Descent

by JustAProblem

Scars are a sign of pride and strength. A sign of survival. Naturally, this only applies to the physical scars and not the mental scars. No, mental scars are almost universally agreed to be negative and for good reason. Physical scars merely change how your body looks. Mental scars change how a person thinks. Rosan just wants to enjoy life. He didn't ask for all this.

46. Chapter 46: Pale Red

Descent

Chapter 46: Pale Red

Rosan was rather rudely awaken by the sound of screaming and his eyes snapped open. There was a cacophony of noise going on outside and he narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

He muttered a few obscenities, patting the drooling Mod's hair and wiping it away from her mouth (he tended to do this all the time. Mod did not like being told she drooled).

She made a noise and yawned, opening her eyes as she sat up and wiped her eyes, smiling at him slightly.

He grunted and tested his body, finding that just about all the poison had been flushed out and he was back to full strength.

"I do always admire how ridiculous our body is," Mod said softly, beaming as he planted a kiss on her cheek.

"You and me both," Rosan agreed, not bothering to wipe the drool from Ram's mouth. He merely smiled at her and planted a kiss on her cheek as well, getting a happy grumble out of the ring.

"I would have hoped you got more sleep," Mod said with a frown, gazing at Rosan in worry.

The redhead had done quite a lot at Impel Down, not to mention he just got out of a battle with Magellan of all people.

Rosan smiled at her. "I'm fine Mod-chan. Don't worry, I have you as my backup," he said, scooping her up.

She beamed at that and hugged him tightly. "Of course. We'll get out of this!"

He nodded and stood up, before waking up in the real world.

Rosan was just a little tired but with a quick dose of Modification, even that was banished away.

His eyes glowed as his bodily functions began in full swing again and the redhead made his way out of his temporary room, listening to the uproar with a blank expression.

"WE'LL FOLLOW YOU TO THE END OF THE WORLD BUGGY!"

"WE HAD NO IDEA YOU WERE ONE OF THE ROGER PIRATES!"

"WE'LL TAKE THIS SHIP FROM STRAW HAT!"

Hm? What was that they just said?

"Who are you taking this ship from?" Rosan asked hauntingly, expression curious.

You could hear a pin drop with how silent the ship suddenly became.

Buggy went pale at that, shakily turning towards the very awake Rosan. The redhead was currently locking those eyes of his onto Buggy himself and he understood that things were about to get bad for him very very quickly.

Earlier they had been making a fuss about how they were going to go to Marineford, to interfere in the war between Whitebeard and the World Government.

Naturally, Buggy immediately stopped complaining at the warning looks from Sabo and Jinbe because those two were not trigger happy like the real demon of the group.

If Rosan heard such things, he wouldn't warn them with words. He'd warn them with almost immediate action.

Buggy had seen the redhead's performance in Impel Down and he understood that Rosan had no patience for people's stupidity. The redhead was kill first, ask the useful person questions.

Buggy wasn't sure Rosan found him useful.

Thankfully, they had managed to settle the rowdy prisoners down…

Up until the ship received a call and Buggy heard the World Government confirm that he was apart of the Roger Pirates. Buggy wasn't even sure how they got that information, but he had been left with his jaw hanging at hearing them mercilessly reveal it.

That's when things got loud.

Buggy had just been about to shut up his men who had been talking about usurping the ship, when the demon in human flesh himself, appeared out of his room, wide awake and looking like he had not just gotten out of a fight with the goddamn warden of Impel Down.

Seriously, what was he? How was he able to survive Magellan's poison? What was this redhead capable of doing?!

Also... did these idiots think Buggy was going to beat Rosan?! Buggy wouldn't even attempt to fight him!

"You guys woke Rosan up," Sabo said in dissatisfaction, brows furrowing to show just how upset that made him.

Buggy paled. The blonde one was just as dangerous! He was just actually nice!

Oh hell no, Buggy was not going to take the blame for something he knew they were going to blame him for.

"MEN! DON'T BE AFRAID OF THIS WAR! THE BIGGEST PRIZE IS WITHIN OUR REACH! IF YOU CALL YOURSELVES MEN, FOLLOW ME TO GLORY!" Buggy roared with a false confident grin, never taking his eyes off the predatory gaze of Rosan.

Rosan's deathly calm gaze vanished as the men began cheering, replaced instead by a raised brow.

"WE WERE BEATEN AND BATTERED IN IMPEL DOWN! WE'RE SORRY BUGGY!"

"He'd make a good captain," Jinbe commented idly in amusement.

"He also has great survival instincts," Sabo chuckled, turning towards his older brother.

"I don't like that you're awake early but we won't be able to get past the Gates of Justice. We need you to handle it."

Rosan grunted. "This ship isn't light you know? You realize I just got out of a war with Magellan right?"

Sabo pat him on the back and pulled him into a hug. "I know. You've been doing a lot. After this is over, I'm making sure you get some sleep," he muttered to his brother.

Rosan sighed fondly and nodded, easily returning the hug. "Alright alright. I was gonna do it anyways."

The redhead's blood began thrumming as a violent gleam entered his eyes. Even from this distance and with Sabo right next to him, he activated his observation and immediately felt the thousands of lives of the soldiers that were stationed.

"Today, the world will know who I truly am," Rosan said idly, walking towards the railing of the ship. "They will understand exactly who Portgas D. Rosan is."

With that, the redhead leapt off the railing.

"What's he about to do?" a random pirate asked.

"Beats me!"

"Doesn't he have a Devil Fruit? Maybe something involving that!"

The prisoners, who did not know the full extent of Rosan's terror, spoke casually about what he was attempting. Even after learning that he had defeated Magellan in one on one combat, they had no fear of him because Captain Buggy was right here —

"RAOGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

At once, every single former prisoner went pale as a shadow began looming over them.

"O-Oh," someone squeaked.

"Still plan on revolting?" Sabo asked in amusement.

Everyone shook their head slowly.

"Effective," Jinbe said idly.

"Isn't it? Rosan's always been pretty damn effective," Sabo replied with a short laugh.

---

"Ace, what is your father's name?"

A battered and bruised Ace, sat kneeled on the stands that marked his impending execution.

He had not said a word, up until Fleet Admiral Sengoku suddenly began speaking about the specifics of his execution to his subordinates below.

"...My father… is Whitebeard," Ace said bluntly, closing his eyes as he assessed what it was Sengoku wanted him to do.

This old man could fuck off. Ace was not going to do what he wanted.

"So even now you'll lie about your bloodline," Sengoku said through his transponder snail, relaying the message to everyone across the world.

The Fleet Admiral was currently broadcasting this to the world. He was intent on a total and complete victory and if the world witnessed, then the World Government would win.

They would kill the resurge of pirates in one fell swoop. With that, justice would prevail.

"We were looking everywhere, when we got word from Cipher Pol about the possibility, that one of his children might be on a certain island. We examined newborns, unborn infants and their mothers and found nothing."

A wave of confusion was making its way through the crowd, those unaware not understanding where Sengoku was going with this.

Fire Fists Ace parent? What was so important about that?

"It was only natural though, that we were unable to find what we were looking for. Your mother used a trick to hide you and it was at the cost of her life!"

Ace shut his eyes at that detail.

He had seen the memories. He had seen what his mother had done for him.

He had seen how she had done everything in her power to protect both her children.

He had seen how her death had shattered his lovable older brother…

"Your mother fooled us all! She lived on an island by the name of Baterilla in the South Blue. Her name was Portgas D. Rouge and she did something we never imagined was possible."

Garp's smile was gone. All he could think about, was the sheer impact Rouge's death had on the world as a whole.

"Portgas D. Rouge, hid her child in her womb for 20 months, in order to save it. She bought Ace life, at the cost of her own… all because of your father."

"The blood of the most terrible fiend the world has ever known runs through your veins. Don't pretend not to know, Ace…"

Sengoku made sure the snail caught this, as he gazed down at Ace.

"Your father… WAS GOLD ROGER, THE PIRATE KING!"

A wave of silence met the declaration… before the heavy news struck the world.

The Fleet Admiral could practically feel the whole world rumbling in shock, as they digested the information given by him…

"But that's not all," Sengoku said gravely.

If anything, the wave of confusion grew stronger and he could practically feel everyone latching onto his words.

"Ace's mother, Portgas D. Rouge did more then just hide him."

Ace's eyes widened in dread.

What was this bastard planning on doing? What did he think he was doing?!

"She had another child before she even met Roger. A son," Sengoku revealed gravely. "It was not her birth son, but she still raised him as such. This boy was merely two years old when we caught wind of what Roger might have done."

"When Portgas D. Rouge gave birth to Ace here and lost her life, that boy, who was only 4 at the time, witnessed the entire thing. With just this act, that little boy gained a deep and irrational hatred of the World Government."

Smoker and Hina felt a small bead of sweat forming, not yet connecting the dots, but feeling a sense of trepidation at that for reasons unknown to them.

"Why do I feel such a sense of foreboding?" Smoker thought in surprise.

Was it because Sengoku was talking about someone that he may have met? Was it because he was unknowingly connecting dots to something?

"He's been biding his time and has steadily built his strength and now he and his crew are the fastest rising pirates we've seen in a very long time," Sengoku said gravely.

"They destroyed Enies Lobby, they've lain havoc on every location they've approached and they struck a Celestial Dragon... and all of it has had this vengeful man at the forefront."

"Is he talking about?!" Hancock thought in shock.

"The death of Portgas D. Rouge did not just give birth to Portgas D. Ace… it gave birth to the Red Devil, Portgas D. Rosan of the Straw Hat Pirates," he finished eventually.

There was a swift beat…

And then —

"RAOGHHHHHHHH!"

Ace, along with all the weaker Marines, felt their heart stop at the roar so full of fury, it washed over them all.

Weaker Marines felt their knees trembling at that terrible sound and they shakily whirled in every direction, trying to pinpoint where exactly it came from.

Almost faster than they could see, a giant buzzing noise suddenly permeated the air, before a giant red laser shot from the sky at dreadful speeds.

W-What?! Where did that come from?!

They watched in terror as it raced directly towards them, hell bent on goring the masses through and the Marines could only watch in relief, as a yellow beam collided with expert precision, preemptively causing an explosion before it could reach them.

A wave of heat washed over, as the two beams blew up in the sky, causing a display of rudimentary fireworks.

"He recovered from Sabaody pretty quickly. How scaryyy," Kizaru drawled, finger pointed upwards to show who had nullified the attack.

A shadow was currently residing in the sky and it was massive. As the clouds parted, the World Government bore witness to a furious dragon snarling down at them, all while holding one of their massive warships in its claws.

It floated downwards away from them and dropped the ship in the water, before opening its maw and letting out another furious roar.

"RAOGHHHHHHHHHH!"

Rosan was seething and full of fury. It only grew as he saw the state of his brother.

Ace was looking at him with truly terrified eyes. He never felt fear towards anyone, but the moment his family was in danger, it all came roaring out.

They were the exact same in that regard. Fearless until someone they loved was in danger...

And Rosan was terrified at the prospect of losing Ace. Mom's legacy, the reason she had chosen to die out of love...

His little brother. Rosan would be damned if he died here.

"You would dare stand here and blame my mother for the atrocities you committed?" Rosan snarled loudly, eyes glowing with unrestrained fury. "YOU THINK MY MOTHER WAS TO BLAME FOR YOUR GENOCIDE OF CHILDREN ON MY ISLAND?!"

A wave of hatred washed over all of them there.

"That's Rosan?!" Koby thought in terror, looking at the enormous dragon with horrified tears.

In just a split second, Rosan had been about to kill them all! His friend... probably didn't even know or care that Koby was here.

So this... this was war? Koby had to try and stop his friend from saving his brother? Koby had to fear that his friend was going to kill him in cold blood?

Would Rosan even notice if he killed Koby...?

"So that's... why," Smoker said in realization. "That's why he hates the World Government so much."

"He was forced to watch his mother die... due to our actions," Hina muttered next to him, a disturbed expression on her face.

"I despise your organization with every fiber of my being and if I could, I would tear it all down immediately."

Words of that redhead washed over the two. It was no wonder he had attempted to strike them down with such prejudice... he had been harboring such an intense hatred since he were 4.

Both the Marines who had encountered Rosan said nothing, gazing in pure conflict at the giant dragon who hadn't even deigned to use this form against them.

There was a purging on his island at the age of 4 and he watched his mother suffer... all because of the World Government's desire to make sure Roger didn't have a child.

Countless died because of that... was that truly justice? Killing multiple just for the chance to kill one?

But they hadn't even killed Roger's son... so was it even worth it in the end? The only thing it accomplished was giving this redhead... rather justifiable fuel to hate their organization.

"That's the Red Devil?!" a Marine whispered nervously.

"I heard he and his crew decimated Cipher Pol 9 when they completely destroyed Enies Lobby," another said in terror.

"H-How are we supposed to deal with that dragon?!" one lamented, legs shaking.

"Don't be afraid! We have the Admirals behind us!" one barked.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the Buddha," Rosan hissed violently. "You are the one who ordered the purge of Baterilla. Hundreds of innocent children killed on your command. How many mothers do you think still cry at the massacre you committed? Do you think about what you've done? Do you have regret?"

Some of the doubtful Marines and viewers watching flinched at the reminder that countless children had been killed in the pursuit of ending Ace's life.

"..."

Sengoku looked at the most problematic pirate of the current generation. The one who had caused him the most severe headaches he had gotten in a while.

The one who he had inadvertently created, by ordering the purging of Baterilla.

This boy was a product of Sengoku's actions... so Sengoku would have to take responsibility for it.

"The Red Devil... or perhaps I should call you Rocks," Sengoku said calmly, gazing fearlessly into the malevolent gaze of the dragon. "It was foolish of you to show yourself here… after all, your death is just as important as Ace's. You're the nephew of a man we desperately tried to erase from history, after all. You're shaping up to be as similar as he is."

Rosan sneered violently. "Mark my words, Sengoku. When my time to tear this system apart has come, I will be served your head on a silver platter and you will have a front row seat," he swore.

Sengoku listened to that threat and said nothing, unwilling to reveal his true thoughts of that statement.

He knew Rosan meant every word he said and worst, Sengoku knew that if left to his own devices, the vengeful redhead would achieve it.

Underestimating him was not something they could afford to do anymore. Rosan was a Rocks through and through and he needed to be dealt with now.

"ROSAN!" Ace shouted frantically. "YOU NEED TO GO! I WON'T LET YOU SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR ME!"

"I need to go?" Rosan asked quietly, still managing to be heard due to his dominating size.

"Yes!" His little brother said without hesitation. "This isn't your place to help! I don't need it! Go before something happens to you!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Rosan barked ferociously to his younger brother. "WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE NOT WANTING TO BE SAVED?!"

Ace immediately went silent, gazing at his fuming draconic brother with wide eyes.

"That's not what I'm —"

"So you want me to fly off right now?" Rosan asked incredulously. "You want me to be satisfied at the thought that when my little brother needed help, I wasn't there for him?"

"Don't be dumb Ace!" Luffy roared atop the dragon's head, scowling at the chained Logia. "We're your brothers! We can't let you die here!"

"L-Luffy?!" Ace gasped in horror.

"Straw Hat Luffy is their brother too?!" someone shouted in horror.

Sengoku clenched his jaw at the widespread panic. Despite his words, they were beginning to think that all three of the brothers were born from Roger.

"Straw Hat Luffy and the Red Devil are not the son of Gold Roger. Straw Hat is the son of the Revolutionary, Dragon and the Red Devil's parents are irrelevant," Sengoku announced.

...

"THE SON OF DRAGON?!"

"THE LEADER OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES?!"

Akainu's eyes narrowed.

Ace shut his eyes. Luffy's lineage revealed, Rosan with a target on his back...

"Ace, what type of brothers would we be, if we didn't come help you in your time of need?" Sabo said, sparking with electricity as he glared fearlessly at the entire army of the World Government.

"Sabo?" the prisoner repeated, gazing into his blonde brothers gaze and noting…

Noting the sheer familiarity. There was a strong sense of recognition and overprotectiveness in Sabo's gaze. It almost looked like... Sabo fully recognized who he was. He said brother with such conviction...

Was this…

"Did you get your memories back?!" Ace asked in shock.

The Whitebeard pirate choked up as his brother nodded without any hesitation.

"Yeah I got em back when I realized you were about to get executed," Sabo explained with a firm resolve.

Ace felt a lump in his throat at that. To hear that it was him that helped Sabo regain his memory...

That made him... despite the situation, Ace was happy to hear that. Ace was so happy.

Which was why he needed them to go. They needed to go now. There was no way they could fight this many people.

"I just got back something I lost, Ace. I won't let myself lose this so soon!" Sabo declared with a furious expression. "You're coming home. With us!"

"Luffy… Rosan… Sabo," Ace muttered, shutting his eyes.

His brothers… they were insane! What were they thinking?!

"Hmph, so you plan on fighting us all alone?" Sengoku mused, raising a brow at the foolish pirate.

For all his intelligence... for all his ruthlessness, it seemed like even the Red Devil would throw it all away for the sake of those he loved.

Even he had his weaknesses —

A sudden rumbling caught the attention of everyone there and the higher ups of the World Government went stiff.

"Did they sneak up on us?!" Sengoku said in surprise, slight concern on his face.

There had been no signs of them approaching the island and Sengoku thought they would have ample time to dismantle the Red Devil's forces before the other pirates showed up.

Even with the Red Devil distracting them, the arrival of the Whitebeard Pirates should have been impossible to miss! Where did they come from?!

As if answering his questions, the fleet of ships left room for a massive ship to burst into the scene.

It was a large battleship with a cachalot figurehead, dwarfing every other ship there.

"Gurarara! Seems like we were beaten to the punch by some upstarts!" A commanding and aged voice called out.

Rosan turned his head at that and huffed, snorting out a great gout of flame as the ship they arrived on was swiftly evacuated. Jinbe was looking at the rising ships with clear recognition and so he assumed this was the Whitebeard Pirates.

"POPS!" Ace shouted.

Not him too... Why were they all showing up?! Didn't they understand how much was at risk by doing this?

Pops would risk the whole crew for just him?

"Whitebeard," Rosan grunted, tail swishing as he regarded the strongest man in the world with narrowed eyes.

Whitebeard gazed at the dragon curiously. "So you're the youngsters that my foolish son always talk about! Rosan and Luffy eh?! Gurarara! To think you'd show up in this war and before us!"

"I will never leave my family behind. I don't care who's holding him prisoner. I'll even run through you if I have to," Rosan said bluntly.

"Gurarara! Cheeky brat!" Whitebeard simply laughed at the redhead.

"Rosan who is this old man?" Luffy asked with a furrowed brow.

"Ace's captain. Edward Newgate... or Whitebeard," Rosan explained.

"Wow... Ace's captain is really old!" the rubber boy exclaimed.

"Yeah, he's around 90."

"Pretty sure he's a little younger then that," Sabo chimed in. "I'd say around 80."

Everyone balked at the conversation between the three.

For them to so brazenly speak about the Whitebeard like that was insanity! Didn't they know who they were speaking of!

"Talking about Pops like this in front of all of us..." Marco sighed.

"Ace was right, they really are fearless and reckless," Vista chuckled in amusement.

Whitebeard gazed at the brothers and laughed. "You brats really are cheeky! No wonder Ace is a stubborn and fearless fool! He's grown in an environment full of it!"

"Watch it old man."

Ace ignored that insult to his character and gnashed his teeth.

"GET OUTTA HERE ALL OF YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he shouted at them all.

"You're our brother, Ace! We'll never leave you behind!" Luffy said strongly, beginning to stretch his bruised body as he prepared for battle.

"I just got my memories back, Ace! We have too much lost time to make up and that's not happening if you die here! I missed you all and we can't catch up like this!" Sabo declared.

"Gurarara! It was my mistake to send you on that mission alone," Whitebeard announced. "It's only right that I make up for it and save my son!"

Ace balked at that. "But you didn't send me on..."

"Yeah we did! We underestimated him!" Marco grinned sheepishly.

"It was silly on our part Ace! We hope you can forgive us," Jozu said seriously.

Ace listened to the various noises of agreement and bowed his head, hating how vulnerable he was right now.

Rosan glared at his brother in fury. "I already made a promise to myself that I'd never leave you behind again. Whether you're the son of the world's most dangerous pirate, a pirate apart of the world's strongest man's crew… or a criminal worth being executed for his crimes, you will always be my little brother first, Portgas D. Ace."

The redhead transformed back to his human form as he finished that statement and he stared at the stunned Ace with a firm resolve in his eyes. He gently flapped his wings and glared at the entirety of the World Government.

Ace felt himself choke up at that, tears building in his eyes at how earnest his oldest brother sounded...

At how vulnerable he currently looked.

The sheer concern and resolve in Rosan's gaze… it was a far cry from his emotionless brother or even the brother he had encountered at Alabasta.

And behind that unwavering resolve, there was the exact same terror Ace currently felt, reflected in his brothers oh so expressive eyes.

The way they shined...

"You really did get your emotions back..." Ace said softly.

"And I won't lose them again," Rosan told him firmly. "That means I have to save you. I can't lose anyone else," he swore.

Rosan… Rosan had found what he was looking for just like Ace had found what he had been searching for and the result was his impossibly stubborn older brother, who would never abandon him again.

But... if Ace died, didn't that mean he'd have killed Rosan too? If Ace was really so important to Rosan, then that meant he really did have to survive here.

"Emotions?" Sengoku thought with a frown.

Did Rosan somehow have a way to shut off his emotions... no that wasn't quite right. He didn't sound like he could control it...

The Iris were heavily emotional, so something had caused this boy to lose all of that? Was that why he had been so demonic in nature with the atrocities he committed?

There were far too many mysteries involving Rosan. And those mysteries would remain mysteries.

Rosan stared coolly ahead. Unintimidated by the vast amount of Marines gazing down at him.

"Be careful Sabo and Luffy. Saving Ace is our #1 priority, but don't die to achieve that. I'll do my part to keep you alive," Rosan told them.

Sabo nodded seriously, sparks rolling off his body as he released his grip on Rosan's arm and disappeared in a thunderous boom.

"ACE!" Luffy roared, launching himself forward with reckless abandon. He was expertly ignoring all his injuries so Rosan would have to pay close attention to his littlest brother.

But despite that, Rosan did not follow them.

His wings flapped idly as he glared at the Marines.

His skillset wasn't one many people could deal with and he was going to take full advantage of that by causing nonstop mayhem…

The more enemies there were, the better Rosan performed.

In the middle of a war?

They would soon understand that Rosan was war.

Though, it seemed that they were rather wary of him already because Rosan immediately put up an arm to block the kick aimed at his head.

The speed at which it was delivered, sent him flying backwards and the redhead grunted in annoyance as he laid eyes on Kizaru.

"Scaryyy… you're already a lot stronger than when we last met. How is that even possible?" the Admiral drawled, leg still outstretched.

"I guess I should be honored that an Admiral is already on the move for me," Rosan grunted. "But this doesn't look good for you, you know? One of your three Admirals, attacking a mere humble scout."

Kizaru didn't even look phased. "And you could even block that. This new generation sure is tough."

Rosan said nothing, merely shaking his arm a bit as armament and his raid suit shielded him well.

Without them, his arm would have been in a lot worse condition.

Kizaru remained suspended in air for a moment and Rosan deduced that he couldn't fly like the redhead could…

But that didn't matter because Kizaru was so fucking fast.

It didn't matter if he couldn't fly like Rosan could because he could just displace himself with his ability.

Rosan could anticipate Kizaru's move. It wasn't hard to anticipate that the man was going to close the distance between them, but he was just far too fast to react to.

He grunted as the man transformed into a beam of light and the redhead immediately fortified himself, knowing it was foolish to attempt to dodge.

The kick landed squarely on his stomach and Rosan grit his teeth in fury. He lashed out to grab the Admiral but even with armament, it didn't make it any easier to hit him.

He was rewarded with a laser that slammed into him with extreme force. It would have pierced him, but Rosan's armament had gotten far better due to the trashings Hancock had often given him.

So instead of getting pierced, it exploded on his damn body instead.

Rosan spat out blood and glared furiously at Kizaru.

Against an Admiral... Rosan wasn't strong enough to defeat one.

But if he could get one hit...

"Hm? Do you need me again? I can end things in a single hit," Pestilence offered with a maniacal grin.

"Yeah," Rosan said gruffly, eyes flickering black as he prepared to bait Kizaru in.

Just a single hit was all he needed and he'd take out one of the World Government's strongest forces —

A blue blur dashed past Rosan, colliding with Kizaru immediately and stopping the Admirals assault on the redhead.

Pestilence huffed and Mod let out a sigh of relief, as the black vanished from his eyes.

"Ace wasn't kidding! You really are insane! Showing up the Whitebeard Pirates isn't something a lot of people would want to do!" Marco the Phoenix laughed, clashing with Kizaru's leg using his own.

"Marco the Phoenix," Rosan said idly, nodding towards the man with the Mythical Zoan.

"The Red Devil!" Marco grinned, disengaging with Kizaru and flapping towards Rosan. "Ace never shuts up about you or Straw Hat over there!"

If the situation were less dire, Rosan would proceed to tell tale after embarrassing tale of he and his brothers upbringing.

But that would have to wait for later.

"We'll chat after all this is over. There's a lot I'd like to say to you guys," Marco said kindly, sensing the tension in Rosan's shoulder. "Pops wants to talk to you and Straw Hat really quick. He really wanted to meet the two Ace talks so highly about."

Rosan was about to deny the request but merely took a deep breath and nodded.

It would be incredibly beneficial if he got along with the Pirates trying to save Ace. This would allow them to better coordinate their efforts and that would increase their chances of getting his brother.

The redhead glared at his enemies, already stewing up plans to inflict the most amount of damage before he turned towards Whitebeard and soared to his location.

Rosan landed in front of the gigantic Emperor with a frown.

"Whitebeard," Rosan said bluntly, gauging the old man up and down.

He was dwarfed by the World's Strongest Man. Whitebeard was a gigantic person who's figure heavily belied his old age. Despite being decades older than Rosan, there was an aura to the man that had his senses on full alert.

"So you're the brat who's my foolish son's oldest brother!" Whitebeard commented.

"My name is Rosan. Don't call me brat again," the redhead bit out with narrowed eyes, watching the ongoings with a razor sharp gaze.

His gaze immediately locked onto Luffy a ways away and he watched in satisfaction as his brother effortlessly pushed through the weaker Marines.

"Gurarara! Seems like all of you are as fearless as that fool!" the Emperor laughed, gazing out at Marineford with a mulling expression.

Finally, it seemed like the Emperor came to his decision on what he was about to do.

Rosan tensed up as Whitebeard clenched his fist, before slamming them against the air, causing cracks to appear.

The Gura Gura no mi… widely considered to be the most powerful Paramecia to exist. It was a fruit that wielded the power to destroy the world…

And Whitebeard was showcasing that fact right now.

Rosan watched with a surprised gaze as the seas erupted. The waters began shuddering, forming into an actual seaquake due to the sheer power that Whitebeard exhibited.

The seas began rising so high, it almost looked as if it might consume all of Marineford and Rosan shuddered excitedly at the strength behind it all. The force was actually shaking the area around.

To think that he was capable of such an effortless feat at his age… Rosan wondered just how strong Whitebeard had been when he was younger.

Widespread panic and confusion ensued as people fell from lack of proper balance.

"The Red Devil. I heard Sengoku call you Rocks. Is that true?" Whitebeard asked bluntly, standing straight as if he hadn't caused such mayhem so quickly.

Rosan perked up at that. This could be a good way to get more information for Robin...

"Yeah, that's right. I don't claim the name, but my birth father had it. I heard you and him sailed the same ship, under my uncle."

Whitebeard mulled that over. "So you're that brat Cutter's son then… I didn't think the brat would have a brat."

"Seems like it," Rosan nodded.

Whitebeard gazed down at the redhead with a curious expression. "My time on that ship was nothing impressive. Just a bunch of fools whose interests aligned. That Cutter was just a snot nosed brat at the time too, always clinging to his older brother."

The redhead tilted his head at that, turning back towards the battlefield.

"I heard about the people in that crew. How does something like that even fail?" Rosan asked curiously.

"Gurarara! It was a long time ago! Things might have been different if it happened a few more years into the future," Whitebeard informed him. "But that was a time long before you were born."

"Yeah. I don't care about it. I just wanna know for someone else," Rosan said truthfully, gazing directly at his brother. "The only thing I care about is making sure all my brothers get out of here safely. You can give me the answers I want afterwards."

"A family man just like me!" Whitebeard chuckled, right as the world began shaking again.

Rosan peered around at that.

"Due to the seaquakes he formed, a gigantic tsunami is about to strike Marineford," Mod explained, slightly awed by the power of Whitebeard's Devil Fruit.

"Old age barely slows any of these people down," Ram mentioned in disbelief.

This was incredible! Ram couldn't wait until the old generation saw Father upend all of their power! It would be glorious!

Rosan agreed, gazing at the towering tsunamis with a half lidded gaze.

If those crashed, it would do great in softening up the Marines for him. In fact with all that water on them...

"I'm going to do everything in my power to get Ace back, Whitebeard. This is my only warning to you and your crew if any of my attacks hit them. I'd like it if we cooperated to save him so I won't attempt to actively harm them... but some things are unavoidable," Rosan said softly. "I apologize in advance."

Whitebeard gazed back at the redhead and snorted.

He sure had a lot of guts. There truly wasn't an ounce of fear in this boy.

Fools, all of them... but Whitebeard liked fools.

"Audacious brat," Whitebeard said in amusement. "My men are strong! Go wild and save my precious son! Rescuing Ace is all of our goals here!"

Rosan nodded, eyes narrowed as he saw a familiar figure dash forward to answer the ensuing tsunamis.

"Ice Age."

Aokiji spread both arms out, beams of solid ice shooting out and connecting to the twin tsunami's.

Slowly but surely, the giant waves stopped in their path, freezing over completely at the hands of the Admiral.

A familiar chill went down Rosan's spine as the fruit used to freeze him solid, made quick work of the Tsunami's that were going to devastate Marineford.

"The Admirals are our biggest obstacles in rescuing Ace," Rosan thought warily.

If he wanted to get Ace, he'd have to clash with them and he would always lose an outright clash... so he'd have to innovate.

That was fine. Most of Rosan's opponents could thank the fact that he was a fighter with integrity. He rarely used underhanded tactics...

But that flew out of the window if he was up against an opponent who was far stronger than him.

Or if his family was in danger. Considering both were currently happening right now, Rosan was willing to become the most underhanded person on the planet.

Aokiji took aim at Whitebeard and shot out several spears of ice towards Rosan and Whitebeard. They flew through the air with expert accuracy, intent on impaling both of them through.

"Ice Block: Partisan."

Rosan's eyes narrowed and he held out a single gloved hand towards the airborne man.

Without any warning, a thick massive beam of red energy shot out of the redhead's hand. The wave crashed through the ice spears and into Aokiji, breaking apart the Logia's body before it began reforming again.

"What scary rate of improvement," Aokiji muttered tiredly, gazing unfazed at the scowling Rosan.

It had not been that long ago, where Aokiji had frozen the redhead solid. But even now he could see the visible improvements in Rosan.

What a scary kid.

The Admiral only had a moment to react, covering his entire body in ice, as a tremor crashed into his body, courtesy of Whitebeard.

His icy body broke apart and soared towards the water below. Almost as soon as the Logia crashed against it, the entire bay began to freeze over, keeping every single Pirate ship trapped…

But it also had the benefit of giving the pirates a place to stand on.

"Our ships are trapped! This is blocking off our exit!" A pirate exclaimed.

Rosan gazed at the ice below before turning towards Whitebeard.

"I'll help you for this but afterwards, I'm only focusing on making it to Ace," Rosan told the Emperor.

Whitebeard raised a brow at that. "What are you about to do, brat?"

"Nothing special. I'm just showcasing my strengths," Rosan said calmly, leaping off the ship and onto the ice below.

"Hmhmhm that's right. Much like how I am Pestilence, you Rosan… you are War. You are made to strike fear into armies, to make them feel powerless. It is your job to overwhelm them with brute strength."

Mod merely frowned at that. "You are no weapon of War, Rosan... you simply have areas that you specialize in. Show them that this is one of them."

Pestilence raised a brow at that but said nothing.

Rosan's eyes flashed and he palmed the ice.

"Modify: Form," was all he thought.

Not a single person could keep the shock off their face, as the Red Devil palmed the ice made from Aokiji and transformed it.

W-What on earth had he just done?! This strange technique... just what was he doing?!

It began turning granite gray and it took them a moment to realize that the entire terrain of ice was being turned into… stone?!

"Hmph," Rosan scoffed, standing up straight as he dusted the ice off his body.

"W-What…?" A random Marine stammered, looking at Rosan's display with horrified eyes.

"B-But I thought he was a Mythical Zoan?!"

"That's quite the fruit you have," Whitebeard commented idly, gazing at the display with an impressed expression.

He had never seen such a thing in all his years. Rosan was displaying far too many different abilities that gave no hint as to what his fruit was beyond transforming into a dragon.

"You'll probably learn more about it as this war drags on. Depending on how useful you are, I'll even tell you," Rosan grunted, flapping once as sparks began covering his body.

"Gurarara! You're even worse than Ace is! No wonder you're the oldest of the brats!" Whitebeard rumbled in amusement.

Rosan snorted. "Jinbe! Watch Luffy for me please!"

"Leave it to me. I will keep him alive," the fishman nodded and dashed forward to meet the rubber boy.

"You too Iva! Push forward and carve a path!" Rosan barked.

"So commanding red boy! But I'll do it!" Iva shouted back.

With Luffy accounted for, Rosan nodded his head and prepared himself for the assault on Marineford.

With what he was planning on doing, he wouldn't be surprised at all if he became the focus of a lot of people's attention... but Rosan was fine with that.

He was the star of the show after all. It was natural that he'd attract their eyes.

As Rosan prepared to take off into the sky, his senses suddenly went haywire and he whirled immediately.

A massive gust of wind crashed into the sand sent careening towards Whitebeard and Rosan scowled at the furious Crocodile, sending the coarse element in every direction.

"CROCOBOY?!" Iva shouted in surprise.

What on earth was he doing here?! Last Iva checked, the man was no longer a Warlord, bounty inflating drastically due to no longer working under the World Government!

Part of Sengoku was hopeful that Crocodile was here to enact revenge on Whitebeard and that if he were distracting the Red Devil, then Rosan would not be able to do those devastating widespread techniques of his…

Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed instantly.

Crocodile met Rosan's gaze and they glared at each other, before the former Warlord disengaged from the redhead with a sneer.

He gazed at the surprised Iva warily.

"I hope you aren't here to cause trouble, Crocoboy!" Iva exclaimed with narrowed eyes.

Crocodile sneered at the okama.

"No one… and I mean no one, is killing this damn redhead unless it's me," he swore, glaring at Rosan with murderous eyes.

Crocodile hated Rosan even more than he hated Whitebeard and he'd be damned if the redhead killed him before he got to enact his revenge.

If that meant showing up to the war to survive, then that's what he'd do. He had gathered those spineless cowards that were his subordinates and they had set a course for Marineford.

Alvida and Daz Bones watched in horror at Crocodile's actions. Did he seriously not care about their last encounter?!

Would Rosan kill them all if Crocodile kept this up?!

Rosan merely scoffed at him, running a hand through his shoulder length hair. "That's so sweet of you darling. I'm touched that you're so possessive of me but I'm already taken by someone I'd much rather tongue," the redhead sneered.

"Watch your tongue redhead. You're next after I finish my business here," the former warlord snarled violently, vanishing in a gust of sand. He immediately leapt into the fray and it didn't take long at all for Crocodile to begin causing mayhem.

Rosan watched him go with a sneer, before rocketing into the sky, red sparks pulsing off his body.

Then, complete mayhem began all at the ends of Rosan and Crocodile... two people who hated each other.

A miniature sandstorm formed onto the battlefield, following the rampaging Crocodile… and a thunderstorm of red lightning came crashing from the heavens, courtesy of the rampaging Rosan.

"Sables Pequeno."

"EMP: Storm."

The two elements clashed against each other, vying for control over the battlefield and subsequently causing the unfortunate people to become collateral. They were swept up in the elements, screaming as they were either battered by the sands or struck by the unnaturally colored lightning.

"They're working together?!" Sengoku balked in disbelief.

But… how?! That didn't make any sense! The Straw Hats were the ones who defeated Crocodile! Why wasn't he attacking Rosan? Why did they seem to have exceptional teamwork?!

Why the hell wasn't anything making sense to him? For what reason did Crocodile have to side with them over the World Government?!

Knowing him, he wouldn't even show up! So what was the reason behind this?!

Rosan gazed coolly at the battlefield below him, watching as the stronger marines tried to weather his storm of lightning. His element took a much larger scope than Crocodile's so he watched from his perch in the sky as he created his own thunderstorm and aimed it at the Marines.

He watched them scramble about, desperately dodging his storm with frantic levels panic.

The worst part, was that Rosan was too high above for them to reach him.

The redhead stretched out his hands and began utterly bombarding the forces with continuous red blasts.

"SOMEONE STOP THE RED DEVIL!"

"HOW?! HOW CAN WE STOP HIM! WE CAN'T EVEN REACH HIM!"

"FORGET HIM! STOP THAT LIGHTNING MAN! WHO EVEN IS THAT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW! NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A MAN HAVING A LIGHTNING LOGIA!"

Rosan listened to their panic with a neutral expression, merely fueling the storm with more energy so that it could remain sustained.

He wasn't the strongest one here. No, not yet. He would eventually become the strongest but that was not right now.

Even though he wasn't the strongest, that didn't change the fact that he was almost certainly the most annoying and his skillset was perfect for War.

Although that did come with downsides that Rosan accounted for.

Such as becoming a primary target. It was only natural that they realized just how effective he was as their enemy. If they left Rosan to his own devices, it didn't matter if he weren't the strongest one here, he'd have crippled them dramatically.

It was only a matter of time before someone chose to attack him.

Rosan watched with a surprised gaze, as a giant fist of magma of all things flew through the air to try and collide into him.

"So I've been attacked by all 3 Admirals now... how fortunate for me."

"You are attracting enough attention to divert their focus... but not enough to make them commit to attacking you. It's perfect right now so long as you can dodge."

He grunted and angled himself downward, blurring through the air and landing directly on the floor as the magma sailed harmlessly through the air..

Almost as soon as Rosan reached the bottom, he was swarmed by Marines that recognized that he was the root source of all the distress that had fallen on them.

It was natural that they'd want to neutralize him... but did they really plan on doing that by sending so many weaklings after him?

Didn't they understand? Rosan thrived against multiple enemies that weren't stronger than him. After the events that led to him getting captured at 8 years old, he had honed his craft and welcomed the hoard.

He weaved through a wild swing from a sword swinging Marine and held out a hand, vaporizing the offenders head with the ensuing blast.

But it didn't stop there. His attack went through the bodies of at least 4 other people, killing them on impact and causing the others attacking him, to freeze in horror.

Rosan leapt above someone lunging at him, wings spreading as he remained airborne.

"You foot soldiers are not strong enough to stop me," Rosan said softly, sparking red with electricity.

"EMP: Burst."

A momentarily silence befell the battlefield, as a giant dome of electricity erupted from Rosan's position, catching everyone's attention… and catching everyone unfortunate enough to be close to him.

The dome of electricity grew steadily larger, causing people to scramble in an urge to get away.

Eventually it settled and all they saw, was the peaceful visage of the Red Devil. He was gazing at his hand, sparks still flying off of him.

Then he gazed directly at Ace with that peaceful face, eyes expressing a completely different emotion and glowing with clear insanity.

"What is he?!" Sengoku thought in disbelief. He thought he had a good measure of the Red Devil's strength... but it seemed as if not a single report was enough to capture the full scope of his abilities.

This was absurd! From the moment Rosan had shown up to the battlefield, he alone managed to swing the advantage over to the pirates.

Not to mention his Devil Fruit! What was it?! He wasn't even transformed at the moment! What type of dragon gave him such dominant control over all these elements? What Mythical Zoan was this?!

Such a versatile range of abilities. It was disturbing to think that the Red Devil had hardly been showcasing all he was capable of doing

...Was his Devil Fruit even a Zoan?

It had to be... they watched the redhead show up as a dragon! But what type of dragon was that?

An obsidian black dragon with red streaks... Sengoku just didn't know but what he did know, was that Rosan alone was taking too much of his attention.

He wouldn't even deign to mention the actual lightning Logia user blazing through their forces with New World level expertise.

Who the hell was that supposed to be?! Was the Red Devil hiding such a powerful member this entire time?! The Goro Goro no Mi hadn't been accounted for in years! How did this man suddenly have such an ability?

Headache after headache was forming for Sengoku and what should have been a brutal albeit completely winnable war, suddenly turned into a battle with unknown variables.

Rosan looked at the charred bodies surrounding him with a half lidded expression, leaning back slightly to avoid a slow sword swipe.

His eyes sharpened in the blink of an eye and he lunged but before he could properly retaliate, a plume of smoke soared towards his location, followed by chains that tried to restrain him.

He jumped over them, floating in the air slightly and ignoring the hail of bullets colliding with his body.

"Well what a surprise," Rosan said coldly, gazing at the Marines from Alabasta with a narrowed gaze. "Here to stop me?" he asked idly, removing his gaze from them and taking immediate note of Sabo and Luffy.

Sabo was locked in combat with 3 Vice Admirals, sparking blue as he easily warded them off.

In only a matter of moments, he erupted in electricity and zipped around, landing devastating blows to each of their heads with a pipe and continuing forward without looking back.

Meanwhile, Luffy, Iva and Jinbe were charging ahead, making short work of anyone that came after them. His little brother was a whirlwind of limbs, using every part of his body to blaze a path forward.

His recklessness was being guarded well by both the fishman and okama and Rosan trusted them to continue protecting his brother.

Due to how much attention Rosan was attracting, they had a much easier time pushing ahead so that meant he was doing his job perfectly well.

Unfortunately, that magma attack meant that his Storm ran out of fuel and he was sure it would continue to pester him if he went up there again... Whenever Rosan made his presence overwhelmingly clear, one of the Admirals saw it fit to stop him.

He wouldn't push his luck further. In and out, he'd continue to exert his pressure over the battlefield until Ace was back in their grasp.

"I won't toy with you like with what happened in Alabasta," Rosan warned quietly, sparks already rolling off his body. "I have important things I need to do. Take the life you were miraculously given and fight someone else. I don't have time for you."

He watched the swordsman girl, her name was Tashigi he thinks, regard him with a firm expression, but that didn't take away from the shaking of her frame. Despite the resolve in her eyes, there was a true terror there.

It seemed like their encounter had been firmly embedded in her mind for a long time. He wondered how often they thought of what he had done...

After all, Rosan had only thought of them when Aokiji brought them up back at Long Ring Long Land.

"We can't let you run amok, Red Devil," Smoker said sternly, aiming his jitei at the redhead.

"We underestimated you at Alabasta… but things have changed," Hina said softly.

Tashigi said nothing, aiming her sword at the redhead.

"Do you think you can fight me with fear clouding your hearts?" Rosan asked curiously, watching the slight tremors through her body.

"I've gotten much stronger since Alabasta. You already couldn't stop me then, what makes you think you can stop me now? Is your rate of growth faster than mine?" he asked curiously.

Smoker gripped his jitei tighter. "I was confused on why you hated the World Government so much... but after hearing what the Fleet Admiral said..."

"Hina understands where your coming from," she said truthfully. "You are right, corruption runs deep..."

"But we can't let you continue this warpath of yours," Smoker said resolutely. "You have my sincerest apologies for not fulfilling my duties in the East Blue, but that doesn't change the fact that this tirade of yours is unjust."

Rosan peered at them. "You believe that my desire to save my brother is unjust? Even after everything you heard?"

"...No, your needless massacre of the Marines are. These people are good men," Hina said firmly, chains snaking out of her body.

"Hmph, it seems you've taken serious consideration of my words since our last encounter," Rosan said softly. "Good. I'm trying to be better but it's hard to show such a thing in the middle of a war. After I save my brother, I will change."

The redhead turned away from them, continuing his path towards Ace with a firm resolve and ignoring the Marines.

"We're at completely different levels of power… save us both the trouble and stay out of my way. Focus on surviving and redeeming yourselves, Marines," he said mercifully.

"No," Tashigi denied passionately, making Rosan pause in his gait.

The redhead turned towards them with a terrifyingly chilly expression, no emotion on his face. Sparks began surging through his body, glowing an ominous shade of red.

"Is that so?" Rosan asked curiously.

"That's right," Smoker said resolutely.

"If we let you do whatever you want, what would we be?" Hina stated quietly.

Rosan's eyes flashed.

"Alive."

The redhead lunged with murderous eyes, intent on killing them all instantly and being done with it…

He leapt above the plume of smoke, two balls of electricity forming on his palms.

Hina hastily summoned a cage of chains, intent on trapping Rosan but the redhead used the cages as a platform to skate on, leaping onto it and gliding across.

Their eyes widened as one of those palms aimed at her —

Only for him to suddenly stop his attack and launch himself backwards. He was just in time, avoiding a foot that had far too much power packed into it.

Great, another force showing interest in him.

"Fuffuffuf! Outta my way, Marines! I've been waiting to meet the Red Devil for a long time and I'm not disappointed!"

Rosan's eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of his attacker and he huffed in annoyance.

It was a tall man with short blonde hair, a pink feather coat dominating his figure and a pair of curved sunglasses.

"Donquixote Doflamingo," Rosan grunted, eyes narrowed as he stared across the man. "What business do you have with me?"

"Entertainment purposes!" Doflamingo grinned widely. "Everytime I see the news, you and your crew are in it! I've almost been losing patience at not meeting you yet!"

"Not to mention, I heard of what you did at Jaya! You attacked a crew flying my flag after all!"

Rosan stared at him. "Oh you mean the Bellamy Pirates," he said quietly, clenching his fist.

"Don't have weaklings fly your flag and make sure those weaklings understand the pecking order next time."

But to no shock at all to Rosan (he was getting good at identifying the freaks) Doflamingo laughed at his words and only widened his grin.

"That's true! I was quite disappointed in their performance as well but they had quite the words to say about you. A real devil... is that true?" Doffy asked sarcastically.

"You'll find out that I'm far worse, Heavenly Demon," Rosan warned, eyes narrowed as his wings flexed.

He rocketed off into the sky immediately, brows furrowing as Doffy outstretched his hands and pursued.

Rosan's exceptional vision narrowed at that and he activated Modification, grunting as an almost invisible line flew out of Doffy's fingers…

Upon closer inspection, Rosan could see that some were latched onto the air of all things. His brows pursed in confusion at his observation and he tried to understand the logic behind it, flying further and further away from the battlefield.

He was forced to abandon his observing in order to evade a single line rushing to his body, courtesy of Doflamingo aiming a finger at him.

"The Ito Ito no mi."

Strings? Rosan's brows furrowed. What was he doing with strings?

"You dodged that?" Doflamingo pondered in some surprise. "Quite the rookie we have here. You're already impressing me, Red Devil!"

"I don't have time to play games with you, Doflamingo. This may be entertaining to you but it's not something I have time for. Why not just wait for after this war and then we can properly meet?" Rosan scowled.

Naturally, his words left the man utterly unfazed.

"Fufufufu! You're just too interesting and I do have my duties as a Warlord to attend to! You've completely stolen the show from Whitebeard of all people since showing up, so that makes you a valuable target!" Doflamingo grinned.

"You're boldly making an enemy of me, Doflamingo. I hope you don't regret that in the future. I won't forget a single soul who stops me from saving my brother," Rosan growled in annoyance and launched himself backwards through the air, as Doffy closed the distance immediately between the two.

A string slashed across his body at such speeds, Rosan wasn't able to properly prepare for it and he watched as the razor sharp material caused a line of blood to appear across his body.

"I don't want to kill you. No you're far too interesting for that," Doflamingo chuckled, shooting out another string that Rosan got clipped by. "I want to see how desperate you get to save your brother."

"So he's a sadist. Naturally," Rosan thought, spitting out blood as the strings caused more lines of blood to appear on him.

They were so sharp that not even his Raid Suit was able to properly defend against it.

Rosan outstretched his hands, revealing the two balls of electricity that he never got rid of and he released his attack.

The orbs exploded in a large web of chasing electricity, covering the entire area ahead of Rosan and catching some of the strings racing towards him.

"Hm? What exactly is your Devil Fruit?" Doflamingo asked curiously, watching as the webs of electricity converged on his position. "Spider Web."

A string of webs flew out, blocking Doflamingo from getting struck by its electrical equivalent.

"If I tell you will you leave?" Rosan asked genuinely, taking flight even higher.

"Hmhmhm! I have other ways to get you to speak! You aren't getting rid of me that easily!" Doflamingo cackled.

Rosan sighed. "Maybe I should be more glad I wasn't born a girl. I'm beginning to fear how many people are interested in me," he said quietly.

"You're telling me. That's what I say everytime I look at Rosanna."

"Rosanna seriously is too hot. No wonder mother enjoys kissing the both of you."

"Why the fuck are you both also calling her Rosanna like she's a different person?"

Rosan sighed and ascended higher, rushing past the clouds in the sky and glaring down at Doflamingo.

His cuts were healing, leaving him unharmed and he opened his mouth.

At the same time, swirling winds formed around his hands.

"Annihilation!" he snarled, letting loose a heavy stream of fire.

Then, as it flew through the air, Rosan clapped his hands, allowing the swirling winds to fly free with wild eyes.

"Streamline," he hissed.

The two elements collided, seamlessly transforming into a raging torrent of billowing flames that consumed the air around.

Doflamingo watched with an impressed gaze and he launched himself away from the mass of fire and wind.

Rosan watched the affairs in slight confusion.

Doflamingo wasn't climbing any higher... in fact it looked like after his attack, the Warlord was a little lower than before...

The redhead narrowed his eyes before they widened in realization and he flew even further away from the battlefield.

He was pursued by the Heavenly Demon

Rosan grunted as he weathered a hellishly strong kick from the Warlord and he exploded in electricity that Doflamingo calmly backed away from, wide grin of ease still on his face.

But that grin lessened slightly at the triumphant look in Rosan's eyes.

"Word of advice Joker..." Rosan began with a sneer.

Doffy's smile instantly vanished at that, replaced by clear shock at the sudden name drop.

How the hell did the Red Devil know his identity?! That was impossible! How could he possibly have figured that out?!

"...Don't fight a person in their domain, with such an obvious weakness," Rosan snarled victoriously.

Then, he exploded in a burst of not electricity… but wind.

The winds around him grew heavy and began swirling around the pirates, getting heavier and heavier.

"Whirlwind."

The sky around the two began to be consumed by the strong winds and Rosan huffed, as Doflamingo remained undamaged by the attack.

Doflamingo's confusion at the ineffective technique only lasted for a split second, as he suddenly realized exactly why Rosan had done this move.

Him suddenly descending towards the floor was proof of that.

"You attach those strings to the clouds around," Rosan observed, speaking above the whirlwind. "Unfortunately for you, I have methods to get rid of these annoying clouds."

"That's why you dragged me away from the battlefield," Doflamingo mused even as he fell towards the ocean. "Don't think this is over, Red Devil… I'm going to find out how you know such a thing."

"I'll be glad to entertain you after I save my brother," Rosan scowled, turning his gaze towards the battlefield once more.

Admiral Kizaru was likely distracted… there wouldn't be many people who could answer him in the skies consistently…

Rosan's gaze flashed cruelly.

Time to be even more annoying then.

---

Maro bit her lip nervously. "So that's Joker? Donquixote Doflamingo?" she mumbled in confusion.

She wasn't aware that Joker was the Warlord. Master must have not deemed it important enough to tell her.

"So that's him..." Aiko muttered, gazing at the screen in blatant concern and allowing Akemi to squeeze her for reassurance.

That didn't change the fact that she herself was deathly nervous. Rosan had already been attacked by three Admirals, a former Warlord and a current Warlord.

Their lovable redhead was attracting enough attention to make them all nervous. It was incredibly nerve wracking.

"Joker?" Zala asked softly, clutching Demon's right arm in reassurance.

"Who is that?" Mikita asked curiously, placing a palm on his lap reassuringly.

"An underground broker," Demon answered quietly.

Aiko nodded. "No one knows who he was before, but he's the most influential underworld broker in the world. Now it makes sense why they say he even has dealings with an Emperor," she muttered.

The Queen of Fregate herself wasn't a stranger to the workings of the Underworld. She had some subordinates that participated in its dealings and if it was incredibly important, she tended to send Rosan himself because he would ensure nothing traced back to her.

"Why are you interested in that, my queen?" Kaori asked.

She had been offered the chance to watch after Rosan had encountered and freed Jinbe from her prison. She could admit that she had shed more than a few tears at hearing that Jinbe was proud of her.

Sure she still resented Rosan for killing her father but... that was a small part of her that would never go away. A larger part of her respected and admired the redhead's strength and capacity to love. Seeing how much he loved and adored the three rulers of the island that she loved made it hard to truly hate him.

And when he said he was only freeing Jinbe because he was Kaori's teacher... that had flattered her tremendously.

Kaori had no idea Rosan held her in any type of regard. It was... enlightening.

He also mentioned bringing Jinbe over to her for no other reason than the fact that Kaori missed him. Angel loved to mention that Rosan did little things that no one asked for, but appreciated, all the time and she was beginning to see that.

She might actually like the redhead now. He didn't have to bring Jinbe over at all but he had done so just because it would make her happy.

So she was rooting for him wholeheartedly, hoping that he accomplished his mission because underneath that demon, was truly a sweetheart of a boy.

"Well, I'm interested in Joker because Master stole my Devil Fruit from him," Maro mentioned truthfully.

There was a tense pause at that.

"Rosan did what?!" Zala exclaimed in surprise.

"Given the context of who Joker is now... yeah he's nuts," Aiko grunted, ensuring that Akemi blinked. Her little sister had hardly said a word, just watching the screen with enraptured eyes. She only flinched when Rosan killed someone but otherwise, her eyes were glued.

"Maro..." Perona suddenly said. "When did you eat your Devil Fruit?" she asked warily.

Maro blinked and pondered that question.

"When I was 11. 12 years ago," she informed them.

"So you and Rosan have been enemies with Doflamingo for 12 years...?" Mikita wondered in horror.

"More like just Master. He stole the fruit long before we met," Maro answered. "Doflamingo doesn't know what fruit we stole and he doesn't know I ate it. He doesn't even know Master and I's true identity."

They mulled that over with pensive expressions.

It did seem like Doflamingo had no idea who Rosan was...

"He's very creative. He was weaker than Doflamingo but fought smarter," Kaori pointed out, looking impressed at the redhead who was healing his wounds.

Maro nodded. "We're lucky that Master never feels the need to fight underhanded. He finds it more fun to beat someone with his might... but right now all that matters to him —"

"—Is Ace," Angel finished quietly, squeezing Maro with a look of concern.

"When Master finds no enjoyment in the battles he's partaking in... that's when he's scariest," Demon whispered. "It means he's going to do whatever it takes to win."

As they watched the redhead's figure grow once more, all of his former enemies shuddered in unison.

"I'm glad he never used that against me," Marianne muttered.

Everyone nodded sagely.

---

Sengoku thought Doflamingo dealing with Rosan was the end of the Red Devil's constant annoyance and cast him out of his mind.

Formidable he may be, the redhead was not at the level to be able to deal with someone like the eccentric Warlord.

Well, that's what he would have been thinking at least, until he felt a presence behind him…

Right above Marine Headquarters.

Sengoku whirled around instantly and witnessed the sight of one Portgas D. Rosan, fully transformed into a dragon, glaring down at Marineford Town with pure malice in his gaze.

And the worst part was, he already had his attack fully charged.

It was an utterly gigantic orb being formed from his maw, shuddering with multiple unstable energies that were not meant to be combined with each other and Sengoku realized that it was ready to fire.

How did he manage to sneak over so quickly?! What happened to Doflamingo?!

It was dawning on him that while yes, the Red Devil was nowhere near the strongest person here… he was far stronger than they were lead to believe and it led to them vastly underestimating what he was truly able to do.

It was no wonder he was capable of running through Enies Lobby and a majority of the Grand Line…

The Red Devil was a new world level pirate with a quite frankly, overwhelming skill set for most people to handle. Versatility was a formidable power all in itself and it seemed like he had an answer for every scenario he was put in.

While not terribly strong just yet, it did not change the fact that most people could not handle him... and it did not change the fact that when he did become terribly strong, very few people would be able to handle it.

With all he was capable of, Sengoku would even consider his abilities more dangerous than a Logia but that was to be expected... he wielded the most dangerous class of Devil Fruit.

Most of all however, the Red Devil was grossly intelligent because it was only now that Sengoku was learning, that 300 million was not a good enough bounty for the shadow of the Straw Hats…

Shadow was an apt term for him. Rosan spent all this time, manipulating the type of information that got out about him. No one knew what his Devil Fruit was, no one knew what he was truly capable of… hell no one even knew what he was doing after he separated from Nico Robin.

Even now, Sengoku only knew how formidable he was because of what he now believed was a mistake on Rosan's part, where he destroyed the Marine based of the late Nezumi...

Without that slip up, how little information would Sengoku know about the redhead?

The answer was none. Most of what Sengoku knew, stemmed from that moment and Rosan's battle with Smoker and Hina... without that he wouldn't know anything.

But Sengoku knew one thing…

Portgas D. Rosan truly despised the World Government with every fiber of his being and he was making that known to the world.

They needed to shut the footage now.

"DOOMSDAY!" Rosan roared behind the enemy lines, causing everyone to whirl towards the gigantic dragon.

Once more, everyone found themselves pausing as Rosan brought all the attention to himself again.

"W-What...?" a Marine whimpered in terror.

Mouths opened in horror, as an utterly enormous ball of something crashed into Marineford Town without any hesitation.

Tremors went through Marineford and the people alike, as a truly giant dome of elements engulfed the area.

How... how was such destructive power possible...? Wasn't the Red Devil a rookie pirate?

"What the hell?" Marco whistled in surprise, gazing at the destruction with wide eyes.

The only other dragon he had ever seen, was Kaido. Perhaps it was a trait of all Dragon acquiring Devil Fruits to wield such enormous destructive power.

Whitebeard, watching from his perch on the ship, gazed at Rosan's display with an inscrutable gaze.

"That brat..." he muttered.

Versatility and power alike... such a thing was incredibly rare to come by and yet, Rosan here was wielding both with years of experience.

You would think he was born with these abilities.

Whitebeard knew such mastery over his powers took years to acquire. While certainly talented, Rosan used his Devil Fruit as easy as breathing.

This was a Devil Fruit the brat had grown up with... yet no one knew what his Devil Fruit was.

That could only mean one thing. Rosan was purposefully omitting what his ability was and it seemed like it was for a good reason as well. The redhead was displaying things that left even Whitebeard impressed.

How strange. In a world everyone announced their abilities, this brat right here wasn't willing to disclose more than he had to. He seemed more like a revolutionary, than a pirate with his hatred of the World Government and his secretive streak.

"Rosan..." Ace gasped, mouth open at seeing his brother truly unleashed.

Rosan had always been clinical but right now, he was clinical and utterly insane.

Gone was his cold and calculating brother, using a surgical knife to dismantle his opponents without them knowing who it was, and in its place was his unhinged psychopath of a brother, using a sledgehammer to break the person's body with extreme force.

His clinical side was still there, but his manner of execution had completely transformed. Anyone who saw the old Rosan would shudder in fear at how cool and calculating he was, finding themselves 10 steps behind a super computer.

Anyone who saw this new Rosan would shudder in fear at somehow being 10 steps behind an unhinged maniac.

Ace actually thought the second version was scarier. An unhinged maniac that actually knew what they were doing... but not caring at all about the consequences.

He shut his eyes. It didn't feel good knowing that Ace turned Rosan into this maniac.

Sengoku grit his teeth, veins bulging on the side of his head as a very familiar headache began blooming.

It was a good thing they had the foresight to evacuate the citizens, because the Red Devil just completely destroyed the town.

In one fell swoop, he annihilated both their area of retreat and their resources…

There was just a wasteland... was he truly hiding this much power?

Rosan grunted victoriously and immediately transformed back to normal, as a barrage of ice and magma flew towards him.

They sailed harmlessly past his shrunken body and the redhead decided that his job over here was done.

"CAPTURE THE RED DEVIL AT ONCE!" Sengoku roared, as Rosan continuously made a fool of them.

Activating Save Point, Rosan immediately transported himself over to Luffy's location, evading the onslaught of attacks headed his way.

"Troublesome," Aokiji sighed.

"..." Akainu said nothing, merely looking disgruntled at the nuisance.

"How are you holding up?" Rosan asked his younger brother.

He had bruises all over from the action taking place and Rosan's eyes narrowed.

"I'm good! I can keep going," Luffy exclaimed immediately, watching as Rosan effortlessly grabbed his cheeks with both hands.

Rosan said nothing, merely inspecting Luffy with critical eyes.

"We're doing fine," Jinbe answered, throwing a Marine over his shoulder and then punching towards a larger group and sending them scattering.

"You should be the one we're asking that. You're all over the field!" Iva exclaimed, winking and sending a plethora of marines flying away.

Rosan grunted and deemed Luffy's condition acceptable. "I'm fine. It's a given that I was going to attract all this attention and even despite that, I'm doing what I want. You all just keep going. Don't forget the mission."

"Be careful, Redboy!" Iva exclaimed.

"You too," Rosan grunted.

With that, the redhead soared off again. He was ready to set his next course of plans into action, but he was interrupted by a horrifying sight.

Rosan felt a chill crawl down his spine and he resisted the urge to explode in energy because there were too many Whitebeard Pirates around him currently.

The reason for his sudden fear, was due to the group of corpses running towards his location. The rotting disgusting humans were speeding towards him and Rosan hissed.

"Oh dear," Mod sighed, feeling the spike of fear and getting ready to temporarily take over if she had to.

"Hmph, I love zombies," Pestilence purred.

"RED DEVIL YOU BASTARD!" A furious voice roared. "GIVE HER BACK! GIVE ME BACK PERONA!"

Rosan turned towards the voice and narrowed his eyes at the sight of Gecko Moria.

The shadow man was seething, eyes bulging in anger as he glared at the redhead. Veins littered his entire body and he was practically frothing at the mouth in rage.

"WHERE IS SHE? THAT PURPLE HAIRED BITCH! BRING HER SO THAT I CAN DESTROY HER! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" He howled

"Me? Oh dear, did he really call me such a rude word?" Mod blinked, looking mildly offended.

Ram and Rosan both snarled instinctively at that. No one, and they meant no one was allowed to talk to Mod-chan like that outside of their family.

Only they could bully the woman.

"I'm flattered you two... I hate you all the same, but I'm flattered," Mod sweatdropped.

Moria didn't even get to blink, before he felt himself lose his breath.

Rosan glared coldly at Moria, fist planted in his chest without any hesitation.

"The balls on you to talk about her like that to my face while your this worthless. You should have stolen a shadow before coming to fight me like this. I'm not nearly as merciful as my mother," Rosan scoffed, embedding his fist deeper into the man's gut.

"M-Mother...?" Moria thought in disbelief, gagging as he curled into himself.

"Know your role in this world, washed up garbage."

The fist began surging with red energy and Moria howled in agony, as sparks began running through his entire body.

The Warlord convulsed, eyes rolling to the back of his skull as Rosan removed the fist from his abdomen.

"I don't have time to play with you," Rosan snarled, discarding the body like yesterday's trash and continuing his course.

Running to Ace right away was the stupid option, right now he needed to continue dealing heavy blows to them to dwindle them down so that meant…

"Sabo, with me for a bit!" Rosan barked, flying directly past his brother.

He didn't stop for a moment and was satisfied to see Sabo reaching out to grab his arm before he was even prompted too.

His blonde brother had been causing complete devastation on the Marines numbers, to the point where he was attracting more attention than most of the pirates there.

The Goro Goro no mi, even in the hands of a novice, was a truly devastating power. There was a reason it was toted as one of the few invincible Devil Fruits out there. In terms of Logia's it stood amongst the absolute best.

Combine that with someone as formidable as Sabo and you'd get a complete force. Sabo right now, could only be stopped by the likes of Garp or an Admiral.

"What's up?" Sabo said, idly sparking with electricity to charge up his brother.

Rosan nodded thankfully and said, "I've been fucking with them nonstop."

"Yeah it was smart of you to breach their backlines and get rid of their resources. We're gonna do another like that?" Sabo asked, well versed in the art of warfare.

Rosan was terrifyingly useful for wars. He was actually one of the most valuable assets because of his resourcefulness and variety.

"Yeah," Rosan grunted. "Warships this time. Their flanking the area to prevent escape and fire at us from all angles... so we're gonna inconvenience them."

Sabo could already see where Rosan was going with this.

"Alright, let's go. I've got it," the blonde nodded.

Rosan flew high into the sky and at the same time, Sabo began focusing, focusing on the ships and setting up mental aim.

"What did Enel call it again?" Sabo mused, blue electricity surging across his body. "Oh, right."

"El Thor!"

All around Marineford, giant pillars of blue electricity began slamming into every single Marine Warship with expert precision. They broke apart as soon as the attack connected and Sengoku's eyes bulged in rage, eyes locked onto the duo in the sky soaring around.

"What's with that corpse of the giant over there?" Rosan asked randomly.

It was of a yellow-green giant, that looked about 10 meters larger than Ragnarok. His body light flat on the ground as the people fought around it.

Sabo frowned. "His name was Little Oars Jr. apparently. He wanted to save Ace badly but he was so big... that it made him an easy target for the Government."

Rosan mulled over that. "Moria had the corpse of the actual Oars. Put Luffy's shadow inside of it. I didn't get to fight him but it looked fun."

His brother raised a brow. "He put Luffy's shadow in that? You never have a boring journey do you?"

"Not at all. It all happened in the Florian Triangle too."

Sabo shook his head. "Somehow I'm not surprised you guys entered and made it out."

Rosan nodded, angling himself over to another direction.

"I've been thinking of getting a weapon made of gold to mold into any shape like Enel did," Sabo mentioned idly, destroying another ship with increasing ease.

"You don't need gold for that," Rosan replied immediately. "Any metal will do. Gold is just conductive so he can also travel through it."

Sabo loved his brother. "You're too damn smart. Thanks for that. No gold weapon needed... noted. What materials are conductive?"

"Lot of them. I'll give you a list after this is over," Rosan said softly.

"Thanks Rosan. It's good having an all knowing encyclopedia at the ready," Sabo replied with a small grin.

"Huh, that's funny. Maro said the exact same thing..."

The redhead snorted at that.

"How's your observation holding up?" Rosan asked as they continued destroying every warship.

"Overwhelming, but I'm getting used to it in the heat of war. Believe it or not, this is helping me out a lot," Sabo informed him, getting rid of the final ones with only a minimal amount of sweat.

"Good, because we probably attracted a lot of attention to ourselves. Don't turn that Observation off," Rosan grunted.

Sabo was about to reply, but instead he flipped himself upward onto Rosan's back and launched himself forward, pipe connecting with Kizaru's leg.

"You aren't wrong about that!" Sabo scowled.

"Who is this scary guyyyy?" Kizaru asked, light colliding with lightning.

"No one important. Now would you stop harassing my brother? You can deal with me now!" Sabo grinned.

In an instant, the two were off and Rosan watched them go with a frown.

That was fine, Sabo had already done his job by destroying the Warships… The Marines aboard were getting on land, twitching from the effects of the electricity so they'd be easy pickings.

Fine then, he had done a lot so he could properly coordinate with Whitebeard and begin the rescue of Ace because Rosan was sure that they were going to speed up his execution at this rate.

Rosan barely moved his head to the side, cheek spilling with blood as he narrowly dodged a flying slash careening towards him.

"It's one after the other," Rosan sighed in frustration, glaring at the neutral Mihawk.

"So many people are targeting you... it's honestly ridiculous," Mod frowned in concern.

"Wait until Father is no longer doing a rescue mission. Then he'll give all these bastards the attention they deserve," Ram snarled in annoyance.

They were so lucky that Father's attention wasn't 100% on them!

The world's greatest swordsman didn't even flinch, as Rosan rocketed to his position, landing directly in front of him with an annoyed expression.

"Ambitionless… or perhaps I should call you Red Devil now," Mihawk greeted, holding his sword at his side idly.

"Mihawk," Rosan grunted. "I know you're interested in me, but could you save it for another time? I can't focus on giving you a good fight while my brother's life is in peril."

Mihawk stared at him, some amusement on his features. "So even with all those emotions, you still completely lack fear. With all that ambition returned… quite the person you are, Portgas D. Rosan."

"Unfortunately, I must at least attempt some of my duties," he apologized.

Rosan sighed. "Right, figured. I would have hoped you attempted it against someone else but that's too fucking much to ask I guess."

"I've already tested the gap between Whitebeard and I, now I'd like to see how much the gap has closed between you and I. I am a pirate after all. I will always prioritize my desires."

"Long way of saying you're as interested in me as every other person," Rosan sneered. "You sound so refined and cool all the time, but deep down you're a twisted and self fulfilling person huh?"

Mihawk merely brandished his blade. "I am considered the World's Greatest Swordsman after all."

And the two were off.

"Round two!" Ram grinned violently, transforming into dual katanas.

"Ram has gotten stronger as well," Mihawk praised, dashing forward and clashing with both the swords.

"She appreciates that... but I don't appreciate that you're praising her," Rosan warned. "Personal reasons. You wouldn't understand."

Mihawk cracked the tiniest of smirks. "That weapon does seem quite alive."

Rosan's eyes flashed. "She is."

He blocked a swing to his midsection with his left katana, using the right blade to attempt to decapitate Mihawk, only for Yoru to effortlessly block the slash.

Doing so left Rosan's left katana free and he immediately lengthened it dramatically to gore through Hawkeye's midsection.

Mihawk effortlessly sidestepped, batting Rosan's blade aside and lunging forward with a horizontal swipe.

It nearly connected with Rosan, only for Ram to instantly transform into a shield that blocked the attack.

Rosan was pushed back and he watched as Mihawk lunged from a different angle, moving too quick for the redhead to keep up.

"Ram."

"On it!"

Mihawk's lunge abruptly stopped and he leapt back, as a giant circular barrier erupted around Rosan. It glowed ominously and he experimentally swung at a flying slash to it.

Nothing, not even a dent.

"Fascinating. A new technique?" Mihawk mused.

"Yeah," Rosan grunted, dispatching the barrier and leaping at the man once more. He grabbed his katanas and slammed the butts together, forming the double sided blade and gripping it in one hand. He spun it rapidly and slammed it against Yoru, making no headway whatsoever.

Their dance began again in a flurry of speed, disregarding all the bodies getting cut around them.

"Your rate of growth is notable," Mihawk praised, pushing Rosan's blade to the side and cutting him across the belly.

Rosan growled and opened his mouth, shooting out a gout of flames directly in Mihawk's face that the man already anticipated.

Mihawk backed away a safe distance and cut his flames effortlessly, parting them like the sea.

"You're a fucking show off," Rosan snarled in annoyance.

"I could say the same to you," Hawkeye pointed out.

The redhead sneered and began spinning his double sided sword, shooting wind slash after wind slash at Mihawk.

He was forced to move out of the way as the swordsman responded with his own, much larger one and Rosan sparked with electricity, using it to amplify his speed.

At the same time, he transformed Ram into gloves and took off into the sky, dodging each flying slash Mihawk was returning in kid.

He soared through the air, dodging and weaving. At the same time, he began forming tiny red orbs whenever he dodged. More and more orbs began lighting up the skies and Mihawk paused curiously.

They were floating about ominously and Rosan stopped his flight to glare at Mihawk.

"Rays of Judgement."

At once, every single orb transformed into piercing beams that began shooting from the sky. The floating makeshift lasers, began firing indiscriminately, shooting directly towards the area Mihawk was in and Rosan huffed as he allowed his cuts to heal.

Rosan knew he was significantly stronger than when he first fought Mihawk. It was night and day how much stronger he was—

He watched as with an almost infuriating amount of ease, Mihawk summoned an enormous gust of wind that served as an offensive and defensive option. It only took a swing of his sword to do so and Rosan's attack, which would have killed hundreds of people mind you, was nullified.

—But that didn't change the fact that Mihawk was the World's Greatest Fucking Swordsman.

He was no closer to beating the man than last time and Rosan was in no mood to continue this damn fight because it was a waste of time and Mihawk could kill him at any given point in time.

Rosan eyes narrowed as the ground erupted between him and Mihawk.

He continued manipulating the ground, forcefully separating him from the swordsman.

His senses went haywire and he grabbed a random Marine, before launching them in the path of the ruthless swing.

Then, he used the fallen corpse of some giant and launched himself upwards, Mihawk still hot on his trail.

Rosan whirled around and they collided once more, a flurry of sparks flying between the two.

Rosan was effortlessly pushed back, wound on his midsection healing up but the redhead opened his mouth and shot out a weak flame that immediately ignited those flying sparks.

The intelligent attack was completely negated by the fact that Mihawk was utterly nonsensical and Rosan growled aloud.

Mihawk was like a hunter, keeping track of Rosan effortlessly even as the redhead tried to shake him off.

"Fuck off you fucking swordsman! I don't have time for this!" Rosan snarled violently.

He huffed and leapt directly above a lazy slash, allowing Mihawk to carve into the iceberg that Aokiji created when he froze the tidal waves.

The casual swing cut the entire thing in half and the redhead scowled at that.

It seemed like Mihawk was going for the kill now with his swings.

That really didn't bode well for him.

Without any hesitation, he flew up and punched the iceberg, before modifying the broken pieces rapidly into swords.

Rosan snarled and began launching every single one of the floating icicle blades at Mihawk.

But that wasn't all, he transformed Ram into a set of gloves and began firing orb after explosive orb towards his location as well.

The frankly ridiculous onslaught of projectiles careened towards the neutral swordsman's position with envying amounts of accuracy.

Rosan didn't wait at all to see if it worked (he knew it didn't) because he turned on a dime and launched himself directly towards Ace's location, wings flexing and sparks flying as he pushed himself away from Mihawk.

Mihawk watched Rosan soar away and was about to give chase, but he was forced to block two blades crashing against him, taking his attention off the redhead.

"Vista? The Whitebeard Pirates 5th division commander?" Mihawk mused.

"So you know of me?" Vista grinned.

"I'd be a fool not to."

Rosan huffed, glad that someone managed to take Mihawk's attention off of him and took stock of the situation once more…

His eyes narrowed in confusion. The way the Marines were moving currently was cause for suspicion...

What were they up to?

The redhead gazed back at the execution stand and made direct eye contact with the solemn Garp.

Garp immediately caught his gaze and said nothing, as Rosan's expression darkened into something truly fierce. Nothing needed to be said but he could feel it in his grandson's furious gaze.

"Consider our relationship dead, Garp."

The Hero of the Marines shut his eyes at that, knowing that Rosan would likely never forgive him for the stance that he was taking.

Picking between your duty and your family… for someone like Rosan, the answer was obvious but for Garp? It would never be that simple.

But still... it hurt knowing one of his grandsons had practically disowned him. Despite their rocky relationship, Garp knew that Rosan had largely warmed up to him and vice versa.

He stopped trying to seriously kill him years ago after all but now?

Well now Garp wasn't so sure that was going to remain the same.

"We've lost too many people at the hands of the Red Devil. We've identified that powerful Logia as well… if we're right, that's the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionaries, Sabo," Sengoku announced.

The arrival of the Red Devil and his allies was far more disastrous then he had anticipated.

"Begin the preparations. Cut the cameras off and ensure they are trapped within the bay, while our allies make it to the plaza. Gather the Pacifista and prepare for the execution of Ace," Sengoku instructed.

---

Rosan watched in some confusion as the Marines suddenly began scrambling back towards their side of the battlefield.

Hm? What was this? A tactical retreat?

That wasn't good. That meant they had something dangerous planned.

Rosan was about to stomp the ground ahead of him, to block off the route of the Marines but his attention was drawn to the sight of a large bandaged man, leading an army of Bartholomew Kuma.

The giant copies of the Warlords looked like complete mimics. There truly was no difference besides the palms and lack of bible.

But above all...

"You're still alive?" Rosan asked in surprise, gazing at the heavily injured Sentomaru with an impressed gaze.

Sentomaru glared at him, moving despite how heavily wrapped his body was. "Red Devil… I barely survived our encounter. I underestimated you greatly and I paid the price for it."

"The fact that you survived at all is worth praise. The fact that you've shown up to a war after having your insides attacked, is downright impressive," Rosan said genuinely, gazing at the copies of Kuma.

What exactly were these copies of Kuma? Were they robots? Rosan didn't fight them back at Sabaody but he did notice that Luffy and Zoro had struggled a tad before adapting and crushing the creatures.

Well whatever they were, they were wrecking absolute havoc onto the pirates. Their skin was incredibly hard, they seemed to have an infinite supply of stamina and they utilized actual lasers with both piercing and explosive power.

They singlehandedly began turning the tides and Rosan sneered as he leapt over a laser soaring towards his location.

The redhead scowled and dashed towards Sentomaru and the Pacifista, intent on swiftly dealing with them lest they destroy their numbers even more.

These Robots were an inconvenience. If left to their own devices, the weaker pirates would get obliterated… They had already thinned down the pirates by a fair amount so he would need to interfere.

If these really weren't the real Kuma… If they really were just robots of some sorts...

Well if they didn't have wills of their own, then that meant they had a severe weakness that Rosan could exploit.

The redhead landed atop of one of the Kuma's, eyes glowing brilliantly as he summoned a barrier that blocked the laser from the other Kumas, that would destroy both him and this robot.

"Word of advice, it's not too wise bringing machinery around me," he warned, red sparks transforming into a purple color for the occasion.

Mod's eyes sparkled at that.

"Modification: Overhaul."

Bringing these robots to a computer? How foolish. Now that he knew they were cloning robots of Kuma and Rosan discovered the key behind his electricity with Sabo… he had begun experimenting.

The results?

The purple electricity poured into the Pacifista he was atop, seeping into the gaps and causing the robot underneath him to shudder violently.

"Error. Error. Red Devil Rosan: Bounty: 300,000,000... Bounty: 0... B-Bounty," the Kuma stammered, voice module flickering over and over.

Rosan watched with malicious glee as it immediately raised an arm and began shooting lasers indiscriminately, before the redhead peered even deeper into the copy of Kuma.

There it was. A nice little chip.

It would be such a shame if someone just.

Rosan grinned mockingly, exploding even harsher.

The copy of Kuma stopped firing randomly, attacks no longer splashing off of Rosan's barrier.

Then, it opened its mouth and fired a laser directly at its lookalike, destroying one of the other Kuma's heads.

The Mod Mod no Mi didn't just make Rosan a computer human... it made him the epitome of technology.

His years of hiding the Mod Mod no mi... had admittedly not been incredibly beneficial. He had focused on finding ways to hide what his Devil Fruit was, to the point where he really could just be considered a Mythical Zoan user.

But Rosan was a computer first and foremost and he needed to remember that part of himself.

This was the first step. Rosan just needed to no longer be afraid of that. Rosan was going to show the world how dangerous a human computer could be.

Judging by the simultaneous gasps of horror, he was doing a good job of that.

"Strange… they aren't fully robotic," Rosan thought to himself, lazily sitting on the robot's shoulder.

They felt more akin to… to Franky honestly… were they cyborgs?

But Franky had will. He would be pretty difficult for Rosan to Overhaul. Not impossible like Luffy or Zoro, but he was definitely up there.

These Kuma copies though didn't have any will of their own. In fact, how the hell were they making cyborgs of Kuma when the real one still existed?

That was… what the hell? Did that mean the Pacifista were partially human? Were they perhaps clones of Kuma?

...Oh what the hell. The implications of that were really gross.

Well whatever. "Go on minion. Have fun," Rosan smiled.

Everyone's jaw dropped as the Pacifista stopped trying to kill Rosan… in order to kill its allies instead. Lasers shot out of its arm and began colliding with the other Pacifista, avoiding damage due to still looking like one.

"Ace's brother is kinda terrifying," Marco noted, looking impressed and confused at the same time.

This gold mine of a person had been unknown up until this year? That just didn't make any sense to him. Rosan had done nothing but impress him since showing up.

Everytime he pulled out some technique, it wasn't just the Marines picking their jaws off the floor. The pirate army was just as bad.

"That shouldn't even be possible! The Pacifista are brand new prototypes. There's no feasible way he should have some technique that can override them unless he's secretly in kahoots with Vegapunk!"

Sengoku's jaw clenched at his thought, unable to comprehend what was happening.

There was no way in hell Rosan had an authority chip to control the Pacifista. Somehow, the redhead had used that electricity of his to completely take over the robot.

It was as if he hacked into the hardware of the Pacifista. But such a thing was impossible! Only Vegapunk would be capable of doing something like that. The Pacifista were far too advanced for anyone to make heads or tails of —

Sengoku went pale.

"No… no it can't be! Does Rosan perhaps have?!"

But was that really the case? All that he was capable of doing… was that truly the work of…

That couldn't be... but it had been years since anyone had seen it...

A bead of sweat fell down Sengoku's face as he finally felt unease at Rosan's actions.

"How are you going that?!" Sentomaru roared in confusion, lunging at the redhead with a frantic look in his eyes.

That wasn't possible! How was he possibly able to do that?!

Rosan ducked under Sentomaru's desperate swings and launched himself towards another Pacifista.

"No stop!" Sentomaru demanded, whirling around to attempt to stop the Rosan.

Unfortunately, when the Red Devil wasn't fighting he was really goddamn slippery.

"What type of monster is he?" the man couldn't help but think, nervously watching as the redhead landed atop yet another Pacifista.

If allowed to grow… the Red Devil would become so incredibly dangerous… he had only ever encountered the Pacifista once and he never even engaged it in actual combat!

Rosan had been locked in combat against Sentomaru so how did he possibly come up with some way to counter the Pacifista in a way that was downright detrimental to the World Government?

Their new way of fighting back pirates... and a single person already threatened to throw that idea on the shelf?! How could that be possible?!

"Wowww," Kizaru said curiously, materializing onto the platform again.

"He's controlling the Pacifista," Aokiji drawled with furrowed brows.

Rosan was almost significantly more dangerous than their last encounter. It wasn't even a power boost that was causing such an issue…

It was just the fact that he was versatile and capable of being everywhere at once. The redhead hardly stood still and wherever he went, he displayed a move that hindered them.

Truly troublesome...

"How is he doing that?" Akainu asked gruffly. "Has Vegapunk betrayed us?"

"No," Sengoku said gravely.

The redhead was truly in his element. He saw himself as no more than a weapon of war and it was for good reason.

"If he survives this, deal with him," Sengoku grit out. "His contribution is too much for how little of a threat he should be. I've come to a potential detail that is very startling."

If left to his own devices, the Red Devil would cause untold mayhem… and that extended to after this war too.

Rosan showing up was a mistake on his part because his heritage was just as bad as Ace's.

The nephew of Xebec… Rosan was too dangerous and he was showcasing too many similar traits to that insane man. That was why Sengoku wasn't too upset that he showed up... well before Rosan had gone and shown that his presence was one that could not be ignored.

Ace and Whitebeard weren't the only ones he planned on killing today. The Great Age of Pirates would end in one fell swoop because if Sengoku killed Ace and Rosan survived, the world may actually end.

"Bring up the walls and begin the assault. The cannon's are destroyed so if you would Akainu," Sengoku instructed.

---

"These kids are insane!"

"Who the hell is he?!"

"Ace's brothers?! All three of them?!"

"How have we not heard of the redhead or the blonde?!"

"The redhead is dealing with those Kumas like they aren't an issue!"

Rosan ignored the fact that someone called him a kid and gazed at his converted army of Pacifistas.

Cyborg clones of Bartholomew Kuma... Rosan wondered how that worked.

This must have been a recent project. These... Pacifista were not anything he had ever heard or seen.

How fascinating. Perhaps it was similar to Germa's clone army but with more robotics involved.

Was Vegapunk behind this? Likely. Rosan wasn't sure anyone else could accomplish such a feat.

Truly, the World Government had a frightening genius on their hands.

"Standby for now," was all he said.

With that, he tapped them all and they vanished.

He stole 4 of them. He wanted to give 3 away and keep the last one for himself.

Naturally, he'd probably have to change their appearance to avoid suspicion but... for now that could wait for later. Couldn't risk them getting destroyed.

Now what exactly were the Marines about to do—

"POPS!"

Rosan heard everyone scream that name suddenly and turned towards the noise to see what the commotion was.

He raised a brow at that and frowned in annoyance at what was happening.

There was a wound on Whitebeard, courtesy of the sword piercing his stomach and the one who had done so, appeared to be someone from his armada… Squard, the Maelstrom Spider.

This was why you couldn't trust pirates.

Rosan didn't give a fuck about what petty drama they had going on. Now was not the time to be dealing with it. In the middle of a war? This was quite literally, one of the worst times to have some form of dissension.

He actually snarled in annoyance and prepared to ignore the Whitebeard Pirates for the rest of this stupid fucking war.

Idiots didn't have their focus on the goal at hand. He refused to partner up with people that would listen to the words of their enemies of all people.

This Squard was it? Rosan would have tortured and shattered his resolve for daring to betray him at the words of the enemy.

Ridiculous.

But to Rosan's surprise, Whitebeard didn't completely cave in the man's skull like he should have.

No instead the Emperor forgave him…

Because the dumb idiot of a pirate had gotten manipulated. What a foolish dumbass… Whitebeard, betray his own people? Did that sound like the man at all?

All because of what… Ace being Roger's son? Rosan despised when people tacked on the stigmas of a parent to the child… especially when they weren't involved in that child's life.

"Rosan don't be so eager to forsake this temporary alliance," Mod said patiently. "I understand your frustration but think about the bigger picture. Forsake them after achieving your goal. Every chess piece is still usable."

Rosan mulled that over and nodded. "You're right. I still need them for the highest chance of success. They're just really fucking stupid."

"I know. I know," Mod soothed. "They're all dummies and dummies need a genius commander to lead them."

"I'll allow myself to fall for your tricks, Mod-chan."

Mod rolled her eyes.

"What's the meaning of this, Whitebeard?!" Crocodile barked furiously, glaring at the Emperor incredulously. "Such a weak attack wouldn't have ever caught you off guard before!"

Rosan pondered that and noticed the truth of his statement.

No Emperor alive would ever be hurt by such a thing. There wasn't a chance in hell that Big Mom or Kaido or even Shanks who willingly gave up his arm, would fall victim to this.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and truly gazed at Whitebeard.

"It might be his old age. Not everyone can have Garp's sheer vitality."

Yeah… Whitebeard was up there in age. There was a very real chance that it was catching up to him…

But that didn't seem to stop the old man at all. Rosan watched with a neutral expression as Whitebeard soothed the idiot who had betrayed him.

Then, the Emperor finally decided to march off the ship.

It was clear that Whitebeard heard the doubts being thrown his way about his condition. It was obvious that the old man was aware that his body might be failing him...

But as if forcing everyone to shut their mouths, Whitebeard made them watch.

A giant confidently approached the man, bolstered by the injury Whitebeard was suffering, and confidently thinking he could suddenly handle the Emperor.

His hubris was met with cold reality.

Edward Newgate was a monster.

Whitebeard grabbed the air at an angle and to Rosan's shock (and admiration) the very island of Marineford began tilting.

Bodies were thrown off balance as Whitebeard moved Marineford with power alone and his giant opponent was of no exception.

Before the Vice Admiral could retaliate, Whitebeard leapt up and delivered a devastating punch to the man's stomach.

He stood no hope of weathering such an attack and everyone felt their doubts get slightly silenced, as Whitebeard effortlessly defeated the giant in one hit.

Then, the Emperor punched the air with such force, that the ensuing quake began careening directly towards the retreating Marines, who could only watch in horror as the unstoppable attack reached them…

But to their immense relief, the attack was effortlessly thwarted by the Three Admirals.

Then, walls began erecting around the bay that they were trapped in.

Rosan's eyes narrowed at that before his eyes widened in realization. "SABO! LUFFY! TO ME RIGHT NOW!" He suddenly barked.

His brothers heard his shout and wasted no time rushing to his location. The urgency in his tone made his allies rush over as well and Rosan ignored the rush of people, eyes locked onto the allies he brought here.

"What's the matter, Rosan?" Sabo asked in concern, watching as his brother crouched to the floor.

"Get behind me. Culling attack on the way," was all he said before palming the floor.

Whitebeard heard Rosan's order and turned towards the redhead.

Based on all he had seen, the brat was exceedingly smart. He displayed an enormous amount of intelligence and his presence had helped significantly with the war.

It was a no brainer to put his trust in him.

"All of you!" Whitebeard rumbled. "Behind the brat! Something's happening."

Rosan huffed. "Relying on me huh, old man?" the redhead sassed.

"I'd be a fool otherwise! You've done your part, brat. If you make a call, I'll believe it," Whitebeard said truthfully.

"Expected after that embarrassing display just now. When saving someone, make sure everyone is on the same page," Rosan sneered, eyes glowing brightly.

Squard flinched at that, looking ashamed to be called out and he held his head.

"Gurarara. It was my mistake, brat. It's a shame that you had to see that. A father never wants others to see his children act out," Whitebeard rumbled, standing right next to Rosan.

The redhead rolled his eyes. "Father of the year award goes to you. Pretty rare. After this you need to pick up the pace. I've been doing everything here and my little brother still isn't saved you're disappointing me."

Everyone's jaw dropped at how casually Rosan was talking to Whitebeard of all people even as they rushed past the redhead.

Did he have no fear in his heart at all?! That was pops he was talking to like that!

Rosan took a deep breath and began to focus, ignoring the pounding of footsteps rushing past him.

Admiral Akainu glared down at them and raised both fists in the sky.

Rosan's eyes snapped open as the last person went past him and he made direct eye contact with the wary Fleet Admiral.

Sengoku caught his gaze and felt a strange tension forming in his body.

Then, the redhead let loose a smirk that made the man feel dread.

"Look alive Mod-chan. The World Government is about to find out what my Devil Fruit is."

Mod's eyes widened.

"Modification: Firewall."

Sengoku's jaw clenched as the floor beneath Rosan erupted. The ground raised and raised and raised, before arching slightly into the sky, covering the pirates from the hail of magma.

As they began crashing against the structure, Rosan stood up and palmed the giant shield of a wall. Fist after magma fist crashed into it and Rosan grunted, backing away from the wall as cracks began forming.

Akainu clenched his jaw at watching his attack get thwarted. Magma began seeping off his body as he glared at the molten red wall.

"Incredible," Marco awed, watching the wall with wide eyes. He had given up trying to figure out what Rosan's abilities allowed him to do and just charted it up to Mythical Zoan bullshit.

Marco would know. He was also a Mythical Zoan after all.

"Your brothers are pretty amazing guys, Ace," was all Marco settled for.

Utterly fearless in the face of pops, utterly relenting in this war... Marco saw why Ace spoke so highly of his brothers now.

Ace had long given up the idea of resisting. Whether he lived or died… he left it in the hands of the world.

But that had nothing to do with the complete terror he felt because he was forcing Rosan to reveal his Devil Fruit and judging by the horror in Sengoku's eyes, he had succeeded in doing so.

Ace never wanted it to be like this. He never wanted to be the reason the target on Rosan's back grew to unprecedented levels.

It never dawned onto him early on, why Rosan prioritized keeping his Devil Fruit a secret but as they grew up together... Ace discovered more and more how valuable it was.

By the time he set sail himself, he knew exactly why Rosan kept it guarded. Just the abilities he were able to do to disguise its true nature, were incredible.

Kami, he was such a dumbass. He knew how jealously overprotective his oldest brother was of them all and that love, took far more precedence over some secrets he had.

Rosan would throw everyone of his secrets out into the world if it meant securing even one of them… and Ace was well aware how deep those secrets ran.

A Devil Fruit being hunted by the World Government... and Rosan was revealing it in the middle of a war against that Government.

This couldn't be happening… you were telling him… that he was the reason Rosan was going to be one of the most targeted people on the planet?

"Hot," Rosan said, without really meaning it. He had withstood far more scalding temperatures when he was making Ram so a superheated wall was nothing.

"Modify," he hissed, manipulating the wall once more and having it lean towards the wall that lead into the plaza.

Finally, he made it traversable by adding steps to it.

"Go," Rosan huffed, panting slightly at the taxing technique.

He stood straighter and sent a surge of electricity through the entirety of his insides, snapping up at the burst of energy.

The redhead ignored everyone balking at him and looked directly at the execution stand, right where Ace was looking at him with clear distraught.

"MEN! MARCH WITH ME TO THE PLAZA! DESTROY THE NAVY AND SAVE ACE!" Whitebeard roared.

"YEAH!" They roared, charging up the stares given to them by Rosan.

"Old man," Rosan said after a moment.

"Hm?" Whitebeard replied, gazing at the redhead.

There was a knowing look in those glowing eyes of his and the redhead floated over to him.

"You can't show them who you are while this slowed down," Rosan said knowingly, placing a palm on the man. "Modification: Reboot."

Whitebeard grunted in surprise as all the pain in his body vanished.

A burst of energy filled him and he gazed at the redhead like Rosan were some type of unsolved puzzle.

Truly, how had no one ever heard of Ace's older brother until now?

"This is your last battle right?" Rosan asked knowingly. "You may as well make it one to remember."

Rosan had done a variety of Modifications to Whitebeard. He had numbed the man's sensitivity, allowing him to ignore his pain, he had boosted his energy by shocking his system, and he had experimentally given him a small boost.

Reboot is what he called it. It was kind of like that Hormone technique that Ivankov had used on Luffy but to a lesser degree and while it would suffer drawbacks, he didn't think it'd be as bad as the Okama's.

It was his first attempt at actively boosting someone's strength directly. So far, it looked good but he wouldn't be able to witness any drawbacks if they happened immediately.

"...Cheeky brat," Whitebeard rumbled in amusement, flexing his muscles experimentally.

Whitebeard wasn't sure what Rosan had done to him… but he felt energized in a way he hadn't felt in a long while! For once, it actually felt like he could ignore his sickness and put real force behind his quakes!

"It's called Modification by the way. My Devil Fruit," Rosan revealed, flapping his wings and beginning his ascension. "I'm a computer man. I can modify whatever I touch into anything I have the knowledge of. You should be grateful, I rarely use my abilities to support others like I just did to you."

"That power… it's no wonder no one's heard of you," Whitebeard laughed. "You've been keeping it secret haven't you? That's why Ace never talked about it!"

"Guilty as charged," Rosan said truthfully. "But I think the jig is up. I was avoiding revealing it to the Marines but —"

"ALL MARINES. CAPTURE THE RED DEVIL AT ALL COSTS! IF LEFT TO HIS OWN DEVICES, HE'LL BECOME TOO DANGEROUS TO CONTAIN!" Sengoku roared, watching in horror as he revitalized Edward Newgate.

"—They figured it out," the redhead sighed.

"I'm sorry Mod-chan. 20 years was our record."

"That's okay Rosan, I wouldn't have it any other way. Give them hell."

Rosan grunted. "Go wild, Whitebeard. Show them just who Edward Newgate is. Do your part so that I can do mine so that we can get back what's ours."

"Gurarara! Cheeky redhead!" Whitebeard laughed, feeling better than he had in years. "Alright brat, I'll show you a glimpse of who I was."

Rosan grinned and began soaring through the air, right as a massive tremor, stronger than any that had been released so far crashed into the island.

Panicked yells rang through the battlefield, as Marineford threatened to flip completely over from the display of raw power and Akainu took it upon himself to rush Whitebeard.

The world began rumbling at every attack Whitebeard threw about and Sengoku felt his fears rejuvenate.

Rosan had the capability of making Whitebeard show a glimpse of who he used to be.

Such a thing carried terrible implications.

"Being the execution of Ace right now!" Sengoku demanded urgently, turnings towards the executioners—

Only to watch two bullets land directly into their skulls.

Rosan transformed Ram into dual pistols and aimed it at the executioners, landing pinpoint perfect hits directly to their heads and sending them flying off the stands right before they could even think to stab their blades into his brother.

"Boost x2."

Then the veins in his muscles bulged and he flew towards Ace with a single minded purpose. The redhead was practically a blur as he sped through the air.

"Would it have been better, if I was never born in this world?" A young Ace asked.

No. No Ace. Your life… your life meant so much to the people who cared about you.

You're life meant so much to him… and he'd be damned if it was lost.

Rosan could see it. See it in the way he cried and hunched over. He saw it as clear as the sky in his little brother.

Ace didn't want to die. Ace wanted to live. Ace wanted to be alive and Rosan would do everything in his power to make sure that happened.

He would never let his little brothers die.

That was his duty as the oldest. To keep them safe and watch them grow.

Rosan's eyes narrowed into something lethal, as Garp stepped in front of his path. He abruptly stopped his flight and halted his momentum, lest he crash into the Vice Admiral.

"So is this what you choose, Garp?" Rosan asked quietly, brandishing a double sided sword. It gleamed in the afternoon sun, promising to spill more blood.

"…" Garp said nothing, just looking into Rosan's eyes with a grave expression.

Behind the anger… behind the homicidal rage… behind the sheer terror, there was sadness in his grandson's eyes.

Garp didn't want to mention how that made him feel. If he did, it would crumble his resolve into nothing.

"I thought you were better than them, Garp," Rosan said softly, closing his eyes and hiding those emotions for a moment.

Then they snapped open and every emotion was forcefully banished, revealing a cold machine beneath it all.

"I was wrong. Please die, Monkey D. Garp. I will never consider you apart of my family again," Rosan said coldly.

"...I told you what would happen if you took this route, Rosan," Garp said quietly.

"This is the route that was laid out for me since the first time I heard my mother cry in anguish," Rosan replied emotionlessly.

Garp closed his eyes at that.

"You wouldn't know, Garp. You weren't there. You didn't see the look of agony on her face when she clutched her stomach. You didn't see the buildup to her death. If you did, you'd never believe there was a different road I could take," Rosan hissed.

"There always is," the Hero of the Marines replied. "I just regret that I wasn't able to show you it."

"You don't truly believe that we'd ever be accepted," Rosan said coldly. "Look at what you see Garp. Ace isn't being executed because he's a pirate. Ace is being executed because he's Roger's son. I would be executed for being Rock's son and nephew. Luffy would be executed for being Dragon's son. We would never be accepted into such a corrupt army. You'd be bringing lambs to the slaughter and you know that."

"They would have accepted you all on my word. You three are capable... they'd never have killed you," he told him.

"And I'd always have killed them," Rosan retorted violently. "I don't want to hear anything else from you Garp. Die."

With that Rosan rushed him.

He was running through hundreds of possibilities on how he could dispatch and deal with Garp but none of them had any chance of success...

So he'd just stick to his tried and true.

Relentless aggression.

What Rosan was not expecting at all was for Garp to not put up any resistance at all and his blade effortlessly cut into the man, causing him to collapse to the floor.

What...?

"GARP!" Sengoku shouted in concern.

That fool! A family man until the end?!

"It seems... Garp was far more conflicted than he let on," Mod said softly.

Rosan stared down at his body with a conflicted expression.

"I won't try and kill you anymore. There's no point. You understand the gravity of what you've done and you have a proper amount of regret. Besides, despite everything, you're still two of my little brothers grandpa and I wouldn't want to execute you in front of them. No one deserves to watch family die."

Rosan clenched his weapon tighter at that memory and then his eyes gained a murderous glint.

"I change my mind," he said violently, lunging forward to pierce Garp's heart.

Right before he could jam down, a hand gripped his left arm and Rosan hissed in agony, as it began freezing over.

"About to kill your Grandfather in cold blood? My, you sure are ruthless, Red Devil."

---

Robin felt her heart stop in a moment of true horror, as Rosan's body began slowly freezing over.

This entire war had her heart jumping in distress and Koala had kept an arm on her the entire time…

Every encounter Rosan faced, filled her with anxiety. He fought such powerful forces. Admirals, Warlords... the redhead was attracting all their attention and worst of all...

He had revealed his Devil Fruit to the world. The World Government now knew that Rosan had the Mod Mod no mi.

Robin bit her lip.

That arm that Koala was offering was very much needed because she felt like she was going to have a heart attack any moment now.

"Please not again," Robin whimpered in terror. She couldn't handle the thought of Rosan and Aokiji fighting once more.

She didn't think Rosan would make it out alive this time if the fight dragged on. He had made too much of a mark...

"You… guys encountered Admiral Aokiji before?" Koala asked in concern.

Robin nodded shakily. "We have history… last time we met, he fought Rosan and completely froze him… Rosan's reaction to it was one of the worst I'd ever seen."

She shuddered and already felt tears welling as Rosan's arm began freezing.

"Deep breaths, Robin," Koala soothed. "Rosan will be fine. He's got a lot of good men surrounding him. He's been a star in this show so they'll definitely protect him."

The revolutionary put a hand to her shoulder and pulled Robin into a deep hug.

"It's gonna be alright, Robin."

Robin shuddered once more, eyes never leaving the screen.

It was going to be alright. It was… it was.

It had to be. Rosan was hers and she couldn't lose him.

---

Rosan launched himself away from Aokiji and huffed in agony, left arm completely frozen.

"Oh no," Mod said in visible concern.

"Shit," Ram cursed.

"..." Pestilence frowned at the turn of events.

Aokiji stared at him with a severe expression. "Didn't I tell you? Next time we meet, I wasn't going to be so merciful."

The redhead grunted and a great amount of flames surged across his body, steadily melting the ice on his arm.

"I took your words into account. I tried to become a better person," Rosan said truthfully. "And then you attempted to execute my little brother. I cannot be better when my brothers life is on the line. I will become the boogeyman if I have to."

Aokiji sighed. "Troublesome redhead… the scariest thing about people like you, is your resolve. Even with how sad you feel, you were still going to kill your Grandpa without any hesitation… your resolve is absolute and that's a terrible thing," he said matter of factly.

"My resolve being absolute means I have what it takes to do what must be done," Rosan returned quietly. "Unlike you, who wavers on a fence, unsure of whether what you're doing is right or not. I'd rather have an absolute resolve than a shaky one because a shaky one makes you the worst kind of coward, one who will never take action."

The Admiral said nothing, closing his eyes and letting loose a sigh.

"Unfortunately, I was sent on the orders of the Fleet Admiral to capture you. You seem to have quite the desired Devil Fruit, huh?" he asked.

Rosan's eyes glinted maniacally and he focused his full attention onto the Admiral.

"You have no idea. The story of my life all begins with desire. It's one hell of a roller coaster."

The redhead stood straight and took a deep breath.

Rosan wasn't expecting to face Aokiji again so soon. That last encounter had been fresh on his mind since he had first thawed out of the ice and woken up in a fit of rage.

He did not like losing. In fact, Rosan really really hated losing so he had focused a lot of time and attention to his Aokiji problem.

It was a good thing he had been focused on finding a way to counter his weakness to Ice and it was a great thing that he actually made headway on that route.

His composition as a computer, meant that Ice was dreadfully strong against him. It shut down his functions completely and shutting down the functions of a computer was practically death.

But Rosan had an answer.

"I am War," Rosan said softly, emotions steadily vanishing off of his features as they took a neutral expression. "I will paint the world red and I will show the world my might as a dragon. It is my job to destroy and burn everything to the ground."

Aokiji watched silently as the redhead's red hair began turning pale shade.

"I am War and wherever there is War… there is Death," he said.

A lull washed over the battlefield and everyone's attention was grabbed, as two feathery wings sprouted out of Rosan's back, darkness devouring the very light around it.

Sengoku was the first person to realize what those two wings entailed and he felt his jaw drop as his heartbeat threatened to speed up. He was very sure he was about to catch a heart attack because there was just no way he was witnessing something he shouldn't be witnessing.

"No… surely not. Is this what I think it is?!"

As Rosan's red hair began steadily losing all the color in it, it lengthened until it finally stopped to his back. "Death is unavoidable. It is cold and unforgiving, grasping at all with unfeeling hands. You may try, but it's only a matter of time before the Shinigami guides you into the afterlife."

"Shinigami: Pale Reaper," Rosan finished coldly, emotions completely icing over as both his eyes transformed red.

Mod's eyes widened, gazing at the new form of Rosan with disbelief.

A new form… to Shinigami? But how? When did he discover such a thing?!

The temperature dropped dramatically around Rosan as he stared apathetically at the uncharacteristically stunned Aokiji, even as his weapon began transforming into a sinister black scythe.

"You're…"

"THE RED DEVIL IS REAPER?!" Someone screeched in horror.

At that announcement, utter mayhem washed over the field.

Rosan listened to the chaos with a neutral expression, long hair billowing in time with the wind. His blood red eyes never left Aokiji as everyone reacted to his reveal.

Sengoku's jaw dropped at the sight of those black wings resting idly on the back of the Red Devil.

Wings as dark as obsidian, feathery in nature, with an unnatural air to them...

The most notable thing of the Angel of Death, was their wings and Rosan had a matching description.

Nothing and he meant nothing, would have ever prepared him for such a reveal. The Fleet Admiral felt dizzy as he realized for the past 10 years, Rosan had been causing him all this stress.

How was this… HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?!

THE RED DEVIL… WAS THE ANGEL OF DEATH?!

That… that was impossible! But how?!

You were telling him that not only was Rosan the wielder of the Mod Mod no mi…

HE WAS THE SAME PERSON WHO KILLED A CELESTIAL DRAGON?!

"Rosan looks different," Sabo muttered, unfazed by his brothers reveal. If anything, he was more worried about the target on his back now.

Reaper was worth 500 million and Rosan just revealed he had the Mod Mod no mi too. At this rate, his bounty was going to balloon far past his current 300 million.

That was cause for concern.

"He's that famous bounty hunter?" Marco gaped, clashing with Kizaru and shooting Sabo a look of gratitude as the lightning man helped double team the Admiral.

So Ace's brother was the one who had the highest starting bounty? That must have been why no one knew who he was... he must have gone into hiding.

Wow, what a guy.

Whitebeard slammed a quake directly into Akainu's midsection, sending the Admiral flying backwards, and turned to gaze at the source of all the chaos.

"Gurarara! So he uses different disguises," Whitebeard rumbled in amusement, advancing further and further through Marineford.

Reaper was it? So that's who the brat had been... quite the intelligent one!

Crocodile's jaw clenched, refusing to show just how shocked he was at the reveal that the Red Devil, was actually the Angel of Death… who sported a hefty bounty of 500 million.

500 million to the nothing that the redhead had when they first faced off at Alabasta.

"He played me," Crocodile snarled, sands seeping off his body to signify just how annoyed he was by the reveal.

That fucking sneaky bastard pulled a fast one on the entire world… to think this entire time, he was hiding such a dangerous identity.

It was no wonder he was willing to use Crocodile with so little remorse… the Angel of Death had the highest starting bounty of all time.

He was the worst kind of criminal and that meant things like forcefully subjugating Crocodile meant nothing to him.

Reaper... that damned redhead had been toying with him the entire time and that pissed Crocodile off something fierce.

"Hina was right to be so afraid. Hina knew he wasn't normal," Hina shuddered, looking at the waving white hair of the pirate that plagued her nightmares.

Tashigi shook as well, looking into those empty red eyes with a fear that she tried to hide, even despite the massive distance between the two.

So he really had been toying with them back at Alabasta... at any given point in time, he was capable of killing them? Were all the participants of Alabasta just dancing in his palm?

"So this entire time… from the moment he began sailing with the Straw Hats, he's just been toying with the seas," Smoker muttered.

Should he be thankful that Rosan wasn't more active? After all, the East Blue must have been just a playground for him and he didn't do anything at all to warrant how dangerous he actually was.

But yet he hadn't done anything at all... perhaps his hatred truly was focused onto the World Government only.

"H-He's Reaper?" Alvida stammered, removing a mace from a Marine's head and turning towards the former redhead with horrified eyes.

So… so all that time ago, when Rosan had shown up on her island… he really had been Reaper. She had thought it was just one big joke and that the Angel of Death would never show up for her...

Look how that turned out...

You were telling her that since the very start of his journey… Straw Hat had been traveling with this juggernaut of a man?

Aokiji looked at his opponent with a surprised expression.

"So this entire time… you've been the Angel of Death in disguise," he said, gazing at the white haired man with an unreadable expression.

"Correct," Rosan said tonelessly. "I was forced to retire because someone in power saw it fit to enslave me. He is no longer with us though. A fair trade don't you think, Fleet Admiral?"

Aokiji sighed at that. "I figured that's what happened. What an unfortunate run in."

"Hmph. You don't sound too disappointed. Perhaps you understand that it's wrong to attempt to enslave someone and not expect any repercussion," Rosan said softly.

"Perhaps it's best if I don't speak on that," the Admiral said truthfully.

To be completely honest. Kuzan wasn't upset with Rosan's choices whatsoever. The Angel of Death had been doing the seas a service by cleaning up the bounties and one day, he randomly encountered a Celestial Dragon that wished to enslave him.

Such a bizarre turn of events would have only led to Rosan being enslaved, or slapped with a bounty.

No one was willing to become someone's slave and many people would resort to violence to achieve that. To think such an outcome against even the Celestial Dragons was impossible, was incredibly stupid.

In the first place, Aokiji didn't believe the Celestial Dragons should hold so much power but oh well.

"So my cousin is some famous criminal that's not the Red Devil?!" Hancock thought, resisting the urge to jump in his battle.

She had no idea who Reaper was but if Hancock had to guess, Reaper was the version of Rosan that had killed the Celestial Dragon he mentioned to her.

He was so cool!

It didn't matter if Rosan was the devil itself, she would still love him! He was her dear cousin after all!

Sengoku clenched his jaw as Rosan practically confirmed his identity with that sentence alone. If there was any doubt before, all of it was dashed because no information of a Celestial Dragon dying had been released.

If such a thing had had been released, the world would be turned upside down. If even one person learned that someone was bold enough to kill a Celestial Dragon... it would sow the seeds of dissention.

Slowly but surely, until one other psychotic soul attempted to kill a Celestial Dragon.

Sengoku was no fool. If one person publicly announced and showed their dissatisfaction with the rulers of the world, more would eventually stand with them. It was the most common tactic of rebellion. All people needed was one soul brave and crazy enough to voice what they had been secretly thinking...

And Rocks D. Rosan was that soul.

He truly was far too much like his damned uncle.

Plans had changed more drastically then he could ever imagine. The capturing of Rocks D. Rosan had suddenly skyrocketed in their priority list. Having him escape this place was not a possibility he could even slightly entertain.

The Mod Mod no mi, the Angel of Death… the Red Devil, the lover of Nico Robin, the one who hated the World Government, the killer who had done the unthinkable and murdered a Celestial Dragon…

That was enough crimes to put Rosan up there with the worst of criminals… He was a snowball of the most terrible things the world had to offer and that snowball had grown to catastrophic sizes right under their noses.

No that wasn't quite right. He was an avalanche.

Sengoku had thought that Rosan had been silently building his strength but no… he had been perfectly concealing his identity right under their nose and when he finally retired… he played off his importance by joining Straw Hats crew and letting Luffy hog all the attention.

A genius. A masterful tactician who's strength would match that if left alone.

"Capture the Angel of Death at all costs. He is to not escape this place," Sengoku ordered coldly.

Ace shut his eyes, tears falling freely at that order.

Rosan… Rosan revealed everything. He revealed it all because of him.

"I'm sorry, Rosan," Ace sobbed.

"What's there to apologize for?" Rosan asked softly, turning towards his brother. "Some secrets are nothing if I can guarantee your safety. I put family above everything."

Aokiji dashed at speeds too fast to react to and placed a palm directly on Rosan's chest.

"I understand why you did what you did… but orders are orders," Aokiji said frostily.

"Ice Time."

Without any hesitation in his body, he completely froze over the pale haired man, not giving him any chance to do anything.

Best to just nip this in the bud immediately. Rosan was too big of a nuisance to allow to do whatever.

Aokiji blew out a gust of icy wind, noting that the man wasn't screaming this time and he stepped back to gaze at his handiwork.

Just like last time. The redhead was completely frozen from head to toe. This time, there'd be no mercy from Kuzan.

The Admiral actually froze in shock, blinking in surprise, as the frozen statue of the man began shifting in color.

The slightly bluish ice, turned as white as snow, as the frozen Rosan casually moved a hand.

"Such tricks will not work on me any longer," Rosan said softly.

The ice began breaking off his body, seeping onto the floor instead.

Rosan gazed at Aokiji, face still completely frozen, before the redhead tapped it, molding the ice into a frozen mask with a black rose atop it.

"As its avatar, it's only right that I wield the might of the afterlife," Reaper said calmly, wings spreading wide as he spun his scythe.

Ragnarok was fire. Fire was synonymous with dragons and so, it was his right to raze down the world with those unstoppable flames.

Rosan was lightning, as was a computer's right. His body was a machine in top condition and as a result, it needed the necessary power to fuel it.

But Shinigami was a little different.

Reaper was a representation of the afterlife. Cold and lifeless.

That was why his transformation into Reaper chilled his temperament so much. That was why he had failed so much to transform into the Angel…

That was why Rosan acted almost exactly like Reaper the past 12 years without his emotions.

Rosan hadn't channeled Righteous Fury into his transformation… his anger was directly connected to that ice cold castle residing in his body.

The castle shielding all his emotions.

When Rosan had tapped into his fury, he had drawn from the castle instead.

That was why that part of his body was always frozen. That was why when he lost all his emotions, his mindscape had turned into a frozen forest.

That was why the castle was made of pure ice.

He had been wrong when he first created the technique and it was something he had rectified in recent time.

This entire time, Rosan thought Reaper was an Angel… he thought the entire basis of his transformation was an Angel but that was incomplete.

Reaper was no Angel of Death.

Reaper was Death itself.

---

Robin was stunned, gazing at the white haired version of Rosan with wide eyes.

He was... immune to Aokiji's Devil Fruit?

But what was this form?

She had never once seen him take a transformation like this... and she knew it had nothing to do with the virus because his sclera weren't black.

So what exactly was this?

Rosan was just... going to keep on improving at an absurd rate wasn't he?

He really did want to make sure she never had anything to worry about any longer... didn't he?

"He looks cool with white hair," Koala pointed out.

"It looks more pale than white," Robin said softly, agreeing with her.

Koala blinked. "There's a difference? Gosh, you're such a nerd, Robin!"

---

Raisa felt a little lightheaded at the display she was witnessing.

First and foremost… her son's Devil Fruit was so incredible that there was no way she had never heard of it before.

Modification… it was such an amazing fruit and judging by the bulging anger, Sengoku was aware of what it was.

...His next orders cemented that, when he demanded they capture Rosan at all costs.

That was extreme cause for concern. When the Fleet Admiral demanded such a thing, everyone would listen. The gravity of his orders weren't lost to anyone.

Raisa had been gnawing her lip in worry the longer the war dragged on. Her son expressed no fear, no matter who he was faced against and just rushed ahead with a single minded purpose.

He fought Donquixote Doflamingo without any hesitation, outsmarting him and getting out of the battle with minimal injuries.

He threw everything at Hawkeye, failing and getting bailed out so he could escape…

Then, he faced off against the Hero of the Marines… denouncing him as his family as he stood against him.

Raisa hadn't know Rosan considered Garp his grandpa…

But Garp still considered Rosan his grandson… and that meant he didn't resist what the redhead was about to do to him…

But as Rosan lunged for the kill, one of the worst possible people intercepted him…

Admiral Aokiji…

Raisa, much like Robin, was nearly brought to a panic attack as Rosan faced off with one of the strongest Marine forces on the planet, no fear on his features at all.

Couldn't he have a little fear in his body?! Why did her son face off with anyone without a hint of trepidation in him? He needed to be more considerate to her heartbeat!

Her fear for her son, transformed into abrupt horror as he revealed his secret identity (he had a secret identity?!) to the world.

Rosan… was Reaper?! Raisa didn't know too much about them, but she was aware of the former bounty hunter.

There were even a few times when they were spotted speeding past her island...

Raisa had no idea she had been that close to Rosan.

Surprisingly, this shocked Dalia and Oren more than it did Raisa.

"He's… Reaper?!" Dalia gawked, looking at the black wings of her nephew with bugged eyes. "Our nephew is the crazy guy that got 500 million as his first bounty?! He's really that guy?!"

Oren let out a disbelieving laugh at that. "To think that little psycho was parading around as the Angel of Death when he was only a kid. He's a maniac alright. It's no wonder he's not afraid of anyone."

"You two know of him?" Raisa asked quietly, wanting to hear anything about Rosan.

"We always wanted to meet them but we were in the Grand Line and they were way too elusive. Dalia was a fan of his," Oren rumbled in amusement.

"A huge fan!" Dalia gushed with starry eyes, squealing happily. "Do you see how glorious those wings are? Kami look at it in combination with his white hair! No wonder no one even knew his gender, our little Rosan is seriously hot! He's got a serious fashion sense too! I wanna go shopping with him!"

Fan was clearly an understatement… Raisa had no idea Dalia was a superfan of her son who happened to the most infamous bounty hunter…

"Would you stop calling my son hot? It doesn't matter how true it is, you need some decorum," Raisa said with a scary scowl, glaring at her little sister.

"B-But Raisa!" Dalia whined. "He looks like you and I call you hot all the time!"

"It's normally followed by her staring at your ass when you aren't paying attention," Oren pointed out.

Dalia froze at that and shot Oren a betrayed look.

"I-I just wanted to know what workouts you did! I also do squats you know!" she tried.

If anything, Raisa's glare deepened and Dalia began laughing nervously.

"Be glad that I want to pay undivided attention to this footage, pervert," Raisa reprimanded, idly scooting away from Dalia.

She truly was thankful for this, the footage of the Den Den Mushi showcasing the war to her island had abruptly cut and Raisa, who had only been paying attention to Rosan's perspective, had waltzed right back into her room to watch the rest of the war.

The queen gnawed her lip once more as Rosan refused to back down from the Admiral. Her son just stood there rigidly in a way that made her gut curl.

"Please be fine, Rosan," she whispered.

She wanted to speak to her son again. Just one conversation with him and Raisa had felt better than she ever had.

Just a glimpse into his life and she was filled with emotions she'd never been filled with.

The thrill… the fear… the joy at the simple things that made him happy…

Raisa wanted to see it all. So Rosan needed to survive this battle.

"Please," she shut her eyes.

---

It was impossible to tell what Rosan was thinking right now. His face was completely shielded by the modified ice mask.

His pale white hair flowed, cascading down his back and his outfit transformed into a pure black kimono, that blended well with his obsidian black wings.

"Rosan?"

"Yes, Mod-chan?"

"Are… you there?"

"I am. I suppose you are curious about this technique?"

Mod shuddered at the emotionless tone, a small part of her panicking that Rosan was back to the nightmares of having no emotions.

"Mod-chan, it's still me. I still have my emotions, this form just mutes them. You still have Rosan, don't worry," Rosan soothed, never taking his gaze off the serious Aokiji.

Mod let out a small shuddering sigh at that, swelling in relief.

She couldn't… Mod couldn't handle losing Rosan again.

"You won't lose me," Rosan soothed in that neutral tone of his. "I promise Mod-chan, we'll all get out of this and I'll give you the biggest hug to assuage your worries."

"Please be careful… son."

"Of course mom."

This new form of his, was one Rosan discovered as he delved deeper into the intricacies of how Shinigami worked.

Because of his sole desire to use it as a throwaway disguise… Rosan never truly understood the nature of his form. He thought that the wings being black instead of white, just showcased how he had been tainted by the world…

And he was right… to an extent.

Shinigami was just that… a Shinigami.

Rosan had continuously mislabeled it as an Angel and his general lack of interest in using it outside of business… meant he hadn't reached his full potential with the technique like he had with Ragnarok.

Shinigami had been half complete until he discovered there was more to it. The wings were only one part of the transformation…

There was so much more to explore. Rosan was transforming into an avatar of death after all…

And now he believed it. Shinigami did not draw on righteous anger to succeed.

It drew on the cold and dark feelings in his body… the feelings that Rosan had been subjected to for the past 12 years. It was almost childs play to delve back into that familiar sensation.

Reaper let loose a full wave of his conquerors, causing those who were too weak to faint…

Those who didn't, felt as if they were hallucinating… due to seeing a hazy shadow flowing from Rosan.

It was like death itself was staring down at them and the Marines thanked the stars that Aokiji was facing off with the Red Devil.

"So that's it... you've been using Shinigami to only its half potential this entire time."

"Fascinating," Pestilence muttered, eyes gleaming.

Aokiji barely flinched as that pressure washed over him.

"Resisting my ice won't win you this battle, Rosan," Aokiji said truthfully, putting a hand on his neck and exhaling tiredly.

"The gap between us is too large," Reaper agreed quietly, spinning his scythe. "But I have too much to lose. Never corner a wild animal. I will do everything needed to ensure my victory."

"That won't be enough," Aokiji informed him, ice creeping from his body.

"…"

Reaper's eyes glowed ominously.

"A lie."

With that, he was off.

It had been a long time since Rosan had utilized the scythe in life or death but it was as if he were calling to an old friend again.

Aokiji leaned away from the side swipe, looking impressed by how speedily it cut through the air.

Reaper was unfazed. He abruptly shifted the blade in his grip and adjusted the angle to transform the side swipe into a downward swing instead.

As it cut into Aokiji, the parts that were struck merely turned a bluish-white, signifying another failure.

Before he could leave himself open to retaliation, Reaper flapped his wings harshly, ensuring the scythe didn't crash into the ground and embed itself there.

"Ice Block: Partisan."

He adjusted himself midair, just in time to avoid the first two spears flying towards him, but the next crashed into his torso.

His already abused Raid Suit, did the best it could and even despite his new found strengths against ice, that didn't stop the spears from being incredibly sharp.

Reaper barely flinched as they sunk into him and he merely ripped the blades out, transforming the material from ice to steel.

Aokiji didn't bother dodging the returning spears, allowing the metal to phase harmlessly through his body... but his eyes narrowed as a white aura began pouring out of Rosan.

The Shinigami's own ice began filling the air around him and Aokiji couldn't stop the slight confusion at that. He was sure Rosan was well aware that Ice wouldn't work on him at all so what did this achieve?

His questions were soon solved, as the constant dots of ice filling the air transformed into another shape.

Now Aokiji was slightly on guard, as sharp shurikens made of ice... suddenly turned into sharp shurikens made of steel.

"Since Ice is a solid material... that means we can grasp and modify it," Mod said in realization.

"Snowfall," Reaper said gently, pointing his scythe forward.

At once, the ludicrous amount of shurikens began descending.

It's not like this attack would affect Aokiji in the slightest, but the soldiers behind him weren't as fortunate...

"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak."

Aokiji released a massive wave of ice, that took the shape of a pheasant. It screeched and soared through the air, crashing through the descending shurikens.

Reaper only had a moment to throw up his scythe, watching as the pole clashed with a blade of ice.

Before he could get pushed back fully, he angled himself to get launched into the air and righted himself once more.

He spun his scythe for a moment, before transforming it into a pair of pistols.

With one, he began shooting salvo after salvo at Aokiji. Each bullet flew through the air, burning red with fire.

As they flew through the air, Rosan aimed the other pistol and began shooting out... air?

"Troubling," Aokiji sighed, watching as the pressurized air collided with the flaming bullets, turning them into what could practically be described as a meteor shower.

They streaked through the air, flames consuming the oxygen and growing stronger as a result. Screeches of horror rang through the battlefield as bullets careened towards them with lethal intent.

"Ice Wall."

Sighs of relief rang out, as a giant wall of pure ice formed. The blazing bullets clashed with the wall, causing a great bout of steam to form as they cancelled each other out.

The Shinigami wouldn't let that deter him. He was prepared to begin yet another barrage of attacks but he was thwarted abruptly.

"That's enough of that. It's clear fighting you at a range is more trouble than it's worth," Aokiji sighed.

"Ice Glove."

Reaper had no time at all, to react to the fist crashing into his face.

The mask he donned, shattered instantly as one of the strongest punches he ever received was delivered to his body.

"ROSAN!" Mod shouted in concern, watching the redhead get sent flying backwards, a trail of blood following him.

The redhead soared through the air, farther and farther away from the execution platform and he would have gotten sent to Whitebeard's ship, if not for him catching his flight midair.

Blood spilled from his mouth and broken nose, as he forcefully adjusted the appendage.

"Are... you okay?" Mod asked, watching as Rosan spat out multiple teeth that had already been replaced.

"I did not expect a Logia to have such a powerful punch. That reminded me of Garp," Reaper said, clutching his jaw and moving it back and forth.

So Aokiji could throw a punch too... A Logia with exceptional physical capabilities was rather difficult to go against.

He didn't make a noise of discomfort as his bones snapped back into place and the Angel of Death merely flexed his wing and flew back towards the Admiral poised to give chase.

He could not let the battle stray too far from Ace. That would be less than desirable.

"If there's one thing I respect about you, Red Devil... it's your complete lack of fear," Aokiji said truthfully, summoning another ice blade and leaping to meet the redhead.

Reaper and Aokiji were a whirlwind of action, the redhead utilized his scythe like it were a pocket knife, swinging it with dreadful speed and agility…

To no success at all, none of his attacks were connecting to Aokiji. Even with the solution of Armament, Aokiji could still transform his body into ice to avoid even Haki imbued strikes.

They clashed repeatedly, Aokiji catching every one of Rosan's swings with lazy ease.

He was making absolutely no headway and it didn't appear that he was going to be getting help...

What to do, what to do...

He transformed his scythe into two kusarigamas, spinning the chained sickle as he resumed his assault anew.

"You use a lot of interesting weapons at a high degree of proficiency," Aokiji noted, breaking apart and reforming from the wild swings.

Reaper spun the chains rapidly and ignited one with fire, while the other chilled over with ice.

"Modify: Size."

Everyone watched with wide eyes, as the sickled chains suddenly grew massively in size, still glowing with their respective elements.

Almost like they were battle ropes, Reaper began violently swinging each with reckless abandon.

He would swing the icy one first, followed by the fiery one.

Naturally it all failed to touch Aokiji. In fact, the attacks didn't even seem to be for him. Sure some connected, but Aokiji merely summoned an Ice Wall that blocked the fiery one.

"It looks like you're throwing a tantrum, Red Devil," Aokiji pointed out, watching as more and more steam erupted.

Reaper said nothing and Aokiji sighed.

Seems like that punch had affected him more than he let on. This truly did look like the pirate was looking for anything that would work on him—

The sounds of the chains lashing out stopped and Aokiji perked a brow at seeing them embedded into the ground next to them.

Reaper huffed and began sparking a sinister shade of red. "Emp: Superconductivity."

Aokiji blinked in confusion, before his body seized up.

Out of nowhere, a truly enormous surge of electricity appeared around the wet area where Rosan had been indiscriminately attacking.

Except he had not been indiscriminately attacking. He had been setting up a trap.

Fire and Ice, clashing with each other and forming a steam that hid the fact that the ground was growing steadily more soaked. As the fire and ice clashed, the ice began to melt.

It only became easier as Aokiji set up an Ice Wall. It gave him more steam and more water.

But that would never be enough to stop an Admiral... so Reaper had to get a little creative and he needed Aokiji and his body to do it.

The Logia was made of ice after all... which meant that he would serve as a perfect superconductor. When lightning reacted with something below a certain temperature, that something would conduct the electricity without resistance.

The results? Aokiji taking the full brunt of his electric trap.

The red sparks all converged onto one location, causing a bonfire of pure electricity.

"No way..." someone said in horror, backing away from the shrieking lightning.

It was so loud. They could barely hear their own thoughts due to the cacophony of noise erupting from Rosan's location.

Reaper let loose a tiny breath as he watched the electricity.

He didn't think that was going to put him down for the count. Aokiji was still an Admiral so his best course of action, was to just push onward—

Reaper made no sound, as a blade of ice pierced his cloak effortlessly and stabbed partially into his midsection. Despite the ice not freezing his insides like it normally would… he still got stabbed and it hurt quite a lot.

"Well I'm shocked," Aokiji said dryly, smoke wafting off his body. "I actually felt that. Way to catch me by surprise, Red Devil."

"Not even a second of respite?" Reaper asked curiously.

"It was an ingenious attack which is why I got hit by it. I'm surprised you thought of it so quickly but I guess those are the perks of being a genius," Aokiji replied, looking utterly unbothered by the fact that he had been shocked by so many volts.

"The Admirals are on a different level," Mod said in disbelief. Was the gap between them truly this large?

Reaper was inclined to agree.

This battle was not one that could be won. He stood a resounding 0% chance of defeating Aokiji…

How troublesome.

Reaper grunted and decided on the next course of action, pulling himself away from the blade wielded by Aokiji.

His human half was going to dislike this but there was no other option.

It was time for his last resort.

"Auto Mode."

Order's implanted, Reaper began his assault anew.

Aokiji's eyes narrowed slightly, as his Observation Haki suddenly stopped working, while Reaper launched himself at him with a renewed ferocity.

That didn't change the gap in their skills… but Aokiji noted that Rosan had thrown all signs of safety away, all for the sake of hitting him.

Aokiji began weaving between the wild and precise swings, noting that each one was attempting to skewer him through a vital organ.

He froze the katana right as it crashed into his abdomen, watching as the ice was instantly converted to Rosan's and melted on a dime.

The blank faced man transformed the katana into a set of gloves and clapped his hands together, causing a red explosion to engulf the both of them.

Both came out unscathed, despite the fact the attack connected with them both.

"No safety and all offense," Aokiji sighed. "That won't help you at all."

Reaper swung wildly and Aokiji dodged it, stabbing into his arm in order to render it useless…

But to his shock, Rosan didn't retreat to let the heal wound…

No alarmingly enough, the psychopath, with the ice blade still inside of him, lunged even closer to him.

"What in the world?" Aokiji thought, stunned by the raw insanity displayed by Rosan.

Reaper ignore the blade completely piercing him through his arm, hell bent on continuing his assault.

The quite frankly, unhealthily unstable move caught Aokiji by such surprise, he didn't see the hand racing towards his body until Rosan grasped him.

"Modification: Save Point."

Aokiji had no time to react at all, considering the hand was grasping him and in an instant, his body vanished.

"Mission Complete," Reaper said automatically, as his Auto Mode finished its assignment of sending Aokiji to the Pocket Dimension.

It wasn't something he truly wanted to do but... if it came down to it, Rosan always had his Pocket Dimension as his last resort.

Now he'd just have to carefully avoid Aokiji while traversing through it if worse came to worst.

"Goodness, Rosan. That has to hurt," Mod said, gnawing her lips in visible concern. Right now she just wanted to hug and squeeze her son and go to sleep. This was too much for her.

"It certainly doesn't feel great... but I've felt worse and I've used the ice to numb the pain."

He huffed and ripped the blade of ice out of his arm, noting that if he were anyone else, his arm would likely be rendered useless for the rest of his life.

Thankfully, he wasn't anyone else.

His tendons began repairing themselves as his wounds shut, body patching up from the intense battle.

Reaper resisted the urge to let out an exhausted pant. He had been run ragged and it was truly catching up to him now.

"Just a little more Rosan. You're almost there," Mod encouraged.

"Yeah Father! You got this!" Ram cheered.

He took a deep breath and nodded, purple bleeding back into his right eye as the oppressive blanket over his emotions vanished slightly.

"W-WHAT HAPPENED TO ADMIRAL AOKIJI?!"

"I-I DON'T KNOW! ONE SECOND HE WAS THERE AND THE NEXT, GONE!"

That scream seemed to bring everyone's attention to Rosan and the Angel of Death merely let his wings rest idly, as all his injuries healed back up.

His purposeful show worked perfectly as intended.

All around, Rosan watched as people began sweating in horror at realizing that one of their big sources of power was gone, at the hands of someone who had no current injuries.

"I-Is he immortal...? I saw some of the hits he was taking... there's no way!"

"His arm nearly fell off and now look at it! Not even a scar!"

Fear. So much fear. It washed over him like a tidal wave.

His display worked perfectly. Morale had taken a horrendous hit and with Whitebeard rampaging down there, they were quickly losing hope.

Rosan turned towards the execution stand and made eye contact with the stunned Sengoku.

He was utterly exhausted but he could keep going.

He would keep going. He would not stop until all his brothers were safe.

The white haired scout attempted to take a step, only to find that his movements were completely restricted and he silently turned his head to see one Donquixote Doflamingo.

There was a vein on the man's face, contrasting the amusement he felt earlier when Rosan had gotten rid of the clouds and the man was practically glaring at him through those shades.

Rosan sighed. "How did you survive?" he asked blandly.

"Reaper, eh?" Doffy laughed, ignoring his question. "To think our very first meeting would be at Marineford of all places! I've been waiting a long time to meet you because we have many things to talk about!"

Rosan said nothing for a moment.

"You have no desire to kill me right now even despite the fact I can reveal your secret to the world," he said calmly, boring a hole into Doflamingo. "It would be in your best interest to leave now and we'll deal with this another time."

Doffy raised a brow at that, tightening the strings wrapped around Rosan as proof that he was more than capable of doing such a thing.

Rosan tilted his head and activated Save Point, vanishing out of the strings tightening on him and appearing right next to Luffy.

Doflamingo immediately made to pursue, until he was forced to block a golden hook.

"Wow Crocodile, working with someone else? I'm jealous," the Warlord taunted.

Crocodile glared gravely at him. "No one's killing that redhead but me. I'll kill you if you interfere."

"Is that so?!" Doffy laughed, breaking off from the Warlord. "Fine, I'm done here then."

Despite wanting to get to know Reaper more, if Doflamingo stayed any longer, he risked getting his secret identity revealed and if that happened…

Well a certain Emperor wouldn't be happy about that.

Doflamingo would get his hands on Reaper eventually. It was inevitable…

He had been patiently waiting all this time, it would only take a little longer and now that he had a face behind the mask, it was guaranteed.

---

Rosan appeared right next to the Luffy making amazing headway.

His little brother had charged towards Ace with a single-minded focus and none of the remaining Marines had been enough to stop the exhausted rubber boy.

Rosan's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Luffy, did you take another one of those super hormone shots?" Rosan asked, looking at his extensive injuries.

Luffy turned towards his white haired brother. "N-No!" he lied.

"Liar," Rosan scowled. emotions rushing through effortlessly. "You weren't supposed to take two! Just one is dangerous for you!"

"I'll be fine!" Luffy denied. "We're almost there! I'll go to sleep after!"

Luffy had been having a bit of a rough time this war but with Iva and Jinbe supporting him, he managed to make amazing progress.

Rosan frowned and sighed. They were almost there. There was no point in causing in issue right now but afterwards, Luffy was going to be in a lot of trouble.

"Okay, fine. Just remember the plan, alright," he whispered, lunging ahead as he took stock of the situation.

Whitebeard was taking out waves of enemies despite his accumulating injuries, Akainu seemed to be licking his wounds somewhere, Aokiji was gone, Kizaru was locked in combat with two formidable monsters…

And Rosan and Luffy were soaring up the execution stand. There was hardly anyone left to stop them.

"DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?!" Sengoku roared, transforming before their eyes. He turned gargantuan in size, body turning gold as a bright light expanded from the Fleet Admiral.

"The Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Buddha."

A god huh...

"A god following the wills of scummy humans. You must be so proud of yourself, Fleet Admiral," Rosan taunted.

Sengoku scowled furiously. "Enough of this, Rosan! This has gone on long enough!"

Rosan gazed coolly at him and immediately rushed the Fleet Admiral.

He saw the giant fist approaching his body, shining gold with might and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"ROSAN!" Ace shouted in worry, watching his brother meet it head on.

At the last second, Rosan preformed a flip in midair, landing atop the man's fist and gliding across it, ice forming on his feet as he slid up Sengoku's arm.

"Ice Skates."

Sengoku scowled in annoyance as the ice on his arm began growing like a parasite, attempting to freeze him fully.

So he truly had control over all these elements...

But how? In what world did something like the Mod Mod no mi give the redhead these abilities? Such a thing was preposterous to think about!

He slammed forward with a fist, blowing Rosan away and the ice as well.

Then, he struck out with his palm and summoned a shockwave that Rosan hastily flew out of the way of.

The Fleet Admiral was hellbent on making sure Rosan didn't get away. He glared at the troublesome redhead with fury in his eyes and Rosan sneered back.

"Snow White," Rosan said softly.

A sudden blizzard of ice flew towards Sengoku, attempting to bury him beneath it all.

The Buddha thrusted another palm out, dispelling the terrible cold and sending Rosan flying back from the impact.

The computer man righted himself and huffed, glaring at Sengoku.

"You know what my Devil Fruit is I guess?" Rosan asked, hair turning red once more as stretched the kinks out of his body.

Sengoku glared at him. "To think that all these years… you were the one who wielded the Mod Mod no mi. I considered it a small blessing that we saw no signs of it in 20 years… but now I see that we've reached the worst possible scenario."

"Hmph," Mod scoffed. She would heavily disagree. This was the best possible scenario for her.

Rosan sneered at him. "A fruit that has caused the death of all their previous wielders… wielded by someone who despises the World Government. Really makes you think, huh?" he asked mockingly.

"Well now that I don't have to hide it anymore, understand that everything that I do now is because of you, Sengoku. You sit at the top of this corrupt system and defend horrible human beings so I'm going to make you pay. It's not going to be today, it's not going to be tomorrow but one day, you will watch me rip those gods out of their heaven," Rosan swore.

Sengoku clenched his jaw.

To think that the witchhunt for Roger's child, would give birth to a monster even worse than the infant. They were fully to blame for the meteoric rise of Portgas D. Rosan…

At the very least, Ace had not done anything too horrific.

But Rosan? Rosan had destroyed a Marine Base, destroyed an important Marine stronghold and had killed a Celestial Dragon.

It was truly awful luck that it had to have been this boy of all people who gained resentment for the World Government.

If it were any other child, this little tantrum of theirs would be nothing. It would be nothing new to have a child grow up loathing what they stood for...

But it wasn't just any other child that detested the World Government. It was this boy right here, standing across from him with access to things he never should have been allowed access to.

Rosan was not the biological child of Roger… he was the biological child of a Rocks. He was the nephew of one of the most dangerous men he had ever had the displeasure of knowing…

And that child had access to a Devil Fruit that should have never left the World Government's grasp…

The Mod Mod no mi.

How did Rosan manage to survive? Ever since they began testing with it, not a single person lived long enough to become proficient in its abilities…

All there was, was a nauseating black miasma seeping off the desecrated corpse as they once more began the search for the Devil Fruit that refused to submit.

But Rosan was not only using it… he was so proficient with it, that he was able to disguise it as at least two different fruits…

For more than a decade, this boy had been perfectly honing a Devil Fruit that no one in recent time had been able to control.

"You've been underestimated your entire life, Portgas D. Rosan. I will be the first to fully acknowledge just how dangerous you are," Sengoku said stonily.

Rosan smiled much to his confusion. "You speak as if I didn't account for this. I wanted to be underestimated and now I've decided that underestimating me is no longer necessary."

"It's convenient being able to control the information you let out about yourself, isn't that right, Fleet Admiral?"

Sengoku glanced warily at Rosan. "What are you talking about?"

Rosan chuckled. "Didn't I tell you? Today is not the day where I hunt you down and make you watch your sins catching up to you. I'm only here to distract you."

Sengoku's confusion only lasted a moment, before a great gust of fire erupted from where the execution stands were.

But how?! Ace was chained down and the key was nowhere out here! Why would they have it out? This was an execution!

"I secretly gave some people keys to unlock his cuffs. I mean, why would I expect you guys to have his keys conveniently lying around," Rosan snorted, waving a key around.

"Thanks for the Devil Fruit, Sengoku. I'm happy you ran her away to me because she's mine now," he said truthfully.

Rosan grinned brilliantly at the flames, even as Sengoku roared and charged him.

The two began fighting in earnest, all while Ace and Luffy made their getaway and Rosan made sure Sengoku made no attempt to capture them again…

Rosan was utilizing almost expert evasion techniques, completely unwilling to get hit even once by the Buddha.

As Sengoku shot shockwave after shockwave after him, Rosan would fly above it, summon a wall to block it, utilize a barrier...

Sengoku nearly felt his blood vessels threatening to pop as Rosan played keep away.

He was clearly no longer interested in battling after the war he put his body through and as a result, he was showing how frustrating he could truly be.

The redhead suddenly stilled, before his eyes went wide and he immediately disengaged from the one sided fight by disappearing.

Sengoku watched him go with a furious expression.

"CAPTURE THEM ALL! DON'T LET ANYONE ESCAPE!"

---

Ace couldn't believe it.

He was free. His youngest and most reckless brother had actually managed to free him while his oldest and equally reckless brother fought everyone who approached him.

They had actually done it. Sabo, Luffy, Rosan… they had shown up and set their dumb brother free.

He was so happy that he could cry.

Ace didn't… he didn't want to die yet… There was so much more he had to witness. Sabo had regained his memories.

His brother, who he had thought was dead for 10 years, was here in the flesh and was capable of remembering everything that had been his childhood.

He was back and Ace wanted to connect so badly with that version of his brother.

Not to mention... Rosan. His older brother. His oldest brother.

Rosan got his emotions back. He actually got them back!

To see how expressive his oldest brother suddenly was. It was so different than the Rosan he had known.

Watching the anger, the fear, the happiness... the utter insanity!

The Rosan that had been spoken about as if he were a myth was actually here and alive and Ace was so damn happy to see him.

If he had died, he never would have gotten to know this Rosan that he had desperately wanted to meet.

No that wasn't quite right. If Ace died, maybe no one would be able to see this version of Rosan.

Because Ace was loved. Rosan loved Ace with all his heart.

Rosan thought Ace deserved to be alive and because of that, Ace had to live. He needed to live for his brothers sake.

And he wanted to live with his family. He wanted to see them as often as he could. He wanted to laugh and party with them as they chatted about anything.

Such thoughts filled him with an indescribable longing and Ace realized, this was what it meant to be alive. Always looking forward to another day. Having people to love and being loved by those same people.

Ace... Ace wanted to live. Ace found the reason he had been born!

If Ace knew all that... then why?

Why couldn't he stop being stupid for one second?

He knew he didn't want to die… so why did he let such simple provocations get to him?

Admiral Akainu was a battered and seething mess due to his altercation with Whitebeard.

At the sight of the rejuvenated Edward Newgate, fighting as if he were 20 years younger, the magma man had attempted to slow down his rampage to the best of abilities.

That was a mistake.

With the other Admirals occupied, Whitebeard focused all his attention on Akainu and the result was less than desirable for him.

So he beat a hasty retreat to lick his wounds but in that time span… things had somehow gone from bad to worse.

The Admiral watched in some disbelief at the swift turn of events.

Kuzan was nowhere to be seen, Borsalino was being occupied by the Phoenix and Revolutionary and somehow Fire Fist had been set free…

And now they were trying to make a run for it. They had the audacity to try and make a run for it.

With the freedom of Ace, Whitebeard had announced that their job here was done so it was time for them to leave Marineford.

But that wasn't all.

Whitebeard himself was choosing to stay behind and was going to attempt to take out both Marineford and himself in one fell swoop.

With how much power he was currently outputting, no one doubted he'd be able to do that.

Akainu wiped the blood off his mouth and made to chase the fleeing pirates. None would escape on his watch but he needed to handle this carefully...

"Typical pirate scum, running from something they can't handle," Akainu commented idly, magma rolling off his body as he ignored his injuries. "But that's to be expected, just look at who their captain is," he grunted.

"What did you just say?" Ace said, abruptly stopping and turning around.

...With just that sentence alone, Ace had sealed his fate because Ace would never let anyone talk down on someone he loved and respected.

Akainu cocked his head in slight confusion, magma rolling off his body as the freed prisoner turned to face him.

"Your real father stood in his way and took everything Whitebeard hoped to attain. He's an eternal loser. I'm speaking the truth," Akainu said gruffly.

"A man hailed to be the strongest, amassing a crew and ruling the seas for decades... and he couldn't even become Pirate King. Whitebeard is a loser."

Ace clenched his fist. "Take that back right now."

"Ace what are you doing?!" Luffy shouted. "C'mon let's go!"

"GET OUT OF THERE ACE! WE'VE ALREADY WON!"

"He's just trying to provoke you, Ace! Stop!"

Sabo perked up at that, picking up the conversation from the other side of the battlefield where he was retreating. He turned towards the noise and felt his eyes narrow slightly.

"Ace is facing off with the Admiral?" Sabo said in concern. "Shit! Stop trying to talk reason into him! Ace will never back down from a fight! You need to be more forceful!" he shouted, sparks surging off his body.

Ace was no longer listening. He was seething furiously as he turned towards Akainu and prepared to engage in battle.

"The name of this era is Whitebeard!" Ace roared, flames roaring off his body as he launched himself towards Akainu.

That had been the biggest mistake he made yet because Ace was strong… but Akainu was stronger.

And he was made aware of that as Akainu sneered at him…

"Arrogant fool," was all Akainu said, meeting him head on.

The Admiral met his fire with magma overpowered Ace effortlessly.

"Argh!" Ace howled, burns covering his body as he was launched back.

"You must think you're invincible because of that Logia," Akainu rumbled, magma rolling off his body. "My magma is far superior to your fire. Even you can be burned."

Ace was left a writhing mess, as the burns scalded his skin… He huffed in shock, body already weakened from his treatment these past few days.

He wheezed, hearing the footsteps of the magma man approaching him.

"To think that the sons of Roger, Dragon and Rocks would be blood related," Akainu stated, almost not believing such a thing. "Criminals by blood, converging together. It seems almost fateful that you will all meet your end here. Three dangerous bloodlines, quelled in a single war."

Akainu sneered. "Watch. No one will escape."

Huh?

Ace looked up in confusion and felt his eyes widen in horror.

Akainu wasn't targeting him.

He was targeting Luffy.

Luffy was at his limit. The second hormone shot had worn off far quicker than the first and it had caused him to lose almost all the power in his legs.

Ace watched in horror as the Admiral soared over to the fallen Luffy's position, fist at the ready to impale him and he moved without thinking to intercept the attack.

"Huh?!" Luffy's eyes widened in shock, at seeing Akainu soaring over to him.

At the speed he was going, the fallen Luffy would have no time at all to dodge or block the attack from the Admiral and the rubber boy could only watch helplessly as certain death reached him…

Ace rushed over without a second thought, flying in front of the attack in order to weather the blow in Luffy's stead.

He hissed in agony as the magma hit his body, body screaming at the horrible pain and ruining the tattoo on his back…

But to Ace's slight confusion, that was all he felt. The boiling magma hissing on parts of his skin… as if it… as if it spilled onto him instead of connecting directly.

A cold feeling, one that Ace hadn't felt in a terribly long time, coursed through his body and he hesitantly turned around to figure out why he was still alive.

What he saw, would forever be ingrained into his mind until the day he actually died because… because Ace saw...

He saw...

A giant fist of magma punching through his oldest brother.

"I… actually made it in time," Rosan rasped, even as Akainu removed the fist from his stomach.

"Oh?" Akainu mused, nonplussed by striking his unintended target and surveying the handiwork.

"R-Rosan?! ROSAN?!" Mod shouted in disbelief, eyes going wide in horror as tears immediately began forming.

"FATHER?!" Ram screeched in terror.

Pestilence shut their eyes and sighed.

There was a gaping hole in the redhead's midsection, organs fried beyond recognition as the magma destroyed his insides…

But despite that, Rosan looked relieved.

Ace stood rooted to his spot, unable to believe what was happening. His mouth was open as a dozen feelings coursed through him at once.

Rosan let out a raspy laugh.

"I'm glad I was able to… make it in time. Who knows what… woulda happened if I was too slow," the redhead said quietly, collapsing onto his knees as his eyes began flickering repeatedly.

"Just hold on, Rosan! It'll be okay. Just let me handle it! I'll fix this!" Mod said frantically, immediately rushing out of their home to find a solution.

No… no no no.

"No way..." Marco said in disbelief, silenced to nothing as he saw the action of the Red Devil.

He... he jumped in the way of the attack meant to kill Ace?

"Fool," Crocodile spat, clenching his fist tightly as his bad move nearly boiled over. "Throwing it all away for one idiots mistake."

Garp stumbled back, clutching his chest in disbelief and horror as he saw Rosan fall to the floor.

"This can't..." Garp said to himself, tears of shock forming in his eyes as he collapsed to the floor, blood pooling from the wound Rosan had inflicted onto him. "This can't be..."

"I thought you were better than them, Garp."

Hancock felt her heart stop completely, letting out an unintentional scream of anguish as an indescribable pain overtook her. She abruptly collapsed to her knees, clutching her chest as breathing became harder and harder.

"T-The Snake Empress has been h-hit?" someone shouted in confusion, looking for the unknown attacker.

"R-Rosan?" Luffy whispered so quietly you could barely hear him. "R-ROSAN?!" The rubber boy screamed hysterically, rushing his oldest brother with frantic eyes.

Sabo felt time slow to a crawl as the momentum was abruptly ripped out of his body. His eyes were wide, heartbeat pounding far faster than a normal human, as he saw Rosan collapsing to the floor, a gaping hole in his stomach.

He had been too slow. No... that couldn't be true. Sabo had become lightning... so why had he been too slow?

"ROSAN?!" Sabo screamed, rushing the redhead without any hesitation. "Shit shit no! This wasn't... it wasn't supposed to be like this! I was supposed to keep you safe!" he said frantically, hoisting the redhead up.

"Sabo," Rosan greeted peacefully. "I'm glad I got to embrace you as soon as you got your memories back... I'm glad I got to see you remember."

Sabo shuddered at Rosan's tone. "No Rosan. What do you think you're talking about?! Why are you talking like that?!" he said frantically, surging with electricity.

He hastily put a hand over Rosan's heart and sent a weak jolt through his body.

Rosan simply laughed weakly. "You're supposed to do that when my hearts stopped you know?"

"No, I don't know! I don't know a damn thing about this power and you have to be here to help me!" Sabo said hysterically, pumping Rosan's chest fruitlessly.

"Ah... I'm sorry. I think if you ask Nami, she'll be able to help you out a lot," Rosan admitted truthfully.

The ring on Rosan's fingers shuddered so violently, that it made the stunned spectators jolt back in confusion.

Mihawk's eyes widened, taken aback by the sudden change of events, as the ring on Rosan's finger transformed into a young woman.

So that was Ram?

Ram rushed out with wide horrified eyes, clutching Rosan and letting out a gut wrenching wail at all the blood in her hands.

"WHY ARE YOU TALKING LIKE THAT F-FATHER?!" she shrieked in agony, putting her head to his chest and letting out another cry.

"Ram…" Rosan said softly, holding a strand of her silver hair with a small smile. "I never told you this but I'm really glad you ended up looking like Meiko… it makes you so beautiful and it reminds me, that I'll always have a piece of her with me."

Ram sobbed. "W-What the hell are you talking about father?! Stop saying stuff like that! You're talking like you're dead!"

Rosan just laughed wetly at that, throwing up blood in the process as he attempted to squeeze Ram's arm.

That snapped Ace out of his daze and the second commander shakily stumbled over to his older brother's position.

"My name is Portgas D. Rosan. I'm 14 years old and I'm... your older brother."

"Mom sacrificed her life for you because she loved you. Don't tarnish her final action by questioning your existence. Live your life to the fullest, until you find a reason to live, if you have to."

"Of course I love you. I wouldn't have been so afraid to meet you if I didn't."

"Y-You… you idiot," Ace whispered, tears forming in his eyes. "YOU IDIOT! ROSAN WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" he roared in fury.

He resisted the urge to cry as the reality of the situation crushed him to the floor.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?! I WAS THE ONE BEING STUPID! I-I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO DO THIS!" He howled, stumbling forward until he collapsed.

Rosan turned those brilliant eyes, the ones that Ace had never seen shining so brightly before, towards him.

"What type of older brother would I be… if I could stop my little idiot siblings from getting killed and I didn't take it?" Rosan asked truthfully. "I'm the oldest you know? It's my job to guide my foolish family towards a future where they are forgiven for their mistakes. Don't think I… regret what I did for a second."

Ace shook his head furiously, tears falling in spades from his eyes. "That's not fair... you can't just say stuff like that!"

"W-What are you talking about Rosan?!" Luffy stammered in horror, gazing shakily at the wound on his brothers body. "This is nothing! You can just heal... W-Why aren't you healing?!"

Rosan coughed. "I think I've healed too much today. I don't have enough energy to restore these wounds… everyone's had their eyes on me since this whole thing started so… the stone is all petered out."

From his fight with Magellan, to battling all the Warlords and finally, his war with Aokiji...

Rosan was spent. He had been well and truly exhausted.

"So we'll just get you medical attention! It's my fault! I shouldn't have made you do so much so I'll fix this!" Sabo said urgently. "You've got crazy healing! We just need to stabilize you!" he practically pleaded.

"I don't know… if there's any stabilizing this," Rosan said quietly.

No… no no no no no.

"STOP LYING ROSAN!" Luffy screamed with tears in his eyes. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! YOU TOLD ME YOU'D NEVER DIE! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE WHEN I BECOME KING OF PIRATES! Y-You're my first friend..."

"I know… I'm sorry, Lu. I'm just a big liar," Rosan said earnestly, tears brimming in his eyes at actually lying to his precious family. "I was more worried about you guys then I was myself… I didn't actually think it was going to happen. I'm really sorry."

"R-Rosan… it… it'll be okay. I'm here for you," Mod said in distraught, curling into herself as tears fell freely.

She couldn't... she couldn't find any way to save him. He was right, the stone had healed too much.

He... he didn't h-have the...

"I'm here for you!" Mod wailed, letting out a scream of agony as she sobbed hysterically.

That broke the redhead completely and Rosan felt his tears fall freely, a look of anguish crossing over his face.

"I'm sorry!" Rosan said to all of them, sniffing as the emotions overwhelmed him completely. "I made you guys waste so much time on me and when you finally achieved your goals… I went and did this."

"Please, get out of here. Take Ram with you and one day, someone will eat Mod-chan's fruit and she'll seek you guys out… please when that day comes, give her all the support you guys gave me. Angel and Demon will be fine, I made sure this won't affect them but you guys need to be there for each other," Rosan pleaded, glow in his eyes going dimmer and dimmer.

No no no no.

"And please.. please be there for Robin," Rosan sobbed, sniffing as tears dropped down his face at the effect this was going to have on everyone.

"Tell her I'm so sorry for being such a trash boyfriend. She deserves better than me. All I've done is cause her stress."

"SHUT UP!" Ace roared. "YOU CAN'T… You can't leave us Rosan! You can't say all this dumb shit about yourself and expect us to buy that! This isn't… why do you have to be the one who dies?"

This wasn't… this wasn't fair. None of this was fair at all.

Why? Why was it always Ace's fault?

"Why did you die for my dumb mistakes? It's not fair! It shouldn't have been you!" Ace sobbed in defeat, clutching his older brother as agony crushed his heart from all directions. "I'm sorry, Rosan! I'm so sorry!"

"Never be sorry, Ace. I'm just glad that even after what I did to you... you can still say that you love me," Rosan soothed, raking a hand through his messy and dirty hair. "I will never be mad at you, alright? You're my precious little brother and that's a title I can never forsake."

"Rosan I can't… I can't be Pirate King without you! What am I supposed to do?!" Luffy said desperately, refusing to believe what was happening. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't do anything. His body refused to listen to him and it left the rubber boy a shuddering mess.

"You can, Luffy. Whether you have me or not… you'll always be a fantastic captain. That's why I chose to follow you… you're the only person alive that I 100% accept as my captain," Rosan assured, feeling the power leaving his body quickly.

It was a miracle he had been alive for this long…

"Thank you all so much for breathing life back into me… thank you for making me see the value in my life… thank you for loving me…"

No. No. No no no no no no.

Rosan shot them all a loving smile.

"Thank you for being my family. I'm so proud of you all."

Then, the glow in Rosan's eyes faded, leaving them dim.

…

…

…

Ace didn't realize he couldn't breathe. Ace didn't feel his heartbeat pick up. Ace didn't hear everyone else in his family let out gut wrenching screams.

Ace didn't realize he was screaming with them.

Ace didn't realize they all blacked out.

Ace didn't realize he blacked out.

---

Luffy couldn't hear anything around him. He just stared shakily at Rosan's body. At the hole in his stomach. At the tears rolling down his cheeks.

At the smile on his face.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Wanna be my friend?!"

"Okay."

"R-Rosan?" Luffy said quietly. "Hey Rosan... say something... w-why aren't you saying anything?" he asked.

When no one had believed in his dream... Rosan always had. Rosan never once doubted him. Not even for a second.

Whenever Luffy failed at something, Rosan had been there to pick him up. He never had to be afraid of being alone... because Rosan had been there for him.

"I didn't realize you were in trouble. I'm sorry I couldn't be there faster."

Rosan had been someone who was even lonelier than Luffy. He was there... but he wasn't there. He wasn't truly alive.

"I have not been okay for a long time."

"Rosan... Rosan... ROSAN!" Luffy screamed hysterically, shaking his brother.

Nothing. There was no response.

"I'll help you. I'll help you, Rosan! We'll go on the biggest, best adventure ever and I'll make you say you found a new reason to live! You'll become the strongest, just watch!"

"Thank you all, I appreciate it. I'll put my full trust in you all."

"You're not the strongest yet! It's not supposed to end here! Y-You trusted me!" Luffy said frantically, tears spilling down his eyes as he lost the feeling in his body.

"You're done for Luffy. You won't be useful like this."

"Don't be stubborn, Luffy. I'd be a fool to let you go. I need to focus on saving Ace, not keeping you alive. The point of this is that we all need to make it out alive."

"You're not strong enough!"

"Ugh," Luffy's face scrunched up. "Ugh..."

He wasn't strong enough.

The rubber boy's eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"WAAAAAH!" He wailed in agony.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he howled, blacking out in the middle of his mental breakdown.

---

Ram panted harshly, clutching her chest as she slipped into a panic attack.

This wasn't happening. This just couldn't... this couldn't be happening!

"Father... no Father please!" Ram whimpered, curling into herself as an unspeakable pain enveloped her.

"What am I supposed to do without you?!" she shrieked. "I-I'm just your weapon! I've never known anything b-but you! You... you finally called me your daughter."

Tears began spilling out of her eyes and Ram let out a keening wail.

"You can't leave me dad! I'm not ready to let you go!" Ram sobbed. "Please don't leave me! P-Please!"

The ring blubbered and sobbed, curling into herself as she attempted to disappear.

"D-DAD!" She wailed in agony.

---

Maro looked at the screen, completely and utterly frozen. There was a stunned look in her eyes, brain not fully catching her up to what she was just witnessing. Even as it cut off, she just stared listlessly at it, expression not betraying anything at all.

None could ask her if she was alright, because Maro's reaction, while utterly unhealthy, had nothing on Angel and Demon.

"NO!" Angel screamed. "NO! NO! NO!" she howled, tears streaming down her face.

"Angel..." Kaori said softly, not flinching at all as the woman's flailing caused her to be hit.

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Angel roared. "HE'S NOT! H-HE CAN'T BE! LOOK AT ME! I-IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIM, I WOULDN'T BE HERE RIGHT NOW!" she screeched.

Kaori said nothing, shutting her eyes at hearing Angel's denial.

"TELL THEM DEMON!" Angel snarled, furiously wiping her tears. "Tell them that he's fine! That's not enough to stop Master! You know it isn't!"

Demon said nothing. His dim eyes remained rooted to the floor as he curled into himself and shut down. Tears were dropping from the expressionless doctor and he didn't react at all, to the frantic words of Mikita or Zala.

"D-Demon?" Angel whispered. "Why aren't... why aren't you saying anything?"

"..." Demon didn't react. He simply curled into himself tighter and sniffed.

"...No," Angel denied. "No that's not... why don't any of you believe me?!" she shouted, stepping back as she regarded their reactions.

No one said anything and Angel began shuddering.

"A-Angel...?"

Angel froze at that and glanced over at her wife with a faltering expression.

"I-Is Master... is Master really alright?" she asked quietly, so quietly.

Angel stepped back at that, at the broken look on the glassy eyed Maro's face.

"H-He's..." she stammered, feeling her heart constrict. "H-He's... M-Master's j-just..."

...

Angel let loose a sharp wail and began sobbing.

"M-MASTER! NO! Y-YOU CAN'T BE!" she cried, collapsing onto the floor.

Marianne sadly approached the redhead and pulled her into a tentative hug, body shuddering as Angel's wails shook her to the core.

Demon sniffed even harder, before the floodgates burst out and the doctor let out a heartbreaking wail. He curled into himself even harder and sobbed, ignoring everyone around him as he completely shut himself off to the world.

Maro lifelessly watched them cry. She made to move towards them, but as she got up... the queen lost all feeling in her legs and collapsed down to the floor.

She attempted to do so once more, meeting the same results but the Dokkaebi was too disconnected to understand why she was failing.

She was abruptly pulled into a tight hug and Maro glanced at the tear streaked face of Aiko.

"You're in shock," Aiko rasped, keeping one hand on the unconscious Akemi who had fainted with tears in her eyes.

"Shock...?" Maro whispered.

Was that why she was so cold? Was that why it was getting so hard to breathe? Was that why her heartbeat was slamming against her chest...?

Was that why it felt like she were falling, with no hopes of ever getting up?

"I... I-I don't like this," Maro said eventually. "I don't like feeling like this!"

"I know, sweetheart," Aiko soothed softly, doing her best to stifle the scream that wanted to rip out.

"I-I want Master. W-Where's Master? He can help me," Maro said frantically, eyes going wide as her heart began squeezing. "W-Where is he?!"

She hastily grabbed her tiara and repeatedly tapped the part of it that was connected to Rosan's Save Point.

Aiko watched with a sullen expression.

"Maro..." she said softly, tears renewing in earnest as she thought about her incredible little brother.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair at all. Aiko felt her knees give out and she collapsed to the floor, letting out an abrupt sob that snapped Maro out of her daze.

At the sight of Aiko of all people crying, the headstrong and ruthless leader of Fregate, Maro felt something tremble inside of her.

"You have done a complete 180, my prodigious student. You're beautiful, married and above all, the Queen of the most prestigious island in the North Blue. You being Grim, is only secondary to everything else you've accomplished now. You have exceeded my expectations and I placed the highest faith in you already."

Tears fell to the floor as Maro took a step back.

"M-Master..." she stammered, tears flowing down her bright orange eyes. Master was... he was...

"Come. Join me. Become the right hand of death and I will unlock said potential. It will not be easy but, with the life you currently live, you already know how to survive against the odds. Do this or waste away into nothing."

"Mgmm," Maro sniffed, falling onto her butt as the strength left her for the umpteenth time.

"You have no name you say. Well then, as of today, you are Maro."

"Mgmm..."

"I'm proud of you, Maro. Never forget that."

"WAHHHHH!" Maro cracked, shuddering as fat tears began spilling from her eyes. "NO! NO! WHERE IS HE?! GIVE ME MY MASTER!" she wailed, making everyone in the room crack.

The soldiers looked away, unable to bear the sight of seeing their joyful leaders under so much duress.

The room was filled with the cries of 5 people, as they wailed their pain to the world.

---

"I know how it feels to have everything taken from you. It sucks. It's the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life and it must have been the same way with you. The sadness is so much that it makes you wanna crawl somewhere and just sleep it away. The loneliness is so crushing it just makes you want to give up."

"R-ROBIN?!" Koala screamed, wiping the tears from her eyes as she listened to Rosan's final words and watched Sabo black out.

But she wasn't allowed to pay the screen anymore attention because of Robin.

Koala whirled towards the collapsed woman with wide and teary eyes.

"Stay with me Robin! C'mon please say something!" she urged, lifting the much taller woman up.

Robin didn't say anything. The woman stared straight ahead lifelessly and that scared Koala more than anything.

"M-MEDICAL! WE NEED HELP QUICKLY!" Koala screamed, watching as the screen of the stream flickered out into nothing. "PLEASE ANYONE?!"

Robin said nothing as Koala carried her. Robin didn't react to the staff checking on her. Robin didn't move an inch.

She just remained there.

Frozen.

---

"M-MEDICAL! PLEASE! QUEEN RAISA IS IN DANGER!"

The staff gazed in concern at the sobbing Oren and Dalia but there attention was swiftly drawn away by the sight of the comatose Raisa.

The Queen was clutching her chest, cheeks flushed harshly as tears fell down in streams from her shut eyes. She was breathing sporadically, panting as her body tried to intake oxygen in anyway it knew how.

"M-My Queen?!" A Doctor gasped in horror. "W-What happened to her?!"

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Dalia sobbed out, glaring at him with fury in her heartbroken gaze. "JUST HELP HER YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

He flinched back horribly at that and nodded hastily, escorting the woman to the emergency room.

Almost as soon as the door shut, Dalia and Oren both collapsed, tears of agony falling down their eyes as they sobbed and sobbed to the world.

What… what had happened? What caused the royal family of Wisteria to behave like this?

---

Mod's grief was loud and ugly as her agony was laid bare.

She wailed and sobbed to the world, cursing it for taking the one person she loved more than anything away from her and vowing to make them pay in any capacity.

Her son. Rosan. The joy of her life. The one who gave her life…

The light that shone in a darkness she didn't even know existed at the tender age of 4.

And he was gone.

Mod felt another cry of agony rip itself out of her body and she screamed.

They would pay. They would all pay. In due time, all of them would pay for taking her son from her.

She would show them a mother's wrath. Mod would make sure of it. She would tear it all asunder in her quest to avenge Rosan.

Mod did not hear the footsteps behind her, nor did she hear the person calling her name. She just continued to cry and cry.

"Do you want to save him?"

That made Mod stop immediately and she whirled around at the question.

Pestilence gazed at the tear streaked woman, assessing her without that mocking smile on their face.

No there was just a grim frown, arms crossed as they surveyed the crumbling mindscape around them.

"Do you want to save Rosan?" Pestilence asked again, looking deathly serious.

"Y-You can save him?" Mod whispered hopefully, praying that this wasn't some cruel joke from Pestilence.

If it were... then Mod didn't think she'd have another presence following her when they were eventually consumed.

"I can. Yes," Pestilence confirmed. "I have tricks up my sleeve. It'll be close but you have to manually stabilize inside of him, while I deal with the external stuff."

Much to Pestilence's genuine shock, Mod collapsed into their frame with a desperate whimper and clutched their pure black dress.

Pestilence merely stared at the woman with a confused gazed, body shaking slightly at the vibrations of Mod.

"Please… if you have… if you know anyway you can save him… please, I'm begging you… please save my son," Mod sobbed, clutching her enemy with the desperation of a mother.

Consequences be damned. They would deal with it after. Mod just wanted Rosan alive.

"…" Pestilence stared at the sobbing woman, expressionless...

"Alright. I did say that I would save him."

...Then, the virus grinned psychotically.

"So I guess it's showtime."

Mod stiffened as she felt another presence nearing her and the hysterical woman gazed up.

What she saw, left her white.

"It seems the time has come."

Pestilence gingerly removed herself from Mod's person and pulled the tall figure into a searing kiss that left the crying woman even more stunned.

"Yes it is… You know what to do out there, correct?"

"Yes. I'm very close to dying. I must find a source to stay alive."

Red eyes stared into purple, both sclera a pulsing black.

"So go cause mayhem, Famine," Pestilence crooned.

"Of course, Pe-chan," Famine replied neutrally.

"W-What...?" Mod stammered in confusion, causing... Rosan(?) to stare at her.

Famine tilted his head, a somber air surrounding the uncharacteristically sad man.

He crouched slightly, wiping the tears out of Mod's eyes with a surprising amount of gentleness.

"There is no need to cry, Mod..." he began softly.

Mod flinched at that.

"I will fix this."

The castle shattered.

---

Hancock did not bother to wipe her tears, as she resisted the urge to scream in rage and pain.

Her cousin… her dearest cousin lay there… dead at the hands of that slimy and disgusting magma man.

She let loose another gut curdling sob, collapsing into Sallom as she was reminded of what happened.

They would pay. She would make the World Government pay for daring to take her cousin from her. How could they do this?

Why did they do this? Rosan... Rosan didn't deserve this...

All around Rosan, his family lay unconscious, overwhelmed by the grief they suffered. They would have been sitting ducks, if the Whitebeard Pirates didn't fight so ferociously to protect them…

Oh Luffy… the injuries had caught up to the Straw Hat boy and as he collapsed, he let loose a blood curdling cry before completely stopping.

He was faring the worst... the boy looked the most injured of the unconscious bunch as he lay there like a sitting duck.

Hancock wanted to faint too but she would never ever leave herself vulnerable around scum like this.

She so badly wanted to rush to Rosan's body and find some way… any way to save him…

But all she did was weep and take a small delight in the fact that the scumbag who had done it, was currently on the receiving end of a thrashing from the World's Strongest Pirate.

But that wasn't nearly enough to make up for the way her heart felt shattered. It was a horrific feeling, one that Hancock had never felt. It was comparable to the agony that she felt when she was a slave... but this was indescribable.

So Hancock decided to leave. She needed to retreat to an area where she could cry to her heart's content because... because she was so sad.

Hancock took a single step, before suddenly freezing.

Distantly, she noted that everyone else on the battlefield had done the same.

For a second… for just a split second, an unnatural feeling had coursed through the air.

It was an utterly insidious feeling.

"D-Did you feel that too?" A random Marine dared to ask her.

Hancock would have turned him to stone but she was too busy trying to pinpoint where that had come from.

Hancock gazed warily, wondering just what that was… before that insidious feeling rushed through the air again.

By now, everyone was trying to figure out why the air had become so charged with something so unnerving, unable to pinpoint where it was coming from…

That was when the third wave hit them and this was the worst one yet.

Hate. Malice. Rage. Disgust. Fear. Carnage. Lust. Joy. Envy. Rage. Apathy.

Sadness. Sadness. Sadness.

Hancock clutched her chest as a flood of heinous and disgusting emotions washed over her and everyone there, threatening to drive her into madness.

What on earth was… what was this?!

Her sadness felt like it were being amplified tenfold and the woman unintentionally let out a wail, as her tears began spilling.

Distantly she realized, others were getting just as affected as she were. Cries rang out as they were crushed beneath the heavy emotions and Hancock let out an uneven gasp.

She desperately tried to find where the source of this originated from, hellbent on getting away from it, and when she finally did, the woman froze in complete shock.

There, on the battlefield… there was a black miasma roiling about. It looked thick and heavy… and it was originating from…

From Rosan, her cousin.

Hancock watched in horror as Rosan's body suddenly shuddered.

"Impossible," Sengoku whispered in horror. Not even he had been left immune to the effects of those heavy emotions, but now it was all dashed away in favor of true genuine horror.

Rosan had died! He was supposed to be dead! What was the meaning of…

What was this?

Rosan's prone body began floating upwards, all while the miasma began swirling around him over and over again.

All the while, that disgusting aura pulsed through the field like a disease, filling all with madness and rage and sadness and anguish.

Some lesser men began screaming, losing themselves to the emotions being forcefully shoved into them…

But that wasn't all. Rosan began screaming too.

It was a long horrific and gut curdling scream.

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rosan's floating body suddenly screeched, even as the miasma began covering his skin.

It began thickening over his skin, covering from head to toe and the creature screeched all the while…

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

People curled into themselves, lesser man fled to the waters, tears began spilling as the overwhelming hatred began choking them and all the while the creature screamed —

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH —"

— Until it stopped.

Rosan's body suddenly righted itself, the unrecognizable monster staring at nothing as those red and purple sockets pulsed…

Then, it let loose a hellish snarl and got on all fours, lunging forward.

The random Marine had no time to react, as he were suddenly tackled to the ground. His teary eyes widened in confusion, before shifting into horror at seeing an utterly uncanny creature staring down at him.

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" It roared furiously.

"AGHHHH!" he shrieked. "SOMEONE HELP ME—"

His sentence suddenly died in his throat as the creature lunged forward, gaping maw clamped around the soldiers neck.

The field went utterly silent and they watched in horror, as the creature seemed to sap the man of all his livelihood.

The Marine tried to scream but silent gasps were all that left him, as the creature latched onto him like a wild animal.

Finally, it stopped. The creature's gaping white maw shut, as the man underneath him convulsed and shriveled away.

...

What?

No one was able to contain the unease at the unknown. The creature's expression never shifted, those purple and red sockets merely locked onto the prey that they... feasted on...?

Then, the creatures red socket turned purple and it threw its head back.

"RAHHHHHHHH—"

Before abruptly stopping.

That unnatural and black Miasma began clawing its way upwards as the creature suddenly stood on both legs.

It began climbing Rosan's body, shedding itself from the parts that they were leaving, until they all settled atop the redhead's hair.

The miasma pulsed, melding with parts of the red hair and adding a black tint to the blood colored hair.

The man took a deep breath, inhaling the air and ignoring the raw vitriol in it that he caused.

"I'm sorry about that. Not only did you have to see that, some of my emotions spilled through," he said quietly, idly wiping his eyes unsuccessfully as his tears continued to fall. "It's hard for me to control myself under these circumstances. I hope you can understand."

The black and red haired monster suddenly disappeared and grabbed another unsuspecting Marine, wrapping his arm around the terrified mans neck.

"I'm still so hungry... it seems that previous man wasn't enough sustenance," Rosan said, opening his eyes and showing off two purple irises, over a pitch black sclera. "Won't you feed me?" he asked politely.

The person in his arms tried to scream but only let out a strangled garble, as Rosan's eyes began glowing.

"Drain," he said gently.

The body flailed about and struggled but Rosan's grip was unyielding. Steadily, their flails lessened, as wrinkles began appearing across the person's skin.

At the same time, the hole in Rosan's body began shutting, overlapping with the man in his grasp growing more decrepit.

Everyone watched in horror and terror, as the hole shut completely at the same time the man turned into just bones.

"Thank you," Rosan said after a moment, gently placing the bony body on the floor. "That was good, but… I'm still not satisfied."

The man with dual colored hair gazed at everyone there, hair lashing out wildly.

"It's been so long since I've been able to feel even the air brushing against my face," he said softly. "For so long I've been deprived and starved of a life. It's stifling."

Those purple eyes flashed ominously as he gazed at his hand and bright white feathery wings burst from his back.

"My name is Famine. This world has taken and taken from me… to the point where I took from myself. It's finally time that I begin taking from you. I'm sorry in advance... but you've pushed me to this point."

A psychotic laugh erupted from the man but his mouth never moved… and they watched as that strange hair of his began writhing about even more.

The black miasma formed once more, before it took the shape of a woman in a skintight dress and pure white hair.

Her eyes were glittering in amusement as daintily dusted herself off.

"Why are you apologizing to them?" Pestilence asked, basking in the air with a pleased expression. "You know they deserve whatever we're about to do them."

Famine turned his sullen gaze onto Pestilence and idly dragged them towards him.

"Ah~," Pestilence gasped, melding into him with blissful eyes. "Now's not the time to be all lovey dovey. We have work to do! These are the people that almost killed you after all!"

"I'm aware," Famine replied, turning his gaze towards the unconscious bodies of his family.

He crouched in front of them all, expression unreadable as he drank in their features.

Then, he stood back up and walked away from them.

"Take my family and go. Ensure you don't stand near me. That's my only warning to you. If anyone lingers near me, they have only themselves to blame."

Jinbe panted, gazing at the red and black haired man in confusion.

So it wasn't his imagination... just standing near this version of Rosan, seemed to be sapping him of energy.

He glanced at Rosan's back, before his worried gaze shifted over to the gravely injured Luffy and Ace.

"If any hands are able, please help carry them and go!" Jinbe requested, immediately picking up Luffy and Ace to the best of his abilities.

Pestilence shook their head in disappointment, black miasma rolling off their body. "There you go again. Just too nice for your own good… but I guess I do love that about you~"

"..." Famine said nothing.

Black sparks began rolling off the virus and they grinned eagerly, as they forcefully reactivated the stream that had shut off.

"Hello to you all," Pestilence bowed in exaggeration. "I am Pestilence and this is Famine… and today is about to get even more exciting so buckle up!"

They're eyes gleamed murderously, an eager expression on their face.

"If you thought that the little Rose was bad, you haven't seen anything, yet."

---

"Robin look! Rosan's awake!" Koala urged, showing her the screen.

Robin jolted so violently at that, Koala flinched back. The woman shot up with frantic eyes, locking them onto the screen.

Koala expected to see some happiness out of her, so she was understandably confused when the clarity in Robin's eyes, turned into one of horror.

"No... oh no," Robin whispered in terror. "This can't... this can't be."

"Robin? What's wrong?" Koala asked in concern, holding the woman's shoulders in concern.

Robin did not notice. She just began shuddering.

Something was wrong. That could be the only explanation as to why Pestilence was out and about in the real world.

Robin felt terrified all over again.

"That's... that's not Rosan," she eventually said, shutting her eyes.

What happened to Rosan?

What happened to him?

---

Join the discord if you want. Code is discord. gg/BFFtXAXFU7

Chapter 47: Black and White