A Day of Celebration

The Marines were all over the place. It was going to be the day when one of their beloved Admirals resigned. They wanted to go out, placing and streaming banners all over the base with ornaments and thousands of decorations. Quite a few of them nervously chatted about the Admiral's greatest accomplishments, but none of them seemed to know where the Admiral was.

Not that it seemed to bother most of them. It seemed like the party was going to be great with or without the guest of honor. And of course, most Marines were still well-armed. They had to stop the Revolutionaries, having a Marine Admiral retire right before a war would put them on their heels, but there were enough good men to quickly refill the position so nobody was worried about that. A few of them were even more terrifying than the one that was leaving.

But the Marine Admiral preferred it this way. He wandered through town, a smile on his well-hidden face. He wasn't exactly happy at his future plans, he was practically going to sell all of his friends' hard work down the river. He had spent the better half of fifty years working with his fellow Admirals and even more time within the Marines. And he was really willing to throw it all away for the people he had chosen to protect.

Maybe he was being a little bit silly when he was prioritizing his old dreams of a perfect world rather than focusing on creating one slightly better than the current one. If they went to war with the Revolutionaries and won, surely they could create a new world power that devoured everything and truly became a force to be reckoned with, but it would involve swallowing his hopes and burying them deep down within him...not something he ever wanted to do.

He smiled happily, rubbing his hand along his grizzled chin and jaw as he thought back to how many times he had fought with Johnathon and Victoria, the Yonkou who he had agreed to take a fall against. They had met on the battlefield many a times and he was proud to say that he had won quite a few bouts against them, but the only reason why he felt so proud about those few victories was because of the many more losses to them.

They were even times when they weren't enemies. When after a particularly rough fight he wound up throwing himself overboard alongside their captain. Neither one of them had a death wish, it was just a fight that had perhaps raged on a bit long and gotten a bit rough. Both of them were Devil Fruit users so it seemed like it would be a race against time as to who would be raised from the depths.

(-Many years ago-)

Except the warships were going at it. He and Victoria both seemed to immediately grasped that in the frenzy the odds that somebody had taken note of them falling to their deaths were slim, but even slimmer were the odds that the two crews would allow someone on the other side to jump in a rescue them. Looking back they would both agree that that was the closest they had ever been to death.

But somehow both crews managed to send a man in and drag them both up and onto their ship and give them CPR. The two captain were revived in an incredibly close periods of time. It was hard to remember with how much time had passed, but he was fairly certain he woke up first. His crew eagerly brandished their blades, already leering forward to continuing the assault.

The Admiral was still breathing heavily, after being dunked in the water he certainly was less inclined to continue the fight. He just wanted to take his time, a few deep breaths and maybe get back to this fight a little later.

Right then just as he was thinking this there was a loud shout, "stop!" He recognized the voice fairly quickly, it was Victoria Shogun's voice, she was awake as well. A sharp laughter cut through the air immediately following it, "I almost just died and so did he. I think...I think its fair to call this one battle of ours a draw. Maybe a temporary truce to go with it. You okay with that Admiral?"

The old man that he was couldn't help but laugh with the logic cause he too was thinking the same thing. His lungs still ached, his crew was bloody and they had set aside their gunpowder and scimitars for a second to save their captains anyway. Why ruin such a peaceful moment that had bloomed in the midst of flames with even more flames?

Taking the sword sheath and all and laid it out in front of him. "I can't say I want to continue this bloodshed either. I just want a good ol' drink of ale."

"I got some from a small island out in the West Blue," Victoria commented, "they said it ages nicely and its over 100 years old."

"My. That does sound scrumptious," the Marine Admiral laughed loudly with a wide smile on his face that he didn't want to get rid of. "A good ceasefire is needed once in awhile." He pushed himself off of the ground and onto his own two feet, tottering over to the railing of his ship and smiling broadly at his enemy, "after all we are all humans."

(-Present Day-)

The fact that he could throw such a thing to the side such as just her being pirates in favor of her being humans, means that he could do the same thing again. It didn't matter if they weren't Marines, what mattered was that they were humans as long as they were humans he had decided long ago to listen to them. Which was why he found himself in this place.

It was an old hotel that not many people stopped by. Very few of the Marines were even bunked here, they were better places all around, this was a cheap hotel. One of those places that probably had ten or twenty ghost stories roaming around about it. But it was cheap and out of the way, both of these two elements were very important to him.

"Here you go," stated the Marine Admiral as he opened up the door and dropped a plastic bag filled with food on the table next to him, "I know you guys can't go out now when this island is bustling, but I hope you do understand that I am a Marine Admiral."

The rest of the Infinity Pirates were gathered in here. While Mikoto's ship hadn't landed yet, Aaron, Maria, Hiro-Shu, and Sage were all in this room. They were trying to lay low and somehow staying on a pirate ship seemed like a bad idea. They were quite lucky that this Marine Admiral had found them before someone else did. Most Marines were just busy celebrating, after all, very few pirates would be crazy enough to dock on this island right now. Even the Revolutionaries seemed to be giving this island a wide enough breath. But now they could relax a bit longer. Well, most of them were. Maria was still busy training, apparently using a punching bag that the Marine Admiral had 'borrowed' from a Marine ship, Sage was eagerly awaiting at the Den-Den Mushi hoping dearly that a returning signal would soon be broadcast across the seas to them to let her know that the rest of the crew was coming. Aaron was busy bothering her...really only Hiro-Shu seemed to be relaxing.

But that was just a matter of wisdom coming from experience. Hiro-Shu had a bit more time out at sea as well as in prison where he couldn't do anything, he had learned quickly that worrying and pulling your hair out usually didn't mean too much and nothing good ever came from it. So he had decided to just relax a bit more and take it easy. Not to mention as the Marine Admiral said they had him on their side, he was doing a lot of the shopping while at the same time offering to put them up in this room.

And he was a powerful ally to have especially on an island full of Marines celebrating him, of course, he still refused to put his neck on the line for them any more than he was already doing. If they got caught out in the open he would personally execute them if the Marines asked. The crew seemed to ultimately accept that.

It wasn't only risky for them, the Marine Admiral had accepted a very large burden onto his shoulder. They were hoping they wouldn't have to put their necks on the line anymore than they had to and this man was probably thinking the same thing. It was a risk and one that nobody wanted to take. The crew just had to be thankful that he was doing as much as he was.

"The signal!" shouted Sage, happily as she grabbed the Den-Den Mushi and thrust it into the air. "We got a return signal. Mikoto's finally here."

The entire crew seemed to brighten up at the news even the Marine Admiral seemed to have caught a bit of their excitement. "The crew's finally back together," stated Sage as she clenched her fists and brought them in closer to her chest.

"You're probably excited to show Mikoto how much stronger you've gotten, huh?" Hiro-Shu stated. "We are probably all thinking that. Without having our captain to lean onto we've probably all gotten a little bit stronger."

"And so has Mikoto," Aaron stated confidently, "I may not have been there with him, but the guy has almost definitely gotten both stronger and faster. There's no way he didn't. Just us finding and getting Melanie put us on our heels and threw us into a dangerous situation after another dangerous situations. And he's been with Victoria for equally long so he's definitely a threatening enemy that most people probably won't want to cross."

"Except for Shane," stated Maria as she returned a quick kick right into the punching bag, nearly sending it through the ceiling as it swung up and ended with a loud thud. "And the Marines. If you think that we are out of the words now just cause we are a little stronger you are dead wrong."

"He wasn't saying that," Hiro-Shu countered earnestly. "Besides they are a few things that we are still learning and Mikoto is also growing stronger. Still we need to find Mikoto eventually," with a wave of his hand, "we have no idea where he is. Only that he is somewhere on this island and its not like we can freely walk around here either. This is still a Marine island."

"I'll go look for them," the Marine Admiral stated as he rested his hand on the sword on his left side. "I want to test your captain out anyways. I assume he'll be a worthwhile man to hand my head into. I may not be the Pirate King, where I can plan to inspire a whole new generation to a possibly great cause...but I will be proud to hang my hat as one of the men who stopped a needless war.

"And the best way for me to make sure my head will go to a good cause like that is to test out this man," the Marine Admiral chuckled quietly to himself, tightening his grip on the hilt of his blade and giving it a small twist.