Hello, all! It's finally time to get into Film Z proper, but I think we can afford to have a little bit of fun before everything goes to ish, yeah? Let me know what you think, about all of it!
As usual, a shoutout and thank you to all my Patrons who keep me going and recieved Chapter 40 today: Alex P, Andrew Bohl, Animephilosopher1, Ankhseram123, Anna Khuu, Ant Franklin, Badmr7, Cam Bliss, Christopher Mitchell, Clark Kent, Claude Walker, Cordell Sanders, Cory Johnston, David Bowling, David Reynolds, Emi Stafford, Eric Bandel, Eugene Malone Jr., EvilJelly, Fenrir ragnarok, Garvin Lee Nelson-Mathlin, GODA98, Illiasse Naji, Inucbus, Jacob McCarthy, JEP1010, John Mekjian, Jonathan Moh, Jordanitos, Joseph Baty, Joseph Morrison, Joseph Vargas, Joshua Groves, Julien digot, Kcx1, Kevin Calderon, Korakas, Kyo Anamoto, Lamont Hale, Marielle Orff, Markoos, Matthew Burley, McBanjo, Mcgin28, Milagros Peres Davila, Milla, Rafael Cardenas, Ranger Ellis, Richard Barkley, Riley Bolerjack, Ryuu, Sasha, TheWolfThatExist, Thomas Sanders, Tom Peissig, ToonTownTourist, Ty Chaos, and ViewtifulSoul,
Chapter 30:
A Hard Right Turn
The Marine base of Firs Island was broken, masses of rock and rubble scattered over the earth as far as to the beach. Lava exploded from the re-awakened volcano that had made the island thousands of years ago, its heat burning away whatever plant life had eked out a shot at life in the otherwise barren land. The molten rock washed over whatever wasn't outright caught on fire, ruining any chance it had of survival.
One man watched this scene with a frown, his eyes hidden behind his shades which reflected the red glow of the eruption he'd caused. Short purple hair waved lightly in the seaward breeze caused by expanding hot air, the heat nothing more than a mild inconvenience. He was dressed in mostly black and gray, but his most notable feature was the arm that was the same size as the rest of his muscular body. Said appendage was completely metal from the elbow down, loops, wires, and tubes running over and through it in a masterpiece of engineered destruction.
Disappointment deepened his frown as the lava overtook the corpses of the marines that had, until that afternoon, sworn to protect the base and that which it contained with their lives. Though they had lived up to their life-long commitment, their sacrifice had been in vain, the earth now swallowing them leaving their bodies in the same state as their wishes: nonexistent.
He considered the peace of death a cold comfort to their failure, but he'd sworn to do what needed to be done, no matter who got in his way.
One of the retreating ships exploded behind him, the man turning with surprise at the sound. Debris and smoke still flew through the air from the wreckage, many of the lights aboard the once-vessel crying out in shock before being silenced forever.
"Hoh?" a voice breathed, the man barely turning his eye to see a figure in yellow and white out of his peripheral. "When Sakazuki said I'd meet you here, Sensei, I didn't know if I really would. It seems that prediction was spot-on. It's too bad it looks like I got here just a tad too late."
"Who the Hell are you?" The man turned to fully view the speaker. It was a woman with short, black hair and a suit vertically striped yellow and orange. A Marine Admiral coat flapped from their shoulders, the woman tall enough to stare him in the eye through their orange sunglasses without having to look up. They had a hard, forced smile, like someone trying too hard to relax so they can't relax.
"Oh? You don't recognize me, teach? I guess a lot has changed since you left."
They lifted a finger, only a twinkle giving the man any warning before a beam of light shot toward him. The man's eyes widened behind his shades before his mechanical arm moved, the black sheen of Haki coating its metal as he backhanded the attack where it exploded out over the surf.
"That power," the man muttered, eyeing his opponent's outfit. "Borsalino? Or is it Kizaru, still?"
"It's me, Zephyr-sensei," the Marine Admiral nodded.
"Well… I didn't peg you as someone to get that sort of work done."
One of Kizaru's eyes twitched. "It wasn't by choice, and I've followed every semi-credible lead the last two years trying to track down that damnable Ivankov to force him to change me back."
Z froze, his flesh hand rising to his mouth to try to force down a laugh. He looked away, trying to hide the fact. Even so, Kizaru's eyes still narrowed, his (her? Their?) own Haki picking up the rogue thoughts Z had about the Admiral's plight. One eye twitched again.
"Well Teach, it's not like we really got along in the first place, so I suppose this doesn't bother me too much. Not like it would some of the others." With that, Kizaru shot forward, Z answering in kind.
"I always did tell you you were relying on your Glint-Glint powers too much! It's about time I teach you another lesson!"
Everything exploded.
The sunlight of Alabasta shone down from above and all but reflected from the desert sands on the horizon. Clouds promising rain lazily gathered above, casting their cooling shadows over the capital city of Alubarna as they slowly darkened. Though the drought ended two years ago with the removal of all Dance Powder from the country, rain was still a commodity that could not be ignored.
Vivi sat with her legs just outside the window, watching the scurrying of the capital's citizenry as they prepared for the coming storm. Jars, jugs, urns, and whatever else would hold water and was not in use already were scattered and secured to rooftops across the city with more being added each minute that passed. The soldiers in the courtyard below turned winches and pulled levers as they cleared the pathway for the castle's waterway that led down to the artificial underground reservoir that supplied the city's wells. After the drought and everything she went through to see it ended, watching the waterway open still set her heart racing.
"I thought I'd find you here," a voice said, Kohza leaning against the windowsill as he, too, watched life thrive. "You always come to this window when rain is on the wind."
"I can't help it," Vivi replied. "My life's mission is to see my people thrive and here, in some small way, I can see that my actions have had meaning."
"You're the only one who calls what you did small." Kohza shifted, now looking down at the blue-haired princess as a breeze sent her long hair aflutter. In the past two years, she had barely changed physically, but her aura as a ruler and a to-be monarch caused her to carry herself differently. Only in rare moments did she get to truly relax and just be a young woman. Moments like now. "Because of what you did, every citizen of Alabasta would follow you to the underworld and throw themselves on Anubis' kolpesh if you asked them to."
"Not everyone—"
"The vast majority, myself included." Vivi did not answer, her gaze still locked on the city. The former rebel leader frowned. "What is it, Vi? I can tell something's bothering you."
The princess tried to ignore the query, but Kohza was one of her elite guards and oldest friends. His council was one she trusted above nearly all others. If anyone would listen and give their true, honest opinion without holding back, Kohza would be the one.
"The Revery is coming," she admitted. "I don't know what you know about it, but it's a meeting for all of the biggest royal families of the World Government's countries that happens every decade or so. Every time the Revery happens, something in the world changes. This will be the first time I'm old enough to speak during the meeting, but I'm scared, too."
"You think this will be King Cobra's last one," Kohza deduced, refusing to sugarcoat his words. Vivi flinched. "You're scared of what will happen when you're the one in charge."
"…What gave it away?"
"Besides the fact that I've known you since we were little kids?" Though he tried for a lighter tone, their topic of discussion still left a heavy weight over their shoulders. He sighed, looking out the window so he couldn't read the princess' nonverbals. "Vi, everyone on the guard knows the king isn't as young as he once was. He tries to hide it and joke that the gray hair is just his wisdom finally coming to the surface, but we all know. By Osirus, his being in a wheelchair is the worst-kept secret this side of the Red Line. Everyone in the country knows, all the way down to the lowliest beggar. He's sick, isn't he?"
"…Yes," the princess sighed. "He is."
"Does he know what it is?"
"We've contacted the best doctors around and none of us could give us anything other than stress and old age."
"That doesn't make any sense, though," Kohza said with a shake of his head. "He might be past his prime, but your father is only 50. There has to be some other reason."
Vivi said nothing, the silence growing between them. Her fingers tensed and released as she wrestled with herself, bunching and wrinkling her dress. Kohza picked up on this but did not press her, knowing that any secrets she must be keeping would be for a good reason. He turned after a minute, taking a step away.
"I'll leave you to—"
"During our trade negotiations, we stopped by Sakura to check in with Doctor Kureha, Chopper's teacher," Vivi interrupted, the young woman losing her wind. Kohza froze, refusing to move as she leaned against the windowsill, letting it hold her upright. "She's over 100 and knows everything when it comes to medicine in the first half of the Grand Line. We figured that, since I knew her and we'd tried everything else, there was a chance she'd know something. She found the cause, but said it was too late to do anything."
When she didn't continue after a moment, Kohza sat next to her. He opened his arms in offering, letting the blunette push away from the wall so she could bury her face in the crook of his neck. Tears shimmered in her eyes, her hands balling up fistfuls of his uniform.
"What did she find?" he whispered.
"Poison," Vivi sniffed, a tear rolling down her cheek. Her voice hitched, the woman trying to force her words through the lump in her throat. "One so slow and obscure that only long-term strategists would use it. It comes from Cherry Place, a chemical called Double Grey. When eaten, it makes the body age faster and is used in tiny doses to increase the body's rate of healing."
Kohza's eyes widened as puzzle pieces clicked together in his mind. They narrowed a minute later as a name passed over his tongue, burning at the very mention.
"Crocodile."
Vivi nodded into his shoulder, taking in great breaths. Kohza could feel dampness on his skin, the cloth of his uniform starting to stick to his clavicle. "W-We found a coded journal from the ruins of Rain Dinners. I-It was waterlogged, b-but the desk it was in kept it intact mostly. It detailed all his back-up plans, including his agent inside the kitchens that had been poisoning my father ever since Crocodile arrived. Dad's aging at five times the normal rate now that there's no more Double Grey in his food."
"What about you?" the guard questioned. "You were still here when that bastard showed up."
"I missed most of it because I was gone for those two years. I only got a few months' dosage, but Kureha thinks I'm still aging a little faster than normal. About 1.2 times faster."
"But that means you're losing one year after every five you live!" Kohza gasped. "There must be something we can do! If not for King Cobra, then for you at least!" Vivi shook her head, her arms tugging at his clothing.
"It could've been countered if there was still Double Grey in our blood, but that isn't the case anymore. It's been too long; our bodies have already adapted."
Again, silence fell over the pair, Kohza quietly wrapping the princess in his arms as she cried. He considered her words, looking ahead to what they meant for the future. If this Kureha person's estimates were correct, then the king would've aged ten years over the past two. As much as he didn't want to believe it, that explained how his hair had grayed so quickly and how his state had declined so rapidly to the point where he could not walk for long periods of time.
Vivi pulled herself together after several minutes, wiping her tears away and sitting up away from her lead guard. Kohza barely moved, leaving one comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Dad says he's got four years left at best," she said, her voice downtrodden. "Kureha gave him two and a half. Three with her best medicine. I just… He didn't take the throne until he was 27, but at the rate things are going, I'll have to take over at 23. At the latest. I'm not ready, Koh. I'm not going to be ready. Not after I missed two years of preparation because of that damnable sand lizard."
"That's why he's been pressing you to get married?" Kohza breathed. "He doesn't want to leave you alone?"
"Or he wants to see grandkids." Vivi rolled her eyes at her own joke, but she was thankful it managed to raise her spirits a little. Movement caught her vision, the small head of a News Coo poking up from below the window. It looked sheepish.
"How long have you been there?" Kohza hissed, his eyes narrowing. The bird, unable to speak, held up three feathers, causing the princess to wilt. Kohza glared. "You will not tell your boss what you just heard, got that? If it ends up in a paper, any paper, I will hunt down every last one of you just to be sure I turn you into hamam mahshi. Are we clear?"
The bird nodded quickly, dropping its cargo on the sill before taking wing to flee from the scary human. Kohza shouted threats behind it until the Coo was nothing but a speck against the clouds. He turned back to his princess and charge, only to find her staring at the paper in her hands. He could make out the EMERGENCY stamped over its top, but the timing alone was enough for him to deduce that this was no normal release. Beside him, Vivi had gone rigid, her eyes wide.
"What is it?"
Vivi did not answer, her eyes dancing over the paper over and over again, as if she could not comprehend the words presented. Her fingers shaking, she opened the paper, finding a wanted poster inside. The face thereupon looked somewhat familiar, but Kohza could not place it, nor had Vivi opened the paper enough for him to see the name.
"Vi? Princess Vivi? What is it? What does the paper say?"
Slowly, his words seemed to pierce the haze of her thoughts, the young woman's lips curving from a surprised gasp to a happy smile. She blinked after a moment, her smile settling into pursed lips and focused eyes. She turned.
"Kohza, let's get married."
"…? …! What‽" He gasped, falling backward onto the hallway floor. Vivi followed him with her eyes, noting how his face now looked like he'd been sunburned. "Vivi, that's not the sort of thing you can just say!"
"You don't want to?"
"That's not what I said."
"I'm not hearing a no."
"What in the great Duat's brought this on?" he deflected. "You were complaining about your dad pressing you to get married sooner rather than later just two weeks ago. What's in that paper?"
"It's…" She bit her lip, as if suddenly realizing her reaction might have been a bit over the top. With this realization came a neon blush that spread over the princess' face. Unable to look Kohza in the eye, she handed over the news. "Here."
"It's about the Straw Hats?" he blinked, scanning the first few lines. "Escaped from Sabaody… 'Tri-Horn' Coby… Monkey D. Ace? Why does that sound familiar."
"Luffy's brother Ace died at the Marineford War two years ago," Vivi explained, thankful that the topic diminished her scarlet blush. "We met him here briefly when we first sailed into Nanohana. This, however" —she pulled out the poster, Kohza now able to see that the picture was of a young boy— "is apparently Luffy and Nami's kid. Seeing it… I don't know. I didn't know that they were ready for that, much less planning for such a thing."
"Ok, but what does that have to do with you asking me to marry you?"
"…Lapse in judgement?" she tried. Kohza blinked slowly. "Ok, fine. It's just… They're pirates in the second half of the Grand Line with a kid, and I'm sitting here fretting about ruling a kingdom I've been trained to rule since I could talk. My worries just seemed so small for a moment."
"Uh huh," Kohza muttered. "And this has nothing to do with a friend of yours suddenly having a child? No sudden spark of a maternal instinct?"
"Er… Well… I mean…" Vivi shifted, her blush growing. Her hands bunched up her dress' fabric again, this time much faster than before.
"You know, this really ruins my plans."
"What?" Vivi blinked, turning her eyes to where Kohza was digging in one of his pockets.
"I mean, I had this whole thing planned out with the Sand-Sand Clan and the Super Sonic Duck Squadron. I got your father's blessing and everything so I could ask you at the Festival of Sed a week from now." He pulled out a small box wrapped in Sandoran Catfish leather colored a light blue. Upon opening said box, the fading light caught a shimmering pearl, something incredibly rare for the desert, set on a simple band of gold. "Nefertari Vivi, I know I'm just a commoner and a guard, but you're my best friend and always have been. You're my cohort, co-conspirator, and companion. Wherever you go, I will follow without question until the end of my days. Whatever battles you face are also mine to fight. When—"
"You. Me. Throne room. Now." She grabbed his arm, dragging the man away.
"Wait! I wasn't done!"
"We are about to have a long talk with my father."
"About what…?" Vivi turned slightly, a nervous sweat breaking out over Kohza's skin at the look in her eye.
"Sleeping arrangements."
A shiver rolled down his spine, but he wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.
The sky and the sea were a shining blue, the grass on the deck was a vibrant, healthy green, and everything else was appropriate shades of color and luster. Pink cherry blossoms fluttered on the wind as Franky's movements rustled them from the puffy covering he'd given his spherical shoulders for just such an occasion. The rest of the crew were scattered around the ship, most eating, drinking, or talking on Sunny's lawn. The ship herself almost bounced along with the beat of Brook's music. A haze of pesticides rolled over the ship from the stern, but an invisible forcefield kept the smog away from the deck.
"Grace, have I ever mentioned how cool your powers are?" Coby asked, the two sitting next to each other on the tree-bench as they partook in the small banquet Sanji had prepared at Luffy's request. He was dressed in blue, the young man having donned a long shirt with a shimmering scale design and three-quarter pants, his shirt only buttoned up to his sternum to leave the top of his chest open. Atop his head was a reverse baseball cap shaped like the head of a duck, with the hat's bill imitating the duck's.
"No?" Grace responded. She wore a dress that had originally been white, but she had taken the liberty of coloring it herself, so an intricate pattern crawled its way up from the lower hem. The bottom of the dress was the blue of the ocean with little fishes but, as one's gaze traveled up the fabric, the coloration shifted to the red of a sunset with pink clouds and, at the top, a star-filled night sky with constellations connected in whichever color fit the star pattern best. A white stetson sat on her head, keeping her hair from blowing into her face. Bangles and other various bands decorated her sleeveless arms, jingling as she moved to brush some stay hair behind her ear.
"I saw how you fought against the marines and back on Fishman Island, and your powers are so useful both in and out of battle. It's amazing."
"Oh stop." She gave him a light push, red dusting over her cheeks. "Actually, no. Keep going."
"Oh Goda," Gin sighed, the man leaning against the railing next to Zoro and covering his eyes. He was dressed in a tan tunic with gold and green lightning bolts interwoven into its fabric and only one sleeve, his right arm and shoulder bare. A hood with a small point was raised to protect his eyes from the sunlight and an electric-blue sash wrapped around his waist. The one sleeve he did have hung down over his hand, long enough to hide both of his tonfa as well. He groaned, taking a shot of the dry sake he and the swordsman were sharing. "Would th' two o' ya knock it off? You're givin' me diabetus over here."
"Did you just say 'diabetus'?" Merry blinked, turning to Gin while Ace, seated on her shoulders while wearing a small version of Luffy's outfit, continued to stare at where his father was using his rubber powers to entertain him. The Klabautermann was dressed in a long-sleeved, puffy, white, crop-top sweater that fell to her stomach. She also wore a pair of kakis that reached her thighs. "Gin, the word is diabetes."
"Accent aside, he's right," Amy cut in, the woman dressed in a button-up with a loose tie patterned with different cakes and pastries. She wore a tight, black skirt that barely reached her knees along with pointed heels and her blonde hair was tied in a braid. Gin was trying to specifically not look at her in that getup. "I've come to terms with," —she gestured in the general direction of the roset all but cuddling with her adoptive younger sister— "this, mostly, but that doesn't mean I want to see it happen."
"If I had my way," Grace said, "this would've happened two years ago. You can thank Zoro for that delay."
"Leave me out of this," the older swordsman grunted.
"And we might've died if he hadn't," Coby added. "Hody and his goons were strong enough even with our extra training, thank you very much. They could've gotten Past Us with just numbers."
Merry's eyes widened slightly, a mischievous grin growing over her lips as she extracted herself from the conversation. Carefully, she removed Ace from her shoulders and set him down before plodding her way over to where Kaku leaned against the aft wall on the other side of the ship. He wore his usual ensemble, a button-up and simple tie with slacks. She leaned next to the Zoan as he swirled a glass of umgumbothi beer. She waited, the man lifting the cup to his lips.
"So Kaku," she began. "When are we gonna tell Sanji you kissed his sister?"
The man spat out his drink, the beer spilling down the front of his shirt as he hacked and coughed. Merry's grin widened as her long-time coworker struggled to clear his airways of the burning foam, a laugh bubbling up from her throat at his misfortune.
"M-Merry!" the ex-assassin coughed. "The Hell are you goin' on about?"
"It took me a bit to remember since the day was so crazy, but Finwaters said Sanji was the lost prince of Germa 66," Merry reminded him, keeping her voice low lest someone with a louder mouth repeat what she said. "That means that Reiju and… what was his name? Yonji? Yeah, Reiju and Yonji are his siblings. The other two guys, too. Not only did she weasel instructions to the Six Powers out of you, but you said you got a kiss from her. That means you kissed Sanji's sister."
"Can we just… forget that ever happened?" Kaku questioned, turning his face away from her. Even so, Merry could see the redness of his ears. "Please? Besides, i-it's not like he should care, right? He said he didn't want to be associated with 'em."
"You weren't around for our discussion at the party, otherwise I would've outed you there," Merry chuckled. "His sister is the only one in his family that he has fond memories of. If he learned what you did? Oh boy, would that be fun to watch."
"I don't fit 'round here already even with Horn vouching for me," the man begged. "I don't need the man who makes most of the food out for my blood. Please, Merry. Keep this under wraps."
"Fine." She rolled her eyes. "You can keep your secrets as long as it doesn't come up in conversation, but I'm not swearing to keep my mouth shut. Neither is Robin."
"What?" Kaku blinked as Merry's discerning eyes picked out a few flower petals that didn't match the Sakura petals coming off the pink-dressed shipwright. Across the ship, beside Usopp as he finished spraying his various, incredibly-dangerous plants with a powerful pesticide, Robin grinned. She turned to eye the party on the deck where Ace, now riding Billy who had donned a black, pointed, wide-brimmed hat with red cloud designs, led a precession. Franky and Chopper were at the head of his following, Gin, Brook, Luffy, and even Nami having been roped into trailing behind.
"For you, Nami-swan~!" Sanji spun onto the scene, getting on one knee and offering the navigator a fruity drink with an orange color and three straws. The tray also held similar drinks, one colored purple, another yellow, and a third like a rainbow. "Your Orange Surprise, Mademoiselle."
"Stop flirting with Mommy, Uncle Eyebrow!" Ace yelled, turning Billy so the boy could point at the blond. Sanji gawked at the child for the name while Zoro and Luffy laughed. "Only Daddy can do that and you're not Daddy!"
Sanji deflated, all but the arm supporting the tray going limp at the reminder.
"And Little Super General Monkey-chan deals a crushing blow to Captain Swirly!" Franky narrated with a dramatic flourish, said boy preening as he and his mount posed over the sullen chef. "Who will fall to his cutting words next?"
One of Coby's eyebrows quirked, a smile coming to his lips as he stood. He turned, offering a hand to Grace.
"Shall we offer Ace a foe to fight?" he asked.
"I think Madam Magpie and her prehistoric steed will be a sufficient challenge," the artist responded, taking his hand. Coby shifted, taking on his Dino Mode as his beau climbed on his back. Unlike before their separation, his crown now featured pointed spikes of bones, though little else had changed. He huffed, pawing the grass.
"Oh?" Robin questioned. "Interesting."
"Mwuuhahaha!" Grace laughed, forming claws, a crown, and a bird-like mask from the purple argon she used most frequently. She stood, balancing on Coby's back as she pointed one long claw at the boy. "So, you are Little Super General Monkey-chan, huh? You think because you defeated my swirly-eyebrowed minion that you have won? Do not be so naïve! For I am the evil queen Madam Magpie, and I shall steal all your shinies! Mwuuhahaha!"
"Nooo!" Chopper and Luffy wailed dramatically as Brook played a dramatic sting to coincide with Grace's dramatic declaration. "Not the shinies!"
"You mean lady!" Ace rebuffed, pointing a tiny finger at the new villain. "All the shinies belong to Mommy! Even your shinies! You can't have them!"
"Oh Ace," Nami sniffed, wiping away a proud tear as Brook shifted to something more hopeful. "I've taught you so well."
"That's not going to get us in trouble at some point," Zoro muttered with a roll of his eye. He shrugged, knocking back his bottle again.
"You still believe you will win?" Madam Magpie questioned, purple mist forming gaseous hands on either side of her. One stayed steady while the other jolted and twisted unnaturally. "Beware my deadly Tickling Gas! Mwuuhahaha!"
Cue another dramatic sting from Brook.
"Tickling Gas‽" the hero of this story gasped, well acquainted with the dangers of tickling in all forms. "Super Captain Cherry Tree! Protect me!"
"Wow, beep!" Super Captain Cherry Tree shouted, jumping ahead of the child and striking his signature pose. "You super won't get through me, beep!"
"Foolish robot!" Madam Magpie laughed. "Strong you may be, but nothing can stand up against my powerful steed!"
"Rawr," Coby whispered.
…
"?" Brook played, impossibly.
"You can do better than that, Uncle Coby," Ace said.
"Sorry." Coby cleared his prehistoric vocal chords before unleashing a serious roar that echoed over the waters in all directions. He finished after a good five seconds, the lingering pieces of his call slowly fading. Ace stood on Billy, staring at his Zoan pseudo-uncle with his mouth agape. For a moment, Coby wondered if he overdid it.
"That was awesome!" Ace cheered, waving his little hands. "So cool! But Billy can be just as cool! Show 'em, Billy!"
"Wah!" Though his warcry was not as echoing nor as powerful, the bird put on a lightshow of lightning and thunder, his bolts raising high into the sky where they dissipated into the darkening clouds above. As if triggered by such actions, little bits of powder started to float down.
"How cute," Robin mused to herself, watching this make-believe from above. "I do worry little Ace-chan will not develop a healthy dose of fear-borne caution, however."
Usopp sneezed, the sound breaking the archeologist from her thoughts. Specks of gray fell through her vision, the black-haired woman turning her eyes skyward where gray clouds had overridden the serene blue.
"Snow?" Amy questioned, opening her parasol on reflex. The game slowed to a stop.
"It's way too warm for that," Zoro grunted, ignoring the phenomena in favor of another drink.
"This is not just the Grand Line, but the New World," the verdet's student pointed out. "I wouldn't be surprised if we encounter boiling snow at some point."
"It isn't snow, though," Nami said, catching a few falling motes on her palm. She rubbed it between her fingers. "This is volcanic ash. It's coming this way from the west."
"Look, Mommy!" Nami turned from the powdery gray in her hand to her son, Ace still on Billy as he pointed to her wrist. "Mommy's compass is da… de… divated? It's doing the spinny spins!"
Nami and the rest of the crew close enough to see looked to the Log Pose as the navigator brought her hand up. Sure enough, the compass on the left side was now spinning without pause.
"Well that's cool!" Luffy said. "Nami, what's it mean?"
"It's magnetic deviation," Nami clarified. "Whatever field that magnetic needle was locked onto is… I don't know, missing? It's like the whole island it was tracking is just gone now. I've never seen anything like it. Even Fishman Island had a traceable field 10,000 meters below the surface. For a whole island to just… vanish…"
"Do you think that means it was completely destroyed?" Chopper asked, his little arms flailing in a way that made his cow-themed hoodie bounce. "That's so scary!"
"I suspect said phenomenon has some correlation to the falling ash," Robin suggested, leaning against the upper railing. "On a more positive note, volcanic ash is supposed to be incredibly helpful as a soil additive, so our plants should thrive."
"Only you would think o' th' plants in this moment," Gin said with a shake of his head.
"Hey Nami!" Luffy grinned. "Let's go check it out!"
"Are you crazy, Luffy‽" Usopp cried, yelling down from the second floor. "An island was just destroyed! That's not good news in any way, shape, or form! Besides, the Log Pose can't pick it up anymore! We can't get there!"
"Sure we can!" Luffy argued, one arm coming around to rest on his wife's waist. "We can because Nami's the best navigator in the world and I know that she can get us anywhere. We aren't lost and won't ever be lost because she can't get lost."
Nami felt heat rise in her cheeks, warmer than the way Luffy's body pressed against her side.
"Mommy and Daddy are flirting," Ace observed, Nami's blush growing darker.
"Smells like ash and pheromones to me," Chopper agreed.
"Anyway!" the young mother cut in, extracting herself from Luffy's hold. "If we're tracking that island down, we need to head west and follow the clouds! Come on, Ace! It's time to learn about tropospheric currents and volcanic nimbostratus!"
"Why can't she be lecturing a child that looks like meeee?" Sanji cried from the grass. Understandably, the rest of the crew ignored him.
"Guy in the water!" Sunny rumbled sometime later after the ash stopped falling, her voice echoing from within the ship. Amy shot upward at the warning, the Weightless Woman's gaze quickly picking out a body from among floating flotsam and jetsam in the surrounding waters.
"He's coming up on our port side!" Amy announced. Most of the crew rushed downstairs to the Soldier Dock System, Sunny opening the hull as the castaway came up beside them. Merry pulled a rope from her sleeve, swinging it over her head like a lasso before throwing it to catch a protruding groove in the man's metal arm. Working as a team, the crew hauled him inside and out of the water, allowing Sunny to close her door once more.
"This guy is huge!" Ace gasped from beside Nami as Merry and Sanji rested the unconscious man against the wall. His metal arm was almost as big as his torso, but his muscles were no joke either. Billy quacked, poking him with his bill to no response. "He's even bigger'n Old Man Garp!"
"Bigger than, Ace-chan," Robin corrected automatically, though her focus was elsewhere. She knelt beside their rescuee, one finger poking his mechanical arm. She nodded. "As I suspected, his additions are constructed completely of Sea Prism Stone. This man has or had the backing of a large-scale organization."
"We should throw him back," Zoro grunted. "We don't know who he is or what he's doing here, but he's clearly a fighter. His battle isn't our problem. Plus, with an arm like that, he could be a marine."
"Not all marines are bad," Coby countered. "Besides, we can't just leave him to drown. What do you think, Chopper?"
"I think who he is doesn't matter!" the reindeer answered. "He's injured and I'm a doctor! It's my job to heal him to the best of my ability."
"Go ahead, Chopper," Luffy grinned. "Heal him up. If he's a friend, then he'll be a friend. And if he turns out to be an enemy, we'll beat him up. It's that simple."
"Considering his arm is Sea Prism Stone, that means he doesn't have any Devil Fruit powers," Chopper said with a nod. "I can take this time to start teaching Ace basic first aid with regards to the normal human body."
"Yeah! Yeah!" the boy agreed. "I wanna be able t'help everybody! Even you, Choppy!"
"That doesn't make me happy or anything~!" Chopper sang. Robin sighed, mentally revising her plans to continue Ace's education under her own tutelage that day, deciding to craft the next lesson in Poneglyphic to cover the parts of the body and make up for the lost time. Luffy and Merry moved to either side of the man, the captain being careful to avoid the super-cool arm as they carried him up to Chopper's office. Ace and Chopper trailed after them, the boy punching the air while pretending to have such an arm while also treating imaginary patients.
All the while, Kaku watched from the shadows, swearing to himself that the man looked familiar but unable to put a finger on why.
It felt like the world was spinning, a feeling Z noted he was far too familiar with when he recognized it as returning to consciousness. The voices of whomever had showed mercy on him buzzed in his ears, sounding far away and indistinct. They cleared slowly even as the man willed himself to not move, unwilling to give up the chance to learn a little about his surroundings while those around him did not know he was listening.
"So bones and skin and stuff grow back better 'cause of that?" Z heard what sounded like a child say. "No wonder Daddy's so tough! I wanna be that strong!"
"Yes Ace, but it's a slow process to get to that point," another voice lectured. "Remember how you said it takes longer to build something than to break it?"
"Yeah?"
"Living beings are the same way. If you break a bone, it can takes months to heal properly and might grow back wrong if it's not in the right place. Skin and muscles are faster to heal since they're fibrous and not as rigid, but they have their own methods of strengthening. Do you remember them?"
"Skin gets harder," the boy answered. "Ca… Cal… Calooseses?"
"Callouses," the other voice corrected.
"And the muscles… There's just more of 'em, right? They get bigger. Daddy said that."
"Bigger and more dense." Z felt the speaker nod as a stethoscope rested on his chest. "Here, listen to this."
"Woah!" the boy gasped. "Thump thump!"
"That's the sound of a strong heart, which is a muscle. He's in no danger now that his body heat is back up."
"Choppy's the bestest doctor ever! And I'm gonna be just as good!"
Z chose that moment to groan lightly, mimicking a man just regaining his senses. The two above him gasped, stepping away as his regular arm shifted. The off-white of the ceiling met his vision first, a sign that they had removed his sunglasses, probably to check his eyes while he was still out cold. He shook his head and tried sitting up, his muscles and burns protesting the action.
"Oh good, you're awake!" one of the speakers said, the man zeroing in on a fuzzy creature atop a stool. He blinked, noting the antlers and coloration as similar to those of reindeer, though the shape was more humanoid. "We don't know how long you were drifting on the ocean before we picked you up, but it had to have been some time since we aren't close to any islands. Do you have any dizziness or blurry vision?"
"I don't think so," Z said, checking an itch on his arm. There was a needle inserted in his forearm connected to an IV.
"You had some symptoms of dehydration, so I gave you an infusion to help," the animal explained.
"Thanks, Doc. Looks like you really saved me. You must know your stuff."
"Complements don't make me happy, you jerk~!" the reindeer wiggled. "Ah, I'm Chopper, and this is my student Ace."
"Ace?" Z muttered. "Interesting name for a kid these days."
"Your metal arm's really cool!" said boy piped up, running around Z's bed so the man could see him. Based on his appearance, the purple-haired man would guess he was four or five. He must have been born before the Summit War at that age. "How can I get one?"
"Oh this?" Z questioned with a grin. He ran his normal hand over the metal. "I'm afraid it's one of a kind. The eggheads that built it called it the Battle Smasher. Made completely of Sea Prism Stone, it's got an explosive blaster set into the palm. Some Navy scientists put it together for me when a pirate attack mangled my arm, but it's heavy and takes a special process to put on and take off, so it's almost as bad as Devil Fruit powers in the water. I don't want a kid like you to go through something like that."
"Oh…" Ace deflated, his dreams of having such an arm dashed.
"It's ok, Ace," a new, older voice commented, the boy perking up at the words. He turned, running into the arms of a slender man with a yellow shirt designed to look like a face where he was sitting on the far side of the room. He hefted the boy onto his knee. "Most of us don't have cool arms like that, so you can grow up to be strong without one."
"Ok Daddy! I'll just keep punching and punching 'til my muscles get way big!"
"You must be the captain of this ship," Z said, fighting the urge for his mind to drift to times long passed.
"That's right," the man nodded. "I'm surprised you could tell."
"I've worked with a lot of youngsters your age and you could say I've got an eye for talent. You carry yourself with a confidence borne from leadership and you have the intelligence to keep your family close. It's the best way to protect them." Z's voice turned sour with his last statement, but he quickly covered it up, distracting himself with how the little doctor was using a bottle of milk on a necklace as a makeshift mechanical arm as he, too, dreamed of such a thing.
"I don't know what that means, but thanks!" The captain gave a laugh, his son echoing. "What were you doing in the ocean? Did your ship crash or something?"
"I had a… disagreement with a wayward student and things got out of hand," Z answered. "I'm real lucky you all stumbled across me."
"It's no biggie," the captain waved off. "By the way, you said the Navy made your arm, right?"
"Yeah, they did, but I'm not a marine anymore," he replied. "I had too many disagreements with upper management and quit."
"Oh. Well, that's good! I mean, we would've saved you either way, but I sure don't want to fight you."
"Why would you need to fight me?" Z questioned, finally finding his shades on the bedside table.
"Because we're pirates! Shishishi!"
Z froze, his shades halfway to his face. An eyelid twitched before he could cover it with his glasses. "I'm sorry? I don't think I heard you right."
"Pirates!" Ace echoed. "And my Daddy's gonna be King of the Pirates! Giihihi!"
Out on the deck, much of the crew tensed as they noticed Coby, Zoro, Sanji, and Gin lose their relaxed postures, the latter three leaning next to the door that led into Chopper's office. Gin gave a silent prayer as the chef turned to his main rival.
"You can sense it too, huh?"
"Yeah," the verdet responded, gripping his swords' hilts. "I knew we should've thrown him back."
"Dodge!" Gin yelled, tackling the pair a moment before the door and the surrounding wall exploded into woodchips and so much kindling, the Sunny letting out a wail of pain. Luffy bounced off the railing, cradling Ace in his arms protectively. The rest of the crew jumped to their feet as he flipped upright, setting the boy down. Chopper rushed out of the room, the man they had rescued stepping up behind so the sunlight hit him. He sneered at their captain.
"Your boy said you were gonna be King of the Pirates," he said. "How stupid. Don't make me laugh."
"It's him," Kaku whispered. "Former Admiral Zephyr."
"What do you know?" Luffy shot back, charging him with Zoro, Sanji, and Gin hot on his heels.
"What happened?" Grace gasped, as thunder boomed from within Sunny's insides, the ship occasionally grunting or moaning as an attack inside her went awry.
"Metal Arm Guy's mean!" Ace yelled, stomping a foot. "He doesn't like Daddy for being a pirate!"
"So he's one of those kinds of guys," Merry growled, jumping up to where the hole in the wall revealed the battle within. "Guys, bring the fight out here! You're hurting Sunny!"
"Kinda in th' middle o' somethin'!" Gin shot back only for the distraction to cost him. His eyes widened as the man's metal fist swung around, missing Sanji by a hair before nailing the Logia. He coughed blood as the force launched him outside and into the main mast where he exploded into lightning.
"640 Caliber Phoenix!" Zoro yelled, the man with the metal arm essentially catching his blades of air and crushing them within his three Sea Prism Stone fingers. He charged forward, his palm turning a heated red as he reached for the swordsman.
"Smash Blaster!"
"I don't think so!" Sanji and Gin, yelling in tandem, appeared on either side of the man's mechanical hand, a leg and two tonfa catching it in their upward swings. The hand shot up with his shoulder as the fulcrum, the Sea Prism Stone smashing into the top of the hole before an explosive shot from the palm and though the main sail, igniting it.
"Keep your mitts off Sunny!" Franky shouted, coming in from the man's left. "Franky Right Hook!"
The purple-haired man's frown deepened a skosh, his left hand coming up to stop Franky's cold. His shaded eyes turned on the shipwright, Franky feeling a shiver go down his spine.
"Pathetic," the man spat, raising his artificial arm. "To think how far the government has fallen if they consider weaklings like you lot to be dangerous."
He paused, the corner of his vision catching something flesh-colored wrapping around his arm. His head turned, finding the captain of the ship had stretched his arms around his Battle Smasher and tied his own legs around the mast. Through the oddity of the situation, he also recognized the drooping of his face as the Sea Prism Stone sapped his energy.
"You… will not… touch… my crew," he panted.
"Yeah!" Ace agreed, the boy now hiding behind the legs of a woman Z guessed must have been his mother. "Stop being mean!"
"Shave: Unseen Disaster!"
Z turned, stretching the captain's arms more as his metal hand caught the Prehistoric Zoan mid-charge. The hybrid gasped as the momentum knocked the wind from his lungs, his energy being sucked away upon contact. Z studied him.
"Coby!" Grace yelled, forming daggers of solid argon. They shot forward, only to freeze as the man moved Coby into their path.
"Now that's a face I recognize," Z growled, his free hand peeling Luffy off his Battle Smasher. "What is it they called you? Ah, yes. The Survivor. There's been a lot of talk about you."
"Good things, I hope," Coby gasped, unable to contain his sass. He winced as the hand squeezed, the boy loosing his grip on his swords. Hoshokusha and Emono clattered to the deck. "Ah, guess not."
"Incoming!" Sunny yelled a moment too late. The ship rocked as another vessel slammed into her side, wood grinding against wood as their hulls traded paint. Two figures appeared on the deck of the larger ship, looking down on the pirates below. More dark ships surrounded them, cutting off Sunny's chances of sailing away.
"Right on time," Z grinned.
"Master Z!" a woman yelled, she and her taller, lankier companion leaping to the grassy deck. She had black hair that fell to her shoulders and was dressed in a purple blouse and a light blue cloak, her pants ending at her thighs to show off her strong, smooth legs. In comparison, her companion was considerably more memorable. Dwarfing her at nearly eight feet, the man was dressed like a ninja who lost a fight with a paint-wielding kindergartener. Though not a Longarm, his arms still fell just past his knees, when he wasn't swinging them around that is. "I am Ain, Vice-Admiral of the Neo-Marines. You are surrounded; struggling will only invite your deaths. Surrender now."
"Oh Goda dammit!" Amy cursed. "As if that Shuzo guy wasn't bad enough, now there's more of them!"
"You know Shuzo?" the woman blinked.
"Oh, I know them." On the other side of the ship rose the aforementioned Longarm atop his submarine, his amputation from their last encounter bandaged. "I was ready to chase them down and repay that green-haired bastard for what he did to my arm when Master Z called me back!"
"So these are the Straw Hat Pirates you were complaining about?" Z grinned. "Fate truly is kind sometimes."
"And Fate ain't gonna be kind ta you! Astrape's Arc!" Gin appeared in a crash of thunder, his tonfa swinging for Z's head. The leader of the Neo-Marines ducked, the weapons missing him by a thin-enough margin that a few sparks singed his hair. Deciding that carrying around Coby's weight wasn't useful, he aimed the young man and cracked a grin.
"Smash Blaster Plus!"
The Zoan only had a second of heat against his stomach and the man's thoughts in his Observation to warn him of the coming danger, but he could do nothing as an explosion blasted him from the man's palm. The front of his shirt burned away instantly, the roset tumbling through the air.
Amy leapt into his path, her enhanced mass catching him as her heels carved lines in the dirt. Panting from adrenaline, she dropped to a knee and laid her unconscious crewmate down, her and many others only then seeing Coby's constant reminder of Marineford.
"Damn," Shuzo commented. "Wicked scar. Not that it changes anything."
"Binz," Z said. "If you would?"
The lanky ninja guy, now identified as Binz, nodded, raising his arms and swaying from side to side.
"Mosa mosa~!" he shouted. "Mosa mosa mosa~! Grow grow grow!"
"The weirdo's doing something!" Sanji warned. Responding to this, Brook shot toward him, Soul Solid out of its sheath in a moment. However fast the skeleton was, however, Binz proved to be faster. He vanished in an unannounced Shave, reappearing to Brook's right. With a single gesture, vines grew from the lawn, wrapping around Brook again and again.
"Aaaahhh!" the musician screamed, wiggling and contorting to no avail.
"Devil Fruit!" Grace gasped, pulling chemicals from her bag.
"That's right!" Binz nodded. "Thanks to the powers of my Grow-Grow Fruit, my Mosa Mosa Dance causes plants to grow and move at my will!"
"Then some plant killer should do you in!" The chemist/thief thrust her hands forward, launching a brown ball that dispersed into fumigation. Binz jumped away, the aerosol surrounding Brook who panicked, coughing and wheezing. The vines around him browned and withered. "Don't be such a drama queen, moron! You don't have lungs!"
"Yoho?" Brook would've blinked if he had eyelids. "Oh, I suppose I don't."
"My wonderful plants!" Binz cried. "How dare you‽ Mosa mosa~! Mosa!"
More vines sprouted at his beckoning, rising up around all those on the deck. Only Nami, Billy carrying Ace, and Amy were able to get away while Franky, Usopp, Robin, Chopper, Grace, and the unconscious Coby were trapped.
"Oh come on!" Usopp yelled, the irony of his predicament and his own method of attack not lost on him.
"Return Return!" Ain announced, a violet flame coming to life in her palm before she forced it into Usopp's chest. He gasped, his body glowing purple for a moment before he started to shrink. In a second, Usopp was half his original height.
"Wh-What did you do to me?" he squeaked. Rather than answer, Ain turned her eyes on others trapped by Binz's plants. Her first target was the only one with an immediate counter, Grace's vines already turning brown.
"Return Return!"
"Not on your life!"
Ain leapt back, just dodging the chocolatier that fell from the sky. Unfortunately for said chocolatier, the neo-marine swung her arm up as she moved, the purple haze surrounding the blonde. Amy yelped, her own body shrinking.
"Big Sis!" Grace yelled as Amy vanished into her own clothing. "I'll get you for that!"
She was waylaid, however, a fuma shuriken the same height as her torso stabbing into the deck to block her path. Binz laughed, redirecting her attention.
With Grace distracted, Ain turned to the rest of the captured crew. She managed to tag Robin and Chopper first, spinning around a thrust from Brook before tagging him as well.
"Super!" Franky yelled, several vines Brook had cut for him reducing the strength of his bindings to the point where he could break free. He leapt toward Binz only for Shuzo to intercept him.
"Gust Sword!" Nami yelled, a horizontal tornado of air shooting over Ain as she hit the deck. Brook was not so lucky, the wind sending him careening into a wall. Ain spun, kicking off the air in a Moonwalk to lunge at the navigator.
"Return—"
"Not my Mommy!" Ain froze, her purple fire an inch from the determined face of a two-year-old. Her eyes widened as she realized how close she came to wiping a child from existence. Tears streaked from Ace's eyes and his body trembled, the boy ignorant of the danger he dodged but fearful all the same. "You've hurt my family already! You meanies just need to go away!"
"Stay away from th' Donna and Young Master!"
Ain spun, her hand pressing into the stomach of the monk that tried to attack her from behind. Gin's eyes widened as he started to shrink, his robes tangling around his feet causing him to crash.
"Uncle Gin!" Ace cried.
"Smash Buster!" Something exploded as Sunny screamed, fire spreading over her destroyed rooms. Zoro, Sanji, Merry, and Kaku all laid against railings or walls, each clutching wounds, burns, or wrapped in vines. Merry was missing both of her legs and one of her horns had been blasted off in the explosion, her hands protecting the Heart by her throat. Kaku was next to her, slumped against the wall and unresponsive. Z stood before them with the fire as a horrid backdrop, Luffy held in the grip of his claw.
"Daddy!"
"You want to be King of the Pirates?" Z spat. "You? You can't even defend your own ship. I hate to break it to you, kid, but the world isn't fair. It'll give you everything you want, rip it away in a moment, and then taunt you as a criminal gets the happiness you worked so hard for and lost. I don't care if you are Garp's grandson, you're a pirate, and every pirate lost their right to life when they raised the black flag. It's just a shame that your boy was brought into the world with such a sad lot. Hopefully whatever being is out there gives him another shot at a good life since this one never did."
"You… bastard," Luffy hissed, struggling in the man's grip despite the Sea Prism Stone. Z smirked.
"You've still got some fight in you, Straw Hat. That's fine." He threw Luffy away, the captain rolling to a stop beside his wife, son, and the smaller Gin. Billy cowered beside them, only able to watch as Z returned to his ship. Ain and Binz leapt from their fights to land beside him while Shuzo dragged Franky around, Alpacacino aimed at the Cyborg's head and both of his massive arms restrained behind his back. "I am Z, leader of the Neo-Marines and the man who will kill off every damn pirate in this world! Let's see you and your crew survive this, Pirate King! Wake Breaker!"
"Ready, Master Z!" A kneeling Klabautermann materialized beside Binz, the being's head similar to an albino tiger. He wore an open black cloak with an outward-facing blade poking out over the sternum. Smoke rose from the fairy's mouth as he spoke, a feature likely related to the cannon in the mouth of the figurehead. His head rose, golden eyes staring at Merry in particular. "At your command."
"Fire." Under the fairy's control, the larger ship fired a point-blank salvo into the Sunny's side.
She screamed, several of the metal spheres finding weak points like windows or ports and ripping through her innards. Others crashed into the deck, sending up sprays of dirt and grass. One cannonball ripped through Nami's trees, leaving a wake of broken branches, busted fruit, and —in the case of two trees— only stumps. With the pirates unable to stop the damage now, Shuzo stabbed a Finger Pistol into Franky's side and shoved him onto the deck before joining Z's inner circle on the opposite side of the Wood Fairy, his every-faithful alpaca-weapon at his side.
"Sunny!" Merry yelled, flinching as another cannonball blew apart a piece of their ship's railing. "Emergency procedure C! Get us the Hell out of here!"
Six painful seconds past as two more salvos pelted Sunny from both sides, spectral tears rolling down her figurehead's cheeks. She growled, the rumblings in her hull slowly building into a defiant roar before, with a blast of energy, she took off in a Coup de Burst, disappearing in a twinkle and leaving the Neo-Marines behind.
Z and his greatest fighters stared where they'd gone, each of their faces set into a frown.
"We need to go after them," Shuzo began. "They—"
"Are now no threat to us," Z interrupted. "They saved my life, so we'll give them this. We have places to be and they will not survive our grand plan, anyway. Everyone, set course for Sacon Island."
"Sir yes Sir!"
End of chapter 30
That's the start of Film Z! Will the Straw Hats recover? How might this affect Ace in the long-term? Let me know what you think! As always:
Read and Review!
-SwordOfTheGods