Welcome to chapter fourteen! Alright, First and foremost I have officially decided that all my stories that I've been updating will be on hiatus for the month of April. It'll occasionally be like that if I need to get more chapters for a story. The other reason is because next month (in like two-three days actually) is Camp Nanowrimo which is Nanowrimo in April and July but with cabins (people you're roomed with in a chat). For Camp Nanowrimo I'm working on Giving Humanity a Chance which is the SPN/HP crossover. On top of that I'll be writing more chapters for Donquixote Prince, Decisions Over Tea, From British to American, To Save A Brother's Life, and this too. Hopefully by May I'll be able to post Decisions Over Tea and From British to American and maybe GHC too. Anyways, this chapter covers the first half of the Skypiea Saga, aka Jaya. This involves Luffy's first encounter with Blackbeard but a lot different than canon's encounter. Certain things also don't happen like an interaction with Bellamy. Anyhow, hopefully you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: Don't own HP or OP
Death's Gift to His Master
Most of the crew were having a lazy day today, as nothing had happened in the past few days. Adding on to that, they didn't need to worry about any storms because Nami took care of that by making sure that any rough weather heading their way was pre-empted by her weather-manipulating abilities. So, if anyone were to look up at the crew-titled 'Lounging Deck' they'd see Luffy lying down on the grass staring at the sky with Robin lounging against a mikan tree, reading a book. Further back, near the rear of the ship was Goldie and Nami. Nami was posing on a stool with her new staff made of blue steel while Goldie was training her control over paint by painting without a brush. Carmen was lounging in the sun, sitting out in a bathing suit, wanting to relax after her morning training session. Sanji was busy in the kitchen preparing a seafood lunch, Carmen sitting out because, again, she was rather sore. She was still questioning why and how Alvida and Gin could keep going after three hours of rough sparring. Then again, they were the Commanders of the Heavy Combat division. Zoro was currently helping Chopper groom himself, as the human-reindeer needed to groom every so often or his fur would get stuck together which wasn't pleasant. Lastly, Usopp was tinkering in his workshop while Kaya was studying medicine books at a desk Usopp had put in his workshop for her.
Rolling over onto his stomach to face Robin he spoke.
"So, Robin, what gets an eight year old child a bounty? A lot of people know about Ohara, but not exactly what went on there." Luffy said.
Robin sighed before closing her book, setting it right next to her. She proceeded to stare up at the clouds in the sky before speaking.
"I guess if you want the simplest answer, it was because of knowledge, Captain-san." Robin said.
"Knowledge? I mean I know the World Government is corrupt, but knowledge?" Luffy asked.
Robin chuckled darkly before she sighed once more.
"It wasn't just any knowledge, but the knowledge of knowing how to read the Poneglyphs." Robin said.
Luffy laughed, causing Robin to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"That explains everything. If knowledge of the Void Century were to get out… The World Government would have a civil war on their hands." Luffy said.
Instantly Robin's eyes widened as words got caught in her throat.
"Y-you know the truth of the Void Century?!" Robin asked.
Luffy looked at her with a sad smile.
"Mhm, but… it's a sad history. I won't invalidate your dream but I will warn you, at some point I will tell the world the truth. Not the entire truth, because that would take forever, but the truth nonetheless." Luffy said in a sad voice.
Robin now had a curious and sympathetic look on her face.
"H-how bad is it?" She asked.
"I'll tell you this much, the truth of the Void Century makes a Buster Call look like a speck of dust in the soil of the earth of bad events." Luffy said.
Robin was about to ask something else when the crew on deck started panicking and pointing upward. Everyone looked up and suddenly saw a ship… falling out of the sky. While everyone was panicking, it made Luffy remember something that made him smile.
"Atlantis." Luffy murmured as the ships swerved out of the way of the falling debris.
After it settled Nami seemed to notice something wrong with her Log Pose.
"Uh, Luffy, the Log Pose is broken." She said, walking over to show him it.
The Log Pose was indeed doing something weird, the needle itself was pointing skyward. Luffy however shook his head and chuckled.
"Not at all, Nami. That's pointing to a Skyland." Luffy said.
"Skyland? Don't you mean Sky Island?" Robin asked.
"I guess you could call them that, but… Skyland fits better." Luffy said.
Nami however was confused by what Luffy had said.
"Skyland? Are you saying there's land in the sky? That's impossible." She said.
Luffy just chuckled at her, causing her to fume.
"It's not impossible. Remember how I told you how every living plant and animal had magic?" Luffy asked.
Nami nodded, wondering where he went with this.
"Well, the sea has its own type of magic. It's why Devil Fruit users can't really move in water unless they train. The magic of the sea restrains them because the magic of the Devil Fruit is a different kind of magic. They don't exactly mesh well." Luffy said.
"And you're going with this… where?" Nami asked, wanting him to get to the point.
Luffy chuckled again at her impatience.
"Well, the sea's magic lets off a magical chemical that when it rises into the air, with certain clouds, it can turn them solid and allow for people to walk on them. It can also form what is known as the Sky Sea, a bunch of clouds that ships can sail on." Luffy explained.
"So… it's magic?" Nami asked.
"More or less. There's a more detailed explanation, but that goes deep into Magical Theory." Luffy said.
Robin however, seemed to be thinking about something. After a bit she asked a question.
"… Captain-san. Would Seastone be a solidified version of the sea's magic?" She asked.
Luffy gave her a warm smile.
"Bingo! Somehow Dr. Vegapunk, that's the Navy's top scientist, managed to solidify Sea Magic into Seastone. I mean… there's a way to solidify magic but… that requires you to have magic. The man had to have found a different way." Luffy said.
"What makes you so sure Dr. Vegapunk doesn't have magic?" Robin asked.
"…Because he can't. I won't tell you right now but only certain people have the ability to use magic. And these certain people have a certain thing about them that would tell you if they could use it." Luffy said.
"So… it's an obvious quality that stands out?" Robin asked.
"You could say that. It's that quality that I know for sure the man can't use magic. Unless he's hiding it." Luffy said.
Nami got a confused look on her face.
"You can hide the quality?" She asked.
"Shishishi! Anyone can hide this kind of quality! It's as simple as not choosing to show it." Luffy said.
That ended up leaving Robin with more questions than before but she shook that away because they needed to talk about the ship.
"What are we going to do with the ship?" Robin asked.
Luffy seemed to think for a second, humming all the while, before answering.
"Ah, it might be best if we search the ship because Skylands like regular land and islands can change with time." Luffy said.
"But who's going to dive under?" Nami asked.
"Hmm, well out of all of the Devil Fruit users, the only ones that can swim underwater right now are me and you Nami. But it's best if you stay up here just in case something happens. Zoro could come along, because as far as I know he's a good swimmer. Lastly, Kaya should do well, I heard from Usopp that she's a phenomenal swimmer." Luffy mused.
Nami nodded but then Robin had another question.
"What about air, Captain-san." She said.
"Ah! I have the perfect spell for that." Luffy said with a smirk.
About twenty minutes later Zoro, Kaya, and Luffy were at the bow of the ship with Luffy facing the other two. He materialized the Elder Wand into his hand and pointed it at Zoro.
"This'll let you breathe underwater, hopefully you don't have bad breath." Luffy joked, before casting the Bubblehead charm.
Instantly a mask-like clear substance covered Zoro's face, Zoro was surprised to see that he could breathe nicely. Luffy repeated the same action to Kaya and then to him. Luffy then whispered something to Kaya and Zoro who smirked and nodded. They turned to face the crew then backflipped off the side of the ship and into the water. Nami and the others rolled their eyes and thought one similar thought.
'Show offs' they all thought.
As soon as Luffy hit the water he could feel the drain on his powers. Thankfully, though, because of his training he could still swim perfectly well underwater, he just couldn't use his powers that well. Again, thankfully, he could still use magic underwater because magic cast from a wand or hand was considered neutral-type magic that didn't get restrained by Sea Magic. The three of them dove deeper down before they finally reached the ship that sunk. It was wrecked but it still seemed salvageable, so they dove into the ship. The ship was interesting enough, it seemed really old, by casting a spell that would tell Luffy the age of an object Luffy found out that the ship was approximately two hundred and ten years old. They then began to search the ship for any information that may be able to help. Kaya was able to find a map of the Skyland, which seemed to have been named Skypeia.
'Skypeia eh? I guess the name was lost to time.' Luffy thought to himself.
Among all that they managed to find some treasure but around that time they were interrupted by a monkey-man.
"What are you people doing here? This is our salvage." The monkey man said.
Luffy bowed, remembering some of Makino's lessons that Ace had dragged him into.
"I apologize, we're looking for information on how to get to the land in the sky." Luffy said, Kaya and Zoro, reluctantly, bowing.
That seemed to do the trick because the monkey man had an eager look on his face.
"Just like boss! We can help you if you want! I know a man who knows of the land in the sky." The monkey man said eagerly.
"Ah? Really! That'd be nice! I'm Monkey D. Luffy." Luffy said with a smile.
Luffy then held out his hand to which the monkey man shook.
"I'm Masira! Captain of the Masira Pirates and member of the Saruyami Alliance, nice to meet you!" Masira said.
Masira then told them to wait a bit because his crewmates were going to bring the ship up with air. When it happened, Luffy asked if he could keep an item he found, a weird looking vehicle. Masira said he didn't mind at all as they had found countless items like that before. When they got up and out of the water Luffy felt his powers returning. They also saw a giant hurt eel, lying unconscious on top of the water. Luffy could smell ozone in the air so he assumed Nami had electrocuted it. Also, there was a giant ship that had other pirates on it. Luffy assumed this to be Masira's ship. They all hopped onto the Goddess Styx where they were met by a few of the Commanders; Nami, Usopp, and Robin.
"Who's this guy?" Usopp asked.
"This is Masira, he said he can help us get to the Skyland." Luffy said.
"Really? That's nice of him." Robin said, causing the monkey-man to blush.
Masira tried to say that it was no problem but his embarrassment was preventing that. Luffy laughed at that before speaking.
"So, where are we going Masira?" Luffy asked.
"Oh! We're going to Jaya, an island not far from here." Masira said, holding up an Eternal Log Pose.
Nami had a question that was very important in terms of navigation.
"How long does it take a Log Pose to set in Jaya?" Nami asked.
"Oh! About two to three days." Masira said.
"Then we'll have to hurry up." Nami said.
Masira then led them to Jaya where, instead of leading them to the town, he led them to a weird half-house on the eastern side of the island. It was there that they met Montblanc Cricket, a man who was a descendant of Montblanc Norland, and Masira's brother Shoujou. Luffy remembered the storybook of Norland the Liar from when he was little and Makino would give him various stories. Of course, Sanji was the one who explained the story, which made sense because the story itself was a North Blue story, which is where Sanji was born. While the story was being explained Luffy had a sudden urge to use his Kenbunshoku Haki, as if his magic was nudging him to do it. When he did he felt a somewhat dark presence on the other side of the island. The person that Ace was following suddenly came to mind.
"Everyone but Zoro and Sanji stay here. You two, come with me." Luffy said.
"What for?" Sanji asked.
"We have a rat to hunt." Luffy muttered.
The two shrugged their shoulders and followed their captain, trying to keep up with him as he was using his rubber powers to speed up the travel by launching himself. It took them no more than forty minutes to get to the town. There Luffy followed the presence and there he found him. Marshall D. Teach was sitting at the bar eating a cherry pie. Without warning Luffy launched himself at the man, ricocheting off the wall to gain speed. Luffy crashed into the man, sending him flying.
"Now why did you have to go do that?" Teach asked, getting up and dusting his clothing off.
"To pre-empt a potential problem, Blackbeard." Luffy muttered,
"Zehahaha! If it isn't Ace's little brother! You know I was actually looking for you." Teach said with a smirk.
At that Sanji and Zoro slid into a ready stance while all the customers were up against the wall.
"Why's that? Wanting to add more heads to your traitorous body count?" Luffy asked.
"Nah! There's a Shichibukai opening thanks to you! I was promised it if I could bring in a big name pirate. Who better than the man who's been making the Marines look bad?" Teach said with a toothy smile.
"Not today! Sanji! Avoid using your powers! Like I explained at Alabasta, he can negate Devil Fruits!" Luffy shouted.
"But shitty captain! You're made entirely of rubber! What about you!" Sanji replied.
Luffy smirked and conjured a pipe in his hand.
"I can compensate, also if you see purple-black stuff, dodge!" Luffy said before charging at the man.
Luffy struck Teach with the pipe, which he managed to coat in Busoshoku Haki. Teach was unable to absorb the hit because of the Haki and winced in pain. The man retaliated by pouring out purple-black smoke-like miasma, making it head straight for Luffy. Zoro quickly stopped that by slicing the smoke with a Haki infused sword strike. While Teach was distracted, Sanji kicked him hard in the back, with enough force that the Darkness couldn't absorb, making Teach's body disperse in black-purple smoke.
"Now, now! This is very unfair, three versus one, how about we even it up." Teach said before flooding the room with the darkness.
"Not so fast! Zoro, Sanji! Cover your eyes! Lumos Maxima!" Luffy shouted, using one of the few spells he mastered to wandless use.
An eye burning light flashed the entire room, making Teach scream in pain and all the darkness he flooded the room race back to him. On Teach's body there were countless burns, as if someone had took a torch to the man.
"Shishishi! How does that feel? The light burns, doesn't it?" Luffy laughed darkly.
Teach glared at him and quickly made his escape out of the bar. The three tried to chase after him but they were stopped by a bullet in front of them. Luffy growled and punched the wall, causing a large hole to appear in the wall. That seemed to scare the customers even more as they moved further away from Luffy.
"Come on, we lost our target. We need to go." Luffy said in an angry voice.
They made their way back to Cricket's place where they found Masira's and his brother's crew working on the Going Merry. Nami seemed to note the anger on all three of their faces.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Teach got away!" Luffy said.
"Teach?" Robin asked, having not been present when the crew had learned of him.
With a frustrated sigh, Luffy pushed his hat off and ran his hand through his hair.
"Marshall D. Teach, a traitorous piece of scum who calls himself Blackbeard. User of the powerful and dangerous Yami Yami no Mi. A man my older brother, Ace, is hunting." Luffy growled out.
Luffy then threw his hands up in frustration and walked over to the trees that marked the start of the forest and began to destroy them. While that was happening, Nami took the time to explain Teach to Robin and give her Luffy's explanation of why the Yami Yami no Mi was dangerous. After a while Luffy managed to calm down and walk back over.
"Captain-san, Nami-san said that you said the Yami Yami no Mi corrupts people. How does that work exactly?" Robin asked.
Quickly conjuring some chairs and a table, Luff gestured for everyone to sit down.
"I know I said that the fruit corrupts people but… It's actually based on the morality of the person." Luffy said.
"Morality?" Usopp asked.
"Yes, the Yami Yami no Mi is sentient for a reason. It is to judge whether or not a person is worthy of its powers. Whether they are going to use the powers to protect or to kill. If someone plans to use the powers just for the sake of power, then the defense mechanism of the fruit kicks in." Luffy said.
"Defense Mechanism?" Robin asked.
This was very interesting to her, it was a whole new world of information. She didn't know that Devil Fruits had defense mechanisms.
"Yes, if someone is not worthy then the fruit will corrupt them even further. Think of it like a disease, the more they use the power, the more amoral they get." Luffy said.
"But, that doesn't sound like much of a defense mechanism." Goldie said.
"True, which is why there is more. The more corrupt they get, the greater and more powerful their weakness is, Zorro and Sanji here know exactly what that is." Luffy said.
Zoro and Sanji seemed to think for a second before their eyes widened.
"Light, his weakness is light." Sanji said.
"Mhm, as you two could see it burned him. Normally, if someone was worthy, this weakness would only apply to light-based attacks. But the more the corruption seeps in the closer he gets to the sun burning him." Luffy said.
Robin suddenly had a question in mind.
"Are there other Devil Fruits like this?" She asked.
"Mhm, in fact, Nami, you have one." Luffy said.
Nami looked shocked at that.
"Wait? The Weather Fruit is sentient?" She asked.
"Yup, it's sense of judgement is a bit more odd than the Darkness Fruit's judgement. It's sense of judgement is based on your dream." Luffy said.
"Dream? That's… an odd thing to judge." Kaya said.
Luffy chuckled at that.
"It's not really, it's going off a saying from a long, long, long time ago; 'Let your dreams be as great, kind, and far as the heavens themselves but also close to your heart'." Luffy said.
"'As great, kind, and far as the heavens themselves but also close to your heart.'? What does that mean?" Chopper asked, standing on his chair.
"I think it's talking about your dream being big and almost unreachable while not being a selfish dream as well as it being personal." Robin said.
Luffy smiled and clapped at that.
"You got it! Nami's dream of mapping the entire Grand Line was not a selfish dream, it is almost unreachable, it is big, and it was close to her heart." Luffy said.
"But how could you know that when we met, I mean I did tell you my dream a few hours before eating the fruit but…" Nami said.
"Shishishi! Because of how you said it. When you know how to read people it's easy to tell their intentions." Luffy said.
They sat there for a few seconds before Zoro spoke up.
"So… why were you so mad Captain? I can understand being mad at the man for escaping but that was beyond that kind of anger." Zoro said.
Luffy's eyebrows furrowed in anger again. He then pulled out the D-Phone and dialed a number for video call and set it on the table after enlarging it. A few seconds later a blonde-haired man wearing an open purple jacket with the Whitebeard mark showing answered.
"Marco, yoi. I'm assuming this is Ace's younger brother, Luffy, yoi?" Marco answered.
"Yes, hey there. Sorry to bring this upon you but we have a problem." Luffy said.
Marco instantly straightened up, losing the semi-lazy demeanor he had.
"What is it, yoi? Something new, yoi?" Marco asked.
"Yes, I ran into Teach… and I may have messed up." Luffy said.
"Messed up how, yoi?" Marco asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
Luffy sighed once more before running his hand through his hair again.
"I fought Teach and he told me he was looking to capture me in order for him to become a Shichibukai. But I beat him and he got away." Luffy said.
"I'm not hearing the bad here, yoi." Marco said.
"Marco, I'm assuming he knows Ace's secret." Luffy said.
Instantly Marco started paling at that as he realized what Luffy was talking about.
"Fuck, yoi." Marco swore.
"Yes, fuck indeed. The bastard's going to go after Ace now that he realized he can't fight me. This is what my predictions were talking about." Luffy said.
Alvida seemed confused at this.
"What is it Cap'n?" She asked.
"The predictions are probably leading to… The Execution of Fire Fist Ace." Luffy said.
Instantly everyone was shocked at that. Luffy's brother being executed was what the predictions were warning about him. But, Chopper was a bit confused.
"Why would they outright execute your brother?" He asked.
Once again, Luffy sighed, it seemed like he was doing this a lot today.
"I don't want any of the other crew members learning of this, none of them got it?" He asked, giving them each a stare.
They all nodded, wondering what Luffy was going to reveal.
"Ace… Ace would be the perfect person for them to execute because he's the person they've been searching for, for the past twenty-one years. Ace is the son of Gol D. Rogers." Luffy said.
Once more, everyone was shocked at the revelation.
"B-b-but why would that change the world?" Nami asked.
"Because, us Whitebeard Pirates would go to war for him, yoi. He's our family, yoi." Marco said.
That sentence answered everything they were wondering. A war at Marineford between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates would change the world. If the Marines won, it would become an Age of the Marines, if the Pirates won, it would further cement the Age of Pirates, but if it was equal losses, it may just rally both sides.
"What should we do, yoi?" Marco asked.
"Try to contact Ace or find him. If that doesn't work then we'll need to plan faster." Luffy said.
"Don't you have Ace's Vivre Card? Can't you find him through that?" Nami asked.
Luffy gave off a sigh.
"Yeah, but the problem is Ace won't accept my help, my brother's stubborn like that. He might accept Marco's help because it's not like being saved by your little brother." Luffy said.
Marco rolled his eyes and spoke.
"Yeah, I'll agree on that, yoi. Ace is really stubborn, yoi. I'll see what I can do, yoi. What will you do if he gets captured, yoi?" Marco asked.
"Easy, we'll storm Impel Down. Shouldn't be too hard." Luffy said nonchalantly.
That caused Marco to bark out a laugh.
"You're definitely Ace's brother, yoi. Alright, I'll see what I can do, yoi. I'll call you later if I get anything, yoi." Marco said.
Marco then hung up and the rest of the crew got up. By that time it seemed that Masira and his brother were done working on the Going Merry. At first, Luffy was confused as to why they were only taking the Going Merry but then it was explained that it'd be the one best suited for the Knock Up Stream, their method of getting to the Sky Sea. That meant they could only take so many people. Goldie, Gin, Kaya, and Alvida said they didn't mind not going as long as they took pictures and promised to come back later. With that being said, Cricket told them that the Knock Up Stream would be present in about six hours. They spent that time chatting and having fun while they waited. When it was time, they set off with the location of the stream in sight. Originally Cricket wanted them to take a special bird because they wouldn't be able to navigate elsewise. Nami, however, blindsided that plan because as a Weather Logia she could tell which direction was which. Not five minutes after they reached the site did the stream appear, a giant pillar of water blasting them into the sky. For a second it seemed like they'd fall off but with Nami's instructions, they managed to start sailing on the stream. They were on their way to Skypiea.
Things are starting to roll! The Skypiea portion of the arc will introduce another non-canon item that relates to Harry's past. I know you hate me for giving you this hint when there's going to be a month of no updates but hey! Anyways, give me suggestions as I enjoy them! See ya in a month!
