บท 189: Chapter 178
"Do you see that?"
With his eyes locked onto the hazy mist in the front, Rowan spoke to Urouge excitedly.
"Yeah, captain. I see very well indeed,"
Urouge nodded stoically,
"a fog if that's what you're looking at."
"Bohaha! Just watch for a little longer." Hopping up from the deck of the dragon-like Prominence and latching onto the pole in the middle, Rowan placed his hand above his eyes jovially.
"Zou... here we are!"
Then appeared—the gigantic elephant that was greater than any living creature the Grimheart pirates ever came across. Not even the huge whale, Laboon, or the mermaid princess, Shirahoshi, were comparable.
"Oh my." From the seat nearby, Robin exclaimed with an evident surprise. Closing her book, she stood up from her seat and stared at the elephant, "So this is Zunesha."
"Uh," Dan, on the other hand, squinted his eyes, "interesting. Its legs are disproportionately long and thin. If they weren't immersed within the water, they would've broke ages ago... or not. Yeah, I don't know."
Landing back onto the deck, Rowan turned around and sweatdropped upon sighting Carina, who was hiding behind the door shyly.
"At one moment, you are more daring than anyone else, and now, more shy than you've ever been."
Carmen remarked with a snort, "You don't understand, captain."
Cavendish raised his arms up questioningly with a comical frown, "You're right! We'd never understand women."
But alas, here they were. Upon travelling upward, the Grimheart pirates found a humble civilization that dwelled on Zunesha's back.
Surrounded by the castle walls, there existed tall buildings that stood out from the rest. On one half of the island, there was a forest with the trees so close to one another that barely any light entered through. Overall,
'Interesting.'
that was Rowan's impression of Zou, also termed as the 'Phantom island' due to the Log Pose being unable to point at it.
Though it wasn't certain if the residents are welcoming or not, in less than a day since the departure from the Delta island, they managed to reach their destination.
"Slowly, Prominence! Boha, you'll scare them away if you dive like this!"
____________
"Gooorooonyanyanyan!! I never expected to see you again…"
With the sun setting in the horizon, two individuals sat around a round table, enjoying the bottles of sake.
One of them was a cat-mink, known as one of the two the leaders of the mink tribe, Nekomamushi.
"Gaban-san!"
The other old-aged man with long black-coloured hair and a crooked nose, who was wearing round sunglasses, Scopper Gaban, laughed heartily.
"Hahaha! Indeed, I never expected to see myself in Zou, meeting you and little Inuarashi once again."
Scopper Gaban. He was Gol D. Roger's left-hand-man in the past, who took a part in the journey to the One Piece.
Losing his joyful expression, Nekomamushi then said seriously, "But… I suppose that you are here for a reason."
Gaban's laughed died into a gentle smile, "Strange, isn't it? As I grow older, my body withers. My will to reinforce myself weakens in a daily basis, but is it due to the wisdoms that I've encountered throughout my life?
Sometimes, Neko, I see the future far ahead of us. And it has been telling me to come here. I have no idea how I managed to locate Zunesha, but alas, here I am."
*Tak*
Nekomamushi placed his bottle of sake down.
"Is it?"
Nekomamushi then asked,
"What future did you see? The future that made you come here—the place you haven't visited since then, just what lied ahead of us?"
"The future is already upon us, Neko."
Gaban said with a slight tremble in his tone, "Do you feel it?"
All of a sudden, Nekomamushi felt the his furs standing up. His whole body screamed of danger.
The will of this magnitude... it was something that Nekomamushi hasn't felt since the clash between Gol D. Roger and Edward Newgate in the past—
'No. Not even that is comparable.'
Just who was it?
Seeing that Gaban's finger was pointed upward, Nekomamushi followed the direction. Then he saw,
"…A dragon...?!"
Nekomamushi's eyes wavered in disbelief,
"K-Kaidou?!!"
Nekomamushi abruptly stood up, unable to believe what lied in his sight. He subconsciously growled as the sharp fangs on his paws revealed themselves.
In contrast, Gaban remained seated without losing his calm demeanour.
"No worries, Neko. It seems that you haven't received the news yet, eh?"
From his pocket, Gaban took out the folded piece of newspaper and handed it to Nekomamushi.
"Grrr... what do you mean by that, Gaban-san—"
Nekomamushi rubbed his eyes to double-check. Disregarding the dragon that was now diving from above, he read the title page of the newspaper over and over again.
Eventually, he muttered,
"Kaidou... is dead?"
For years, the loyal servants of the deceased Kozuki Oden planned and awaited to free the kingdom of Wano. For years, they've endured, believing in lady Kozuki Toki's words that their time will come after 20 years.
And yet, even before the time arrived, Kaidou was gone from this world.
"Such is the life, Neko. You don't know what's going to happen... even with the help of the Observation Haki." Gaban said casually.
Nekomamushi turned his head back up to see the huge dragon descending toward the island, and couldn't help but ask,
"Then... who are they?"
"The Grimheart pirates." Gaban replied as the dragon morphed back into the huge ship, before safely landing on top of the ground nearby, "They are the reason I've come here."
Nekomamushi didn't know if he should be happy or not. On one hand, their sufferings have finally ended, it seemed. However,
'...What about the years of preparations that we've done?'
He didn't know what to say.
Even as the whole mink tribes noticed the disturbance in Zou and gathered with caution of their own, Nekomamushi wasn't able to throw away the sense of hollowness that he felt within his heart.
After all,
'Even without lord Oden's sacrifice back then...'
Wano still would've been saved by someone else.
"...Inuarashi. So you've woken up." Nekomamushi, with his face shadowed, snarled as a dog-mink, Inuarashi, approached him and Gaban from the back.
"Though I didn't want to see your hideous face again," Inuarashi bickered as he locked his gaze onto the Grimheart pirates, "it seems that we have intruders... whose strengths far surpass what we're capable of handling separately."
In front of the three of them—Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and Gaban—Rowan was casually walking with his crewmates looking around the surrounding with an interest.
Then, within an instant,
*Click*
Rowan and his crew found the surrounding minks aiming their weapons at them.
"Tell me." Gaban, whose eyes gleamed behind his sunglasses, spoke up to Rowan, who was unfazed by the hostility, "Are you an ally or a foe?"
Rowan simply scratched the back of his head.
'What an awkward situation,' He thought.
But nonetheless, his will perceived that the hostile actions of the minks were based on their fear of him. There existed no particular maliciousness that he should be in caution of, and if so, there was no reason for him to oppose them.
Therefore, Rowan pointed at Prominence on his back and replied with a grin,
"Well, we brought some booze with us. Why don't we talk after?"
___________
[Gramanton]
"Fight! Fight for the freedom! Overcome the oppressive rulers and stand on your own might!"
In the middle of the battlefield, where one side was clearly losing progressively, one purple-haired woman with open midriff, Belo Betty, shouted at her utmost capacity while swinging the flag of the Revolutionary Army wildly.
However, it was for naught. No matter how much she used her Pump Pump fruit ability to encourage the soldiers, all it managed to do was to motivate them to live n and escape from their despair.
"*Huff*... *Huff*..."
In midst of this chaos, the blonde-haired man, Sabo, was huffing profusely as he wobbly stood up from his spot.
"Marine? Justice? *Huff*... What a joke." Wiping the blood off of his mouth, Sabo said with a disdain, "Do you not hear? The cries of the civilians, who suffer from the tyranny of the corrupt nobles?!"
Sabo cried out with an immense fury, "For whom does this justice belong to?! What is justice, if it favours the wrong?! Is Marine meant for the weak, or meant for the privileged ones?!!"
Few marine soldiers gritted teeth upon hearing Sabo's cry. They too grew confused of their actions at the current moment.
Yet,
"Do not be swayed by the words of the snake-tongued criminal! Are you, the bearers of the justice, doubting yourself?! In the middle of the war?!!"
The marine official with many scars on his face, Vice Admiral Doberman, shouted with his sword pointed at Sabo.
"Hm..."
In Doberman's front stood Admiral Issho, who grimaced as he held onto his sword.
Was this really what the Marine should be doing?
'This... this isn't right!'
Issho could hear the cries full of despair.
'What wrong did those civilians commit? The complete extermination from an island to island... doesn't this make us worse than the pirates?!'
"*Huff*... And I can't afford to lose here either." Sabo got into the stance, ready to clash against Issho once more,
"Ace! Luffy! I've finally remembered! I can't, I can't die until I get to meet you two face to face, especially when I've got so much to talk about!"
"Sabo..." From the back, Belo Betty muttered with a cold sweat on her back.
The situation wasn't good. No, they were on brink of losing. However, this wasn't the war that they could lose, even if they were against an Admiral.
Then,
"I..."
Issho, with a dark expression, sheathed his sword back.
"...will no longer accept this ridiculous situation."
Doberman raised his eyebrow upon hearing Issho's statement,
"Admiral Issho?"
"If the status as a marine shackles me from enacting my justice, then…"
Issho gripped onto his justice coat and threw it away,
"I resign from the position of an Admiral!"
A bold claim of betrayal in the middle of the battlefield, and from someone in the position of an Admiral of all.
The impact of Issho's sudden action was huge, for to some marines, it indeed confirmed to them that what they are doing right now is wrong.
"Admiral Issho…! Do you know what you are saying right now?!" Doberman shouted with infuriated expression, "How can you, someone of an Admiral's authority, sprout such irresponsible words?!!"
"What's going on?" Sabo, whose breathing finally calmed down, muttered in a confusion.
"A dispute within themselves…" Belo Betty whispered as her grips on her flag tightened, "A favourable situation has risen. If an Admiral, m the main reason why we've been losing, turns against the Marine…"
It was just as Dragon said.
<Few more days. Not all marines are the mindless soldiers. Some of them are awake, and I tell you. If the time drags on, it is the Marine who will suffer. Admiral Issho… if he is the leading figure of the war in Gramanton, there is no need for you to worry.>
Few marines within the troop gazed at Issho with bewildered eyes. Then, with determined expressions, they ran out of the troops, toward where Issho was standing by.
"Stop them!!! Kill if necessary!! There exists no place for the betrayers!!"
Doberman immediately cried after the quick assessment of what was going on. If the momentum continued, the Marine… will end up losing.
However, the control has already left his hand. Although many bullets were shot to the running marine soldiers,
*Dragon's Claw!!"
*CLANGCLANGCLANG*
Sabo quickly intercepted all of them with the technique of his own.
"So, I suppose,"
Sabo said as he landed next to Issho,
"that we aren't the enemies any longer."
Issho l, after a momentarily silence, nodded,
"Indeed. I suppose so."
The rebellion under the lead of the Revolutionary Army stopped their run upon sighting the situation.
"Now is our time! Fight back, and liberate your country! The chance has arrived!!!"
Then, as Belo Betty's voice boomed across the field once again,
"""RAAAAAA!!!!!"""
The remaining marine soldiers were met with the ferocious war cries all around them.
____________
One by one, the initially-domineering attacks by the Marine and World Government, began to weaken quickly.
Marines leaving from left and right led to the severe weakening of the organization under Sakazuki's command.
The World Government began to receive all the blames. The civilians were done dealing with their outrageous actions.
The trigger was the island of Gedomaru, where one Celestial Dragon was killed in a horrifying way. Vertruce, Gramanton, and way more—the situation, on the outward, seemed to be hopeful to the civilians who watched from afar.
___________
[Baltigo]
"Now…"
Dragon sighed as his hand trembled,
"it's time for the final attack. Under the eyes of the public, the Revolutionary Army has been placed on the side if the 'just.' The plan to showcase the World Government's malicious side has succeeded, and the majority of the world now supports us."
The situation, on the outside, seemed favourable for the Revolutionary Army. However, Dragon knew that the true danger was yet to arrive.
'In this scenario, dragging them out won't be a good option.'
There was the supposed 'treasure' of the Mariejois. Along with an intel sent by Morgans, he couldn't be sure if the head-on confrontation was a good strategy.
'There is an enigmatic individual who is ruling above. The reason why Luffy, one pirate with a small amount of bounty, was caught, may have to do with that person. If the World Government is forced to the edge of the cliff, they, without a doubt, will pull everything that they got."
Too many will lose their lives. Dragon was a greedy fellow; he wanted to prevent a massacre and save Luffy at the same time.
Therefore, just as he told Rowan through the letter,
"The invasion to Mariejois…
it's the time, father."
"Heh!"
From the back, Garp walked up with a frown,
"I've been waiting forever for this!"
Turning around, Garp shouted,
"You brats!! Get yourselves ready!!!"
Zoro, with sharpened eyes, stood up from his seat.
Sanji took out the cigarette that he was biting onto.
Bartolomeo gulped in anticipation.
'All the preparations have been done.' Dragon thought as he too readied himself,
'Hold on just a little longer, Luffy. We're coming for you.'
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