a distasteful sound as he stared at Sinbad and Ace, who were eating out of their mind. Even the magi have to admit it, the mermaid café was great. The environment, the waitresses… everything. And the food was great. His peach cake was one of the most delicious things he ever tastes, even better than the ones that the servants in Kou made.

"You are the one that wanted to get in here, so don´t complain" the idiot king continued with his eating spree. He zipped his tea once again, with more education. Kougyoku would have been proud, more after their shared poise lessons.

"I wanted to grab a bite, not to see you stuff yourselves" sometimes he really wondered how Sinbad survived living like royalty, because he has no sense of education. Well, apparently an Immuchakk woman hammered that sense into him as a youth, but now that he didn´t need it, he doesn´t seem to be interested in following Rurumu´s teachings. "Where are we going next? That New World or something like that?"

"The New World" Ace suddenly stopped eating. "The mayor leagues in piracy, the territory of the Yonko… and where the big shot marines are."

"Like the admirals the Tenryuubito were going to set after us?"

"The three admirals, yes" the navigator sighed. "They are the most powerful men in the Marines, baring the Fleet Admiral and perhaps Garp the Fist. All of them are logia users. Even hundredths of pirates couldn´t take one of them down, so it´s better to just avoid them" he held three fingers up. "First is Kizaru, the yellow monkey."

"That sounds like a ridiculous name" the two foreigners laughed. Monkey? Who called himself a monkey? And yellow? What a horrible colour to be remembered for.

"Don´t say that if you are close to him" the man continued. "He is the piku piku no mi user, means that he is a light man. He can turn into light, shot light bullets… much like you, Judal" the magi frowned. It wasn´t light, it was rukh. He manipulated rukh. "It´s better not to find him" one finger got down. "The next is Aokiji, the ice man. He isn´t as much of a problem, he prefers to sleep than to fight or work… but if you do something that pisses him off he can be as lethal as the others"

"And what´s the last one? A talking gecko?"

"Akainu" he whispered and everything around went chilly somehow. "The absolute justice extremist red dog. The magu magu no mi user… better not to let him get close to you, he has an history of killing first and ask later."

"Pirates?"

"Yeah"

"Great" Judal sighed. A person like that… Kouen would have loved to fight him. And then the others would have followed them like the little ducklings they looked like… perhaps him not. He would stare at the distance, trying to mask his worry and resist the wish to go help them so Al Tharmen would not make them a target. Oh, but maybe there was nothing to worry about, right? The guy was walking volcano and Kouen enjoyed volcanos. They gave him his power.

"What?"

"Ehhh?" he has been thinking about his siblings so hard that he didn´t heard that they were trying to talk to him. "Sorry, I was thinking about someone else"

"Your brother? Or many of them?" the crew looked at him. Apparently only Ace managed to find out that the man had a family. "Don´t worry, I´m not going to ask. They aren´t exactly your favourite theme."

"They will never be"

"You have a family?" someone dared to ask. "Why did you leave them?"

"It… was complicated" yes, complicated. The dark magi frowned, remembering that when he left, the last thing the Ren children need was for someone like himself to be around them. A war mongering former slave of the evil organization that almost destroyed the whole world. "I don´t think I am missed back home."

"They didn´t like you?"

"No, that was… not the problem" Sinbad looked at him. Was Judal… finally feeling bad for what he did to the other countries in the past? Apparently being away from his siblings was enough to cause that reaction. "It´s just that… forget I don´t want to talk about that. Maybe we should focus instead in what we are going to do."

"My aim is Edward Newgate" declared Ace. Everybody around him stared at the man as if he was crazy. "What? He is an old man! Easy target!"

"Ace, Edward Newgate… Shirohige is one of the most powerful pirates in the World, the rumoured most powerful man on the sea" the navigator started, trying to talk the idiot out of it. "There is no way you are defeating him, even if he is an old man. They say that not even the King of Pirates, Gol D. Roger…"

"Don't you dare" Ace suddenly was fired up. "to mention him"

"Why are you so mad when someone talks about Roger?" Ace violently got up and left, grumbling to himself. The other raven frowned, deducing something. "I never get him. Hell, sometimes still wonder if I´m not mistaken for following him."

"I don't think so" Kou´s former Oracle followed the guy, finding him near the side of the ship, staring at the ocean. "I thought I would find you here."

"Figures, you were always the smart one"

"I was… even before" they laughed without humour. "And… what happens between that Gol D. man and you? I heard that he was some sort of super pirate that was something like their King and no one until now could beat him" he frowned. "Personally I thought that my eldest brother could have beaten him…"

"I would pay to see that" Ace smirked evilly. "Really! I would pay to see that! The man was douchebag and a… Sorry I didn´t want to…"

"Well, maybe you should explain me who he was and everything."

"Really? You didn´t know who he was past the basics?" Judal shook his head. "Well… Gol D. Roger was one of the favourite characters in my brother´s life, so… here it goes" he groaned, remembering when he heard the histories about the man that he hated the most. "Gol D. Roger, Gold Roger or the pirate´s King, as many would call him, was a pirate like twenty years prior that stole from the government, became a threat to the entire world… the usual, but he was too the only sailor that conquered the entire Grand Line, becoming richer than anyone… and the freest man in the world" his fingers caught on fire. "Legend says that when he was captured and going to be executed, in the executing stand, the man said that his treasure, the most wanted treasure in the world, would be for the one that found it first. And that he left it hidden… in One Piece"

"One Piece… where is that?"

"No one knows" Portgas stared into the sky, like wondering about something. "Pirates have been searching the entire Gran Line for decades, but they never found his hidden spot. The man was sneaky as hell, not even his crew knows where it is… or they didn´t want to talk about it… or… I don´t know"

"Maybe they didn´t search in the right direction" the magi said.

"Yes, maybe"

-A few months later-

"What are you trying to do in the middle of a blizzard?!" Judal was shielding himself behind his new king candidate for the snow. "What are you trying achieve with that?! Killing your entire crew?!"

"No, I want to find someone!" Ace finally got to a cave, where a group of people were waiting. For a few minutes things were tense, but as soon as the name Luffy was brought up, the pirates relaxed and the celebration began. The magi didn´t know what a powerful pirate was like, but Shanks definitely was different from what he expected. The redhead was a party addict and a drunkard, but have a fond side for the captain´s little brother. Apparently the kid reminded him of someone else.

"This are your nakama? Do they know the little anchor too?" Shanks asked with his face red. "You make a wonderful couple, by the way. You too!" he signalled Sinbad and Judal, who were sitting quite close, despite the obviously drunk state of the idiot king. "Yes, you are great together!"

"What?!" the former Oracle got red. "We are not together! I would die before being with that idiot!"

"Then why did you save me?" asked Sinbad in his ear, leaving him frozen. He couldn´t move, not with the other so close to him. The purple haired man put an arm around him, smiling wickedly at him. "You are beautiful, Judal, not a wretched creature as I thought before. I don´t know why I didn´t notice that before."

"Notice that before… are you saying that you feel… attracted to me?" the dark magi was suddenly embraced and completely immobilized. "I thought that the idiot king only liked women… no? Lady killer of the Seven Seas"

"You are better than those girls that always fall at my feet"

"Maybe because I was raised to be better than that" Judal tried to move his arm away from him. "Back off, you idiot."

"Kougyoku failed to stand up to me"

"Kougyoku is insecure" the former Oracle didn´t want to talk about his sister. "I´m better sitting in another place, you idiot. Clear that head before talking to me again or I will put a spell on you that you are not going to forget."

"Judal, you have changed…"

"No, it´s you who have changed" he could see his rukh. Sinbad´s rukh wasn´t all black, it was… like the time they saw each other in Sindria, when he pierced the shield. Part black and part white, the healing process already started. "Maybe there is still a hope for you, your stupidness."

"Stop calling me that"

"Then stop being yourself"

-A few days after-

"What do you think we might find in this island?" Judal was bored. A few uneventful days was a miracle in a place like the New World, but it was boring too. The magi, on watch, was waiting for his nakama to come back with whatever treasure they got in that place. "I am counting until ten and you better be here now, because… what the hell?!" the ship was shook violently when a whale shark emerged from the sea. "Is that a whale shark?! What the hell is it doing in a place like this?!"

"You…" a fishman emerged from the waves, sitting down on the whale´s back. "You are Judal, I have seen you in a wanted poster" he got into fighting stance. "I am here to see your captain, that claims he could defeat the old man! I will stop him! I´m not letting anyone land a hand on the one that protects my Land!"

"Talk to him about that, just wait until he returns" the magi looked at him with interest. His eyes caught the white rukh around him… was he a pirate? "Who are you, by the way? A lot of people came for Ace lately. Most of them only wanted his bounty, but you don´t look like it."

"You are a very good judge of character to notice that right away" the blue guy with the sun on his chest sat down to wait. The other didn´t seem to want to attack him or maybe he just realised that he didn´t stand a chance and wait for his crewmates to arrive. "As I said, I am here to make sure he doesn´t get to the old man."

"The old man?"

"My ally, the great Yonko Shirohige" oh, so that was it. He didn´t want Ace to take down the old pirate. "He is a very nice person, he protects my country for free, something no other pirate would do. When that Portgas brat started babbling about defeating him I got worried and decided to come here to face him first."

"And you thought that you would be able to take him down because…?"

"Kid, you don´t read the news? I´m one of the Seven Warlords that serve the World Government… well, when I want. It was a great opportunity for my men, only that way they were going to be able to return home after a lot of pain."

"Ehhhhh, so that was it" the magi frowned. He has heard about the Ouka Shichibukai a couple of times. They were rumoured to be extraordinarily powerful.

"You are a very good kid"

"Nah, I love pain and war" he wasn´t so sure anymore. He was missing his siblings, something that didn´t happen before.

"Are you powerful at all then? You didn´t look like it"

"Mister, you don´t know how powerful I am" he looked at his cracked wand, which he kept in his top. "I´m only a little weakened, but otherwise… maybe you were already dead when they come back."

"You are surely a strange one"

"That am I"

"Yo, Judal!" Ace and company appeared on that moment, carrying some bags filled with gold. The crew stopped in their tracks when they saw the gyojin. This one got to his feet, waking towards the captain and challenging him. Sinbad could tell by the way the man hold himself that his friends was in trouble. The former king has seen enough powerful men to realise that he was one of them.

"Ace, we should go away. There is no need to fight with…"

"Sin, it´s okay, I can beat him" the fire man ignored the panicked face of his crewmates. The purple haired man got closer to the navigator.

"Who is him?"

"The Warlor… Jinbei. One of the most powerful pirates in the world" answered him, trying not to shiver in fear. "The First son of the Sean. He is known for his Gyojin karate… and no rookie should try to take him. He is a member of one of the powers that keeps the world balanced, a pirate that works with the marines."

"So he is powerful, eh?" so he was right. The former king of Sindria looked at Judal, who was looking with mild interest. He relaxed a bit, Judal was a little fond of Ace and won´t let him die that easily. The magi, for his part, was seeing the rukh around the two. Neither had black rukh, which means that probably no one was going to end up dead after this encounter. But, just to be sure, he will continue looking.

"This is going to take a while"

-Five days later-

"Damn, just how much is this encounter going to last?" asked the bored raven, staring at the flame man and fishman, who were all covered in dirt and bruises. Finally Jinbei felt to the ground, completely defeated. After a few moments, Ace followed him, exhausted.

"Ace! Captain!" the crew ran towards him, eager to congratulate the captain for defeating one of most powerful enemies on history. Judal was about to get down from the crow´s nest when he sensed something. His eyes turned to the sea, where some white rukh were flying, approaching them. A great white force… no, there was a patch of black there, someone that has felt into depravity. An evil being. And something more…

"Sinbad, there is someone coming"

"Someone?" his king candidate turned too, beginning to make the silhouette of a ship, a big ship with the form of a whale. The whale came closer and they finally saw the people that was in the deck. A pirate crew.

"Who of you is the one that wants to kill me?" an old man with a big lance said, smiling at them. Sinbad didn´t like it, even Judal was completely focused on that guy, who reeked power through his skin. This was no every day´s occurrence, the magi doesn´t usually pay attention to the enemies. "I will fight with no help with all of you!"

"It´s the Shirohige kaisoku!" someone screamed. So they finally managed to meet the man Ace was so hell bent to kill. And he was powerful, too powerful.

"He is a Devil Fruit User… and has many more" commented Judal, catching the attention of some of the newly arrived. How was he able to tell that they were Devil Fruit Users just by seeing them? Or maybe he read the information on their wanted posters. "It feels like... expansive waves? Perhaps something else…"

"Ja! You have very good eyes, no, brat?" the old pirate was now interested. He didn´t have time to ask, because the younger captain got to his feet. He put a barrier of fire between the Yonko and his crew, starting the fight. Near the beginning, it was obvious that he was way out of his league. Shirohige managed to beat Ace, so bad that his crew as debating if they should help him.

"Judal…" Sinbad got to the magi. "Give me back my metal containers."

"No"

"They are going to kill him! Give them back!"

"No, he is not going to die" answered the raven, looking directly at his eyes. "Besides, what will you do once you have them back? Kill him? take over his territory?" the purple haired man´s eyes widened. "I´m not giving them back until you got rid of the thoughts that caused so much trouble in the past and that haven´t happened."

"But…"

"… becoming my son"

"Don´t mess with me!" Ace attacked one last time. Shirohige prepared to attack, even the commanders do so. Judal frowned and flied to the middle. There was no need to continue this.

"The fight is over" his borg protected Ace, surprising even the older pirate and making more cracks in his already damaged wand. Sinbad was surprised, Judal has never got in the middle of a fight. He wanted to ask him, but now… they had other things in mind.