"Hummmm"
"Ace, are you okay?" Sinbad shook his friend awake. The poor guy was still out after days of fighting, and him and Judal were the only ones that boarded that particular ship. Shirohige wanted to keep the magi on sight after seeing his power, what he could do. The Yonko wanted Ace in his crew, he was going to offer the stubborn firefist that, but… Judal´s power… sometimes the raven was another thing.
"What happened?" the captain asked when he got up, feeling as if a thousand bricks just felt on top of his head. He looked around, searching for his crewmates.
"We got captured… well, some of the sort" he frowned, looking around for the other pirates. "The blue bird guy brought you here after the old man pound you into the ground. That last attack you did… I thought one of them was going to kill you, but Judal got in the middle. Just in time, I have to say."
"He got… Judal?" he moved his head, hissing. He couldn´t see the lithe raven anywhere. He couldn´t picture the man who couldn´t win a thumb war or a wrestle match against him being able to stop a Yonko. "Was he able to stop Whitebeard? Is he hurt?"
"No, you… you don´t know how powerful he can be" suddenly the purple haired man was a bit down. "Judal is much more than you can think. He… obviously he is okay."
"And the rest of the crew?"
"They are okay, somewhere in the ship… maybe having dinner" the former king sat down besides him. "We have been very worried about you, you know? That big guy beat the living crap out of you, trying to…"
"He didn´t beat me" Ace bit his lip. "And at the first chance I have, I will kill him and ran away from this ship, nothing is going to stop me."
"Ace, you have to recover. Even if you are strong you are just a… just a man" hearing those words in his mouth made him feel strange. Those were exactly the same phrase that he despised to hear from Aladdin. And now he was telling Ace that same thing? Something has to be really bad. Or maybe… maybe…
"I know I´m just a man, okay? I know" Sinbad stared at him in awe. This boy was saying what he thought he was saying? "No matter how strong you become, you continued being just a man… human" he breathed off. "I just want to… to stop… being like him."
"You are so strong… and you think you are still just a man?" Ace was strong enough to give him a good fight in his djinn equipment, he was sure of that. And he really thinks he was just human? "That can´t…"
"What else could I be? I´m not a god just because I´m powerful" the D. continued. "But that doesn´t mean I´m not special." Yes, of course. "But there are many ordinary men that are special too and might kick my ass, just like Shirohige did… I don´t mean that I accept defeat! I will beat that old geezer one day!"
"Sure you will" the king vessel smiled at him, a little more cheerful. Suddenly Marco appeared and Sinbad walked away to leave them alone. The Phoenix tried to convince Ace to join the crew, mentioning that he wasn´t going to leave his nakama behind by doing this, but the stubborn teen wasn´t listening. The purple haired man, for his part, went to where he was sure the magi would be, the crow´s nest, where he could be alone. The captain was impressed by his abilities and wanted to talk to him. "Hello"
"You are covering the sun, idiot king" the raven moved a bit. "Move away"
"I won´t until you go down here and eat something"
"I won´t, I hate that old man" he frowned, turning. "And his stupid subordinates too. Those idiots that only want to talk about the fantasy of a happy family that they have here… the stupidity of believing that they are all brothers and the captain their father… there isn´t a completely happy family in the world."
"So that´s it!" he smiled at the magi, family finding something that might help with his "fallen into depravity" problem, like he helped him. "You didn´t have a happy family, didn´t you?"
"Don´t go there"
"Let me hear"
"I said don´t go there"
"Come on, you want to…"
"I don´t want to fucking talk about it!" Judal suddenly was more than upset, as images run in his mind. "But if you really want to hear, fine." He couldn´t stop himself. "Koutoku was everything but a father, to me or anyone. He only cared about his personal gain, his whores, his sake, his… his…" Sinbad nodded, understanding. He has been in a few meetings with the emperor of Kou and, while the man was a good ruler, as a person he wasn´t that great. "And Gyokuen… no, Arba was a bitch" well, the fallen magi from Alma Torran truly was one, he has to admit that. "Kouen was always stressing himself beyond, trying to raise us even if he himself was just a kid, and let´s not talk about the others. Each of them developed something, some way to mask... whatever" he tried to calm down. "And I´m not adding that Al Tharmen killed my true family"
"Must have been hard" the former king put a hand on his shoulder. "But you should at least give it another chance. If you didn´t like it… then you could just fly away, I will follow you. But at least…"
"Too much light, your stupidness, I dislike places like this because of their goodness and shiny rukh" he started getting down, Sinbas following him. Once they were on the deck, the magi looked at him again "By the way, this will not last long."
"Why do you say that?"
"In the middle of such a shiny place, the darkness of someone really catch attention, you only have to be attentive enough to see it."
"But…"
"Sinbad" the sorcerer´s use of his name suddenly startled him, telling him that he was serious. "Every light had it´s shadow and in every place with light, there is some darkness. Nothing is perfect and you over all people should understand that" he sighed. "The old man and his sons might think that their crew is perfect… it isn´t. and they might learn it in the hard way."
"You mean that they…"
"I don´t know, I can´t see the future" Judal lowered his head. "But this person… his black rukh is stronger than many I have seen before, like he is this world´s black sun. and it´s searching something that he is sure will soon appear. And when it appears hell will be unleashed."
"Yeah? A black sun here that is not you?"
"Don´t believe me if you don´t want, idiot king. I´m getting out of here before this place gets me a headache." He started walking away. He didn´t want to stay there, looking right at the thing that he wanted to have all his childhood but never get. It made him want to ruin everybody´s lives, to cause war only to see them suffering. Like he did back in Parthevia and in Balbadd. He was wondering if he should start an argument between some of the poor sailors when someone approached him. "What?"
"You really impressed Pops when he saw you in action" Tatch, the fourth commander, smiled at him. His answer was a scowl. "normally one would have stopped before engaging him in combat."
"He couldn´t with me"
"Really? He is the most powerful man in the world"
"I´m something that you wouldn´t understand" of course, no one in this world has seen a magi before. "Can´t you leave me alone?"
"I just wanted to make sure that you understood that the offering made to Ace also stretched up to his crew. You are invited to join too"
"I don´t care" he said with so much anger that the cook. He really despised this place, he even felt weaker here. The light rukh, talking about how happy they were and how magnificent their world was… except for one. "Why are you still here? I don´t think there is something to talk a about, so…"
"See, that´s the problem, we have something to talk about" the commander sat down on the wooden floor, patting for the magi to do the same. "I don´t get why are you so… against this place. Ace is a sore loser and Sinbad keeps to himself because something is torturing him, but you are not like that." He smiled at him. "First I thought that maybe it has something to do with your abilities…"
"You don´t know nothing about my abilities"
"You can control energy, no?" the cook continued with his talk, trying to understand the magi. "Man, I wish to know what Devil Fruit does that."
"It´s not a Devil Fruit, I have been like this since I was born" Tatch turned to look at him in amazement. "And it´s not exactly energy, it´s life… life of everything around me" he touched the necklace around his neck. "It´s charged with intentions, desires… everything a person thinks and is. I used to be a creature of darkness, one that enjoyed to cause war and torture others. You don´t know what places like this are to me."
"Oh, so we are…"
"Like a damn lantern of good intentions, it´s giving me a headache" the fourth commander wasn´t sure if it was flattery or not. "So shiny… except for one, but it´s not enough. The ship is making me sick."
"Well… at least you have a good reason to want to be away" he bit his lips, not sure how to fix the problem. "Why were you with the Spades if you are allergic to good energy? I talked to all of them and none is a bad person"
"I´m not going to give you explanations" he glared and left. Comprehension was the last thing he needed, especially when the only one that partially did so in the past was Kougyoku. Maybe a fly away from there would help with the headache. Tatch, for his part, wanted to talk to Oyayi. He didn´t think Judal was a bad person anymore, but the man needed more help than he can provide and the only one that could give him that was the captain.
"I ALREADY HAVE A FATHER!" the scream alerted him. Sinbad was there, looking enrage at the proposition Shirohige just made him. The old man didn´t seem to shocked, sometimes this happened. Especially when the men had good parents before going into piracy.
"He seems like a good man for how you talk about him, can you tell me more about him?" he calmly asked. The purple haired man was shocked, it has been a long time… but it was an injury that never healed entirely. He was so little when his dad died, so innocent… completely different from now, but he kept that time with him near his heart and worked to make his dream come true partly because of his memory.
"His… his name was Badr" he started, not noticing that suddenly his voice was shaky. "He… he used to be… he hated war. In that time, my country was at war with Reim Empire all the time. They recruit soldiers forcefully from the tiny villages… like mine" he breathed in. "My father refused to go to war a lot, the people there called him anti patriot for that. Sometimes… I was a child, I couldn´t understand… but when he was forced to go to war and the only thing that returned to us was his belonging I… I realised how much I hate war. And that I never wanted someone else to suffer through it."
"He was brave, refusing something in the middle of social pressure is really difficult." The old captain smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I wish I could have met him, we have some things in common."
"I don´t think so"
"Really? Because I would do anything in my power to spare my sons and daughters from war too. And I guess you got that attitude from him too" the man looked at him in the eyes. He lowered his head, not wanting to think. "What?"
"You don´t who I am…" he touched his face, feeling the tears. After those years with the Spades pirates and the days seeing the Shirohige he realised… that what he did was wrong. Admitting it was hard, but now… now he felt so ashamed… "If I was anything like my father then I… I…"
"You what?"
"Forget it, it´s not of your business" Tatch waited until he went away and appears in front of his father, that was looking at the retreating man.
"Apparently, it went pretty wrong with him" the commander shook his head. "I made no progress with Judal, but…" he tried to phrase it. "Somehow, his rejection to this place has something to do with his abilities. He manipulates life energy and ours is hurting him… or something like that."
"Well, we can´t exactly help that" he sighed, trying to think in a better way to address the problem. "Sinbad has some troubles forgiving himself for something he did in the past, something really bad" he rubbed his chin. "I don´t know how to help them, but that doesn´t mean I will not try."
"You are a very good man, Pops"
"I hope that´s enough"
-A few weeks later-
"That´s the fifth time this week our captain has taken a dip into the ocean" commented the dark Magi, drinking coffee with some headache pills. He was a bit more accustomed now, enough to lower the doze. Besides Whitebeard talked to him periodically. There was something about the man that… he was interesting, that´s all. He didn´t feel anything more, despite how… paternalistic he was. Or that was what he told himself all the time. "And you, Idiot King? Do you want to take a dip?"
"No, thank you" Sinbad was a little bit shaken after last night. He broke down in a moment of weakness and told him a little about what he did. That he tried to become the God of the World and force everyone to do exactly what he did… and that he was sorry. He cried about how disappointed his father would be of him… and the old man put his arms around them and told him that Badr wouldn´t be, even if that was a lie. Then he told him something that… "Hey, Judal, have you ever heard about the road to hell being paved by good intentions?"
"It´s very famous, Hakuyuu told me when I told him that I wanted to become the strongest of the magis to fight Al Tharmen and protect them. With time, it turned to me searching for power to be free… and to protect them, but that was not the main goal anymore" the raven looked at the sky. "In the end he was right, I lost my way in the middle and couldn´t achieve any of them."
"You helped defeating Al Tharmen"
"Except that" the purple haired man touched his hand, trying to be subtle so not to startle the other. He retired it a bit, feeling a little hot in the face. "Marco has been talking to Ace a lot lately. I think me might manage to get us stuck in this damn place."
"He wouldn´t force you to stay if you don´t want to"
"But you would stay and I will go wherever you go to make sure you are in line" the former King of Sindria understood, he wasn´t the type of person that should be left alone by the only other person that knew the extent of his abilities, even without his djinn equipment. "Maybe in the future I will."
"What?"
"Haven´t you seen yourself lately, idiot king? Your rukh is getting whiter" Sinbad opened his eyes very much. He tried to use his magoi and saw that his rukh was one quarter white. When had this happened? "Whitebeard really is helping you."
"He might be" the purple haired man got away, but then turned around to see the other male. "You should try to talk to him too. He might not be Hakuyuu or Hakuren or even Kouen, but he is a good person. And you said that you never had a father, at least not in Koutoku. This can help you."
"I don´t think so" he bit his lip. He had ever wanted a parent… Kouen did what he could, but he was a kid himself, he didn´t know how to raise one, let alone many. It was a miracle that they all were able to grew up well… or at least partially normal. Maybe a little bit less in Kouha´s and his case. He sat down in the table for dinner, trying to ignore the other pirates, which kept themselves away from him for a reason.
"Are you okay?" suddenly Ace appeared, sitting down near him. "Tatch said yesterday that the environment here doesn´t sit well with your ability."
"More like not sitting well with my personality… which is a crucial part of my ability" he sighed, touching his head. "It could be worse, I got used when I was in your crew."
"My crew didn´t sit you well?"
"Any place that is not a war or something like that didn´t sit well with me… except… never mind" he tried to ease the pain rubbing his temples. "By the way, earlier someone told me that you are making some sort of announcement. What are you planning?"
"It´s simple, I´m joining the crew" Judal looked at them. "Yesterday Marco gave me an ultimatum. We talked about staying or leaving here… I realised that I wanted to stay. I like here… and I like him, perhaps in the same way that you like Sinbad" he made a face. "Oh, come on we all realise how you look at each other."
"Me and the idiot ki… idiot? Never in the world"
"Why?"
"For one, he is the asshole that seduced my sister… my younger sister… and then manipulated her to do something reckless that could have cost her a lot" Ace´s face now was alarmed. "Two, until we started travelling together we were enemies. And with good reasons" he looked at the table. "He despised me, I remember that" he took a sip of his drink. "And travelling together was a necessity."
"A necessity?"
"None of us had nowhere to go or where we could be accepted for different reasons" he got up and flew a bit. "Enjoy your welcome party, you might need it."
"What?"
"Because soon the darkness in this place will explode"
Hello! Hope you are enjoying this fic! If you are send me a review, if you don´t... every review is welcomed
