Chapter 57: Twisting Fates

A/N:

" ": Dialogue,

' ': Thought,

[ ]: System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text": Telepathy,

| |: Artificial Intelligence,

{ }: Bounty Posters,

"Bold text": Deathborns.

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Narrator POV

Location: Grand Line, Paradise, Arabasta Kingdom, Alubarna

After a few hours of travelling over the sea, the Leviathan reached the docks of the Arabasta Kingdom's port town, Nanohana. The Marine blockade that was there to catch pirate ships had already been dropped. But even then, when someone moved around with such a spectacle of a ship, they would be hard pressed to go anywhere without drawing attention to themselves.

That would have been the case for those on the Leviathan, if Dante hadn't already prepared for that eventuality. He simply gave it an enchantment that influenced the minds of anyone else who would see the ship on the port to stay away from it. As for Dante and Shiraori, they had teleported to the capital city of the kingdom, specifically to the Royal Palace.

With the both of them under Dante's Pancosmic Concealment, their presence went entirely unnoticed by anyone. "Have I ever mentioned how broken your evolved abilities are?" Shiraori asked him. "More than once." Dante said, as they walked around the palace's courtyard. "Well, I'll say it again. Your abilities are way too broken. If you wanted to kill everyone here, they'd be dead before their brains could even register it." Shiraori said, as they stopped.

"Right here." Dante said, then created a drop of water, which he charged with life energy, then dropped. The drop phased through the ground, heading deeper into the earth, until it settled at a point that was twenty metres underground. Immediately it settled, Dante used quantikinesis to drastically multiply the water, and hydrokinesis to manipulate its movement underground.

In different parts of Arabasta, inside and outside cities, water seeped out of the ground, quickly forming into large oases. At the same time, areas where vegetation was present saw said vegetation grow healthy at a visible rate. Once Dante had finished sending the water all around, he placed a binding spell on the water that didn't allow for it to be taken away from Arabasta.

"Okay, that's all for us over here." Dante said, then teleported back onto the Leviathan, with Shiraori following him soon after. "What about Cobra and Vivi?" She asked him as they released their concealment. "They'll be fine without us doing anything to them directly. What with the fact that the World Government will no longer have access to this." He said as he snapped his fingers, causing a small craft to appear in his hand.

To any random person, it would seem like a toy that resembled an unorthodox battleship, but if any of the higher-ups of the World Government saw it, they would either go pale in fear or try to kill Dante, as they would recognize it to be Uranus, one of the three ancient weapons that bears a god's name. 

With a glance and a short activation of his Evil Eye of Annihilation, the once feared weapon was fully destroyed, not even leaving behind its subatomic particles. Within the first few hours of their presence on this Earth, Dante had already eliminated one of the World Government's most important armaments, leaving them confused as to what could have happened to it.

With that, they departed from Arabasta, leaving it better than it was when they came. As proof of this, in Erumalu, one of Arabasta's ancient cities, which had now been abandoned and left in ruins, an oasis much larger than all the others had formed, and in that oasis dwelled a water spirit that Dante had created by drawing on the hopes of all citizens of Arabasta.

*Nahlia*

Due to the nature of her creation, her continued existence was somewhat reliant on the continued existence of Arabasta. However, this did not mean that she would weaken if the entire landmass was in dire straits. On the contrary, her power would increase exponentially the worse the conditions of the Kingdom got, whether they be living conditions for the citizens or the physical condition and integrity of the landmass. But this did not mean that she weakened if the aforementioned conditions were positive either.

So, if a situation like Crocodile's overuse of Dance Powder or something that threatened Arabasta ever happened again, she would strike the culprit with a vengeance.

…

Location: Grand Line, Paradise, Jaya

The Straw Hat Pirates had their minds reeling from the events they had faced today. Firstly, Nico Robin had stowed away on their ship and asked to become a part of their crew, which their idiot of a captain agreed to. Secondly, an entire galleon had fallen from the sky itself, or if Robin wasn't lying to them, from a Sky Island.

Speaking of Sky Islands, they just found out that they exist, or at least, that one exists. To get information from the wreck, Zoro, Sanji and Luffy went down in rudimentary diving suits made from barrels, only for them to come across the Masira Pirates, who, led by their monkey-like captain, who their crew was named after, tried to salvage the ship that had fallen from the sky.

Amidst that, they were attacked by Sea Kings, one of them an eel, and the other a turtle large enough to eat the sunken ship in a single bite. But all that was still nothing compared to what came last – humongous, shadowy humanoid monsters with wings, that wielded spears, or so they thought. They dwarfed even the turtle and put so much fear in both pirate crews that they sped away from the area, with the Straw Hats ending up with Masira on their ship.

They promptly removed him from their ship, but not before Robin stole a Log Pose from him. But this Log Pose was different from your regular Log Pose, as unlike a regular one, which records the magnetic field between an island and the closest island to it, then points to it like a compass, the one that Robin had stolen from Masira was an Eternal Pose, a Log Pose that perpetually points to a single island.

Nami reprimanded Zoro, Sanji and Luffy for not getting any information on what happened to the people on the ship and instead grabbing junk that had been so severely weathered that even Usopp could break them. While she stomped away, Robin called her and handed the Eternal Pose over to her, and the panel with its location read "Jaya".

And so, they were now at the west side of Jaya, on the pier of the lawless city of Mock Town. Zoro and Luffy went into town with the single promise that they wouldn't cause any trouble. Nami, who didn't have any faith that they would keep that promise, rushed after them, with everyone else staying on the ship.

…

Meanwhile, on the sea, now headed towards Jaya, was the Leviathan, practically zooming on the water. Saya and the two sisters closest to her in power, Sera and Ciel, were playing on the deck, while Dante and Shiraori chose to sunbathe. As they moved, Ciel suddenly turned to face the western bay of Jaya, her red eyes holding animosity.

Over in Mock Town, on a rooftop, a tall, thin man, wearing a black hat reminiscent of an upturned boat's hull, a button-up, pale lavender shirt with loose sleeves, simple black pants held up by a maroon belt, and a large black cape over his shoulders. On his face are a pair of glasses with asymmetrical lenses, with the left one being a regular rectangular piece, and the right one being circular and having a crosshair etched into it.

He was looking down the scope of a sniper rifle and saw five white-haired people on the deck of a massive ship with a dragon head as its figurehead, and was shocked to see one of them turn to look straight at him, one of the three little girls. At first, he thought that he was simply overthinking it, until he looked again, and saw the girl put her thumb to her neck and slide it across.

A shiver travelled up his spine and he wanted to leave, only to find that he couldn't move. He wanted to scream, to shoot, to do anything, but it was futile. While his mind was reeling, Ciel activated two Evil Eyes of Warping, twisting the space that the sniper was in like a Rubik's Cube, reducing him to a mound of mangled flesh.

"Ciel, honey. If you're going to kill, make sure to not make a mess." Shiraori said, and Ciel sighed. "Yes, mom." She said, then hit the mound of flesh with an Evil Eye of Annihilation, reducing it to dust. That was how Van Augur, who would have become one of the higher-ups of the Blackbeard Pirates, met his end. Not in some glorious battle, but at the whims of a child.

A few seconds later, the Leviathan came to a halt at the pier of Mock Town without causing a wave, despite the amount of energy its movement carries. They had stopped right beside the Going Merry, the ship of the Straw Hat Pirates.

"Well, I'm heading into the town. What about you?" Dante asked Shiraori as he quickly changed from the beach shorts he was wearing to his regular outfit. "I'll stay over here, maybe make some friends." Shiraori said, looking at the Going Merry.

"Dad, I want to go with you." Ciel said as she pulled on his jacket. "Of course, your highness." Dante said with an exaggerated bow, and Ciel climbed onto his back. And when he stood upright, Ciel climbed up onto his shoulders. "Go forth, my noble knight!" Ciel said playfully, forming a sword from pure darkness.

Dante laughed and headed into Mock Town, while choosing to loosen the seal on his Emperor's Haki, just enough to deeply intimidate passersby from trying anything stupid. Shiraori stepped off the Leviathan with Saya following behind her, but not without changing into her own regular outfit, and she teleported onto the deck of the Going Merry.

The sudden appearance of two white-haired girls stunned the members of the Straw Hats that chose to remain on the ship, those being Robin, Chopper, Usopp, and Sanji. While the first three were cautious of the two strangers, Sanji was up to his usual antics, and he tried to flirt with the older of the two, only to get hit in the face with ice-cold water.

"Hey, Swirly-brows. Stop leering at my mother, or I'll pluck your eyes out." Saya said with a chilling tone. Chopper and Usopp immediately tried to drag Sanji away before he tried flirting with Shiraori again. "We're sorry! We should have stopped him from even thinking of something so stupid!" Usopp shouted as he bowed his head.

"No harm done. Besides, a kid like him wouldn't ever catch my eye." Shiraori said with a laugh, and Saya just harrumphed. While Usopp let out a breath of relief, Shiraori could swear she heard the sound of someone's heart cracking. "Where are my manners? I'm Shiraori Invictus, and this is one of my daughters." She said calmly. "Go ahead, Saya dear. Introduce yourself." She told her daughter.

"I am Saya Invictus. Pleasure to meet you." Saya said with a small bow, giving them a minimum amount of courtesy. "R-right. I'm Tony Tony –" Chopper began introducing himself, only for a slender, feminine hand to sprout from his back and clamp over his mouth. "We accept your greetings, but if you don't mind, why don't you tell us why you're on our ship?" Robin asked, still far more cautious than her new crewmates.

Saya then puts her hand into her subspace, pulling out the fishbowl that Laboon is inside. "A friend wanted to meet you again." Saya said, and Sanji and Usopp's eyes widen in recognition as they notice the scrawled-on drawing of their Jolly Roger on the front of the whale's head.

"Is… is that Laboon?" Usopp asked, and as the now shrunken whale understood them, its mouth opened in what they could only judge to be a smile. "Laboon!? But… he's so small." Sanji said, and Laboon looked at him with a snarl-like expression on his face. "My daddy shrunk him so that we could bring him with us. He also patched him up and took out all the metal that was in the little guy." Saya said as she dropped some more small pieces of meat into the fishbowl. Shiraori heard another crack as Saya said the word 'daddy'.

"And where's your daddy, Saya?" Robin asked. "He went into town with my sister. Said we could try to make some friends." Saya responded, then looked at Robin. Although the red eyes of the pair were somewhat unnerving, Robin concludes that they held no hostility towards them and lowered her guard.

…

Meanwhile, in Mock Town, people split to the side like waves before Moses, their eyes holding wariness towards the white-haired father and daughter as they walk through the town with jolly smiles on their faces. A few pirates had contemplated attacking them, but like clockwork, Dante's Emperor's Haki immediately locked on to their hostility and forced it down with extreme prejudice.

Dante eventually walked into a tavern that seemed to be the centre of activity in the town., As he walks in with Ciel on his shoulders, he hears one of One Piece's most iconic interactions. "This cherry pie tastes so bad, I'm gonna die!" A young male voice shouted in anger. "This cherry pie tastes so good, I'm gonna die!" An older male voice shouted simultaneously in glee.

Dante smiled as he identified the owners of those two voices. They were none other than Monkey D. Luffy and Marshall D. Teach. He watched them pick up glass mugs, each filled with fizzy soda, then down them in seconds. "This soda tastes so good!" Luffy shouted. "This soda tastes so bad!" Teach shouted at the same time, and before they could go any deeper into their contrasting tastes, Dante came in between them and put an arm around their shoulders.

"It's always pretty entertaining to see the duality of man, but you two should probably stop before this escalates." He said calmly. The two of them turned to look at him – Luffy looking up as Dante was taller than him, and Blackbeard looking down as he was taller than Dante, drastically so, which made him feel confused as to how Dante had an entire arm around his shoulder.

But even while that train of thought was still running, the both of them had, knowingly or unknowingly, stopped their quarrel. "There. Oh, and Luffy, take these." Dante said, handing Luffy three sheets of paper, seemingly from out of nowhere. "They're your updated bounties after your little stint over in Arabasta." He said as he removed his arms from Luffy and Teach's shoulders.

"And as for you, Teach. It's best that you run as far and as fast as you can, because Ace is gonna catch up to you regardless. And don't think that you'll be safe with the Yami Yami no Mi. You don't have it anymore." Dante told Teach, and his heart sank. He stood up and ran out of the tavern, and on his way out, he bumped into someone wearing a blue overcoat over his shoulders.

While Teach would normally have had some smidgen of curiosity in such a situation, the fact that a clear message had rung in his mind about the loss of one of the rarest Logia devil fruits in the world took greater precedence. There was also the little fact that a member of his former crew was on the hunt for him, but as far as he was concerned, that was secondary.

Back in the tavern, Ciel was laughing at Teach as he ran away. "Dad, you've got sticky fingers." Her joyous laughter rung throughout the floor. "Yeah, yeah." Dante said, slightly exasperated by his daughter's announcement of his mischief. Originally, he had planned to leave after stealing the Yami Yami no Mi from Teach, but he decided against it, just because.

Mere seconds later, a blonde-haired man wearing a pink tank-top, loose white pants, a green belt and sash on his waist, and a blue overcoat on his shoulders, kicked the tavern door open. This was Bellamy 'The Hyena', captain of the Bellamy Pirates, user of the Bane Bane no Mi, and holder of a bounty of 55 million Beri.

In the East Blue and the earliest parts of Paradise, this was an impressive resume to hold, possibly even enough to dominate in either of those parts of the world. However, Dante and Ciel knew that he would be cannon fodder at best in the true frontier of the world's seas – the New World. And so, they ignored him and continued speaking with Luffy, Zoro and Nami.

"By the way, just curious. Where are you guys headed?" Dante asked them. "We're headed to Sky Island!" Luffy replied, and the rest of the tavern went silent. "Oh, which one?" Dante then asked, surprising Nami, who understood the implications of those three words. "There's more than one Sky Island?" She asked, feeling skeptical.

"Of course. I mean, imagine someone came up to you and told you they want to go to Island. It'd sound pretty strange to you as well." Dante replied, then continued. "The Sky Island that everyone's Log Pose locks on to when they are in this part of the seas is Skypeia. There are others around the world, but you can't reach them from here." He said, still ignoring Bellamy.

Bellamy, who had been irked by this, stepped forward with anger and an intent to humiliate not only the so-called Straw Hat Luffy, but also the white-haired man that dared to treat him like the wind. "Hey, bozo. Get the fu-" He said as he moved his arm to grab Dante, only for him to get hit with a powerful psychokinetic blast that sent him flying through the tavern wall.

The quiet murmurs that were picking up when Bellamy moved were immediately snuffed out, as they looked at the torn-down wall, then over to Dante, or more precisely, to Ciel, who had her right middle finger in the motion of a flick. "Ciel." Dante called out calmly, and his daughter's body stiffened.

"Y-yes, Dad." She said shakily. "What did I say about property damage?" He asked. "That it shouldn't affect the common person." She answered like a soldier being drilled. "And?" Dante asked, his voice still calm. "And that it's only fine when it directly affects the members of the World Government, their dogs, or wicked pirates!" She said, not wanting to risk getting spanked for misbehaving.

"Good. Now, clean up." Dante said curtly. Ciel sighed, then using a small bit of Chronomancy, she rewound the damage she had caused to the tavern, while using her Psychokinesis to pull Bellamy back inside and drop him on the floor. Bellamy, to his credit, hadn't been knocked out after being thrown through a concrete wall. He stood up with rage in his eyes, and using the power of his Devil Fruit, he turned his legs below his knees to springs, preparing to attack.

 "Oh? So your Devil Fruit is the Bane Bane no Mi, huh?" She said in amusement, and Bellamy, angered even more by her attitude, lunged forward, receiving increased propulsion from his spring-like legs. "Since you like jumping around so much, why don't I help you do that just a bit more?" Ciel said with a mischievous grin, then flicked her finger, sending Bellamy flying with her Psychokinesis once again.

But this time, before he even got close to the wall, she cast a Force Magic spell that essentially planted proximity mines made of pure kinetic energy, the first of which was in the air right behind him. Under the gaze of everyone in the tavern, Bellamy was hit around like he was in a pinball machine, pain wracking his body, and confusion his mind, all by a girl that seemed to be no more than 8 years old.

"Hey, don't kill him now." Dante said in the midst of Bellamy's beatdown. "Okay." Ciel replied with a smile on her face, then cancelled her spell, which at the time, had sent Bellamy flying towards her. She stops Bellamy two metres from her, then lets him crash to the floor, his body covered in blood and bruises.

"Woah. Dude, your daughter's awesome!" Luffy said with sparkling eyes. "Join my crew!" He shouted immediately after, only to get socked over the head by Nami, while Dante laughed. "Thanks, but no thanks Luffy. My family is crew and treasure enough for me." Dante said, softly ruffling Ciel's hair. "But I'm sure we can be friends at the very least." He said and put out his hand, and Luffy shook it with a wide smile. 

"Sorry for interrupting. But Skypeia, how do we get there?" Nami asked. "Well, I could tell you how to get there, or I could help you get the tools and information to get there. Which do you want?" Dante asked, and without missing a beat, Nami chose the latter. "Okay, then. Follow me." He said, standing up from the stool.

As they began walking away, they heard a groan, and turned back to see Bellamy, bruised and battered, struggling to stand. "You idiots think that the Sky Island is real just because the Log Pose is pointing up, don'tcha? Well, news flash, Log Poses mess up all the time!" He shouted out, blood trickling down his mouth.

"Stupid dreamers like you are the reason pirates get a bad name." He said, mockery in his pain-filled voice. Shortly after, four men and three women walked into the tavern – Bellamy's crew. They were planning on measuring Luffy with their own preconceptions of strength, but were shocked to see Bellamy panting and wounded, like he just got beaten up, which he did.

"And idiots like you are the reason why Mock Town has a bad name." Dante responded to Bellamy. "Most of you may not know this, but one of the names that Mock Town has amongst pirates is "The Place Where Dreams go to Die.". Not because people get a reality check here, that part is given by the New World. But because people like you choose to settle here, basking in mediocrity and thinking that they're smart." He said, digging at the egos of every other pirate in the tavern.

"In fear of the unpredictability and danger that going deeper into the Grand Line would bring, you stay here, thinking that you're better than people who actually pushed forward despite it, when in fact, you're just frogs in a well, trying to tell the birds the size of the sky." Dante said, hitting all of them right where it hurts.

"Also… before you go ahead trying to test someone, do your homework." He said, tossing Luffy and Zoro's wanted posters at Bellamy. Bellamy looked down at the posters and saw the bounties. {Monkey D. Luffy. Wanted Dead or Alive. 100,000,000 Beri.} {Roronoa Zoro. Wanted Dead or Alive. 60,000,000 Beri.}

Bellamy's eyes widened in shock as his mind processed the fact that both of the men that he wanted to intimidate to join his crew were in fact, much stronger than he was. While that thought shook him, another that sent fear up his spine crawled into his mind; If this little girl could do what she did to him so easily, what would her father, who she seemed to be scared of, be capable of doing?

He looked up, looking into Dante's blue orbs, with fear in his eyes. He didn't see hate, disgust or even disappointment. He saw apathy, a conviction that Dante saw him as nothing, and very likely wouldn't see him as anything else. Bellamy didn't know why, but that realization struck his very core.

"Come on, now. Let's get going." Dante said as he walked out of the tavern, with Ciel and the three Straw Hats following behind him. As they walked down the street, Dante momentarily stopped time, created a clone, and sent it off to eliminate a few pirates, removing the time stop after it had left.

They walked through the streets of Mock Town in silence and without incident, which was somewhat surprising for the Straw Hats, but they asked no questions. Eventually, they reached the pier, and the three of them saw the sheer size of the Leviathan, and Luffy reacted as Dante expected.

"That ship is aweeesooooome!!!!!" Luffy shouted with stars in his eyes. His shout attracted the attention of Sanji, Robin, Chopper and Usopp, while Shiraori just let out an amused laugh. "Hey, honey. Looks like we both made some friends." Dante said with a wave. The both of them smile as they feel that their time in this world had now become at least a bit more amusing.

Chapter End.

Word Count: 4,291

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