Chapter 155: Passing Luffy's message.
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After sensing Rayleigh's presence, Edam stood up and went in the direction.
He quickly reached the intended place and saw Trafalgar Law's crewmates there, who were a few minutes ago moving some machine and medicine tools in the rift he created earlier. Trafalgar too was already there ordering his guys to move the right things in.
Though, that was when, they were all dumbfounded to see the sea shake under the force of two beings, apparently a fight between two Sea Kings... but, they quickly discovered that it wasn't since the culprit rapidly showed itself, climbing the small cliff, after having killed the Sea King of course...
"The Dark King?!"
"What is the Pirate King's right hand doing here…?" Trafalgar said with no expectation for a reply while looking at Rayleigh.
"Haha, my boat got wrecked and I had to swim all the way here…"
"Huh!? We're in the middle of the Calm Belt, the waters here are infested with Sea King!'
"Hahaha!" Rayleigh laughed it off softly while squeezing his shirt dry.
And that was when Edam walked in, and appeared in front of them, scaring Trafalgar's crewmates. Those poor pirates still weren't used to his presence and to make things worse, a legendary pirate was now present too.
"Hello, Old man Rayleigh…" Edam casually greets him with a nod of his head. He truly wasn't in the mood to smile or even greet people today.
"Edam… hello and sorry for your loss…"
Marineford's event was already a worldwide spread, and he of course knew it, as such, Rayleigh offered his condolences and Edam accepted them with a silent and quite a grim nod of the head.
"Anyway, what are you here for?"
"Sigh, we haven't seen each other for years and that's the first thing you ask me?" Rayleigh sighed and said feeling really hurt in his heart.
In response, Edam simply half-closed his eyes and retorted. "Well, I'm not in the mood to exchange a lot of pleasantries… In fact, I'm in a bad mood, so…"
Meanwhile, the pirates felt their hearts skipping a few beats as they noticed the nonchalance with which Edam was replying to the Dark King Rayleigh, who didn't seem to care about it.
"I see… Well, to tell you the truth, I came for your brother…"
"About Luffy? What's the deal?" Hearing Luffy being mentioned, Edam's attention was immediately drawn. After what happened, he was pretty sensitive about anything related to his youngest and last brother alive.
"Well, it's actually like this…" Rayleigh said and began to recount a certain event that happened in the recent past.
10 minutes later, Rayleigh finished his story, and it turned out that when Luffy and his guys were hunted down by Admiral Kizaru and his soldiers and his Pacifistas, Rayleigh was actually the one who saved their asses.
But even with Rayleigh's power, he couldn't possibly save everyone.
However, just as the situation seemed to be hopeless, the Warlord of the seas, Kuma, discreetly revealed to the Dark King that he was a revolutionary and so a subordinate of Dragon the revolutionary aka Luffy's father.
"I see, that's why he was able to survive…" Edam said having already smelled something fishy from this matter.
"With his current power, there's no way for him to go against someone like Kuma, much less an Admiral and his pacifistas added to the equation…"
"Indeed, and now that you mention it, where is Luffy…?" Rayleigh asked curiously.
Edam looked over his shoulder, and gaze behind. "He's making his way over here... while crying… sigh..."
As he sighed, Luffy along with Jinbei reached the place and the former rubbed his eyes to dry his tears while sniffing. "Sniff, y- yo, old man Rayleigh, I- I'm not crying at all…"
"Sure…" Rayleigh tried awkwardly wanting to laugh a bit at that but restrained himself.
"The Dark King…" Jinbei said and nodded to him to greet him.
"Jinbei, right?" Rayleigh smiled and started a conversation with them, while Luffy went to cook a wild boar that Edam killed for him and that he pulled along the way.
Edam watched them silently as his many thoughts and many troubles revolved in his mind. His head was aching a bit till a fragrant scent of flowers was picked up by his nose.
This familiar scent unconsciously and as always successfully managed to comfort his heart no matter where, no matter what…
Yes, if it wasn't for her calming him… Marineford would have become even more of a bloodbath for sure…
Edam turned around and saw Hancock slowly coming his way.
"Come, let me introduce you to my brother…"
A faint and gentle smile on his face as he extended his hand to her, while she responded with a sweet and lovely expression. "Okay!"
When he turned back toward the others, Trafalgar Law's guys were all dumbstruck on the spot at the sight of this legendary beauty that Hancock was…
She was by nature already incredibly beautiful to start with, while her devil fruit had enhanced her charm by some folds, making her a world toppling beauty in the truest sense of the line.
And that was without mentioning that, in the most recent years, after having learned and practiced with Ki, her entire self had slowly changed, as her body always felt vigorous and full of life, gaining a touch of otherworldly feeling to it.
This otherworldly feeling was oppressive, beautiful yet dangerous. Destruction was what awaited all but one at the end of the road.
And regardless of the dangerous feeling that she was exuding out constantly in presence of other beings, all the males couldn't help but be drawn to her deadly beauty.
Her expectancy only adds this familiar caring and motherly feeling that most people loved.
Seeing them eyeing her, Edam couldn't help but feel good but he also couldn't help but feel like brutally ripping their eyes out of their sockets.
"Hiiih!"
And these thoughts seemed to have lit up his killing intent for a small moment as they all looked away immediately with their bodies covered in sweats.
Only Luffy, Trafalgar, Jinbei, and Rayleigh weren't affected by her charm.
Trafalgar seemed to be too cold or indifferent…
Jinbei wasn't a human male so maybe he had other standards of beauty? Who knows...
As for Rayleigh, the look in his eyes was more like a parent looking at his child...
And as for Luffy… heck, Edam didn't know if his brother even knew the matters between a man and a woman.
While holding onto Hancock's hand, Edam called out to his brother. "Luffy, come for a moment."
"Sniff?" His snot still hadn't dried as he looked at Edam and Hancock with an unsightly expression although the two couldn't and didn't care at all.
"Yeah, so, I would like to present to you my beautiful wifey here, Boa Hancock, and as you can see, she'll be the mother of my baby…" Edam did a simple presentation.
"Oh…" Luffy's eyes darted from Edam to Hancock and blurted out. "Yo... so I will be an uncle?"
"Yeah, that's right." Edam nodded with a smile.
"..." Luffy was silent for a minute at least, taking time to realize and accept what was happening, before bursting out in laughter. "Nihihihi, so, I'm an uncle huh… Haha..."
This little good news brought a small ray of light on this very bad day.
And so...
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Just like this, one day passed by, as Luffy and Jinbei recovered from their wounds.
In the meantime, Luffy firmly decided to grow stronger to protect his crewmates. And with that Edam and Rayleigh discussed how training would go. They both agreed that Rayleigh would be the one to mentor Luffy on Rusukaina.
As for the time, Rayleigh wanted it to last two years.
And after everything was agreed on, Edam, Luffy, Rayleigh, and Jinbei all went to deliver a message.
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On a sunny day in the waters of Marineford.
It was the afternoon, maybe, the people at Marineford were recovering from their wounds and trying their best to restore the destroyed building caused by the terrible war.
A lot of journalists were present to eagerly interview some marines and write their articles. Some inhabitants were working on rebuilding the buildings.
And the vast majority of its forces were currently out there fighting against pirates. Apparently, before leaving, Whitebeard left a few words that greatly excited the pirates of the world. And so because of that, some pirates of the world began to cause trouble.
The two Admirals themselves and the vast majority of Marine's force were dispatched to deal with them, leaving Marineford without its major defense.
In the distance, one of those enormous Marine Battleships was diving right toward Marineford before suddenly going right and circulating around Marineford, and this suspicious act didn't fail to catch the Navy's attention of course. They at first thought it was a squad coming back from a mission but...
"What the hell, who's this fool?!"
"Contact them!"
"We can't, the radio doesn't function!"
"Ah, wait, I think I see a couple of persons on board!" The guy who said this and had binoculars narrowed his eyes. In the next moment, his eyes widened in shock.
"It's- it's Strawhat Luffy!" He saw Luffy standing at the forefront of the ship.
"What?! What nonsense is that?!"
"I'm telling the truth!" He handed over his binoculars.
"Fuck! It's true! Report it immediately! And sink this battleship!"
However, just as they were about to shoot a barrage of cannonballs, the marines who had their binoculars in their hands turned a pale face as they called out to their superiors.
"C- Com- Commander-!"
"What?! Quick! Sink this damn ship right this instant…!"
"B- But…!"
"Gggrrr! Give me those!" The superior angrily grabbed the binoculars and looked at what his subordinate was stuttering and gasping in shock.
But, as he did it, his face didn't take too long to take a pale shade as he even fell on his butt. "The Dark King Rayleigh and This- this living Disaster!"
By now, no one truly knew how to qualify Edam's existence anymore… no formal and regular title seemed to fit him… only Calamity or a Disaster seemed to suit him…
Yesterday's horrible events were still deeply and freshly imprinted into their memories.
Like how a natural calamity was unleashed by Mother Nature, he was also unstoppable...
As such, when they saw him, it was like seeing the Devil in person. They were all frozen in their spots out of fear. A few minutes of silence passed by and was broken when someone courageous shouted.
"Dammit, what do you wait for, sink them!"
"Right! Fire!"
They all became courageous again as they fire at the warship.
However, scratching this ship was nothing but wishful thinking with the persons on board.
Jinbei was lifting gigantic walls of seawater and Rayleigh was shooting gun bullets even more powerful than a regular gun with but just a few powerful flicks of his fingers.
As for Edam, he was resting his arms and elbows onto the warship's border.
He didn't lift a finger, he was too lazy to do so and too angry to be actually doing it for everyone's sake, and most of all, he was currently accompanied by Hancock who was holding onto his hand caringly while her body leaned on his.
But, even with all those cannonballs exploding and releasing vast amounts of smokes, not a single speck of dust reached the two of them.
When any cannonballs neared just a little too much, they were completely and totally obliterated…
It was difficult to see who did it, but Edam's eyes were flashing an eerie purple-colored hue. A sign of anger, a sign of danger, of destruction.
Despite every noble and beautiful phrases that he tried to calm himself with, the loss of his brother was something he just couldn't swallow at all.
He was clearly taking his frustration and rage on some innocent cannonballs.
Edam had some problem dealing with anger, yes.
"There, there, calm down…" Hancock smiled faintly as she caressed his hair.
"I'm calm… not perfectly, but I'm calm, love, I can guarantee you…"
"Is that what you call calm…?" Hancock asked wryly but still with her small smile on her beautiful face.
"Yeah, I find myself pretty calm as of yet…"
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Strangely enough, after that, everything went rather smoothly as they didn't attack as ferociously as before, getting curious about our next moves.
Luffy, Rayleigh, and Jinbei got off the ship and went to do their business, while I and Hancock stayed on the ship while quietly observing them. None of the marines dared raised a sword or gun in our directions and only dared attack Luffy and co.
The goal was to make it seems like we were mourning our losses. There was some truth but the real meaning of this trip was actually to inform Luffy's crew to delay their gathering by two years.
Luffy's left tattooed arm held the message and the journalists present were the carriers. A clever move.
After that, nothing too interesting happened as they returned calmly to Rusukaina.
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(A/N: I'm so sorry to be so late, but can't help it, I'm busy with my life, my work, etc... and every time I wanna write I lose my inspiration…)