Chapter Ten
"Vá, Luffy!" Ace shouted at the blazing figure in white battling against a dragon clocked in fire. Desperation and worry were etched on Ace's face as he watched helplessly as his little brother fought his greatest foe to date.
"Chute à bunda dele!" Sabo added viciously.
Kaidou's vice-captain lay on the ground, staring in awe at the young pirate in his awakened Zoan form.
Yamato's husband, Who's Who, was on his knees, in the moments of his life, seeing the god he learned to praise while in that hell that was Impel Down.
All around them, most of the fighting had ended. A few holdouts refused to stop fighting, even with most of their crew having been decimated in the blasts that destroyed the main banquet hall. But there was a fire raging from the bombs; more Beast Pirates were dead, dying, or injured than those who were not. They still outnumbered the Samauri, Pirates, and Minks, nearly 500 to 1, but as far as Nami could tell, they were winning.
"It's not broken, but you do have a bad sprain," Chopper said as he wrapped her wrist in a bandage. The little reindeer would finch every so often, not that Nami was doing better, as waves of intense Haki were felt throughout the place.
Pirates and samurai were falling all over the place, and neither Kaidou nor Luffy seemed to back down as they approached each other with raw, unfiltered power.
Kaidou confirmed to the Straw Hats that he was a time traveler from the moment Luffy stormed into the ruined main floor. The performance floor collapsed during Queen's performance. While the Beast Pirates were trying to recover and start to rescue their companions, that was when the Straw Hats with Momonosuke and the Akazaya led the charge. Kaidou was caught off guard as he cleared the rubble and organized his men to clear out, as he had expected them to attack, but he hadn't expected the attack to come nearly on the heels of the stage's collapse.
Shaking off his surprise, Kaidou stepped forward and challenged Luffy straightaway with Thunder Bagua to the face.
Nami was knocked off her feet, but she quickly scrambled up and gave them the order to scatter. Zoro and Sanji were already moving on their targets, the two lead performers, King and Queen, while the rest of the crew went after the Topi Robi. Nami was with Ace and Sabo. They were going after the CP0 Agents who were attending to negotiate for weapons and slaves, according to the information Sabo had received earlier in the week. It was basically an assassination, and then the brothers were going to help her raid Kaidou's treasury and copy Kaidou's Poneglyphs.
Nami was forcefully reminded that Luffy's brothers were monsters. They torched the agents and then set them ablaze. Nami had to look away when Sabo went about the grizzly business of crushing the agents' skulls.
Sabo and Ace had found and eliminated the CP0 Agents that had come to negotiate the purchase of Wano steel and weapons. Nami has gone with them to gather Intel and to rob Kaidou blind.
What was in the Shogun's Palace would belong to Momo-chan and his people, but what the Beast Pirates had was going into the Straw Hats' coffers. Neither Nami nor Koby saw the need to share the loot with the Heart Pirates or the remnants of the Kid Pirates, and Luffy's brothers had to remind her captain that robbing other pirates was a part of piracy. It was agreed that Straw Hats would provide the Heart Pirates with copies of the Poneglyphs, but Nami and Koby were adamant that any treasure was theirs and theirs alone.
All too soon, they had to return to the battlefield; Nami had gotten the treasure onto the Nika with the brothers' help. Unfortunately for her, Nami was caught in a skirmish between a group of samurai and the Beast Pirates. She fell on her left arm and hurt her wrist, but Sabo quickly got her out of the way while Ace joined the samurai. The battle was over quickly; all too soon, Nami was back on the main floor with Chopper wrapping her wrist.
Even from this distance, Nami could feel the power of the two Yonkos' haki as they battled against each other. It was what one could compare to the gods or a force of nature as waves of raw lighting ripped over the landscape. She wondered if this was what Luffy's battle had been like the first time after his fruit had awakened.
"Looks like Lu is having fun," Ace quipped, but the tension in his shoulders belied his attempt at nonchalance.
"Luffy has this," Sabo said firmly.
"Of course he does," Nami told him. Kaidou couldn't defeat Luffy then, and he won't now," Nami said with the conviction that all the Straw Hats had in their captain. Luffy will be the Pirate King."
Dangerous
"Lower your weapon!" Yamato roared again as he slammed his kanabo down on the floor, his fearsome gaze fixed on the remaining Beast Pirates who dared to continue fighting. Yamato drew himself up to his full height and said, "Straw Hat Luffy has defeated my father. Kaidou is dead." He turned to face Zoro and Sanji, "I am no pirate, but I am the son of Kaidou, and I claim the captainship over his crew in place of the fallen commanders." Yamato lowered himself into zarei with his kanabo laid before him at the Vice Captain's feet.
"Young master! Yamato-sama!" The remaining Pirates called out to him in fear as Zoro, with his sword drawn, moved towards him.
Suddenly, Zoro was stopped by a hand on his, grabbing his sword arm; the green-haired pirate glared at the person who dared to lay hands on him but stopped when the towering young man with long black hair dressed in a peach kimono stepped forward.
Momonosuke stood over the kneeling Yamato, his handsome face as stoic and regal as any king. There was a stillness in the air; the sound of fire and far-off explosions was between them.
"Yamato, daughter of Kaidou," Momonosuke spoke, his voice powerful and commanding. "I, Kozuki Momonosuke, Shogun of Wano, accept the Beast Pirates' surrender."
Slowly, Yamato raised his head and met the new Shogun's firm gaze. "Thank you, Momonosuke-sama."
"Your husband and father are dead," Momonosuke continued, "You are not a pirate. You will not be treated as one; you will be brought to the Flower Capital and placed under my protection." He looked around until his gaze landed on Izo, and he said, "Take her to her palace. We will join you soon."
Nami looked at Koby and Usopp and let out a sigh of relief. Yamato's surrendering was the most challenging part of the last leg of this venture. Ace hadn't understood why Momo-chan had to refer to Yamato as a Kaidou's daughter, especially after he claimed command of the Beast Pirates. Still, Robin explained it to her hotheaded little brother after he took a walk to cool off.
Momo couldn't recognize Yamato as Kaidou's son and Captain of the Beast and allow him to live. Yamato would be seen as a threat, and he still was despite declaring his loyalty to the Kozuki family. If he would live free, Yamato had to be separated from his father and piracy.
Yamato assured Ace that he could handle this slight. He still believed in the spirit of Kozuki Oden and Oden's dream to open Wano to the world.
Yamato left Onigashima for the last time and boarded a ship to take him to the mainland. His escorts were Izo, Kiku, Marco, the Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates, and a handful of samurai. Once aboard the small craft, the samurai surrounded him, and the only thing that kept the angry men from attacking him or saying anything to belittle him was the fact that their Shogun had placed his haori, with the Kozuki crest, over Yamato's shoulders. The ogre Princess stood tall and proud in his armor, but the powerful thing on him was that crest. Izo shot his sister teasingly before breaking into uproarious laughter that the samurai soon picked up. All too soon, everyone on the tiny ship was laughing at the young warrior's expense.
Confused, Yamato looked around for someone to explain what was so funny. He turned to Marco, who glared at cackling siblings in disgust, "Don't worry about it, Yamato; Momonosuke meant nothing other than offering you his protection."
Frowning, Yamato replied, "I can protect myself, Marco-san-"
Marco held his hands to cut him off, "It's not that type of protection, Yamato—Just ignore those two; it's not important."
To which Izo only howled in response.
Onigashima's remaining samurai and yakuza were rounding up and executing the Beast pirates.
King, a Lunarian, was ready to die with his captain and his men. He was the last of his people.
Sabo offered him sanctuary within the Revolutionary Army.
Robin may have been the Spirit of the Revolution, but people like King were a reason for it, and he was sure Dragon and Ivankov would agree with him.
Nami heard bits of what Sabo said about an empty throne and the top of the world, but she pulled back into her conversation with Koby and Usopp about the haul she managed to pull in and the information she gathered.
Zoro was making the rounds, ensuring the crew was accounted for. Nami had worried the lunkhead would manage to injure himself again, but since Kaidou had called out Luffy.
Sanji-kun had joined Koby, who wanted to take another sweep of the place before returning to the Nika and Flower Capital. There was no reason to leave any treasure or enemy alive, Koby had told her before leaving her to oversee Luffy. Scratchman Apoo, along with Basil Hawkins, had been dispatched by Koby and X Drake, the current commander of SWORD. Drake and his crew had helped Koby take out any stragglers and suppress any attempts of retaliation from the Beast Pirates hiding in any pockets around the fortress before the Straw Hats left, leaving the samurai and Minks to clean up the rest and Momo to claim his complete victory over Orochi and Kaidou.
Dangerous
"So, was it much different than it was last time?" Koby asked later once they were all safely aboard the Nike and in the air.
Jimbei had set the autopilot, and the ship cruised through the predawn sky, its course set for the Shogun's palace.
Everyone had showered and changed into comfortable clothes before meeting in the library for a quick debrief and update of the Captain's Log. Koby, as the Quartermaster, had been given the task, whereas before, the duty had been split between Nami and Usopp since neither Luffy nor Zoro had much interest in maintaining the record.
Speaking of the Quartermaster, Koby and Nami occupied one of the couches with their portable writing tables in their respective laps. Nami updated their accounts while Koby recorded everyone's adventures on the Onigashima except for Sanji, who was in the kitchen, despite Chopper's complaints, preparing breakfast sandwiches and soup (Robin's jaw was swollen). At the same time, the rest of the crew was sprawled out on every comfortable surface, too tired to move.
"We have fewer injuries," Usopp replied. He and Luffy were sprawled out on the floor, sharing a pillow. "Our strategies took out more of Kaidou's crew, which nearly made us even in number of combatants."
Nodding absently, Nami added, "We didn't need Tama's help this time." Nami told him, "Last time, without her Kibi dangos, it could have been a longer, more fearsome fight."
"With Kaidou going right after Luffy and Luffy using his Gear Fifth immediately, it only improved our odds for success," Sanji said as he entered the room with his trolley. "Alright, you knuckleheads," he growled as he prodded Luffy with the tip of his shoe, "Time for breakfast." He picked a plate with a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich with a serving of cut fruit that he handed Nami and Robin; he gave a quick soup made with coconut milk, lemongrass, yam, and grated apple.
Everyone waited until Luffy took his first bite to begin eating. The conversation drifted from there. Ace, Sabo, and Reiju had remained on Onigashima with Cesar to raid Queen's labs. Momo and the Akazaya Kunin Otoko had gone to the Flower Capital to declare their victory over Orochi and Kaidou. The Flower Festival would continue, but people now had a reason to celebrate.
The long journey to reach this point had come to an end. After this, they would have a massive party because Luffy could not throw a wild party after defeating an enemy. But for now, Nami basked in just being with her crew. They were safe and whole, and most importantly, they survived to see another dawn.
The End