Chapter 170: Chapter 160
[Unknown Island, New World, November 2nd, 1522]
"*Phew*... Looking a whole lot better than before."
Rowan said with a grin as he stood right in front of the Prominence, whose lacking parts were restored with the new supplement of woods that they managed to get their hands onto.
It was a gruesome process. After transporting the tremendous amount of wealth into the Prominence, the airbags of the original size were no longer enough to keep the ship afloat; they had to enlarge those airbags and fix up the Prominence simultaneously.
Eventually, after two weeks or so, their efforts finally paid off. Although Prominence still required attention from an expert shipwright and lacked the capability to fly without Rowan, the fact that she once again stood proudly with the large sails displaying the jolly roger of the Grimheart pirates—Rowan felt an uncontrollable smile creeping onto his face.
"Rowan, look." Carina, who was staring at the Log Pose on her wrist, called Rowan.
Rowan walked up to her and gazed at the Log Pose in a similar manner, "What is it—huh."
Two needles on the left and middle sections of the Log Pose were spinning wildly. Only the right one remained focused with a minimal fluctuation.
"I don't think we get to choose from the three here." Carina stated as she looked up at Rowan.
Rowan smirked, "Oh, but we do. And I just decided that we will be following the right one."
Carina snickered, "I guess you can say that."
Rowan took his eyes off of the Log Pose and jumped onto the rail of the Prominence from the shore.
"Alright, all of you!" Rowan shouted to his crew, "Get ready to set sail!"
It was time for them to sail out once again.
____________
[Impel Down, Level 1: Crimson Hell]
Within the incredibly large-scaled prison, one beautiful woman was seen to be walking behind a jailer with her wrists cuffed. Although her bruised face was shadowed by the bangs of her hair, anyone could recognize that she was none other than Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress.
"Hm?" An obese woman who was imprisoned behind bars, muttered with narrowed eyes, "Isn't she Boa Hancock, the woman who's almost as beautiful as me?"
"Beautiful? You? Gyahahaha!!!!!" In an adjacent cell, the man with a red round nose, Buggy, laughed as he rolled on the ground, "You are anything but beautiful!! No, in fact, you're one of the ugliest I've ever seen!!"
"W-what did you say just now?!!" The woman shouted hysterically. "Coby, who's the most—ugh, I forgot that he isn't here…"
Buggy, ignoring the woman's cry, raised up his middle finger in a mockery.
"What was your name again? Alvida? Gyahaha! You were one of those pirates that Grimheart's past fleet caught looooong time ago, eh? I think I recognize you!"
Buggy then squinted his eyes and puffed up his cheeks,
"Hi, I'm Alvida the 'Delusional Fatso!' I've come from the East Blue, but was caught in like... 4 years ago! And I still wasn't able to escape from the Impel Down when a large-scaled breakout happened, because... because... I was too fat! Gyahahaha!!!!"
Alvida's whole body trembled in a fury,
"SHUT UPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!"
*CLANK*
"You shut up, filths from the East Blue!!" A jailer who stood behind Hancock hit the bar on Alvida's cell with his sword, creating a loud noise that caused both Alvida and Buggy to quieten down immediately.
"Haa..." Buggy, who now seemed to be depressed, sighed as he slouched onto the ground, "How did it turn out like this? Just when I thought it was captain John's hidden lair... it turned out to be a Marine base..."
Alvida, on the other hand, stared at Hancock in a realization, "Hold on. Isn't Boa Hancock the Warlord? Why did the Marine arrest her?"
__________
[New Marineford]
Vice Admiral Gion, whose left arm was wrapped around by a cast, stood strictly before the seat of the Fleet Admiral, where Sakazuki sat by.
"Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, I—"
"Vice Admiral Gion. You did well." Sakazuki, who was turned away from Gion, stated in a low tone as he puffed out smoke, "Catching a former Warlord on your own isn't an easy feat, especially for someone with Conqueror's Haki like Boa Hancock."
"But... too many died." Gion bit her lips, "And I only managed to arrest Boa Hancock, while the rest of her crew escaped. It wasn't an accomplishment, but a mistake on my part.
Many innocents will suffer..."
"Forget about that part."
Sakazuki, turning around, said with a grim expression, "What matters is that Boa Hancock is now imprisoned on the lowest floor of the Impel Down. You fought valiantly against the evil Kuja pirates and stood victoriously in the end. An accomplish of that sort can't go unrewarded."
Sakazuki then opened the drawer on his right, before taking out a box.
"Now, this is yours."
Gion couldn't seem to understand what was going on. Sakazuki's words felt so forceful to her, as if she didn't have a say in this matter.
After looking back and forth between Sakazuki and the box, Gion slowly opened the box that was now in her hands.
"This is...!" Gion's eyes widened as she immediately closed the box in a shock. Shifting her eyes back onto Sakazuki, Gion asked in disbelief, "Am I hallucinating, Fleet Admiral?"
Sakazuki shook his head, "What you are seeing is indeed true. And you are going to eat it right in front of me, right now."
Gulping in nervousness, Gion opened the box once more. It was a devil fruit, or to be more specific,
"...Float Float fruit."
It was the devil fruit whose previous user was none other than Shiki the 'Golden Lion.'
"Two days after your arrival, Admiral 'Ryokugyu' Aramaki announced his victory against Shiki, who suddenly made an appearance in the East Blue. There, he retrieved that devil fruit."
Gion asked in confusion, "But why me? It's as if I must eat this fruit right now in this room..."
"Because you are now promoted to an Admiral." Sakazuki cut off Gion's question with his firm words.
"…I don't follow."
Sakazuki grimaced as he massaged his temple, "Three days ago, we received another report. In the South Blue, Tokikake and the whole marine fleet under him… passed away during the war against the Blackbeard pirates."
Gion fell silent. An Admiral, the symbol of Marine's strength, was blatantly killed by an evil pirate right in front of the whole world's eyes.
Due to Teach's feats, concealing this information from the world was absolutely impossible; it was only thanks to Aramaki's victory against Shiki that not all hopes were lost.
"And another issue has arose."
Sakazuki wasn't done talking, and Gion no longer knew what to expect out of his mouth,
"Red Hair began to move… and judging by our calculation, he is heading to the South Blue."
Gion was dumbfounded.
"If Red Hair manages to defeat a pirate who killed an Admiral… the Marine's reputation will fall below that of an Emperor's."
Sakazuki momentarily paused as he breathed in the smoke from his cigarette, before continuing,
"A renowned Vice Admiral who served within the rank of the Marine for years.
Defeated a vile pirate and became one of the three pillars of the world.
And now, she is on her way to become a hero by avenging the souls of the civilians and the marines who faced glorious deaths."
Sakazuki locked his cold eyes onto Gion,
"And that is you, Admiral 'Momousagi.'"
"But—"
"I'm not telling you to fight them. No, it's something that shouldn't be as hard."
A predestined war between 'Blackbeard' Teach and 'Red Hair' Shanks. Sakazuki was planning to use this to their advantage.
"When one side wins, intervene and clean up the other sides. Admiral… no, 'Marine Hero' Gion,"
Gion's shaky hand, which was holding onto the Float Float fruit, slowly moved up toward her lips,
"purge all the evil."
Gion took a bite out of the fruit.
____________
[Dressrosa; November 3rd, 1522]
"Heh… what is the meaning of this, Kaidou-san?"
Within the valiant castle of the Dressrosa, Doflamingo forced a nervous grin onto himself as he looked straight ahead of him.
After all, right in front of Doflamingo lied two Emperors, Kaidou and Linlin.
"We needed a place to talk, so I brought her here." Kaidou replied in a gruffy tone, "Got a problem, Doflamingo?"
"Mamamama!!! I heard that Dressrosa is the land of romance! I've been wanting to come here for a long time!!"
'You damn monster hag!!!'
Doflamingo couldn't help but curse in his mind. After all, the first thing that Linlin did after arriving on the island, was to place each and every moving toy that she found into her book.
It was one consequence after the other. Thanks to Linlin, Doflamingo now lacked a labour force to produce SMILE.
"Since you are familiar with the Underworld, I want you to do a favour for us." Kaidou looked down to Doflamingo impassively.
Doflamingo struggled to maintain his outward calm expression as he asked, "Which is…?"
Linlin grinned, "Well… I happen to hear that Red Hair Shanks is about to fight against that Blackbeard brat! Is that true?!"
"Heheheh… yes, it is." Doflamingo couldn't do anything except to answer, for he was crushed under the pressure of two Emperors.
"If so, I want you to connect us to Blackbeard. Can you do it?" Kaidou, with his default frown, stated before gulping down the sake from his gourd.
"Indeed, I can. However… what's the reason behind that, if you don't mind answering?"
Kaidou laughed boisterously, "Wororororo!!! Let's just say that Red Hair has something that we need!!"
If there was one misassumption that the Red Hair pirates made, it was the fact that Kaidou and Linlin were more informed than they expected. Even if Shanks tried to hide it as best as he could, the two Emperors already knew about it—
—the fact that Shanks knows the whereabouts of the Road Poneglyphs that aren't in their possession.
___________
[Delta, November 4th, 1522]
After the rapid travel in the air, the next island that the Grimheart pirates stumbled upon was none other than the Delta island, where the green vegetations prevailed.
It was a nice and pleasant island that was booming with many number of people—at the first glance. When seen closely, one would notice that most of them are the pirates.
Currently, one day has passed since the arrival of the Grimheart pirates. Although the others all scrambled away upon sighting them, Rowan still was rejoiced to see a civilization after having been in two barren islands consecutively.
*Click*
And now, Rowan, who was taking a sip of a whiskey within a bar, found a gun barrel touching the side of his head.
"Bohaha! I haven't had something like this before. Interesting." Rowan, unfazed by the gun, shifted his eyes toward the owner of the gun with an amusement,
"So, how much did they pay you?"
The hitman didn't answer the question. Instead,
"Even you, Grimheart, is a human being in the end."
The hitman was clearly nervous. Rowan could hear sound of the man's heart beating, all the way from his seat.
"This is where it ends for you, Grimheart—"
*BANG*
*Thud*
At the next moment, the hitman found a bullet embedded on his head instead.
"Who do you think you are?" The bullet came from none other than Dan from the outside of the bar, whose outstretched hand was crackling in electricity.
Rowan, after finishing the glass, stood up as he left the pay on the table, not caring for a corpse that was lying down on his side.
Walking outside, Rowan asked Dan who was waiting by, "What did the shipwright say?"
Dan sighed, "A year at max, if Prominence no longer received any damage."
"A year?" Rowan smiled confidently, "That's plenty enough."
"But that's not it, captain. Look at these news."
Within their stay in the 'Worm Pit,' no News Coo arrived to deliver them the news; perhaps it was because the island was an uncharted one. Unlike the case of Raijin, it was impossible for them to locate the crew.
"Haa… now what—"
Rowan found himself frowning,
"The destruction upon the entire South Blue, followed by a gruesome defeat of Admiral Chaton… all by Blackbeard?"
Dan exclaimed, "Apparently, that dude used Whitebeard's fruit power as well, captain."
"According to what Shanks said… what the hell." Rowan muttered in a disbelief, "He has three devil fruit abilities?"
All of a sudden, Teach seemed to be more dangerous than what Rowan initially thought. From Rowan's experience, he could see—Teach was someone who'd do anything to achieve his goal.
'If he managed to awaken all three fruits… will
Marco and Ace still be able to defeat him?'
Rowan could picture the Phoenix pirates angrily fighting Teach in the near future.
Things were getting more and more complicated.
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