Chapter 250
—
"Since the head of your previous body remains, I think I can extract the Devil Fruit Mastery."
That was what Amon had said hours before when Raki regained more of her previously lost hope.
Then she fed on the DFM Paw-Bubble of Gura-Gura no Mi that was ejected out of her old body's skull by Amon.
That shocked her. So had Amon eaten the 4th fruit? The Paw-Paw fruit? But Amon didn't have paws, for some reason. Why was that?
At the mention of that, her brother only yikesed and Raki decided to not give it much thought after he complained aloud about something called "furry" that she had no idea on.
Either way, after consuming the bubble, she regained Whitebeard's progress with Gura-Gura no Mi again. With this, she could quite easily exhibit the power that Whitebeard could in the War of the Best. Though she will have to gain a good zoan fruit for her physical powers to be strong enough to make Prime Whitebeard-level quakes.
But all in all, now, she was a true Emperor level freak. Now… she just needed the fruit her brother proposed to her and she might just reach Pirate King level, or at least Peak Emperor.
The wind blew her hair in the air as it flowed like a river behind her. She looked at the 7 people sitting beside her with those thoughts coming to an end.
Amon, the 5 Sins, and Yamato sat on the cloud-car beside her.
There, Urouge sat amongst them as well. Only Raki knew that Urouge had already died and that's why she could tell this one was a clone—Amon was supposed to have clones for all the Sins, after all. The others were oblivious about this and treated Urouge as if he was the real one.
Amon did say Urouge's clone wasn't mindless and could even feel emotions, but Raki couldn't help but feel a bit creeped out sitting in the same car with that thing.
So, she tried to move her attention to somewhere else.
Raki threw her right arm around Yamato's stiff shoulders. Their relationship wasn't the best yet, but it was far better than before.
"You know, we are gonna kill your father, right?"
Raki said casually while Amon shot her a silent look from the driver's seat. Immediately Raki regretted her words and was almost scared shitless just as he turned his head forward without saying anything.
"..."
Meanwhile, Yamato stayed silent.
Yamato was with Robin when Skypiea was attacked. Robin was as always managing stuff that needed her to be away from Skypiea, more than ever after the war since the recruits had skyrocketed. This time, Yamato was there with her since she didn't like the confined life in Skypiea. She spent the first week celebrating in the sky and then left with Robin for an island in the New World.
Yamato slowly clenched her weapon in her hand.
"Amon already told me so. That's what I have been craving to see for decades…"
Her tone was rough and harsh and Raki immediately pulled her arm back from her shoulders.
"Yikes, psycho."
"..."
With Yamato sighing with her eyes closed, the journey continued in random chattering from everyone. Even Wyper.
"Hey, Amon," Wyper called, sitting on the seat beside Amon. "Is that the… real Raki?"
He whispered in a very low voice. He was there when Isa yelled out Raki's name and witnessed Raki's detached head. So he had doubts about the girl sitting two rows behind him and chattering like a bird.
Amon chuckled while driving. "You think I am consoling myself with one of her clones?" He said. "Don't worry, she's still herself."
After glancing at Raki chattering with the others like her usual self, snarky but a bit happier, Wyper finally nodded.
"I will take your words on that then."
He nodded to himself and then focused on watching the clouds pass by instead.
Then, more time passed as the cloud-car came to a spot where an island situated above a mountain was visible.
The land of Wano Kuni.
—★—
The Marine HQ was being migrated into another island after Marineford was damaged beyond repair by Whitebeard and Amon.
Unlike how Sakazuki had migrated into the New World in the canon, Sengoku wasn't so brave. With Sakazuki dead, he would have given Kuzan the seat of Fleet Admiral, but retiring and leaving the Marines on their own at such a time like this where someone like Amon loomed over the world... it wasn't something his conscience would allow.
So, Sengoku simply decided to relocate the HQ very close to the gates of justice. This time, Enies Lobby wasn't destroyed, so the gates were as useful as before.
It would be a pain to stretch the gate to the new HQ, but it's better than nothing.
Currently, inside the makeshift HQ that was still being constructed by thousands of marines at once, a meeting was being held.
"We would do this via votes, is that clear?"
Sengoku said, standing by the blackboard while everyone in the room had their eyes on him.
They nodded swiftly.
"Now that two admirals are… no more, we plan to promote some others from the Vice Admiral rank." Sengoku tapped on the board. "As you can see, these are the qualified Vice Admirals' names written here. Gion, Tokikake, Hina, Momonga, and Strawberry."
As everyone's eyes flashed by the names and they nodded.
Sengoku continued. "I would have liked to wait for a few months for some others to rise in ranks but… things aren't in a good shape. The other powerhouses know that the destruction of Skypiea would only make the Sky Emperor more hostile. The Admirals are the faces of the Marines, and without them, half our influence is gone. We need to replace them as soon as possible, and so today we will take a vote from all of you."
He glanced at everyone. "If nothing changes… as in, if no promising new recruits join the Marines by the end of this month, you'd be appointed as Admirals according to this voting. Am I clear?"
Everyone nodded again.
There were dozens of Vice Admirals present here. Garp was there too, munching on rice crackers. No outsider would be able to tell that his grandson had just died. They would all vote, and that would decide the two winners.
"Alright…" Sengoku tapped the blackboard. "Now, vote."
Everyone started to raise their voting plate from the table. 1, was Gion. 2, was Hina. 3, was Tokikake. 4, was Momonga. 5, was Strawberry.
By far, as seconds passed and everyone raised their hands with Sengoku writing them down one by one, Gion was on the lead ahead of Tokikake and Hina respectfully. The other two were far behind.
Minutes later, the winners were clear as Sengoku nodded at the woman and the middle-aged man with a hat.
"Gion, Tokikake, seems like you'd be taking the seats starting from next month." He nodded at them, and the two simply stood and bowed.
Sengoku glanced at Hina briefly before shaking his head.
'A pity that her Haki hasn't grown much since the fight in Skypiea 4 years ago or she would have been able to take a seat.'
She was a really compelled officer, and she would have done a great job at it. But not only was her devil fruit… mundane, her haki wasn't impressive either. It's her mastery at Marine Six Powers and some other martial arts that she is so valued as a Vice Admiral.
Of course, Sengoku couldn't know Hina was but a husk of her former self, a mere clone. Her Haki, or rather, her 'Will' was just to complete orders given by her creator. With such a simple Will, no wonder her Haki wasn't anything impressive. As a soulless puppet, this was her price.
Amon was able to inject nervous signals into her imitating the training of different martial arts, which caused her to dream of training with them even though she never did in real life. It was a dangerous technique for a normal human, but not dangerous for a mindless puppet whose brain was safe from going overdrive from too much and too sudden information. That's why she was a good Vice Admiral.
But unfortunately, she couldn't be more useful than this. So Amon, who's been watching this meeting from above the sky with one of his clones, believed to have found another target.
Looking at Gion—the woman with a spider tattoo on her leg—Amon scratched his chin.
He shook his head immediately. 'Let's decide it on a coin flip, instead.'
Then he glanced side to side from Gion and Tokikake and flipped a coin in the air. As it landed on tails… he decided who his new target was.
Therefore, while the main Amon approached Wano, this one went to the island Momousagi Gion was appointed in and entered the Marines as a newbie recruit.
—★—
Amon dropped the car at Onigashima and had vanished while telling the Sins to start their attack.
"You think just the 7 of us will be fine in an Emperor's base?" Tsumi asked, fidgeting. "I almost died, and we are in such a dangerous place just 3 days after that. Where did Kami go?".
Yona shook her head. "Tsumi, believe in God. He brought you back from the death door. He will do that again, if necessary. So focus on the task at hand, instead."
Tsumi growled softly. 'He brought me back from death's door, but what if I am already in the underworld? Sigh.'
She didn't protest though.
"Oi, shush!" Raki whispered to Yamato. They were all taking cover inside a large ship filled with weapons so there was nobody else besides them, but nobody died of being too cautious. "You are familiar with the area right? Lead us to where your dad's at."
Yamato nodded and stood up.
"First, call me Oden when we are in Wano, and second… Follow me."
She said, and kicked the ground. Immediately she vanished from the spot, but all the sins quite easily followed her though confused at her first words.
Running fast but stealthily, Raki seemed to stumble a few times above the rooftops, but Hancock gave her a shoulder to lean into.
"Are you alright, sister-in-law?" At Hancock's words, Raki grumbled inwardly. "You don't have your swords, jump behind me if you feel like you can't take it anymore."
With a shrug, Raki nodded. No point in refusing goodwill.
Though speaking of swords, her brother said he would get her a pair of twin-blades used by someone from this country. She didn't know how they would compare against Shiki's twin blades that she was using until now. But she was certainly excited nonetheless.
Then, they reached the Skulldome where each of them could feel the presence of the King of the Beast.
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Author's Note: Proofread the chapter whilst being very sleepy, so sorry for any spelling problems.