Galan nodded and smiled gently "White starts." Doll said angrily "I told you! I was-" Galan added, "Admiral Galan." Doll froze and sat in the chair obediently, looking at the chess board, wondering why she was so unlucky.
Galan leaned his cheek on his palm, looking at Doll. She looked a lot like Tsuru. Same beautiful face and all black eyes, her nose was just like Tsuru's as well. However, her eyebrows and hair were different, he felt they were quite familiar.
Doll made a move on the chessboard and looked up at Galan, who was staring at her. She frowned and said "Your turn." Galan came back to his senses and looked at the chessboard, making a move in an instant.
Doll looked at the move and made a move on her own as Galan asked "How old are you, Doll?" Doll frowned and replied "17." Galan thought to himself and moved his knight in silence.
17?
So she was born in 1484?
He thought to himself, during the time of 1484 he was still with the Delta squad. That was around a year after the legendary group of him, Sengoku, Garp, and Tsuru disbanded.
He smiled inwardly, those were good days. He remembered the tearful goodbyes and-
Galan froze as Doll snapped her fingers in his face, "Hello?" He looked at her and blinked, turning to the chessboard, making a move as he asked "You're Tsuru's daughter, right?" Doll nodded and thought about her move in silence as Galan was confused.
He looked at her hair and eyebrows as well as her ears before asking while suppressing his shock, "Where's your father?" Doll snorted and frowned "I don't know. Never met 'im." Galan was horrified and Doll looked at him, saying angrily "Can you hurry up?!"
He swallowed to himself and returned to normal, making a move on the chessboard without thinking.
Doll took his piece and smirked "Hehe!" Galan blinked and calmed himself, looking at the chessboard in silence, not speaking anymore as he made another move. Doll smiled triumphantly "Not so talkative anymore, eh?! Hehe~"
Galan didn't say a word, staying silent with his normal blank face as he continued playing, Doll went from happy to confused to shock as she lost within 5 moves. She stared at the chessboard and looked up to see Galan was gone.
She looked around quickly and saw him walking away, carrying his things as he lumbered off. Doll shouted "Hey wait!" but Galan's figure seemed to become a mirage as he disappeared entirely. Doll stomped her foot and sighed "Runnin' away after beating me once! What a jerkoff!"
Galan returned home and put his stuff down on the kitchen table, throwing his glove to the side and rubbing his face. He was breathing erratically and took off his shirts, splashing his face with cold water.
He paced in his kitchen before walking out of the house and standing in his training area. His home was far outside the town of Marineford, way on the outskirts, just on the edge of the base, basically on a man-made beach.
It was a small house, one person was more than enough, two people crowded it.
Galan stared at the crashing waves and held his hips, taking in deep breaths before leaving his sandals behind and diving into the water, going for a swim.
A while later
He was sitting in a chair settled in the sand, staring at the waves in a daze with half a dozen bottles of whiskey at his feet, all empty. He was holding one in his hand, taking swigs from it as he watched the waves crash on the man-made beach before reeling back.
A strange chuckle escaped his lips.
He fell off the chair and his knees sank into the sand as he held his face, the whiskey bottle submerging in the cold sand under the moonlight as he laughed, tears streaming down his face.
He used the bottle as a crutch as he leaned over holding his face and laughing extremely loud, his tears wetting the sand beneath him.
His laughter echoed to no one in particular as he was so far away from everyone else.
A mix of happiness and sadness in his voice as he continued to laugh and cry for a long time.
All this time, a beautiful little girl was living so close to him. His own little girl. A girl who didn't know who her father was at all, a person connected to him without any of the tragedy he knew.
A completely innocent life, a beautiful life without any of his problems.
A beautiful innocent life that wasn't broken like him!
He laughed and cried for a long time before leaning back and staring at the bright moon in the sky. His mouth open and tears gliding off the sides of his face as he couldn't believe it. He couldn't even fathom such a thing coming true. He wondered if it was just a dream, maybe he would wake up tomorrow and find himself sleeping in an ash heap surrounded by charred corpses.
He was sad because he knew he couldn't be with her. He wouldn't allow his fucked up life to destroy hers. Never. Just his presence near her would taint her soul. Galan believed this to his very core.
But… despite that…
He just couldn't help but be happy.
So happy…
The next morning
Galan woke up on the beach and looked at the whiskey bottles around him before laying back down in the sand, smiling to himself and starting to cry again.
It wasn't a dream.
Time continued to pass and Doll never crossed paths with Galan again, even when she went looking, she couldn't find him. Eventually she gave up and returned to her daily life, unaware that a new set of eyes were almost constantly watching over her wherever she went.
-1502, Marineford, Paradise-
Galan was sitting in his office when he received a call, he picked up the phone, his expression a subtle smile from the blank it usually was. Then it returned to blank as he heard "O'Hara has been found out to have been studying the Poneglyphs." Galan asked, "Elimination?"
The Elders replied simply "Buster Call." Galan said simply "Understood." before hanging up.
He frowned and pulled out the snail array before getting another call, "Admiral! I have Nico Olvia in custody." Galan thought quickly and said "Saul, you've been chosen as one of the five Vice-Admirals participating in a Buster Call on O'Hara."
Saul was stunned and said "W-What?! Why?!" Galan narrowed his eyes and pulled on his book, writing 'Jaguar D. Saul' as he replied "Because they studied Ancient forbidden history banned by the World Government. That is all." before circling the name and writing down a question mark next to the name.
He stayed on the line but Saul didn't reply, just hung up instead. Galan crossed out the question mark and put a checkmark next to Saul's name.
He made a few other calls and sent Sakazuki, Aokiji, Doberman, and Comil. He would've sent Garp but the guy wasn't here and wouldn't answer. He also skipped over Tsuru, she had to take care of Doll, what was she going to a Buster call for?
He shook his head and sent these 4 immediately, planning on also going himself.
He called Dragon and said "Buster Call." Dragon frowned on his end and said frustratingly "I can't convince them to leave! You have to stop this!" Galan paused for a moment before saying "I can't." Dragon shouted "What do you mean you can't?!"
Galan let out a breath and replied "Exactly what I said. This is the last step, I can feel it. With the Fleet Admiral position the moves I can make are unimaginable. Something like this will never happen again, I can assure you. Plus, I can organize my own groups as splinter ops. Trust me, this cannot be stopped. On the contrary, I will be going to make sure it goes according to plan."
Dragon grit his teeth and said "I'm nearby. I'll see what I can do." Galan said "You have precisely 10 days before a Buster Call arrives at O'Hara with several Cipher Pols." before hanging up and hiding his snails.
He stood up and took his black book with him before pausing as he looked at the wall.
He grabbed the shotgun and vest before heading out.