Chapter 30: A Wanted "D"
Whitebeard
The one man who was considered the strongest man in the world, the strongest Yonko, even compared to the likes of Kaido, Shanks, and Big Mom.
Sitting in a big chair, he frowned slightly; in his hands was a newspaper; it had been months since the death of his son, Thatch, he remembered that day all too well, not the first time he had lost a son, but still every lost hurt him a lot.
When his body was found the following morning with several stab wounds on the back, his right hand still opened in a way, indicating that he had been holding something before his death. The moment his body was found, everyone on the ship had been on high alert; it didn't take long to realize that Marshal D. Teach was missing; connecting the dots, they figured he killed Thatch for the devil fruit he found yesterday.
Whitebeard grunted as he remembered a little boy hugging his legs, begging him to take him to his crew, to accept him as one of his sons; Whitebeard always thought of himself as someone who could see the darkness in someone's eyes; he hadn't been a pirate for so many years and learned nothing about the Greed people had, the greed for power.
Yet, despite having Teach in his crew for so many years, not once had he seen anything to indicate that he was hiding something, nothing whatsoever. Either Teach was someone who knew how to hide his true intentions, or I have just ignored it, Whitebeard thought with a painful look on his face.
If only he had been more cautious, but he shouldn't dwell on What if's, not anymore. He had learned that lesson a long time ago.
Whitebeard wondered whether Teach always had some kind of plan like this or if he saw the fruit and took the opportunity it presented; unfortunately, the old Yonko had no idea which fruit was but figured it must be a powerful one.
At the top of his head, he could think of a few that were extremely powerful and dangerous, well powerful enough for Teach to go so far as killing a brother to get it.
My fruit is one of them, Kaido's Fruit, Big Mom's fruit, Arashi Arashi no Mi fruit currently in possession of Ace's brother, Yasihi Yasihi no Mi, Ope Ope no Mi, Whitebeard thought with a frown on his face.
Whitebeard read every newspaper in hopes of hearing anything new about Ace; a month ago, he had opened his newspaper only to read that Ace had caused great havoc in Sabaody Archipelago; the newspaper didn't go into much details about what had happened, only that Portgas D. Ace was responsible for the death of innocent people, his new wanted poster, but nothing else.
Whitebeard had immediately called his son, demanding to know what had happened.
"They were going to sell her; I don't care if a Celestial Dragon is my enemy or the Devil himself; if anyone touches her, I will burn anyone to ash until nothing is left of them," Ace spoke furiously, his eyes ablaze. It took all for Ace not to shout, but he was talking to his father, so he restrained himself.
Whitebeard understood his son was angry, and couldn't really blame him, the Celestial Dragons were the filth of this world, but he needed to realize that being against them was an excellent way to get killed.
"Calm down, my son; I understand that you're angry but have a clear mind," Whitebeard spoke with a warm tone; he heard as Ace's breathing got calmer, his face not red anymore.
"Now, what about the innocent people? What happened there?" Whitebeard questioned; the door of his room opened, revealing Marco, who was listening closely.
"I-I don't know what happened; I didn't harm anyone; I wasn't trying to harm anyone other than the celestial dragon," Ace explained, his voice cracking.
Whitebeard thought deeply now; whatever or not Ace was actually responsible for their deaths, he highly doubted it, or maybe he got so angry that he used a bit too much power in the wrong place at the wrong time, he thought with a grimace.
Taking a deep breath, Whitebeard asked his son who the celestial dragon was trying to harm. After asking that question, his son was dead quiet for a whole minute.
"H-Her name is Isuka; she's a Marine Captain that I have been dating for quite a while now," Ace explained with an almost shy tone and a big blush on his face; his words were met with absolute silence. Hearing nothing, Ace called, "Father, you there?" knowing they were most likely fine, he didn't get worried.
Whitebeard's eyes widened like plates; Marco was eating pineapple when he heard what Ace said, causing him to spit it out before coughing roughly, taking almost a minute to finally calm down before both of them asked the same question.
"How The HELL did that happen?" They shouted, causing Ace to wince at the sudden loud noise reaching his ears.
"Jeez, be quieter; haven't you heard of normal talk," Ace said in annoyance, rubbing his ears.
"Why do you never say anything about her? Since When?" Whitebeard asked with the same loud tone, completely ignoring what Ace said to him.
"Years, I think almost two years now, and I didn't really want anyone to know since she's a Marine Captain, and I'm a pirate," Ace explained with a downcast look.
"Don't worry about that, Ace. There's nothing wrong with you; any girl would be lucky to have you," Whitebeard said with a growing smirk on his face that Ace did not like at all.
"Soo, when can I meet her? I want to meet my future daughter-in-law," Whitebeard asked with a teasing tone; Ace rolled his eyes; he regretted telling him the half-truth of what happened in Sabaody Archipelago; perhaps he should have kept quiet. At that moment, Marco decided to join in the teasing.
"Me too, Ace; I would like to know just what exactly she saw in you because I don't really see much beyond a spoiled brat," Marco teased with a chuckle; Ace groaned.
"Shut up, Marco; she doesn't need to meet a stupid chicken like you," Ace retorted.
Now, Whitebeard slowly started reading; what he read was the usual, Alabasta in civil war, several rookies popping out, like the kid Law, Kid, and Ace's brother. Finding it a bit boring, he decided to read the next page, only for him to gasp at the title.
Well, well, who would have thought something like this could happen? If he's the same as I remember, Kaido will be pissed, Whitebeard thought with a smirk; this could be quite entertaining.
Monkey D. Luffy
After sailing for several days, they stopped the ship where Vivi told them to, from there only on foot. "Trust me, we will soon reach Yuba," Vivi said, trying to ease the tension; she knew walking through the desert wasn't exactly the best activity, but they were simply out of options. Suddenly Luffy pointed a finger forward.
"What is this place?"
Everyone turned to see what he was pointing at, only to see a city buried in sand; it looked more like a ghost town rather than a city people would live in. Almost every building was destroyed, rubble everywhere of what once was a city full of people, now only a shadow of what once was. The sand had already buried half of the city.
"That's not Yabu; this is Erumalu, or was before," Vivi said, her mood going south; in front of her, a city that she had visited a couple of times, she remembered the way people used to walk through the market, children playing in the fountain which was located in the center of the city. The fountain was a statue of a child standing at the top of sea waves, water pouring out of his mouth to the waves below.
Nothing left, only a small glimpse of the head sticking out of the sand, the rest buried deep below.
"Another place, ruined because of him," she murmured, clenching her teeth; a gust of wind flew by, and everyone shielded their faces from the wind except Luffy, who noticed several skeletons being revealed by the wind; who knew how many more were buried deep in the sand.
"Which city was this?" Luffy questioned as they walked through the center of the dead city.
"Erumalu, the Green Town," Vivi said, a skull in front of her, right below a hanging rope. She crouched, grabbing the skull in her hands; the skull was small.
"Doesn't look green to me," Luffy commented, looking around the town, several buildings still sticking out of the sand. Usopp suddenly shouted, drawing the attention of everyone else.
"What is that?" Pointing at a strange animal that leaped out of the water. It looked like a muscular seal!
"That's a Kung Fu Dugong!" Vivi said, surprised to see one; she had heard of them and read but never saw one with her eyes; she soon noticed Usopp trying to get closer to them.
"They're dangerous," she shouted quickly, knowing her crewmate couldn't defend himself against one of them, causing Usopp to stumble back when he heard they were dangerous.
"Why?" Usopp asked; the seal didn't look dangerous to him; perhaps he had poisonous teeth. Looking back at Vivi, who turned fully to him, not noticing that Luffy and Chopper were making their way over to it.
"They know how to fight, but it is their code to follow whoever beats them," Vivi explained, crossing her arms.
"Didn't know animals could understand us," Nojiko commented; meanwhile, Nami was the only one who noticed what Luffy was doing.
"Ehh, Vivi, do all of them follow that rule or just one of them?" Nami questioned while pointing a finger at Luffy and Chopper.
Vivi raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Why are you asking?" She asked, turning to look at Luffy, only for her to gasp.
In front of Luffy and Chopper were what looked like a small army of them following Luffy's strange fighting pose.
"You hit like this," Luffy demonstrated a move; his new apprentices did the same thing he did, much to the shock of the whole crew.
"What are you doing, Luffy?" Vivi shouted with shark teeth towards her captain, who laughed carelessly.
"They're better at following my training than you guys," he japed, still laughing, earning an eye roll from his crew.
"How did you talk with them?" Nami questioned her lover, walking up to him; the latter simply pointed a finger at Chopper.
"I can understand animals; I used to be one, so I can understand and talk with them," the reindeer explained; Nami tilted her head to the side, not knowing it before. That actually could come in handy later.
"Luffy, what will you do with them?" Vivi asked, knowing they couldn't take an army of Kung Fu Dugong with them.
Luffy scratched the top of his forehead before punching his palm with a bright smile.
"Chopper, tell them to find as much water as possible," Luffy commanded, knowing they needed water for their long journey. The doctor nodded before communicating the same thing to them. The new Luffy's apprentices followed the order immediately.
Later
The crew was making their way towards Yuba; a few days had passed since Ace left, and their feet were slowly burning hot from the sand.
Everyone was wearing clothes that covered pretty much their entire bodies, with big hoodies to avoid the sun and cause dizziness. Before reaching the place, Sanji had given all the girls clothes that showed way too much skin, while none of them had that much against it until Vivi brought it up that the sun would burn their skin if they didn't cover themselves.
Much to Sanji's despair, Nami and Nojiko agreed before wearing different clothes that would protect their skin; Luffy was walking in front of the crew, with Vivi nearby, Zoro was walking close by, but Chopper was with him, making sure that he wouldn't suddenly decide to go to a completely different direction. Again.
So Chopper was acting as a compass to Zoro, much to his annoyance, especially when Chopper would start yelling at him to stop changing direction for no reason.
Sanji grumbled, telling Chopper not to try that hard, almost causing a small fight between the two.
"So, we should just go there and stop the rebellion?" Luffy asked, trying to make sure he knew what the plan was; while he wasn't someone to follow plans, actually he hated them more than anything, but this time it was different, this was Vivi's country, and he would make sure for now to follow her lead, unless absolutely necessary for the safety of the Crew.
"Well, yes, but we also need to stop them peacefully; once we reach Yuba, we should be able to stop them," Vivi corrected; the last thing she wanted was to start a war with them.
This gave the crew a little pause, especially Luffy and Zoro, who grimaced at her words. "Hate to say it, but the rebellion has over seventy hundred thousand people, not to mention the many soldiers that switched sides and joined them; how exactly do you expect us to stop them?" Luffy questioned, his voice low and calm, yet the straw hat shadowed his eyes.
Vivi turned to him with resolve, her eyes ablaze. "Once we show them the truth, they will understand and stop the rebellion," she countered loudly, not wanting more innocent blood to spill.
Luffy frowned slightly at her words; of course, what she said made sense to a certain degree; no one with a good head on their shoulder wants to kill innocent people.
But that was easier said than done, especially with people who want nothing but blood, there might be people there willing to listen, but the majority probably won't care to listen to reason.
"...Vivi," Nami said with sadness, knowing what it was like to be in her shoes, she had experienced something similar with Arlong for ten years, and she wanted to help as much as possible.
"Vivi, what you're saying is admirable, but you need to understand that they might decide not to listen, despite what you might say," Luffy warned her, his voice soft, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Vivi's eyes widened slightly in horror, she knew Luffy had a point, but she just wanted all the suffering to end.
"Tell me, Vivi, how did this whole ordeal start?" Luffy suddenly asked; they were still making their way towards Yuba. While they knew Alabasta was in crisis, and that was because of Crocodile, they still needed information on how everything started.
"Have you ever heard of Dance powder?" Vivi questioned with a downcast look, biting her lip in the process, almost drawing blood.
"Dance Powder? No, what is that?" Luffy questioned; he had never heard of this term before but figured it must be something terrible.
"Dance Powder is a substance that can summon rain," Nami answered her captain, who tilted his head to the side. "Wow," Chopper thought out loud, amazed something like that could exist.
"A scientist developed it in a place that never rained; once you burn, it rises to the sky, forming ice in the clouds, eventually falling as rain," she explained; from what Luffy heard, it sounded like a miraculous powder that could fix too many problems. Yet, it sounded too good to be true.
"There must be some bad side effect from this?" Sanji asked but more like a statement. He had read about all kinds of strange things when he was young and had a lot of free time, one of them was this.
Nami nodded her head sadly. "Yes, when it was first discovered, people around the world were rejoiced, but the problem with this powder is that it causes every surrounding area to suffer from droughts; in a way, it steals the rain," Nami explained with a downcast look.
Luffy, who was hearing it, had a few ideas on where this was leading up.
"Soon after the side effect was known almost everywhere, the government banned the usage of this powder," Vivi added before looking away in the direction where Yuba was.
"Three years ago, the rain stopped falling around Alabasta except in the Capital, the doubts started forming in people's minds, but many still sided with my father. Until Dance powder was found in the capital, people were enraged, and the rebellion soon started," Vivi explained with anger rising in her voice; each word made her feel worse, closing her hands so hard that it turned her knuckles white, clenching her teeth.
"H-He deserves to Pay for what he has done, everything because of him," She shouted at the endless desert, her eyes welling up with tears, but she refused to cry; the tears wouldn't help her.
Luffy put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to ease her pain, "Is okay, Vivi; I will stop him before the things get worse," he promised with a soft tone; the princess buried her face in his chest, grabbing his red shirt tightly, wetting it with her tears.
"Thank you, Luffy," she said with happiness, her voice muffled by the shirt, and a blush on her face, noticed by Nami, who had a devil smirk on her face, while Sanji inhaled on his cigarette so much that it instantly turned to ash, much to Zoro's amusement who was chuckling.
Later
"Are we there yet?"
"No,"
"Are We There Yet?"
"No,"
"Are We There YeT?"
"nO,"
"Are We There-" "NO," everyone shouted this time at Usopp, who stumbled back when everyone screamed at him to shut up.
"Hey, don't shout at me. Are we at least close?" Usopp defended himself, standing up, shaking his body, desperately trying to shake off the sand from his clothes, especially from his hair.
"I hate sand; it gets everywhere," Zoro cried out, only now noticing that somehow some sand was inside the scabbards of his swords, much to his irritation.
After an hour of walking towards Yuba on foot, each one holding a big bottle of water on their backs, except the woman, since Sanji decided to be a "gentleman" and help them with their weight.
"Just how tall these dunes could get?" Usopp asked out loud; his throat was so dry that he felt that instead of his tongue, he had a brick, his tongue sticking out like a dog. Chopper wasn't doing well either, feeling like he would fall dead any second. Nojiko was simply walking without showing signs of being tired, not even sweating, much to the confusion of Chopper.
"The tallest one is at least three hundred meters tall," Vivi said, knowing that wasn't exactly uplifting.
"Three hundred meters Tall!!! That might as well be a fucking Mountain," Usopp shouted, suddenly standing up again. No wonder it was taking so long to reach the city; with these dunes everywhere, he wondered if they would even reach it.
"Don't complain; it is just a minor inconvenience," Zoro retorted with annoyance seeping into his tone; while he couldn't say that he enjoyed the desert, it didn't fix anything by complaining.
Usopp was ready to start arguing with Zoro while Nami was paying attention to Luffy, who was looking up, whispering words she couldn't hear.
"Luffy, everything alright?" Nami asked, concerned, but her captain didn't answer; instead, he kept whispering something; she was about to ask him again when a clap of thunder was heard from afar.
This caused everyone to pause and look in the direction of the thunder; everyone's eyes widened, especially Vivi's, who couldn't believe what she was seeing, except Luffy, who smirked slightly.
Clouds and more clouds formed around them out of nowhere, hiding the sun, making the heat suddenly much bearable.
Usopp fell on his knees, his hands on the sand, sighing in relief; not having the sun scorching them anymore was much better, but then they all felt something wet falling on their heads.
Vivi slowly touched her forehead, not believing what just happened, touching it, it was definitely wet, when more fell, more and more, until it was raining.
"T-This Is Amazing," Vivi shouted, running around with her arms spread wide, not caring that her clothes were getting wet; she felt as if a miracle had happened; jumping on the sand, she looked up at the clouds, rain not stopping, opening her mouth, she felt her mouth filling with water, swallowing it, the rain washing away the dirt from her face, she jumped in ecstasy.
"You did this, didn't you, Luffy," Nami suddenly pointed it out, looking at Luffy, who had a broad smile on his face, scratching the back of his head.
"Ahh, it was nothing," he said, slightly embarrassed; his crew smiled in appreciation, even Sanji, despite not liking how Princess Vivi was looking at his captain.
He's so Damn Lucky, he thought with despair and dark clouds above his head.
Running to him, she jumped into his arms; Vivi hugged Luffy tightly before kissing his cheek. "Thank You," she whispered, saying the word repeatedly, closing her eyes as it kept raining.
The others were again reminded why they followed their captain, especially Zoro, Nami, and Sanji, someone like Luffy who did everything to help the people he loved or called friends.
Soon, they started walking again towards Yuba city, now much easier to walk, but Luffy warned them he could keep this up only for an hour before he got exhausted.
Eventually, the clouds disappeared, but no one was bothered by it since it was dusk and day would end soon.
"Alright, we can rest here for now; we should be able to reach Yuba very soon," Vivi said, with a constant smile on her face, almost instantly. Each of the straw hats was already sleeping, except Luffy and Nami.
Holding her close to his chest, The navigator kissed his lips, a finger softly touching his muscular chest that she loved to touch.
"Nami," Luffy whispered her name with a deep voice that sent shivers to her core; only his voice was enough to make her horny.
"I want to reward you properly," Nami said with a low husky tone that Luffy enjoyed, her hand reaching the desired location.
"Let's go away for a bit to that small tree. I want to show you something," she whispered just behind his ear before grabbing his crotch with her hand.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone