Bab 5: Chapter 5
—Third Person—
–Year 1522: February 28–
–Marine HQ Marineford–
In a pristine office, a man was sitting behind the desk.
He was a tall, fair-skinned, and muscular man with a long, braided goatee and a mustache.
He wore black-rimmed glasses and a white and gold full Marine admiral uniform adorned with medals. A life-size seagull sat on top of his cap, and his oversized Marine coat was worn like a cape.
"Speak," he said, his voice gruff as he looked at the Den-Den Mushi. He wondered why the hell the Den-Den Mushi had such a distressed expression.
"Fleet Admiral! A Haki user has been spotted in the East Blue!" a voice came from the Den-Den Mushi.
"A Haki user, you say?" he asked, looking at the Den-Den Mushi to confirm once again.
"Yes! It's true, it's Alvida! A relatively low-level pirate! Until Commander Akira from the second unit of Logue Town encountered her in Shells Town, where she displayed a good grasp of Observation Haki!" the voice explained. Sengoku could already feel a headache incoming.
"Also! From the reports, it seems she ate the Slip-Slip Fruit!" The last thing the Den-Den Mushi said broke the calm expression on Sengoku's face.
But he calmed down after a second; he dealt with worse news than this, after all... like Garp doing something reckless once in a while.
'The Slip-Slip Fruit, such a troublesome devil fruit. Only God knows how much effort it took to deal with the previous user of the fruit,' he thought before looking at the Den-Den Mushi and issuing his order.
"Raise her bounty..."
Elsewhere...
Holding a wanted poster, the pink-haired boy looked absolutely horrified. "W-what the hell is this?" he asked to no one.
Chore boy Koby had been training when Helmeppo suddenly handed him something.
It was a wanted poster, specifically the wanted poster of the woman who had enslaved him to her ship as a janitor.
"W-when did Alvida get so, so..." He couldn't find the words to describe his shock. He could see that she had grown stronger, judging by the bounty on the poster.
Elsewhere...
"Oi, Usopp! Look at this!" Nami called out, staring at the wanted poster in hand.
They were sailing to Alabasta peacefully, now interrupted by this new wanted poster.
"Nami?" Usopp came up from the basement, where he had been working on some new ammunition, and looked at her questioningly.
"Look at this!" She pushed the wanted poster into his face. Calming down and looking at the poster, Usopp's eyes widened before they popped out like his nose.
"KURO!?" His shout gathered attention from the rest of the crew, including Vivi, who also heard the shout.
"What's going on?" Luffy asked, walking over with Zoro and Sanji following behind.
"Look at this," Nami said, handing the poster to Luffy. "It's Kuro and... Alvida? Their bounties just shot up!"
"Alvida? Oh, I remember her! She was really weird," Luffy said, taking the poster from Nami's hand. His eyes widened to the size of plates. "Wha—oi! Why is her bounty more than mine, huh?!"
Sanji shook his head, lighting a cigarette. "Guess she got a lot stronger, Luffy. And it looks like she teamed up with this Kuro. Also, what a beautiful lady!!"
Zoro crossed his arms, smirking. "Just means we've got more strong opponents to face. Keeps things interesting."
Vivi looked at the poster with concern. "If their bounties went up this much, they must have done something significant. We should be careful."
[Wanted poster : Alvida]
[Wanted poster : Kuro]
—Still Third Person—
–Entrance to the reverse mountain–
"Oi! You guys! Stay clear headed! We're going to enter the Reverse Mountain! It's gonna be hard!" Alvida shouted to her crew while Kuro held the helm. Being the second strongest after her, that task was naturally his responsibility.
The crew braced themselves, each one taking their positions and securing the ship. The roar of the water grew louder as they approached the mountain, the current pulling them faster towards the treacherous climb ahead.
Entering the canal, the ship soared as it climbed upward with the current. The crew gripped tightly onto whatever they could as the ship was propelled forward.
Alvida stood at the bow, her eyes focused ahead, a confident smirk on her face. "Hold on tight, everyone! This is just the beginning!"
"Ooh!" Hearing their captain's words, the crew shouted with smiles as they looked forward to the adventures to come.
'Grand Line, here I come!' Alvida thought as the ship was pulled downward after reaching the top of the canal, heading toward Twin Capes—the entrance to the Grand Line.
The ship was rapidly descending towards the twin capes. Alvida was worried for a moment that Laboon might block their way with his massive body.
As the ship exited the current, it began to slow down gradually and came to a stop near the lighthouses located at the exit of Reverse Mountain.
Looking at the lighthouses, Alvida thought for a while before looking at Kuro, who was by her side.
"What do you think? Should we go knock on that door or head to Kyuka Island with the Eternal Pose?" she asked her strategist for suggestions.
"We should ask about these seas from the people who live in these lighthouses. That is what I believe," Kuro said with a straight face. What he said was not a genius thing, but in this world full of idiots, it might come across as genius.
"Captain! I don't think we need anyone to tell us about the seas. Khakhakha!" Knox said, opposing the idea and insisting there was no need to ask anyone.
Of course, this was jealousy speaking through him. He had been with Captain Alvida for a year, and now some guy had come and taken his place as number two on the crew, becoming the captain's most trusted crewmate.
"Know your place, fool. If I ask him, it's his place to answer me, not yours," Alvida coldly said before jumping down to the ground without looking at Knox, who was grinding his teeth in frustration.
'I need to keep an eye on him,' Kuro thought to himself and followed after his captain. He knew that in the world of pirates, betrayal was quite common, especially from some low-level grunts like Knox.
They reached the doors of the lighthouse and knocked, waiting for someone to open.
'Crocus lives here, and he was part of Roger's crew,' Alvida thought to herself as she waited.
After a while with no response, she knocked again, more insistently. They waited, still no answer.
Just as she was about to run out of patience and blow the doors open, they finally creaked open.
A man opened the door. He had a stocky and muscular body and was bald on the top of his head but had white hair adorned with yellow flower petal-like strands that had purple near the bottom. His white beard split into two parts, and his lower lip was noticeably larger than his upper.
He wore a pink shirt with yellow and green stripes and purple circles in the yellow, along with bluish-grey shorts and sandals. He also wore glasses, a seaweed necklace, three gold bracelets, and a green gem bracelet on his left wrist. Additionally, he had a scar on his left arm.
"My name is Crocus. I'm the keeper of the Twin Capes lighthouses. I'm 71 years old, Gemini, and my blood type is AB."
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Make sure to read the author's note, some reviews would be great to motivate me to write more you know.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Vedora_Tempest
Vedora_Tempest Honestly, I couldn't wait to upload this, lol.
With the wanted poster and the reactions, I feel excited as if this story is written by someone else, and I'm just a reader.
Also, can you guess why Sengoku thought the Sube Sube no Mi is difficult to deal with?
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone