Chapter 118: An introversion party is three people sprawled on couches and pillows, reading and occasionally talking

Chapter 118: An introversion party is three people sprawled on couches and pillows, reading and occasionally talking

The heavy, uncomfortable and dreadful silence was broken by Rick.

“Robin?”

He only said her name but the way he said it broke her heart. He wanted an explanation but that didn’t matter to her. The tone of his voice, unsured, afraid, sorrowful. Even if she hadn’t heard him she saw all of it in his eyes. She didn’t know how to say it. She didn’t know if she had the strength to say it. She knew however that she needed to. She couldn’t brush this off as if nothing happened. Not after everything he had shared about his other children which depressed him greatly. He needed her, now more than ever, just like she had needed him at the time. She had been lucky to have Reiju with her and it was how they became so close to each other. Brook had helped when he had found them too so she managed and it took a lot of work to overcome her loss, to overcome the reality of things. With the discovery of the system and the ability to use it, she didn’t think twice when she could change her defective body to a healthy one. She wouldn’t have to give up on one of her dreams anymore and the only thing left to do was keep what happened to her a secret from the one person she loved more than anything and that was more than involved.

Taking a big breath she pulled him down to sit on the pillow. His hands firmly in hers.

“During our wedding night… I got pregnant.” she said curtly, letting out the air she had taken in. “I found out when we arrived here. Reiju was the one that discovered it. I was overjoyed of course! Scared but so happy.”

She was expecting him to interject, to ask her to go straight to the point but he did nothing but listen and she was grateful for it.

“Reiju pampered me like no tomorrow but in the fifth month… I lost it.”
“I… Robin.. I…” he tried to speak but Robin put a finger on his lips to quiet him down.
“I know what you’re thinking but it wasn't your fault. It was nobody’s fault. Reiju ran some tests. It turned out that my womb was defective. I couldn’t ever bring a child to term. So don’t blame yourself, please.” she pleaded, tears beginning to all along her cheeks. Not for the baby she had lost. She had made her peace with it and while it still hurt sometimes when her mind drifted to it she didn’t cry about it anymore. No, she was crying for him. For her husband. Not because she felt like she had failed him but because she knew he would unreasonably blame himself for it. Because she was piling on top of his problems with this new one.

Rick freed one of his hands from her grip and cupped her face before bringing her down towards him in his embrace. They hugged tightly and shed tears as they supported each other. They stayed like that for hours and were only brought out of it by Nami opening the door to the room.

“Hey! It’s time for…”

Her playful and happy tone disappeared on the spot at the sight of her fiancés hugging each other for dear life and crying their souls out.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked in worry. It was Robin who answered her as she separated herself from Rick.
“I’m just stupidly happy to have my husband back.” was what the brunette said, mustering everything she could to put a convincing smile on her face.

Nami didn’t believe it for a second but held her tongue. Instead she entered the room and went to hug Rick as if nothing ever happened.

“I missed you!” she said, trying to bury her head into the side of his neck.
“I… I missed you too, kitten.”

“What time is it?” asked Robin from the side.
“Hmm? Oh, Lunch.” replied the redhead.
“Give us a minute to wipe my tears and be presentable and we’ll be there.”

“Alright.”

Nami gave a meaningful kiss to Rick then one to Robin before leaving the room. Not without giving them a quick meaningful glance.

“I’m…”
“It’s not your fault!” Robin immediately interjected but it was a miss.
“Not hungry.”
“...”
“You said Reiju’s body type didn’t have any defect…”
“That’s why I bought it, despite costing almost everything I had. Enhanced strength? Defense? Healing rate? I didn’t care one bit. I just wanted for us the possibility to have children one day.”
“And you were never going to tell me.”
“... No.” she confessed guiltily.

Rick simply sighed and took her in his embrace again, giving her a kiss on her temple.

“I’m really married to the best woman in the world.” he whispered loud enough for Robin to hear. “Thank you for trying but please don’t do it anymore. For the better and the worst, remember? We share everything.”
“I promise.”
“Come on, we need to join the other. I’m pretty sure our kitten is going to come back and drag us there if we take too long.” he said with a small smile as he wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his kimono. 

Robin gave him a small smile back and nodded. Hand in hand they stood up and left for the dining room. Since she knew where they were going, she led the way. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to join the whole crew that was already eating as fast as they could, Luffy grabbing everything he could within his range. Robin and Rick sat quietly at the end of the table and simply watched their friends' antics. Taking a moment for himself, Rick closed his eyes and let his head rest on Robin’s shoulder. A rest that didn’t last more than fifteen seconds because it was interrupted by a piece of carrot landing right on his face. His eye lids immediately went up and his eyes scanned every corner of the table. Everyone had stopped moving and were looking at him warily.

“Who did it?” he asked in a cold tone.

All at once, every member of the crew pointed to someone else.

“...”
““““““...”””””””

Suddenly in front of everyone an arm sprouted and began tossing the food of each one’s plates right into their owner’s face. Luffy didn’t miss the opportunity to try to catch everything coming his way, starting a chain reaction by pushing Zoro too hard and spilling on himself the alcohol he was drinking. In a flash a food fight was happening and Rick shamelessly hid behind Robin.

“Really?” she said unamused.
“I got hit, Ro! It hurts so much! Will you leave your poor wounded and defenseless husband…” A bowl full of tofu meeting his face, courtesy of his wife, put a stop to his idiocy. As the bowl fell down and the food slid slowly down his face, he looked with narrowed eyes at Robin. “You know this means…” A second bowl, full of rice, was introduced to his face. This time, Robin was sporting an amused and a bit smug grin. Unfortunate mistake from her as Rick grabbed her kimono and dove head first against her chest and stained it beyond repair leaving her scandalized.

And thus began the battle between spouses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fight didn’t last long as Nami reminded everyone that Wano, after twenty years of tyranny, had few resources to spare, which included food. That sobered everyone and thankfully Luffy ate it all so there was no waste.
Then came in Kin’Emon, Momosuke and the rest of the Kozuki household which surprisingly included Oden. To Rick’s surprise Zoro got attached to a woman or rather the woman attached herself to him and he felt a bit uncomfortable but tried his best to not show it as it was pissing Sanji off. The woman was Momonosuke’s little sister who was a bonafide adult not having been sent in time by her mother. Finding the scene amusing he couldn’t help himself and smiled.

“Hmm… Mister Rick, I want to thank you for your advice. Wano had indeed changed in twenty years, to the point we didn’t recognize it. Building a secret network allowed us to be more than prepared for the war. Again, all our thanks.” Kin’Emon opened the conversation with.
“You’re welcome.” the straw hat vice-captain answered with a smile.
“May I ask how you learn how to organize a rebellion?”
“That’s a good question. How come a marine learns that?” asked Nami.
“You were working for the World Government?!” Momonosuke exclaimed in surprise. He wasn’t the only one.
“I did. At first I was just working on a ship as a rookie but with time I began to specialize myself in tracking and capturing targets.”
“100%  success, if I remember correctly.” said Usopp.
“Yes. Since my record was spotless, from time to time Cypher Pol asked for my help for a mission when they absolutely needed someone found or captured and couldn’t spare their best elements. I had to learn how to blend in with the crowd and be inconspicuous. I did well enough that some members of the CP taught me some more things they knew. How to gather information, how to not attract attention, how to communicate covertly, those kinds of things.”
“In other words, you were a spy.” the ninja Raizo stated.
““““A spy!””” Luffy, Chopper and Usopp had stars in their eyes.
“Hmm… I never saw myself like one but I supposed you’d be correct. I did two missions of this type. The first was to take down an usurper from a small kingdom in West Blue. I worked as a baker’s apprentice. It was in reality my handler. I was tasked with keeping my eyes and ears open. The rebellion had been in the works for nearly a year already and happened a month into the job. When the rebels stormed the tyrant’s castle I was to make sure he wasn’t escaping justice through a secret passage or other means. The second mission was in Alabasta.”
“So that’s why you were there in the first place.” Zoro commented. “You were not just there to protect Vivi and her father until it was time for the reverie.”
“No. I was to found and dismantle a human trafficking organization. It was a last minute mission that I got because, well.. We were going there anyway so why not? So we arrived at Alabasta two weeks ahead of schedule and…”
“Wait, they gave you two weeks to do it?” asked Franky.
“Not exactly. When it was time to escort the royal family to the reverie, I was to pass the torch to someone else. My information, my network, everything.”
“Except they targeted Vivi and you wiped them out.” Sanji completed.
“More or less. From what I heard later,  the rebels and the traffickers were one and the same. They were selling their own people to fund their bullshit revolution. Unfortunately for them, one of the leaders got impatient and full of himself and ordered Vivi’s capture. A costly mistake.”
“So that’s why you insisted on us taking the time.” spoke Momonosuke.
“Partially.  Mainly it was because a rushed rebellion never succeeds but more than that, when you’re taking down a tyrant it won’t only be disastrous for you and your comrades if you get caught but also for the population because tyrants don’t care about the people. Many times they just culled the population thinking the rebels may be among the dead.”

The woman glued to Zorro nodded slowly in agreement. At first Rick thought that she was agreeing with the Tyrants methods but remembering that she was Momonosuke’s sister and had lived under Kaido and his lackey’s rule for twenty years, he realized that she probably had lived it. He was going to say more on the subject.

Momonosuke advised the crew that now that they were all healed, they should enjoy the festival celebrating the defeat of Kaido and the return of the Kozuki’s rule. Of course everyone in the crew was interested and everyone went their own way. Rick walked beside Robin who had a clear destination in mind. When they took the stairs and kept going down and down he wondered how deep they would have to go to reach her goal. After six months of captivity he didn’t particularly want to be in dark and closed spaces. He let out a relieved breath when they came into a spacious room with a poneglyph. Robin let go of his hand and got closer to read it, while Rick noticed a collection of ugly dolls. They were soon joined by an old man with a tengu mask that revealed himself to be Momonosuke’s grandfather. The conversation with the former ruler of Wano had been quite revealing, most notably the fact that Pluto was actually on the island. When he opened a secret passage with narrow stairs leading even deeper underground, Rick called it quits.

“I’m sorry Robin, do you mind if I go back up? I need some fresh air.”
“It’s alright. Are you going to the festival?”
“No. Not without you at least. I’ll just enjoy the view and the breeze from the castle.” he answered and she nodded with a smile. Walking back up the stairs he met Law and exchanged a curt nod of acknowledgment with the man. When he found himself back to his room and got onto the balcony he was surprised to see Reiju leaning against the wooden rail from the room next to him. She was looking down at the street of the capital, full of light and people having fun. Rick was pretty sure he saw Luffy raiding food stalls.

“Not much of a party girl?” he said as he walked to her side.
“I’ve been to enough parties in my life. I’m good.” replied the pink haired princess.
“It’s not really the same thing if what I imagined your parties to be like is right.”
“And what do you imagine them to be like?”
“A bit like the one we went together to.”

Finally she averted her eyes from what was happening down below to look at Rick with a smile.
“You hit it right on the mark. I’m just not fond of crowds. I prefer by far to enjoy a quiet night under the moon.”
“Hear, hear. You’re preaching to a convert.”

“I’d thought you’d go with Robin?” she inquired with a chuckle.
“She found something more important to do.”

The talk stopped there for a moment as both felt the cold breeze of the night passing through them.

“Thank you, for being there for her.”
“No need to thank me, I did what I had to do.”
“Your duty as a doctor or as a friend?” he probed.
“...Both. The former first then with time, the latter.”
“...”
“...”
“Why did you stay with the crew?”
“You don’t want me among you?”
“I’m just curious, nothing more. You’re free. You got the freedom to do whatever you wanted and yet you stayed with a group of misfits. You’re not the first princess or prince who joined us but that had been out of desperation or for a dream.”
“I just wanted to spend time with my little brother among other things. I spent years with Ichiji, Niji and Yonji but I always worried about Sanji. I wanted to see how he was doing, if he was happy and having fun.”
“I’m sure you didn’t expected him to be a bit of a pervert.” Rick said with a chuckle that Reiju reciprocated.
“No, can’t say I did and he didn’t even bother to hide it but he’s also a gentleman at heart too. ”
“Did he give you trouble?”
“No. We hashed it out immediately. I wasn’t here to keep an eye on him or to boss him around. I was here to enjoy my life and spending time with him was just a bonus. He accepted my answer and we didn’t have any problems whatsoever between us during our trip to Wano.”
“That’s good to hear. You said among other things earlier…”
“Your crew seemed fun. Quite crazy but nice to be a part of. Besides, I was already friends with Nami and Chopper and I wanted to keep that friendship. They’re my first friends, you know?”
“I had an idea.”
“Then of course there is you.” she announced with a mischievous smile. “I couldn’t simply let go of my fiance like that.”
“I suppose not.” he said with a sigh. “You could have also explored the world and met other men.”
“True, but I’m a princess. De facto I have high standards and only you so far have met them.”
“Your stay in the crew is not a short one then.”
“No. Why? Do you want me to go? Do you feel threatened?” she said in a sultry voice as she closed the distance between them.
“I don’t feel threatened one bit, after all you’ve been nothing but kind to me. I’m pretty sure I’m safe.”
“Safe? When I’m an assassin?”
“And I’m a traitor. Not scared that I’d stab you in the back?”
“Not one bit.”
“Then being safe with an assassin close is no more surprising.”
“I suppose.”
“As for why I’m interested in you staying long term or not is because of this.”

Putting his hand inside his Kimono, he pulled Kaido and Big Mom’s devil fruit directly from his inventory and presented them to Reiju.

“Devil fruits?”
“This one is Kaido’s.” Rick said as he raised his right hand. “And this one is Big Mom’s. One of them is yours if you’re interested.”
“How did you… They died three days ago! Isn’t it too soon for the fruits to reform? And even if it’s not, how did you get them when you woke up this morning?” she exclaimed in shock.
“I’ve always been lucky with devil fruits.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
“That’s your right.” he teased with a grin.
“What if I don’t want any of them?” Reiju challenged.
“Then you don’t want any of them and I keep them locked so no one else could get their hands on them and use them nefariously.” he answered her with a shrug.

The second doctor of the crew looked at him intently, then at the fruit before setting her eyes on his face for good. Finally she picked Kaido’s fruit.

“I want nothing of Big Mom, not after she tried to kill Sanji and my family. Kaido’s… It would complete my arsenal. I’m strong, yes, thanks to the modification my body underwent but I’m an assassin. I hit with precision and poison. This fruit… It will allow me to fight in the vanguard.”

After explaining herself, she put the fruit in one of her sleeves, deciding to not eat it immediately, not wanting to taint such a good night with a bad taste in her mouth. Rick simply put back Big Mom’s fruit back to his inventory, tricking her again into thinking he was putting it back inside his kimono. The conversation between them didn’t have the chance to continue; a door slid open further down their rooms, revealing Jimbei.

“Oh, my apologies, I didn't want to interrupt.”
“No worries Jimbei, we were just enjoying the night quietly.”
“Like you intended to do before seeing us, I presume?” added Reiju.
“Yes, indeed.”
“Why not enjoy it together while we still can? It’s not everyday us introverts have peace from the extraverts of the crew.” Rick proposed.
“Wonderful idea. Jimbei?”
“It would be a pleasure. I managed to procure a bottle of Wano’s finest alcohol. There isn’t much better than sharing a drink with friends during such a beautiful night.” the fisherman replied, showing a big bottle in his hand.

Reiju went back to her room quickly and came back with three saucers. Rick on his hand gathered three pillows and invited his companions to sit down before making everyone float, just higher than the balcony’s rail to enjoy a better view. Reiju and Jimbei were surprised a bit at first but enjoyed the sensation of floating. The latter served a drink first to the former then Rick then himself.

“I heard you took down Big Mom in a flash from Law.”
“I did. She was on my way to Robin and didn’t want to move. It wasn’t that impressive in truth. She underestimated me because of how weak I appeared to be.”
“And you seized your chance and didn’t miss. And here I thought I was the assassin.” joked Reiju, making both men laugh.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t have gone so smoothly had I not.”

They all greatly enjoyed their time together mostly in silence afterwards, sipping slowly their drinks.

~~~~~

Despite going to be late, Rick had slept only a few hours. He had slept for three days before and he wasn’t so keen on sleeping more. A lost ray from the rising sun had made its way into his bedroom and landed on his face. Deciding that it was time to rise, he opened his eyes and looked down at his bedmates. Nami had slithered in between Robin and him, grabbing the former ample chest as if her life depended on it. Her hands were not the only ones placed there. Reiju was behind his wife in the same position that Nami was at the front. The picture was amusing for Rick who smiled. Giving a quick kiss to his fiancée’s head then a meaningful one to his wife’s lips he secretly exited the room through the balcony and went up in the air. For the first time he was seeing the entirety of Wano. He could see it was once a beautiful land despite the twenty years spent under Kaido’s tyranny.

‘Good morning, Diana. Like the view?’
‘Good morning to you too and yes I quite enjoy the view.’
‘Not grouchy today, I see.”
‘You caught me at a bad moment yesterday.’ she defended herself.
‘Right, right. My apologies.’ he said and after a moment went on speaking. ‘Now that you’re not restricting my powers anymore, what can I actually do with the Me Me no mi?’
‘Almost the same thing as Robin. You can’t make giant body parts or a giant body but clones are not off the table.’
‘I see… Could Robin regenerate like I do?’
‘No. The sprouts come from… a ‘root’ so to speak and roots are sturdy. As long as there is a ‘root’ life will be able to bloom. Robin is… for a lack of a better term a ‘flower’ she’s not connected to a ‘root’ so she can’t regenerate. That is what allows her to create giant parts of herself, since she’s not held back by a ‘root’.  She’s… not formless but less restricted in a way, whereas you are a bit of the opposite.’
‘Somehow… I get what you mean. I’m like a bamboo that keeps growing even if it breaks while Robin is more like a… Dandelion? Floating around and changing shape and direction at the whims of the winds?.’
‘I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean but yes.’
‘Say… Do you think it would be possible for me to become a black hole man?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The sword I used the other to kill Big Mom… It was filled with so much gravity that it had the characteristics of a Black Hole, yet the sword wasn’t damaged one bit so I thought what if I infused my own body like that?’
‘ With the physics law of this world… I’d say it’s possible but you’d need a great deal of armament Haki and very strong. If you succeed though you’d have the best offense and defense ever seen though.’
‘Better than Blackbeard’s darkness?’
‘... I don’t know.’
‘Well, it’s worth a shot to work towards.’ he answered thoughtfully then changed the topic. ‘I’m just asking but I already know the answer, I don’t have conqueror haki don’t I?’
‘You do not. Not your own at least.’
‘...Yours?’
‘Yes. As you correctly guessed, haki comes indirectly from the soul and while you do not have access to this particular type of haki I do.’
‘And since our souls are linked I could use it, just like you can use the system.’
‘It’s a bit different but potentially yes. Conqueror haki is… well… more physical and your system is more ethereal if you get what I mean.’
‘I do.’
‘... Want to take control for a bit and have fun at the festival?’
‘... I… would like that.’

Descending towards the ground of the capital, Rick let Diana take control of his body which sprouted horns. The goddess enjoyed her time greatly, walking down the streets and stopping at any shops or stalls that caught her eye. She was savoring an excellent bowl of oden when the sharp edge of a sword touched her neck.

“Is it you or the devil?” the voice of Zoro came from behind her.

Diana thought about speaking up but thought it more prudent to give back control to Rick.

“It’s me. Though it was her.” the man replied as the horns rescinded. “We kind of made peace and made a deal. I let her out from time to time to enjoy herself and she doesn’t take over for good.”
“She?” Zoro asked, a brow raised in question.
“She identifies as female. And apparently she’s not a devil but a Goddess. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t care. What matters to me, is that I’m not falling to insanity anymore with her constant whispers.”
“... I’m still keeping an eye on you.”
“Which is fine with us.” said Diana as Rick gave her control again and began to finish her Oden.

Eyeing her for a moment, Zoro pulled back his sword and sheathed it. Giving her one last look he left the stall to find a store selling good alcohol. Done with her meal Diana decided that she had enjoyed herself enough and gave back control of the body to its owner who made his way back to the castle. He stopped midway when he felt the tremors of a battle away from the capital. Curious, he forwent his plan and changed direction towards the fight happening. In less than two minutes he arrived at something he didn’t expect. Momonosuke in his dragon form was fighting a giant living tree with the help of most of his retainer and Oden. The fight wasn’t in their favor as the tree kept generating itself. Pulling everyone away from arm with his abilities he never let the tree out of its sight.

“Rick! You shouldn’t be here!” exclaimed Oden.
“Oh, Good! One of my targets is here! This day is getting better and better.” the tree spoke.
“Who are you and what do you want with me?”
“Admiral Ryokugyu of the marines and I’m here for your head!”
“An Admiral breaking into a land not part of the World Government? You’re a special kind of mad, aren’t you? That could mean War.”
“What does it matter? It’s a lawless land since it’s not part of the World Government. I can do what I want, nobody would care and it's not like the people here have any rights. This country was left alone because of Kaido but now that he’s dead, it can’t stand against the might of the world.”
“That’s not how that works. Now leave this land before you get hurt.”
“Leave?! When your head would please the Fleet Admiral, so much? I don’t think so!”

From the ground dozens of very sharp branches raised in Rick’s direction. The intent was clearly impalement of the straw hat vice-captain. They were dodged effortlessly and as Rick was about to counter attack a shout from Momonosuke stopped him.

“You can’t!”
“Why not?” Rick replied, dodging another attack.
“We need to do it ourselves, otherwise what will we do when…”
“You’ll fight, that’s what you’ll do. Normally I wouldn’t have involved myself further and let you, people, deal with that guy. But he’s here in the first place for me...”
“I’m here for your captain too!”
“It’s my fault he came here in the first place, so it’s my responsibility to deal with him. Furthermore I… owe you for not participating properly in the war. You can see this as me clearing my debt.”
“...”

That quieted Momonosuke who began to think about the words Rick had spoken. Both were right in a way and after a moment, the young lord called out his retainers to retreat farther away.

“Could one of you spare me a sword, please?” was all Rick asked.

He received one from a guy that looked like a Yakuza and after giving his thanks went immediately on the offensive, imbuing the weapon with armament haki. He cut branches after branches with no result. The more he cut them the more they sprouted. There became so many that one of them hit him in the arm.

~~~~~

“That’s not good!” Oden exclaimed watching Rick get hit. Before he could move however, he had severed his injured arm and a new one replaced it. “What the…”
“He’s a seed man, Yamato. He can regrow most of his body.”  Inuarashi explained.
“A seed man?” asked the oni prince. “I thought…”
“He’s also a gravity man. Don’t worry about him so much.”
“He survived a hit from Zhou after all.” Nekomamushi reminisced.
“True. He regrew his legs.”

Calming down, Yamato closed his open mouth and watched the fight in front of his eyes. She wondered what Rick did when he raised his arm to the sky and a purple ring of light shot through it. Nothing happened at first and Rick kept dodging and cutting down the branches attacking him. It was Danjiro, the man that had loaned his sword, that noticed a huge shadow growing more and more at the center of the battlefield. Looking up, his eyes nearly popped out of his orbit.

“Dear Kami!”
“Wha…Oh hell!” shouted Yamato looking at a huge burning meteor making its descent, right onto the two fighters.
“Did Mister Rick summoned that?!”  asked a bewildered Momonosuke.

No one could give him an answer. As the meteor got closer and closer. Rick pulled away from the point of impact. Ryokugyu immediately tried to protect himself and Rick didn’t miss the opening to swing his sword creating a black hole slash. It hit its mark and bisected horizontally the Admiral. Distracted by the painful wound at the worst moment, the green bull of the marine took the meteor with almost no defense. A burst of flame, smoke and dust hid the result of the attack and the group watching from the side couldn’t help but hold their breaths.

~~~~~

Rick stayed alert, hoping but not expecting that he had won that fight. He was proven correct when a small sprout bursted from the ground and began to grow until it transformed into a human.

“I admit… That was dangerous. Not bad.” the Admiral said with narrowed eyes.

“And you’ve seen nothing yet. I’m just warming up.”
“Good. That would be disapp… What the…”

Ryokugyu stopped his tirade as he felt a strong conqueror haki sent toward their direction from far away. Rick didn’t recognize the haki. He was sure it wasn’t Luffy or Zoro nor Oden but it seemed helpful. That didn’t sit well with him. The man in front of him was even worse than Akainu. Despite how much he despised the man he had principles and would never have invaded Wano like that on his own without order from his superior. Ryokugyu on the other hand… was, to Rick’s point of view an entitled one at that and in his opinion that was way worse. While Akainu had a sense of justice, no matter how twisted it was, Ryokugyo had none. That was far more dangerous and that was why he decided that he couldn’t let his opponent go. He threw his sword at the neck of the Admiral who dodged it easily.

“Oy! Don’t you feel that guy?!”
“I do and I don’t care. He’ll be next if he doesn’t fuck off.”
“You crazy bastard, that’s red…”

He stopped talking. His head severed from his body thanks to a well placed slash of a mix of black hole and armament haki.

“H..ow..”

Rick had expected Ryokugyu to dodge the sword, that’s why he sprouted an arm to catch it behind him. Thinking the threat was over and letting his back wide open, Rick struck without hesitation. The blade coated with armament Haki proved the hit was fatal to the logia. To be sure he launched himself forward, grabbed the sword and stuck it right into the admiral forehead. Picking up the head he didn’t waste time idling around and flew straight from the point of origin of the conqueror Haki.
There on the boat displaying a Jolly roger he was familiar with, stood Red hair Shanks. The last yonko of the previous era.

“Could you kindly mind your business?” Rick said, a few meters up in the air, looking down at the emperor.
“My apologies. After dealing with Kaido and Big Mom, I thought I could let your crew rest and not deal with the navy.”
“Appreciated but not needed.”
“...”
“...”
“Why are you here?”
“I was simply curious.” Shanks replied with a nonchalance that reminded Rick of himself.
“...Curious my ass but fine. I’m letting you go this one time in consideration to Luffy.”
“You.. are letting me go?” replied the emperor, shocked. “You heard that guys?” he shouted towards his crew who began to laugh. “Cocky much aren’t you?”
“Wanna see if I’m cocky or not? I’m still itching for a real fight. Big Mom died in one hit and this guy wasn’t even good enough for a warm up.”

To show what he meant, Rick pulled up the severed head of Ryokugyu for everyone to see. The laughter stopped on the spot, replaced by a very heavy tension.

“I think I’ll pass, thank you. As I said I’m just here out of curiosity. Now that it’s satiated we’ll be taking our leave.”
“...”
“...”
“Good.” Rick said as he began to slowly float higher. “A bit of advice.”
“Yeah?”
“You should make a good stock of band aids. Luffy will find the one piece and be the Pirate King. He’ll kick the ass of anyone in his way, including yours.”
“Noted.” Shanks replied with a smile as Rick left. Once the ex-marine was out of sight the emperor let out a long sigh.
“We’re going. Some of our territories have been taken by one of Luffy’s subordinates. We can’t ignore it and do nothing.”

At his order, the crew began to move. Shanks sat down at the table where his first mate served him a drink.

“Your reputation took a hit.”
“Better than starting a fight that not many in the crew could survive.”
“You think he was telling the truth about Big Mom?”
“I don’t know. I do know that I didn’t want to find out today. I’m pretty sure I could defeat him though.”
“If it is, it spells trouble.”
“Yes. I wonder how Luffy met him. A man known for being the bane of pirates becoming a pirate himself and under someone else. Younger than him at that… Curious.”
“Speaking of Luffy, are you sure you don’t want to see him?”
“Yeah. It’s tempting really but no. Our reunion is not for now.”
“For when then? He’s an emperor now.”
“For when we fight for the One Piece.”
“We’re going then?”
“Yes. It’s time to pick the chase where we left it.”

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