I was slowly beginning to get another headache.
The more I travelled around the world of One Piece, the more I often found myself finding out about various topics. In this case, I had just found out that we were about to go to war, and they had already set out a plan.
The Roger Pirates were going to be within the blues for a bit before they landed in Paradise. Which would take an even longer time. Moreover, if what I'm thinking is true, then Shiki would probably have already set trackers for the Roger Pirates so that he could monitor their movements.
I slowly started pondering over why he would have taken such drastic measures just to catch one man. Shiki's obsession with Roger was rather evident throughout the entire plot of One Piece, another obsession of his was to conquer the World.
"He wants to catch three birds with one stone," I muttered, Stussy and Ken immediately turned to me with inquisive expressions.
I was slowly beginning to piece together most of what Shiki was probably trying to plan.
"By starting a war to knock off Whitebeard, he probably wants to neutralize all parties involved. He was a member of Rocks after all, it's not surprising if he's wary of all their capabilities during their time together. Moreover, by using this war, he probably aims to knock off one of the strongest people there: Whitebeard & I. Also, he can turn over and supress the forces of Big Mom and the Rising Star Kaido." I commented, Stussy and Ken were slowly showing faces of understanding.
"Also, the navigator said something about laying a trap for Roger. Meaning he wants to use our territory as well to lay it down. Getting territory in the process, it's an ideal scenario that Shiki would probably plot to find himself in," I commented indifferently.
That seemed to be a plan that he had been in the making for quite some time. It's a scary concept to think about if we hadn't known earlier enough. However, one constant was: The sea is about to erupt in chaos soon, and we needed to be in our best shapes in order for this to happen.
I had Ken check on the resting crew while I looked at the pirate crew that we had promptly 'convinced' to take us to the hospital.
"What are you thinking about?" Stussy inquired.
"Say....do you wish to join the Whitebeard Pirates?" I asked casually.
The mini private crew immediately flinched as they looked at each other anxiously.
"S-sorry," the navigator immediately apologized.
Well, I wasn't surprised, judging from the situation that was soon going to transpire. It really did look like the Whitebeard Pirates were soon going to fall because of it. However, they had another thing coming if they thought that we wouldn't fight back.
I ignored them before taking a long draft from my cigarette. I thought about all the possible advesaries that we were soon going to face, they were one too many for us to count. Moreover, this was obviously a sign that I had made a huge impact towards the plot of the story.
The Whitebeard Pirates were just getting themselves into way more conflicts than the original story told. Hell, we even stormed the Holy city and made a mess out of it not too long ago. It was evident that my efforts to preserve the story and continue watching it, had proven to be a complete failure.
Well, that didn't matter anymore. If anything new started from this, we would handle it as we go. It was time to stop being too passive with situation like this, it was time to take severe action; and show them that Whitebeard and his sons were not people to be messed with.
That would come later, right now it was time to give the main crew a heads up for what was soon coming.
Stussy handed me over my trusty transponder snail that I had since the first day within the Whitebeard Pirates. I dialed Whitebeard's number and waited for the other line to pick up the call.
Marco picked up the call and greeted me with his usual smile. I blew out a puff of smoke.
"Marco, hand the phone over to the Old man,"
"Alright, but why are you calling him old?" Marco inquired jokingly.
"That's going to be my new moniker for him," I replied as I sat on a barrel.
He didn't say anything else, and quickly gave the snail to Whitebeard.
"What is it, brat?" Whitebeard boomed.
"We have a problem, old man," I replied, "I just got word that Shiki wants to go to war with us."
"Shiki? What does that brat want with me?" Whitebeard asked.
"He's probably bitter about what had happened during the Edd War," I responded.
"Well, how is he going to fight us? Obviously not with those abysmall forces of his, right?" Whitebeard inquired.
"Word is that he made deals with Big Mom and Kaido," I responded.
Whitebeard went quiet upon hearing the news. I couldn't tell whether he was shocked or concerned over what was soon going to happen.
"What are his intentions?"
"Roger"
It was then that Whitebeard let out a tired sigh before speaking.
"When do they plan to attack?"
"I don't know, but probably before Roger makes it back into the New World," I replied.
After a few more moments of discussion, Whitebeard finally hung up the call. It was then that Ken came back from the hospital, and promptly gave a report of the conditions of the rest of the crew.
"The severely injured ones are fine, but one of them had to go through amputation because the burns were just too severe. The minorly injured ones are currently getting some rest, and they should be good to go tommorow,"
"That's good, we need to go to Water 7 and get a new ship before the inevitable happens," I responded.
"Do you think that we'll be able to make it back home in time?" Stussy asked nervously.
"It doesn't matter whether or not we're ready," I responded aloofly, "They will still attack us either way, the real question will be how they will attack."
"In the meantime, I'm going to go look for my axe. I don't feel the same without it," I replied.
"I'll call Olvia and tell her to stay away from the New World. It would just be horrible if she were to die because of our conflicts," Stussy replied, I could only nod in agreement before I leaped to the sky.
I promptly used Moonwalk to fly back to the wreckage of our ship. It didn't take too long to find where the remnants of the ship was.
I immediately spread out all my senses and Observation haki to find any signs of my axe.
"Nothing"
I slowly turned my gaze into the waters of where the ship had sunk, it was clear that I needed to get in there if I wanted to get my axe back.
"Is it really worth it?"
After a few more minutes of delibaration, I took in as much air as I possibly could; and plunged into the icy seas of Paradise.