Chapter Text
december
Ace closed his eyes listening to what Teach-- no, Blackbeard continued to say.
"The little smartass rookie and his scrawny sea legs of his, thought he disappeared for good! Ya know, for taking Crocodile, fighting CP9 and challenging the World Government of all things. Ha! Daring he may be, the Grand Line isn't the place for kids playing pirates."
His eyes opened, eyes fell upon where Blackbeard stood in all his pride and arrogance. The black mist gravitated him like magnet all the while swallowing the life around him. He smirked and looked towards where Ace was perched on the roof.
6 months ago, the smile Teach put would put some comfort in him. A person he confided to, a brother he never knew he needed. Never once he had the slightest doubt amongst his brothers, his family, in the ship he would also call Home beside the moldy little house somewhere atop a tree in the East Blue.
Now, the smile reminded him of blood, of Thatch's back and the clink of a dropped knife, of a betrayal and backstabbing. Ace was gone too long to know Thatch's condition, the den-den mushi he purposely not picked up after ringing for thousands of time from his concerned brothers still tucked on his pockets, all because he couldn't sit still before beheading Blackbeard, before knowing that the traitor's head is severed and delivered to his family, to his father.
Because if Thatch ended up dying and Ace failed to do his responsibility, he would drown in a sea of guilt and Thatch's scream of pain would always haunt him.
"But he ain't dead. Surfacing again after two years, he entered the New World like he owned it, causing mayhem and chaos as he pleased. Freeing Dressrossa, challenging on Big Mom, and last one i heard... he fought Kaido and won? I wish the last one's fake, but the Emperor title doesn't belong to Kaido anymore, now it belonged to Straw Hat." Blackbeard spat the last word with hate and disgust.
Ace slowly stood, his hands fixing the hat on top of him. If this was not a fight where he was supposed to kill a traitor, the revelation that Luffy, his big brother had made new Emperor at the age of 21 should've made his shoulder shudder in pride. Luffy finally did it. He was well on his way to the dream he long has yearned, and Ace was truly happy.
“I have big plans, I’m sure you’d know by now. It starts with me being the Warlord and I think i know whose head should i take. Maybe I'll even be the Emperor too, doncha think, Commander?
Or should I say, Emperor's little brother?"
The rage inside him burned away from the limits, fire started to spread amongst the houses and the next thing he knew, his fist lunged at Blackbeard repeatedly until he knew no more.
All the way, on the land located atop the waterfalls barely free of its terrors and nightmares, a paper sewed to the worn out Straw Hat burned slowly. If one was to focus, it emitted the smell of flesh and bones. It kept burning, and burning, until it stopped. The festivals and the endless meal for everyone continues. Nobody noticed.
Not the first time Haruta manned the den-den line for the day, and also not the first time he kept ringing the same numbers on a snail that resembled Ace for the past weeks, every hour, non stop. Oyaji had made a directive order for his division members to kept ring the den-den every hour, and remind all his son to keep their personal den-den close, just in case they got new information.
It has been 3 weeks since the last contact made by Ace. 3 weeks since he left Alabasta after going after false lead and seemingly meeting a ‘friend’ of Ace’s brother, which turned out to be the Princess of Alabasta, Vivi. It made quite a spectacle on the News Coos front, stating the ‘Fire-Fist Ace kidnapped a Princess’. Haruta and the others wasn't sure if that statement was true or false. Oyaji could only laugh, and Haruta could tell that old man knew something nobody knew.
After that, his division continued to monitor any upcoming papers and news, rumours, gossips, back alleys trades, anything that could led them to Ace’s last condition. The vivre card they're following is kept in a clear box, glued on the navigation room, currently missing its Commander. If the situation wasn't dire, Haruta would commend Ace for leading such amazing team. Even after weeks without the leader, they're still cohesive and together not like a headless chicken going into a storm. Though, Haruta assumed some part of it was due to guilt of not noticing Teach’s true motive the self-blaming tendecies that apparently most of the second division members had. Like leader, like members somehow.
Most of Haruta’s and Ace’s men are noncombatants, didn't mean they can't throw hit. Being behind the deck and dealing with papers didn't require a lot of physical skills, so they weren't exactly expected on the field in the case of a fight. Namur, filling in as temporary Second Division Commander had been working tirelessly steering the wheel and navigating through these waters. As accurate as vivre card may be, a seasoned pirate can't sail with just trusting it, especially with no additional informations.
The waters of Grand Line are not merciful. Following a vivre card may get you to the place you need to be, but you can't just follow it alone. Thus Haruta’s division are working nonstop trying to figure out Ace's near precise location. Ace could be in New World or even further in the Blues for all they know. He could be as near as two islands away, or even as far beyond the red line. Following the paper blind won't get them anywhere.
And the other issue was when the vivre card started to burn, some bits turned into ashes, and the smell of burnt flesh permeated on the room and all across the deck. Namur had never screamed so loudly in his life when he noticed it. It's been 10 hours since the burning, and it hasn't stopped. The card is much significantly smaller than before.
Oyaji activated the Emergency Dictate Protocol, meaning he took control over all divisions effective immediately until the objective is cleared. In this case, the objective is Ace and EDP will stay in effect until Ace is retrieved. The last time EDP was in effect, it was after Thatch was on the ground in a bleeding mess and Teach left the ship with a trail of blood and a betrayal.
There’s a simple lull in the navigation room, with Andrew, Saber, and Bulom from Second Divison taking their shift and managing the room. Namur stood amongst them still looking after many clues and maps to find Ace’s exact location. Saber broke the silence, “How long until the next island?” He asked the room.
Namur looked at the maps and calculated the distance, “On normal pace, it’ll take 3-4 days. Do we need to dock?”
Bulom spoke, “Orders from Oyaji, he wanted to purchase more provisions. Food, medicines, clothes, anything. He asked Commander Vista and Jiru to take their men and women down for shopping.” Andrew looked up from where he was reading the paper, tilting his head. “Are we lacking those? Didn’t we just shop a month ago?”
Saber only shrugged. “His orders,”
Namur focused back on the maps and tried to re-route their way to get to the nearest island while also still on their course to find Ace. “Well, the nearest island is Banaro Island 3 days away… never really heard of that place, and there’s Water 7 and that’s a week away.” He said to the room. Bulom said from his place, “I’ve been there, the town’s full of mediocre alcohol but pretty cozy. Not the best place for groceries, though. But still, alcohol pretty okay for a small town.”
Andrew just threw a pencil at him. “And all you can think of is alcohol. Honestly what’s up with this band of outlaws and their love to poison their liver? I swear you’re second to Oyaji when it came to drinking.” Everyone laughed while the two continue to bicker.
Saber, “Well, if we wanted better chances, we should dock at Water 7. They have everything we needed.” Namur nodded, “I agreed, but best consult to Oyaji about this. Andrew, Bolum, go to him and tell Oyaji about this. Oh, tell Vista and Jiru as well.” The two nodded, and promptly left the navigation room. The room was located on the upper deck, easy to reach and visible to anyone, and Oyaji’s room was just two rooms behind.
Saber spoke up suddenly from the silence, “Wait, can we even dock in Water 7?”
“What do you mean?”, Namur questioned, not understanding.
“The place is basically a part of Straw Hat’s territory.” Saber said.
“They didn't claim the territory at that time, did they?” Namur asked, “Or they did? I don't remember.”
Haruta suddenly popped up from the window connecting the two rooms, surprising the two occupants. “Up until today, the Straw Hat only claimed two territories. The joint custody we had over Fishman Island, and Wano Island.”
The window was just behind and he almost punch life out of that. “For Davy Jones’ sake, Haruta! Knock before speaking, you little runt!”
“The fuck you speakin’ about me?!”
Namur ignored the bickering before him, “It's true? Wano is free of Kaido?”
Haruta nodded from the other room. “Hm. The papers come in about six hours ago, with new bounties for all members, including Jimbei as a Straw Hat. The intercepted Marine lines said there's order to confiscate all the newpaper regarding about Straw Hat defeating Kaido, don't know how they think they could do that.” Haruta snickered.
There's a smile blooming out of Namur with the knowledge that Jimbei finally was finally recognized as a Straw Hat Pirates. The last time Jimbei met up with the Whitebeards was long ago during Ace and Spades Pirates ‘acquisition’ about a year ago, and he mentioned wanting to resigned from his Warlords position find another purpose. The burden of being a protector, the bridge between the Fishmen and Humans for so many years were taking a toll on him. Though, never he thought Jimbei would join Straw Hat.
Haruta continued, “Well, though I'm not sure it's actually Straw Hat, I mean, look! He's white!” He shoved the bounty paper into the room, along another stacks of the Straw Hat bounties and continued his rant on the Straw Hat appearance.
Before long, the navigation room door opened and came Bolum, Andrew, and Marco of the First Division Commander.
Marco took one look at the room and said, “What's happening? Why's the room messy?”
Saber crouched down attempting to take all the papers. Why do we—Haruta have way too many of the bounties copy?! “Marco! Straw Hat is white!” Haruta spoke up.
The latter just stared at the former, not understanding it until he saw the bounty paper on Namur’s hand. “I'm not sure, he didn't look like a white person to me before.” Namur was still focusing on the paper.
On Bolum’s hand, there's ‘Devil Child’ Nico Robin bounty, almost reaching 1 billion “Damn, how crazy the crew gotta be? Girlie’s bounty is 100 million short than yours, Commander Marco.” Everyone laughed.
Marco just snatched the paper out of Bolum’s and read it. Indeed a high number for an accomplished pirates. “Unlike her and all the Straw Hat renegades, I'm not actively trying to pick a fight with the World Government.”
Saber shoved Jimbei’s bounty into the table, “Honestly, I'm surprised Jimbei is joining the Straw Hat. I thought he's gonna enjoy his retirement or something.”
Haruta nodded vigorously. “That's what I'm saying!! Being in the Straw Hat will attract, I don't know, more problems to him! And he said he wanted to take a break?! I'm baffled he didn't just join our crew.”
“Well, can't a man be adventurous and liberate countries left and right whimsically?” Andrew added and Haruta just sighed and giggled. It wasn't like Jimbei were official son of Whitebeard. They're allies and close friends, but Jimbei was always the Captain of Sun Pirates. And now he chose to be the helmsman of the newest Emperor.
“Well, their total bounty would be about 8 billion, quite impressive after almost 4 years of sailing.” Marco responded, smirking a little bit. For the past weeks, Straw Hat Pirates had just returned from their 2 year hiatus and immediately reigned hell among the Marines and World Government combined. As crazy powerful the Whitebeards are, challenging the World Leaders weren't exactly what they like to do. That was something the Straw Hats are familiar with, and deep down Marco were glad for that.
“Ah! I forgot, Oyaji wanted us to dock in Water 7! Bay is currently there repairing, and their crew with Oyaji are gonna look for Ace while we're on land.” Andrew said, and the room got silent with understanding.
Marco took a peek at the burning vivre card that made quite a scare last night, it was still burning significantly and smaller than the original size. Everyone, including him were extremely weary after everything and yet the search can't be stopped. The decision to dock at Water 7 wasn't taken lightly, but the rest of his brothers needed a break and navigating with a big ship like Moby Dick wasn't easy. As such, Oyaji and some of his brothers decided to board White Bay’s ship and continue the search. It was also convenient thay Bay was a good doctor the Whitebeard had.
“So Water 7 isn't part of Straw Hat’s territory?” Saber asked once more.
“The papers never mentioned it even during the incident 2 years ago, and they never sail Straw Hat’s jolly roger.” Haruta answered.
“But wasn't that Ice cream mayor was involved in the incident? Also some of his men too were seen at Enies Lobby.”
“No, yoi. Water 7 isn't Straw Hat’s territory. Even so, pirates come and go for repairs. It's counterproductive if you have to ask permission before entering the territory especially for pirates. Gotta be bad for business.” Marco piped up.
“Yeah, and it’s Iceburg, not Ice cream.” Bolum stated.
Saber laughed, “What? You got hots for him?” Bolum just stared, so did everyone. The room got silent, and Saber got a revalation.
Namur looked at the man, “Didn’t Bolum proclaim he wished to bed every Galley-La shipwrights…”
Haruta nodded. “He fucked the long nose God Usopp lookalike CP9 there.”
“WHAT?”
“Saber, you had to see him. You HAD to. It was—
puru puru puru, puru puru puru
All words ceased as a den-den on room rang. He ran into the other side of the room as Marco bolted to the room next door. Every call and messages came had to be treated quickly even coming from all sources. The den-den that rang was a white den-den, with an appearance of orange hair and yellow and orange shell. “Someone called our white den-den… I can’t figure out who it is.”
Haruta brought the nail to the window for everyone to see. Having someone call the white den-den of the Whitebeard means whoever it is, they’re allies or at least someone they know. “Marco, Bolum, everyone, do you know?”
Saber and the rest shook their head, while Marco stared at the snail before deciding to pick it up, ignoring Haruta’s protests. “Hey, Marco! Don’t pick up before you know who—
“Hello? Thank God you pick it up. It’s Nami of Straw Hat Pirates. I wish to speak with your captain. Please!”
Marco frowned. “What business do you have with our captain? Can’t your captain speak instead of you?”
Everyone was tense while there’s some crying and screaming on the background. There were people arguing and Marco couldn’t pick up a thing. A child was speaking in a Wano accent he was familiar with, a faint North Blue dialects and and a mix of Grandline dialect. They seemed to be still in Wano. Behind the snail, he saw Haruta with a notepad trying to write everything he heard.
“I’m sorry! He— wait, Luffy are you sure? Luffy? Luffy, wait! Lu—
It’s Monkey D. Luffy. I want to speak to Whitebeard.”
Suddenly nobody was willing to move, surprised by the sudden voice. Marco held the snail tight to him, wondering why the new Emperor is seeking audience with his father. Are the Straw Hats starting their quest for domination immediately, even after the fall of Kaido and Big Mom on their hands? If so, why are they contacting Oyaji? He knew Straw Hat and his father was in contact after the entire Fishman Island conflict, but he wasn’t let on to what they were discussing.
Marco cleared his throat. Older than the Straw Hat as he was, Monkey D. Luffy was proven time to time to be undefeated. Marco couldn’t mess it up.
“Hello, Captain of Straw Hat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy. This is Marco the Phoenix, First Division Commander of Whitebeard Pirates. I need to know what do you want to—
“I want to speak to him. He broke a promise to me. Get me to him.”
Even the strongest person on the room couldn’t bear the weight of unsuppressed Conqueror’s Haki leaking through the snail, a string of red filled the room for a second. Almost everyone was down on their knees, sweating on the presence of overwhelming power. Marco could see Andrew starting to lose consciousness while the others are trying so hard to stay awake. A voice then was heard from the other line, not from Straw Hat.
“Damn shitty captain! Curb the Haki, Tama-chan is here!”
The aura then stopped for a moment, before Straw Hat laughed.
“Shishishi! O-Tama, I’m sorry! Are you okay?"
“Luffy-aniki, I’m fine! I don’t feel anything weird…”
“Okay, Tama-chan, let’s eat the egg pudding near the aquarium, far from the grubby hands of our shitty captain and…”
After hearing the little child’s voice, Saber for a moment was sent back to more than a year ago when he was still a Spades Pirates, on a journey to Wano with his none other than Ace as a captain. Meeting a little child wishing to have a proper meal in a land so dry and empty, full of corruptions and evil. The little child that Ace and the rest of the Spades Pirates have promised to come back for. O-Tama. He ran to where Marco brought the snail, “Was that O-Tama?!” Saber screamed, ignoring the consequences of yelling to and Emperor.
“Who are you?”
Suddenly all Saber felt was anger. “If you fucking touch the child, I swear to God I won’t stand it. I’ll march to wherev— fucking Bolum, get the hell away from me!” Bolum promptly shoved Saber outside of the room before locking the door. Saber kept banging on it, screaming profanities to nobody.
"Sorry for that, Straw Hat. Still, before talking to our captain, I need to know your intention.” Marco continued. He feared the little outburst by Saber won’t offend the other captain. He couldn’t imagine what their crew would do.
“Your captain did something worse than that. I’m speaking to him or I will assume your captain intentionally avoids talking to me. I will take it as a war. My fleet will come to you and you won’t like what will happen afterwards.”
The entire room was filled with gasps and a surrounding sound of surprise. Unless Marco knew something happened between his father and Straw Hat, he couldn’t imagine the outcome of said war.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. My captain will speak to you. I’ll connect the snail to him. Please wait.”
“Okay.”
He put the snail down while looking at the others. Namur, Bolum, and Andrew was still tense with the proclamation of war by Straw Hat, and so did him and Haruta. War between pirates, even so Emperors was so unlikely to happen unless something severe and serious happened. In the case of the war happening, each side would earn a high loss and that wasn’t something he looked for.
Haruta was fiddling with a bunch of different den-den, and he connected one to the den-den located in the captain quarters. The room still can listen to their conversation.
“What is it, son?”
“Someone wanted to talk to you, Oyaji.”
“Who is—
“Whitebeard, this is Monkey D. Luffy.”
There was silence for a minute, until Oyaji spoke again.
“Straw Hat Luffy. Good job on defeating Kaido.”
“You know I’m here not to talk about that.”
“… I know. From my deepest heart, I’ve tried to prevent the worse thing from happening. All I can do know is mend the damage done. It was never my intention in the first place for it to came to this.”
“Are you honest?”
“Never doubt my words. I’m no perfect, but I’d never lie about my love and care for them, for him. But all and all, I’m sorry. I’m sorry it came to this. Trust we’re doing everything we can.”
“I’ve warned you, Whitebeard. If you break your promise, I will come to you.”
“Of course.”
“Is he with you?”
“No, not yet. I will inform you personally when we get him.”
“I’m still coming to see you.”
“I’ll welcome you. My son will give you the rest of the information you needed.”
“Okay. Nami! Here— ey! Uh, okay! Again, this is Nami, Navigator of Straw Hat Pirates! I need to know your exact location and coordinates.”
“Oyaji?” Namur asked.
“Tell her everything she needed, spare nothing.”
“Okay. We’re a week away of Water 7, do you have the eternal log pose to this place?”
“Damn, apparently no. But we can make it work. Can you fill in everything through den-den fax? It’s easier that way. Thank you.”
“Of course, I’ll do it right away.”
“Okay, ah! Also, don’t inform anyone we’re coming! The commanders are fine, but keep it a secret to everyone until we’re near.”
Marco then spoke up. “Why?”
“The wood admiral, his name is Ryokugo? Ryokugyu? I wasn’t sure, but he came wanting to get to Luffy in Wano. The man suddenly left after Momo— uh, Shogun of Wano and the others defeated him, but we’re not taking chances. Don’t want him on our tail, and on your end too.”
The rest on the room was surprised, but not really. Being chased by the marines was one thing. By Admiral no less? That was a routine for Straw Hat.
“Okay. Just to be clear, where are you right now?”
“Still in waters around Wano.”
“That’s… in the New World, yoi. Takes weeks, even months to sail to end of New World and enter Paradise again through the Red Line."
“We'll be fast,”
“... Understood. See you in a few weeks. We’ll keep it confidential.”
“We’re coming with Torao-kun. See you tomorrow.”
gacha
The call ended in sudden, and everyone could breathe a little. Oyaji is on the other line, still silent.
Marco perked up. “Oyaji? What promise does Straw Hat meant?”
“You’ll see soon, Marco. Understand that he has absolute right in his anger towards me.”
Nobody spoke until Andrew asked. “What did you do?”
“.... Something that will put me to shame. Gather all commanders in my room in an hour.”
The call ended and everyone still tense on their heels. The pencil on Haruta’s finger suddenly broke and all could see the pages of informations he gathered. The man breathed heavily before moving to navigation room with Marco on his heels. The door outside opened with Saber still fuming. “Is the call ended?”
“Saber. Calm down.” Marco commanded him, both his hands on Saber’s shoulders. “That was uncalled for, dangerous, and unnecessary. If it were any other Emperor, they’re going to incite war because you decided to be disrespectful. Understand me? Be glad he paid no mind to it.”
Saber could see himself calming down, his mind still running through many possible scenarios about the voice of O-Tama being near Straw Hat Luffy. “Okay. Okay. I took responsibility for everything. But I’m not sorry for yelling at him. He has Tama! O-Tama! The child we promised to come back for in Wano, and now she’s with the Straw Hats?! What could happen to her?” He said albeit histerically.
“Saber calm down! If you were listening, you can hear that Tama child referring to Straw Hat Luffy as Brother, and she’s fed! Egg pudding! Now calm down, tell me everything.” Haruta came forward with his book and newly acquired pencil.
“During the time as Spades Pirates, we washed up in Wano. Long short story, we met O-Tama and befriend her. She was a starving orphan, sold hats for living, and imprinted on Ace. He, well, everyone of us promised we will come back for her. I promised. Ace promised. We all did.” Saber broke down a little and started crying. The knowledge that Ace, his previous captain was still somewhere unknown in this side of world, and the child he promised to come back for now was in a presence of an Emperor. Reality was starting to crash on him as the people he cared for were not anywhere safe.
Marco kneeled down to where Saber was crouching down. “I can’t promise everything, but all of the things I’ve heard about Straw Hat Luffy, he cared for children, he cared for his crew, he cared for everyone who treated him kindly. Trust that O-Tama will be okay.” His voice was firm and filled with understanding, Saber could only nod.
“Okay, with that, let me lay down what I’ve gathered.” All the attention went back to Haruta and his book, now with the marker he has in front of whiteboard.
“So! Here’s what I found so far. Straw Hat Luffy called our private den-den, wanting to speak to him as in Oyaji, Whitebeard, and he spoke of a promise between the two which Oyaji seemed to have broken. This promise could be something important to Straw Hat Luffy, with him displaying his Conqueror’s Haki so freely, either not on purpose or to show domination. I guess the latter, because someone asked him to ‘curb the Haki’ and Straw Hat Luffy did. The Haki ceased. The control is absolutely amazing, this O-Tama child stating she felt nothing when exposed to it.” Haruta created a diagram with for better understanding.
He tapped the marker on the board, “Like I said, the promise was important to Straw Hat Luffy because he was willing to call for war, calling his fleet on us because us not letting him talk to Oyaji was seen as Oyaji deliberately avoiding Straw Hat Luffy. Oyaji and him talked, from what I can take, it could be something about a man? ‘my love and care for them, for him’, what does that mean?” He sighed.
Everyone was silent until Bolum spoke up. “Love affair?”
Their face soured up by this sudden, unprecedented revelation.
Andrew especially pushed the man. “Ew, Bolum, gross! That’s our dad!”. Haruta chimed in, “What do you mean love affair? With who? How the story lines up?”
Bolum walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker on Haruta and made a long line separating Haruta’s diagram and whatever he was doing.
“Oyaji said he’s very sorry. He tried to prevent the worst from happening, can only ‘mend’ the damage done. Never wanting for it to came to this.”
After gibberish and scribbles wrote, he wrote the word Garp in the middle.
“Straw Hat Luffy is grandson of Marine Hero Garp. Garp is friend, rival, bestie, situationship partner, whatever you name, of Oyaji. Whatever Oyaji and Garp has, it ended. Oyaji can only ‘mend’ it. What is it? Broken heart! Straw Hat Luffy came all the way from Wano because Oyaji ‘promised’ not to break Garp’s hearts! It’s a lover’s affair!” He proclamied heartily and all his brothers in the room collectively made vomiting noises, and protests of ‘That is our dad!’, ‘Oyaji and that evil monster Garp?’, ‘Does Garp even has what it has for Oyaji?’
“That is pretty plausible too.” Haruta spoke from his side, writing down all possibilities. Andrew gawked. “Haruta?!”
Marco put his hands on the table in the middle of the room, successfully silencing the others. “Listen! Straw Hat Luffy was willing to go to war for this cause! Think something rational! We’re going to have commanders meeting anyway, so stop talking about whatever ‘promise’ was it for now, and continue with your finding of the call.”
Haruta straightened up and wrote more on the whiteboard. “Right! Okay, discarding the ‘promise’ theory for now, we go back to the call. After Straw Hat Luffy gave the den-den to the navigator, we gave her the information, she wanted us to fax the information, don’t forget it Namur. Straw Hat is still in Wano, they’re returning back to Paradise by going to the Red Line. With entering paradise again, all the way from Wano to our coordinates, that will take 3 weeks, about 18 days if they’re lucky, and—
“They have Jimbei, so two weeks is possible.” Namur added.
“Oh yeah, right. So fourteen days, with Jimbei on the helm, Straw Hat Luffy are coming here. They’re coming with Tora-o? Tora? Tiger person*? I can’t name anyone affiliated with Straw Hat Luffy that is a tiger.” Haruta drew a single tiger and circled it. “Make sure to find whoever this man is. My assumption that it’s someone they’re allied with, so start from that, Andrew.” The person mention nodded.
“Also, Admiral Ryokugyo was in Wano to take Straw Hat Luffy’s life, and defeated by Shogun of Wano and said to have Momo as his name. If I’m not wrong, that’s the son of Oden, right Marco?”
Marco nodded and sighed. “Yes. Roger ‘borrowed’ Oden for his trip to Laugh Tale, and after the Roger Pirates disbanded, he went back to Wano. Last thing I knew, Kaido killed him. Never learnt about his children’s fate until know. Nekomamushi and Inuarashi told me the children didn’t survive, but 'miracle' will come back in 20 years according to the prophecy by Toki. Guess that's what she meant,"
Everyone instantly perked up. The use of Toki-Toki no Mi, or the fruit to mess with time wasn’t known widely, and only a couple of whitebeards had the knowledge of Kozuki Toki travelled to the present from the era before the Void Century, her existence itself was a threat to the government. “Toki probably used the fruit to send her children to the future by 20 years.”
Haruta wrote down the information excitedly. “Okay, uh, that information wasn’t something I expected, but, okay. Okay. Time travelling? Fuck, Marco, you gotta tell me everything ‘bout it later.”
“So, Ryokugyo? That man is Akainu’s bootlicker. His sense of justice, that absolute justice fuckery of Akainu, Ryokugyo worshipped it daily. Defeating men and innocent people left and right under the guise of ‘Absolute Justice’. Him and Akainu sickened me to the end.” Haruta spat the last part like venom.
Marco brought his attention to the last part, “So, is there possibilities of Marines going after us? I like a good fight, but I’m not planning to face an admiral with a World Government fanatic like him.”
“Eh, hopefully not, but this is Straw Hat. We might end up involved in a Buster Call if we’re not lucky.”
Bolum claimed exasperated. “Then make sure we’re lucky!” Every head turned to Marco, and he sighed.
“Okay! Okay. I’ll discuss our findings with Oyaji, and whatever happened doesn’t leave the room. That includes you, Saber, until we met Straw Hat, don’t tell the rest of former Spades of this. It could be dangerous to us, even to O-Tama.” Marco commanded firmly, looking at Saber as the latter nodded in understanding, then Marco left the room in a haste to collect the other commanders.
“… Well, that happened. Tell me I’m not dreaming, Bolum.” “Do you want me to pinch you, Haruta? I just started learning haki on my fingertips. It’s easier.” “No,”
“Wait, did you listen the navigator said ‘see you tomorrow’ at the end?” Namur said.
Haruta went quiet and opened the book once more, “Isn’t that just a figure of speech? As in, see you tomorrow ‘I will see you soon?’ Don’t tell me they’re actually meeting us tomorrow? They’re still in Wano, Namur. I don’t think even with the best ships, they can reach this place in a day.”
“Their ship can fly, Haruta. They have a robot as a shipwright.”
“Okay… fuck.”