Part 2! Thank you to Muscleini again.
A quick friendly reminder to all of you on Pa treon to vote in my monthly guaranteed update poll! I'm not able to update everything as often as I'd like, but at least the update poll lets y'all pick out one story that's for sure coming back next month. HHEX usually wins but I know for a fact that there are a LOT of people on my pa treon who joined for this story specifically that aren't voting.
Thanks for your patience!
X
"Pick him up? Why don't you just—gah!"
Captain Nezumi frustratedly slammed the speakerphone back down on the transponder snail as the line dropped. That Mihawk was making things needlessly difficult.
He allowed himself a few seconds to get his emotions under control. He huffed, and puffed, and—
His body froze halfway through taking a breath.
Hold on. Thinking about it a little more…
Slowly, his eyes widened and lit up in a sudden moment of ingenuity.
An amused snort escaped him. Then a giggle.
Then a full blown laugh.
This was fine, wasn't it? This was more than fine! Perfect, even! He could collect Monkey D. Luffy himself. With his own two hands! There would be no doubt in anyone's mind that he, Marine Captain Nezumi, was the one who captured the greatest pirate in the East Blue.
The best part: he wouldn't even have to lift a finger. It was almost too good to be true.
What men did he have on hand? Maybe he'd—
The transponder snail rang again.
He stared at it blankly for a moment before answering.
"This is Captain Nezumi."
"There's another marine branch on my island."
That voice was one that he knew well. The rat-like man's mouth flapped about silently before he found his words.
"Arlong! A pleasure as always."
A loud crash resounded from the other end of the line. The marine flinched.
"I want them gone, Nezumi! There are too many variables at play already. I want your little friends out of my hair before I reach Cocoyasi. This is a threat, and don't you dare think otherwise."
He was rendered speechless.
Cocoyasi? Why Cocoyasi, of all places!?
Tax Collection? Now, of all times? There was supposed to be a schedule in place! They were supposed to split profits! Was that bastard holding out on him?
Unless.
Unless…
Ah, ah. He knew about Straw Hat. That was it, right? That must be it. He wanted that bounty. And what a fat bounty it was.
Little did he know that Dracule Mihawk already did the heavy lifting here. Straw Hat was incapacitated.
…Oh. Oh no. That wouldn't do at all. Would Arlong take undue credit? It was not a pirate's place to benefit from the work of the marines.
No! Not at all.
"Of course!," he could only say. "I'll deal with it right away."
That stupid fishman. Who was he to tell Nezumi around like that? He was lucky that he still had use for him, but one day, there would be a reckoning.
"I mean it. If things don't go as they should, we'll both be the ones in the dirt."
..What? What did Arlong mean by that?
He didn't even have the opportunity to inquire further. He, too, hung up on him.
Nezumi gnashed his teeth.
He wouldn't play second-fiddle. Not to Arlong. Not to Smoker. That pirate thought he could boss him around? Well he wasn't the only one with plans.
Forget calling Smoker. He had to get to Cocoyasi before Arlong if he had any intention of collecting the game that his warlord left him. His ship was already circling the archipelago, thankfully. He was a man of quick wits! Given recent happenings it was only natural that he had the presence of mind to hover closeby.
"Men!" he exclaimed. Within seconds, the room swarmed with marines. He smirked. "We make our way to Cocoyasi village with all due haste. Not a second can be wasted."
X
Captain Smoker sneered miserably at the head of Buggy the Clown placed dead-centre on his small, fold-out table turned makeshift desk. He took a deep drag of his cigar to calm his nerves.
"Quit playing around," the marine demanded, though at this point he was practically begging. He was done with all of this. "Just tell me. You were perfectly happy to sell out Straw Hat up until now."
"I told you!" the clown snapped back exasperatedly. "I'm not playing shit! I! Don't! Know!"
Smoker wanted to pull his hair out.
"Tell me who the zoan devil fruit user is!" he screamed for what felt like the hundredth time. "The white dog! The woman who infiltrated my ship and made a fool of me! Of my men!"
Why was he being so obtuse? It was clear that Buggy the Clown was familiar enough with the crew and that there was no love lost between them, given his… current bodily status.
"I don't know a white dog!" the head hissed. He looked just about ready to cry. "There's that straw-hat moron of a captain, the Pirate Hunter, that two-faced, sneaky bi—"
"Say that again."
Buggy narrowed his eyes confusedly.
"Say what agai—ack!"
He was lifted up by his hair. The clown's eyes grew wide as saucers as he found himself not a thumb's width away from Smoker's scowl. Gnashing teeth and bulging veins fought to contain his fury.
"The Pirate Hunter," the captain spat flatly. The smoke leaving the marine's nostrils was so potent that the pirate's eyes started to water.
"Yes!?"
"Roronoa Zoro."
"What else do you want me to say!? Yes—hmf!"
Smoker dropped Buggy and let him fall face-first back onto the desk. He marched out of his borrowed office with purpose, his face contorted in such fury that he nearly chomped his cigar in half.
He pulled out a second one for good measure, peeling off its tip with a fingernail.
He had been led by the nose by the Straw Hats again. Roronoa mentioned the zoan user to lower his guard. To put his mind on other matters, while this whole time, they were working together to extract the two pirates that he had managed to capture..
He kept telling himself that he wouldn't underestimate this one, and yet…
"Captain!" one of his men called out to him as he marched by. "The head chef wanted me to tell you—"
"Tell me later," he grumbled, not missing a step. "Follow me."
"S-Sir!"
The marine didn't know what was going on or why he was needed, but his commanding officer had given an order and he wasn't about to ask questions. They swiftly made their way down to the Baratie's cargo hold, which had temporarily been converted into a place to lock up the pirates as they found them.
The first sign that something was wrong made itself evident almost instantly. Marine officers were strewn across the floor and sprawled over crates of produce. The second sign was the most damning, however, as the metal cage used to hold the two pirates had been pried open through unknown means.
Without anyone on the ship having noticed, Roronoa Zoro, former pirate hunter, had escaped along with his accomplices.
All three, members of pirate captain Monkey D. Luffy's crew.
"Gather everyone on deck," he ordered calmly. We're marching to Arlong Park."
He'd have things his way, one way or another.
X
Nami didn't know what to do.
She stood over a borderline-unresponsive Luffy, who had been dragged into her house and laid down on her old bed. All he could do was track her with half-lidded eyes, the only sign that he was lucid at all.
Dracule Mihawk didn't injure him much, if at all, despite saying that he had come to kill him. Was he sick? Debilitating lethargy wasn't a symptom of any illness that she knew of.
Everything changed when the warlord put those handcuffs on him.
Her eyes trailed down to his wrists.
They had tried everything they could to get those things off. Chisels, lock-picks… nothing had worked. They wouldn't budge. What the hell were those damn things made of?
Only one thing was certain now, and that was that Luffy was in no position to fight Arlong when the fishman inevitably showed himself.
She was frustrated.
Frustrated that things panned out this way. Frustrated at him for dragging a warlord into this mess.
…Frustrated at herself for being the reason why he was like this.
"Nami," he called out to her weakly. "I'm sorry."
She clenched her fists.
"There's nothing that could have been done," an older man's voice told them.
She turned around to see Genzo walk into the room, followed closely by Sanji. If they were put off by her expression of pure apathy, neither one showed it.
The town's sheriff put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"If what you say about Arlong is true… we can only rely on ourselves, for now. Keep your chin up, Girl."
The man had taken their explanation for what was going on pretty well, all things considered. But then again, that was just how he was. Genzo had never shown his weak side to her and he probably never would.
"I know," she answered simply.
What else was she supposed to say? There was no turning back now. She had played her hand. The world had deemed it necessary to rip that hand from her fingers and toss it to the wind, but hey.
"You're unbelievably strong," Sanji told Luffy straightforwardly. The guy couldn't muster the strength to say anything in return, though he did turn his head toward the blond. "The fact of the matter is… to Dracule Mihawk, I was nothing. I couldn't do a thing to him, no matter how hard I tried."
None of them knew what to say to that. If nothing else, Sanji was willing to be much more self-aware than she had originally given his ego credit for. Not that it made a difference, in the end.
"With that said," he continued, turning to her with a frown of conviction, "I'll still give it my all against Arlong. I'll fight to the death if I have to."
"I'd rather you didn't," she answered sombrely.
"Nami!" Genzo said chidingly, but she didn't care.
She appreciated Sanji. She really did. But why did people have to keep dying for them? He wasn't from Cocoyasi. He wasn't from here. Arlong wasn't his problem.
It was never meant to be anyone's problem but her own.
If Sanji took her words poorly, he didn't show it. He smirked.
"Me too."
A snort escaped her before she cut it short. This guy…
"Sanji."
They all turned to Luffy. Sometime during the blond's little speech, he had managed to force himself upright despite laboured breathing and skin caked in sweat.
Nami tapped his elbow lightly, trying to get him to lay back down.
"Don't waste your energy—"
Luffy laughed. It was weaker than it should have been, but it was oddly genuine.
A big smile split his pale and clammy face.
"I'm super ashamed!" he exclaimed in a jovial tone of voice that didn't match his words at all. "I'm stuck like this for now, so I'll have to leave it to you."
All three of them were taken aback. What a strange thing to say.
Sanji knew better than anyone how odd his words were. From his perspective, the kid had been bickering with him about it all day.
It was the first time that he had called him by name, even.
"Right," was all the blond could think to say.
After a few more tense seconds of not knowing how to process Luffy being… himself, Nami felt herself deflate; she let out a long sigh and allowed her shoulders to slump forward.
"Please help us however you can, Sanji-kun," she asked the man. "In the meantime, I'll keep trying to help Luffy. We'll figure something out."
The blond's smile was small yet unmistakable. Genzo's smile, in contrast, nearly split his face in half.
They heard the sound of rapid footsteps running up wooden stairs. They turned to the door in time to see a frantic-looking Nojiko throw it open.
"The marines are here!"
Genzo and Sanji tried to exit the room, but the blue-haired girl stopped them.
"It's best if the both of you stay here for now," she muttered. "You're not supposed to be here to begin with, so it'll rouse less suspicion this way."
Nami only then processed her sister's words. Before the others could do anything, she shoved her way past Nojiko and ran out the door as quickly as possible.
Indeed, what seemed like a whole division of marine officers was gathered around the middle of the street right in front of their house. A strange rat-like man, seemingly their leader, judging by the oddly form-fitting officer's coat, stepped forward and cleared his throat.
Almost everyone in the village had been gathered from their homes. They stood nearby, most of them shuffling awkwardly on their feet.
For all of two seconds, she had deluded herself into thinking that the marines were here to help them. Then the officer spoke.
"We know that you are harbouring the dangerous criminal Monkey D. Luffy! This is, as I hope you all know, a very serious crime! Tell us where he is now or face the consequences."
She clenched her fists.
So it's like that, then.
The villagers looked uncomfortable with the announcement. That wasn't how anyone expected a Marine to speak, right? After all this time, they had surely come to rescue them.
Nami had met enough of his kind to know better.
This guy didn't care about their problems. He had heard that Luffy was here and wanted to be the one to turn in the bounty. Was he responsible for the warlord showing up? It wasn't impossible.
She recalled what Mihawk spoke into his transponder snail as he left.
Monkey D. Luffy is here. Come get him, if you'd like.
Nami tried to hide her snarl.
Surreptitiously, some of the villagers started sending her guilty-looking glances. As if warring over whether they should sell her out or not.
She was put on edge.
Come on! Do it, then! Do it!
Why wouldn't they? They all hated her, right? Just her luck.
But they never did.
Not that it mattered. Quickly enough, the marine officer caught their gazes and tracked them back to her.
He smiled, though it wasn't a kind thing. Nami felt a shiver run down her spine.
"Oh! I know you! You're Arlong's goon, aren't you? A few things are starting to make sense, actually."
She didn't like the sound of that at all. They knew about Arlong this whole time, then. That confirmed it. Did that mean… the marines were working with that bastard?
Right then, Nojiko met her at the door.
"Nami—"
She grabbed her older sister's wrist, hushing her.
The marine officer walked up to one of the mikan trees and ripped off a fruit, making her wince. The marine pretended not to notice and started to peel it.
"I don't suppose you know where Monkey D. Luffy would happen to be?"
"No, Sir," she answered demurely.
"...Fine. A little bird told me that there's a large sum of illegally seized assets buried somewhere in this yard. Dig it up," the marine officer ordered his men.
They knew about that too.
Nami and Nojiko stiffened. They held each other's hand tightly, as if trying to make the other promise not to act out.
The marines looked a little unsure, not making any immediate moves. This seemed to anger the officer.
"Well?" He snapped at them. "What's the problem? She's a filthy pirate! Get to it!"
The marines were spurred to action, pushing past their moral hangups. As they approached Belle-Mere's mikan grove, Nami bit her lip in an effort to keep her mind off of the inevitability of what was to come.
The first tree was ripped out of the ground and toppled over. The impact knocked a good number of fruit loose from the branches, sending them rolling in every which way.
The rat-faced marine stomped on one, sending its pulp and juices splattering and wetting the dirt underfoot.
"Just tell me what I want to know and we can stop here," the officer bargained, his tone even.
Frustrated tears streamed down Nami's face. A scowling Nojiko hugged her sister to provide some sense of comfort.
She couldn't give in. Not even for this.
The villagers kept their eyes trained on their feet. A pirate was one thing, but how could they go against the government? They weren't stupid. In the end, she couldn't blame them for that.
The rat clicked his tongue and raised a hand. For a moment, they dared to hope.
"Grab the blue-haired one!" he ordered.
Nami panicked as half a dozen men stopped desecrating the last memory she had of her mother and marched up toward her sister.
"Get—off!" she shrieked, but it was to no avail. They were both outnumbered and outgunned here.
The stone-faced marines dragged a kicking and screaming Nojiko before their commanding officer. Nami could practically feel the stricken looks amongst the crowd as the man pulled out a firearm and put it right up to the girl's head.
Nojiko whimpered in surprise. Nami's eyes shot open in panic.
"An ultimatum, then!" the frustrated marine officer growled. "Keep being stupid about this and I kill her! Tell me what I want to know and I will personally instruct Arlong to leave you all alone! He's coming here now, isn't he? Isn't he!?"
"Don't do it!" Nojiko mustered the bark to shout out to her.
Nami couldn't feel her heart hammering painfully against her chest even if she knew it to be doing just that.
She couldn't feel much of anything.
This couldn't be happening.
The marines couldn't have Luffy. He was their only hope. He was supposed to be their only hope. If she had to give up her money for him to live, she'd do that. If she had to give up Belle-Mere's mikan for him to live, she would do that. If she had to give up her own life for him to live, she would do that.
They were lying, right? It was obvious. This marine was a crooked little shit. Why would he tell Arlong to leave them alone? He probably didn't even have the authority.
But he did have a gun pointed at her sister's head. Nojiko was about to die.
Nojiko was Nami's favourite person. Nojiko wasn't allowed to die. Nami couldn't imagine being responsible for her own sister's death.
They had lost. Luffy couldn't help them anymore.
Silently, she stepped out of the way of the door and turned her head to look inside.
They all knew what that meant. None more so than Nojiko.
The older girl gasped.
"Nami, you idiot!"
The rat marine laughed his evil little heart out.
"You're keeping him in your house?" he deduced with an underlying tone of incredulity. "Are you stupid? You didn't even bother hiding him a little better?"
At this point, the jibes meant nothing to Nami. She watched numbly as a group of marines rushed into the house.
She led them up the stairs.
As the door to her room opened, Sanji and Genzo stood alert and faced her.
"Nami!" Sanji exclaimed, lone visible eye widened. "What's—"
"Please don't interfere," she told him plainly. She walked up to them and placed her hands on their chests to keep them in place as the marines followed after her.
She could feel Sanji and Genzo jump a little at the sight of their presence. They scowled at the squadron of men furiously, but to her relief, they didn't try anything. They were trusting her judgement, for now.
She was thankful.
The marines pulled a confused Luffy off the bed. In his current state, all he could do was smile at her in silent confusion.
You moron. Don't you get it? I sold you out.
He called her his friend; it was his own fault for trusting a girl like her.
She was a rotten woman from the moment she was born. Even Belle-Mere, saint of a mother as she was, couldn't curb her two-faced nature. She stole. She lied. And when it came down to it, she was happy to trade the lives of others for her own selfish wants.
That never changed. That would never change. Right now, she would trade Luffy's life for her sister's. For her village. For everything she spent her whole damn life toiling over.
For everything she suffered for.
It only made sense, right?
She watched apathetically as the marines pulled the stumbling man down the stairs. He kept hitting his head; she knew something like that wouldn't hurt him normally, but every crack sounded so fragile.
So human.
Like a worthless mutt, the hundred and fifty six million beri man was thrown before the widely-grinning rat. In the time that she'd gone upstairs, the rest of the marines had already unearthed her small fortune and began sifting through it.
"How impressive," the rat mused, humour in his voice. With a wave of his hands, the marines let Nojiko go. The girl ran into her sister's arms.
"Nami," Genzo uttered her name under his breath. Surely, he was ashamed of her. Like he always had been. It was nothing more than what she expected.
Sanji's expression was unreadable.
Nami held onto her sister like a lifeline.
"What did you do…" Nojiko muttered into her shoulder, her voice nary a whisper.
Nami paid that voice no mind.
The rat clapped.
"Well then! Burn the grove to the ground."
The announcement should have felt like a nail in her heart. Nami couldn't find her voice, for whatever reason.
"That wasn't part of the deal!" Nojiko screamed.
"You're right," the rat agreed with that disgusting smile of his. "It wasn't! I gave you your sister and I will speak with Arlong. Everything beyond that is my own business, I fear."
It was then that Nami noticed that one of the Marines had been carrying a flameflower. This whole time.
Hah. What a joke.
That marine stepped forward, prepped his weapon—
"Hm!"
What the hell…
The marine looked down at his feet in surprise. A weakened Luffy, barely conscious, reached out his tied arms to grab the uniformed man's ankle.
"Stay away… from my friend's treasure."
The words that left his mouth didn't make sense to her at first. She couldn't make heads or tails of them.
She snapped.
"You idiot!" she screamed at him. "Dumbass! Imbecile! What the hell do you think you're doing!? Get away!"
She didn't get it. She didn't get it. Why?
He should have figured out by now that he was just a tool! A means to an end for her!
Spend a little more time worrying about yourself if you have any intentions of living.
He didn't answer. That pissed her off. What was with this guy and only answering questions when he felt like it, huh!?
"None of it matters, Luffy," she muttered darkly. "It doesn't matter. None of this matters."
"What the hell are you talking about!?" he screamed.
She took a step back. It was the loudest he'd been since his fight with the pirate warlord.
He huffed, trying to catch his breath.
"None of this matters? Then how come, this whole time… Nami… Even now, aren't you crying!?"
What was he on about now?
A trembling hand was brought up to her cheek.
It was wet. Still?
Her ears felt hot. There was a pressure behind her eyes; her face must've been completely flushed.
An errant sob escaped her lips. The hand was quickly slapped over them, sealing her mouth shut.
She could feel an endless stream of tears trickling through the cracks of her fingers.
Why was there such an intense pit of shame pressing against her chest?
There should have been no such thing. She made a choice. It was the right choice because it was the only choice available to her. A million times over, if she had to choose between the only thing that ever mattered and her captain—
She could barely see through her blurry, squinted eyes, so full were they. Her hand was pressed against her mouth so tightly that it hurt.
The marines took Luffy's actions as a sudden act of hostility. Those with firearms quickly had them pointed at his head.
"Wait, wait!" the rat shrieked at them. "He has to be alive, you hear me? Alive!"
"I've seen enough," Nami heard Sanji declare behind her.
The marines, distracted as they were, didn't catch sight of the chef sprinting up to them before it was too late. In a swift motion that would have been beyond the means of a normal man, he threw a kick that took out a dozen marines in a single strike.
Not a single person expected that to happen. Genzo, Nami and Nojiko watched it in shock. Agitated murmurs broke out amongst the crowd that had been deathly silent until now.
The rat scowled, sweat dripping down his chin.
"Y-you!" he shouted, pointing a finger at the blond. "You're interfering with an arrest! You assaulted World Government Marines! You'll be branded a criminal for this!"
Seemingly unbothered by the threat, Sanji pulled out a box of cigarettes from the pocket of Nojiko's shorts and popped one between his lips. He didn't seem to have a lighter on him.
"Is that so?" was his noncommittal reply.
It angered the rat further.
"Take him out!" he ordered. In a moment, the full attention of the marines was shifted from Luffy and the mikan grove to Sanji.
Nami's worry for the man lasted all of two seconds. He weaved his way through the droves of soldiers like they weren't even an inconvenience, let alone armed men. One at a time, two at a time, three at a time… he struck them all down with nothing but kicks delivered with masterful execution.
Before anyone knew it, the only marine left standing was the rat himself. He was trembling in his boots.
"Y-you… You! I'll—"
Sanji planted his foot in the rat's face. Throughout all of this, his bored expression remained unchanged.
The silence that followed was rudely interrupted by Luffy's boisterous laughter.
Sanji turned to them, finally offering a thin smile.
"Anyone have a lighter?" he asked. "I left mine inside; it's been causing me problems."
Nami broke away from Nojiko and stumbled toward Luffy like a toddler that barely knew how to walk. She fell down to her knees next to him and stared down at his stupid, tired, smiling face.
She didn't get it. She didn't get it. She didn't get it.
He was supposed to be angry at her. Cursing her out.
"Nami! Your tears are falling on my face. It tickles."
He really was an idiot.
Because of her, he…
"Nami-chan!"
She weakly looked over her shoulder. Sanji had made his way back to Nojiko and Genzo; the three of them had started discussing matters with the villagers.
He smiled at her again, this time more confidently. The cigarette pinched between his teeth was lit now; someone must have given him a light.
"I'm no warlord, but I can still hold my own," he told her. "You can all put your faith in me."
She mustered a smile of her own: one that was in equal parts thankful and apologetic.
I see that now.
She turned her attention back to Luffy.
"It turns out I'm the idiot, I think," she told him simply
"I know!" he agreed with some amount of cheer. However much he could manage, at least.
Her smile widened brightly; her eyes crinkled as she was overwhelmed with emotion.
No, he really didn't.
X
"I can't believe I let him trick me!"
The few fishmen that remained at Arlong Park were stuck between awkwardly trying to comfort Hatchan and burying their faces into their webbed palms exasperatedly.
"I'm sure he was very persuasive," one of them offered unconvincingly.
Another one sighed.
"It won't make a difference in the end, right? Since Arlong-san is—"
He was elbowed in the side. The perpetrator shot a pointed side-eye toward the elephant in the room.
Or the oni, rather.
That strange woman that Arlong seemed to have taken a liking to, Yamato, was sitting cross-legged near the pool, seemingly lost in thought. As if feeling their eyes on her, she snapped out of her thoughts and smiled at them apologetically.
"I'm sorry! That man was able to escape because I wasn't focused. I should have been paying attention."
They put their hands up as disarmingly as possible.
"Don't worry about it!"
"Not your fault.
"Don't sweat it."
Arlong-san had asked her to stick around while he took the others to deal with Nami. What was up with that? She seemed receptive enough of the idea, at least.
Both her motives and Arlong-san's were a total mystery to them. Why was she hanging around with fishmen in the first place? She appeared out of nowhere, and as far as they were told, she was only on the island because she was looking for someone. There wasn't much "looking" going on as far as they were concerned.
Arlong-san was smart, though, so there was definitely a reason.
But then again…
Before he left, Arlong made sure to warn them: they were not to tell this person anything about the Arlong Pirates' business on the islands.
They might not survive what she'd do to them, he said. If Arlong-san of all people was scared of this woman, then…
Keeping her happy and mollified was an easy enough task, they had quickly discovered, but that didn't mean the enigma surrounding her didn't weigh on them heavily.
She suddenly rose to her feet. They flinched despite themselves.
Why was—
A loud knock was heard against the gates of Arlong Park. Everyone was immediately on guard.
Did she sense that was coming, somehow?
None of them answered, obviously. Arlong was gone for now; they weren't expecting any guests.
There was nothing for a moment, then the doors burst inward. Droves of marines stormed the fishman retreat, led by a white-haired human that might have been just as big as a fishman himself.
A raid?
The present fishmen panicked, but got ready for a fight regardless. They were left behind because they were roughed up from earlier, but a bunch of humans were no match for the might of a superior species, no matter their condition.
The white-haired marine seemed to lock onto Yamato right away; she was as cool as a cucumber. He snarled and marched up to her with purpose.
"You!" he growled. "Why is Monkey D. Luffy working with Arlong the Saw?"
Her look of confidence was replaced with one of confusion.
"Huh? I don't—"
A wave of haki washed over them.
X
She nearly bit her tongue.
The fishmen were knocked unconscious. So were most of the marines. The only ones still standing in the park were Yamato, visibly startled, and a Marine captain left in a similar, if worse state.
It was the Colour of Conquerors. But who—?
The sound of something hitting the ground broke the tense silence. Both of them snapped their necks toward the source of the noise, finding a man in a dark yet flashy attire shoving an unconscious fishman off of his chair and taking it for himself.
"Dracule Mihawk," Smoker uttered breathlessly. Yamato faced him with a furrowed brow. The name wasn't familiar to her.
An ostentatious feathered hat cast a shadow over the unfamiliar man's eyes.
"Neither one of you is particularly bright, though I've found that it's not a unique affliction, unfortunately," the man muttered, his voice void of any energy. "There's nothing worth anyone's time here. Move things along to centre stage, would you? I only have so much patience for errands."