Author's note:
Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions, but there were so many good choices.
For our first song, I picked the All Might Song by Divide Music as I thought Whitebeard and him had rather a lot in common.
(Marco POV)
When they had first started their offensive, things had gone rather well. And even now, they were making progress, slowly but steadily pushing the marines back towards the execution platform. Or so it seems at first glance.
Thing is, he is Whitebeard's first division commander and that came with a higher vantage point than most, both figuratively and literally. Which meant, he was very well aware of how fragile the balance of the battle currently was. What made matters worse was how the marines still hadn't committed many of their strongest fighters, while on their side only Whitebeard had not yet entered the field. Admittedly, it was his very presence at their backs which held the admirals, fleet commander and Garp in check, so in a way he was doing more than most by just standing there.
Sadly, that also meant that as far as reserves went, they were completely spent and all it would take was a few of the shichibukai to join the fighting for the balance to tip into some very dangerous territory.
Not to brag, but Marco knew that he was one of the few members of his crew who could fight the warlords on even footing. Thus, in order to regain some amount of tactical flexibility, he needed to be freed up and moved to the reserves.
"Just stay down, yoi!"
Thing is that the marine leadership were sadly not comprised of birdbrains so they were aware of this as well. And being their not-birdbrain selves, the marine leadership were doing an effective job at pinning him down by sending in Onigumo. The vice admiral was objectively seen far weaker than Marco and that by a long mile, but still too much of a threat to ignore and leave to his thinly stretched crewmates.
At this point, Onigumo wasn't even trying to win against him any longer. Instead, he had opted to turtle up and devote everything to defending himself against his flames, stalling for time. Combined with how Marco was forced to divide his attention between the annoyance and the entire battlefield, the vice admiral was able to hold on tenaciously.
And whenever Marco even thought of pulling back, Onigumo would make threatening movements towards Whitebeard, drawing him back into the fight. If Marco being forced to engage was a tactical challenge, Whitebeard having to spend his limited stamina prematurely would be an unmitigated disaster Marco and crew had to avoid at all costs.
"This is getting very annoying, yoi." Marco complains before spewing out a stream of fire towards the vice admiral. "I don't have time to waste on you, yoi!"
"Justice shall triumph, pirate!" Onigumo snarls, crisscrossing his many arms to shield his face. "It is inevitable!"
Marco responds by kicking him in his stomach instead, launching the marine into several of his comrades. It wasn't enough and the spider was back moments later, a black sheen slowly receding from his abdomen, but damn if that didn't feel satisfying.
Still, this was a problem with fanatics. It was always absolute justice this, pirate that…seriously, no originality to be found anywhere. Even the way he fought was boring. Block, block, block, block…nothing but blocks. If he thought he could get away with it, Marco was sorely tempted to grab him, fly over to the ocean and drop him into it. But sadly, the man had a pair of seastone handcuffs conspicuously hanging from his belt, almost as if it's a warning for him to not try precisely that.
And it was such a beautiful day for flying too.
(Rivers POV)
It was such a beautiful day for flying. If it were any other day in any other place, Rivers would love nothing more than to sit on Fuza's back and enjoy the sky. Unfortunately, it was this day in this place and Rivers was a man on a mission.
Wiping some nervous sweat from his brow, Rivers refocuses on the chaos unfolding below. Nobody seemed to be paying him any real attention, just like Bellamy had said, trying to reassure him that the admirals weren't going to shoot him out of the sky.
In their eyes, Rivers was a gnat who couldn't possibly pose a threat. And those for whom Rivers was a threat wouldn't be able to hit him up here. Now, if Rivers went around delivering plasma bolts to the marines, the admirals would likely change their minds about his threat level, but Rivers had a different delivery in his back pocket. And in his giant backpack. Something that was going to change the course of this war, drastically. Or so Byron and Bellamy had believed.
Tone dials.
Lots and lots of tone dials.
It's difficult to overstate just how many dials they had brought back from Skypiea. For one, vearth was ridiculously valuable before the liberation of Shandia and even then, it was something in short enough supply that Bellamy had had no issue with the amount they traded their cargo of dirt for. Add to that the gifts from the grateful skypieans and everything they had scavenged while scouring the place for gold…there was a reason the Black Pearl had a cargo hold significantly larger than their old ship.
And tone dials were some of the most common types available and some of the most useless in combat. Or they were until a madman (his captain) and a genius (Byron) put their heads together. Add a dash of dial-mechanical competence into the mix à la Laki and the result was the figurative sack of bombs he was about to rain down upon the battlefield.
He wasn't the only one either. Sarquiss was preparing to do the same a ways to his left while Aisa carried a sack three times larger than her body with laughable ease to his right. Bellamy had worried that she would be a target, but she also had monstrous mantra…haki so she'd be fine.
"Let's go, buddy." Rivers pats his partner's neck and Fuza responds by reducing his speed a little. Just enough that they would get a good spread as Rivers upends his sack in a controlled manner, letting out a steady stream of dials. Fuza just opens his own in a single burst of tone dials, causing them to land in an awfully concentrated manner near Whitebeard's flagship.
A quick glance tells him that Sarquiss has distributed his, mainly on the ice where more of those robots were trying to carve their way through Whitebeard's allies while Aisa's had seeded hers in an arc spanning the whole frontline.
"Alright, time to return to ship."
And as they all speed away from Marineford, he can faintly hear the thousands of dials activating…all at once.
Who knew you could install timers on those things?
(Marco POV)
For a moment, the battlefield froze as every combatant stopped to locate the source of the music suddenly filling the air.
It wasn't just one instrument either. Guitars of different shapes and sizes, an array of brass, percussion in half a dozen types with a grand piano to top it off…it was a veritable rock band.
It was everywhere, ringing from every direction, loud but not unpleasant. Instead, it made his heart pump harder, energizing him and lightening his body. His opponent on the other hand looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Then, a dulcet baritone started singing.
They see me rise when all hope seems lost.
"Don't be afraid" I proclaim from the rooftops!
Because I. Am. He-re.
Through many battles I have been tested. I never failed, never have been bested.
Feeling almost buoyed by the music, Marco shot forward to slug his opponent in the face, the vice admiral's guard coming up a fraction too late. It wasn't anything jaw dropping, but Marco had just moved faster.
"Now isn't this interesting, yoi?"
One for All! Coursing through as I. Stand. Tall! No threat will ever take hoo-oold.
One for All! Coursing through as I. Stand. Tall! No threat will ever take hoo-oold.
Even a cursory glance lets him know that it's not just him feeling this. All around him he can witness the same phenomenon taking place, his allies suddenly more energetic and lighter on their feet. In contrast, the marines were ever so slightly more sluggish than before. But the effect is definitely noticeable.
Keep a smile on my face no matter the cost.
When they see me they already know they have lost.
They know that they have already lost.
In a battle between strong individuals, the outcome was often decided by the little things, the normally insignificant details. An unfortunately placed pebble to slightly disturb one's footing, a flash of light to obscure one's sight causing the direction of the punch to deviate a tiny amount…small variables with a great effect. The music? That clearly qualified as a variable.
Hear the crowds of people chant my name.
You're just a fool thinking we are the same.
You should be ashame-ed.
Marco can't help but let his indifferent mask fall, even as he cracks his knuckles in a promise of pain.
"Time for round two, yoi." Marco grins, stepping towards his opponent who for the first time in this fight is looking uncertain.
Things were looking up.
One for All! Coursing through as I. Stand. Tall! No threat will ever take hoo-oold.
(Bellamy POV)
"Captain, what do you know about music?"
Even before Marineford had come into view, it had been obvious that something had changed. Perhaps it was my latent haki or maybe that was just my wishful thinking, but I could feel a shift taking place.
"At its most basic, music is a collection of sounds and tones, arrayed in certain patterns."
By the time the battle became visible, even a layman could tell who had the upper hand. True, what I could see were just the outskirts of Aokiji's glacial plate, but it was here that the marines had dispatched their secret weapons.
"Sounds are the consequence of air vibrations reaching your ear, before being transmitted via a complex system of membranes, bones and nerves into your brain."
I knew firsthand how strong a pacifista was and Eddy would carry a scar his entire life from our encounter with one. Despite Luffy one-shotting a pacifista after the timeskip, these were monsters that even seasoned New World crews had struggled against in canon.
"But music is more than just the sum of its basic parts. It is the art of combining those sounds to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion."
Whitebeard's allies were pushing the robots back, displaying the strength of a New World Veteran for all the world to see. Haki was being liberally used, in some cases caving in the armor plating with ease, much to the horror of the marines.
"The key word here is emotion. We are led by them, raised by them, and felled by them. Humans are creatures of emotion."
I imagine Akainu is frothing at the mouth, as is whoever is in charge of the government budget. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, the robot having its arms chopped off by Squard costs about as much as a warship to construct.
"Surely you've heard of individuals accomplishing incredible feats of strength in states of heightened emotion."
Turning my gaze, I find the Moby Dick just in time to see Marco flinging someone straight into the sky. I'd be very surprised if anybody other than Kaido could survive that fall. Or Luffy, but Luffy is Luffy.
"Now imagine what could be possible if one could induce, stimulate and manipulate an individual's emotions at will."
Similar scenes are playing out all over the frozen bay, pirates regaining a second wind as increasingly hard-pressed marines try to doggedly stem the tide. They try.
"Like I mentioned previously, music is an art. And like all art, it is very subjective. What may set a man alight with intense passion may have the opposite effect on another, sending him spiraling into despair."
With how obvious their delivery had been, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where the music is coming from. Nor is it particularly difficult to connect the dots and point to the dials as the cause of the current shift in balance.
"A good musician is one who can induce a single emotion in his audience."
Skirmishes break out all along the frontline as enterprising marines attempt to destroy the dials while the pirates seek to stymie their efforts with everything they've got. But as more and more officers break ranks to destroy any dials they can reach, the formerly orderly battle lines of the marines break down into a chaotic brawl. One in which individual prowess matters more than organized teamwork.
"A great musician is one who can tailor his performance to his audience, delivering the emotional experience they truly desire. And hence, the effect is ever greater."
Prompted perhaps by the rapidly deteriorating situation or at Sengoku's urging, Kizaru is the first of the admirals to take action. A singular leap affords him the vantage point from whence to rain down pinpoint bolts of light, accurately sniping hundreds of exposed dials with every volley. Eventually, the music dies down.
"But a master…a master's music results in a thousand hearts with a thousand emotions brought force by a single performance."
Then again, the dials were only meant to buy us time get into position. Far enough away to be reasonably safe while close enough that our new speakers would have no issue reaching the far reaches of the battlefield. Mikes were set up, as were the lights and mirrors. The orchestra was filled by Byron's past selves, stored within three dozen tone dials.
"Like a master swordsman only cuts what he intends to cut, one only feels what a master musician desires you to feel."
Kizaru may have stopped our dials from playing their music, but those had just been recordings. A pale shadow of what could be. After all, as everybody knows, the best concert is always…
"And I am a master musician."
…live.
Author's note:
And Marineford begins. The climax won't be for another 3-4 chapters so sit back and (hopefully) enjoy the ride.
To clarify what is happening, Byron is basically a DnD bard whose main ability is applying buffs and debuffs via his music.
Not that much direct combat potential as of yet but certainly a very powerful ability on a battlefield.
Considering how strong the people involved are, I feel as if a 5-10% buff/debuff (effectively 20% difference) could make a big difference in the outcome of some of those fights.
P.S. As always, comments and discussions make me happy.