[Marineford]
It had been a long time since something big happened on the crescent island. Few would dare to attack or try anything against the Marines' seat of power. The Yonko knew that, and even Roger the Pirate King knew it too—to do so would be seen as a war declaration against the World Government, and the frail balance holding each power from clashing would crumble like a piece of paper.
The Marine soldiers donned their white and blue outfits with pride. Their resolution to enact justice was unshakable. Behind them stood the three admirals, the Marines' strategic weapons. Each of them was a force of nature capable of swiftly sinking islands.
However, today, a heavy mood engulfed the Headquarters. Usually, the lower-ranked soldiers were kept in the dark about the major decisions or news circulating among the higher-ups. Their role was merely to comply with the few instructions delivered by their superiors.
Although they were not completely oblivious to what was happening—non-high-classified intel is bound to get leaked, which was a known fact the officers would turn a blind eye to most of the time.
If anyone managed to overlook how they were under the bidding of the Celestial Dragons, most of the time the Marines fought against bloodthirsty pirates who showed no mercy when raiding and pillaging.
But the reality is that they were still the hounds of Mary Geoise.
"Did you see Admiral Kizaru?" a Marine soldier asked solemnly.
"Yeah, I was there when he fell in the docks area, followed by the Vice Admirals and the thousands of Marine soldiers..." another Marine replied.
"You know, I still shiver at the sight of the Admiral all bloodied, sitting like he lost his soul, surrounded by the other soldiers."
A heavy silence spread for a few seconds.
"Did he say anything?" one Marine soldier asked, his eyes looking around furtively for any higher-ranking officer.
"No, he didn't... but I heard that they landed on Sorbet Island a week ago. As for what happened there, no one knows..."
"What could have happened? Is it one of the Yonko?"
"I wouldn't exclude it, but South Blue isn't their territory..."
They continued to converse quietly inside the brightly lit Headquarters corridor, just below the medical floor, as they were put on guard duty.
"What the hell are you doing? Return to your guard duty!" a sudden voice followed by the appearance of a black-haired Marine captain.
"Captain Ritsu, any news?" The Marines didn't pay attention to their squad leader's words as they asked with a hushed tone, fully knowing that he was the first to rush inquiring about what happened in the medical bay.
Captain Ritsu gritted his teeth at their disobedience, but the itch he had to spread what happened overwhelmed him.
He walked closer and made sure that no one was nearby lest they tell on him, and then he whispered.
"Let me tell you about what happened, and the one who beat the Admiral."
"Who?" the Marines asked, waiting for answers.
"Alexander, whom they call now 'Iron Fist Alexander...'" Captain Ritsu said grimly and started recounting what he had heard.
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"Oi, oi, you surely jest!" Admiral Aokiji said to Kizaru, who was sitting on a hospital bed, bare-chested with a Marine nurse tending to his wounds and bruises.
"Kuzan, for the life of me, can't you see my state?" Kizaru replied, his shoulders slumped and his eyebrows fixed in place, unlike how they usually jumped in amusement.
"Tell us exactly what happened, Borsalino!" Sengoku, with arms crossed, ordered.
"I'm sure that you have already got the news from Gino and Momonga," he said while pointing at the other two Vice Admirals, Mamousagi, who was in better shape than Doberman and Momonga.
"No matter what, a defeat is a defeat." He sighed and then turned to regard everyone in the room—the Fleet Admiral, Garp, Tsuru, and his colleagues Akainu and Kuzan.
"We made haste to Sorbet Kingdom. Within a week, we touched land and proceeded to the location provided by Cipher Pol."
"And?" Tsuru raised an eyebrow.
Kizaru put on the new shades he had ordered one of his underlings to bring. "We met Kuma a few kilometers from the shores... At first, we thought that he'd go with us..."
"That was his intention, but he wanted to delay us to buy time for the Kuja to escape..."
Akainu puffed heavy smoke from his cigar and turned to Sengoku. "This is why we should never trust pirates. The Shichibukai system would one day fall by betrayal, just like this." He forcefully crushed the still-lit cigar with his palm.
"Continue!" Sengoku sighed, ignoring the angry Akainu.
"What else is there to tell?" Kizaru shrugged his slumped shoulders.
"Alexander appeared, followed by his crew, each one stronger than the last."
"His Haoshoku burst alone took the Marine soldiers out of battle," he clenched his fists.
"He and I fought. He's strong, far stronger than anyone had anticipated. At first, we were at a stalemate—he countered my moves and I managed to land some heavy hits on him, but then, all of a sudden, he changed, and with a few hits, he rendered me unable to fight back until I couldn't stand up."
"Hmmm, how did he exactly fight? Is he a Devil Fruit user?" asked the solemn Garp.
"No, he isn't a Devil Fruit user; otherwise, he'd have used it against me," Kizaru shook his head.
"His physical strength is off the charts. I can only think of one or two who are similar to him, and that in itself is in question when I haven't managed to bring all of what he had..."
"What do you mean?" Aokiji scrunched his eyebrows as a foreboding feeling engulfed him.
Kizaru stilled for a moment, adjusted his shades, then continued.
"I didn't inflict a single big wound on his body. All I did was merely scratch his skin after using everything I had."
A heavy silence engulfed the room, as everyone silently pondered the implications of his words. An infamous pirate name swept past their minds, who had a similar body toughness.
"So another Kaido has appeared!" Tsuru muttered. Everyone heard her, but no one could refute what she said.
"This young man is far more dangerous than Kaido!" Garp said as he looked at everyone in the room.
"This pirate is at most twenty years of age. Sengoku, do you remember Kaido having this kind of strength back then?" he asked.
"No!" Sengoku's reply came short, but everyone could feel how agitated he felt as he said it.
Kizaru held his hand, which had been fractured days ago. If not for Kuma's help, perhaps he wouldn't be able to talk comfortably like he was now.
"Alexander possesses Haoshoku Haki, and he's an advanced user in all forms, but what stood out to me the most was his Conqueror's Haki, as he even managed to knock me out of my Logia form with it alone..."
"There's no way for a man like him to come with this kind of strength out of nowhere..." Akainu said, strangely calm this time.
"He didn't come out of nowhere... we have a lead on him from Sabaody Archipelago... but we've lost contact with them," Sengoku replied. His words made everyone realize that someone was covering up his traces if they hadn't already erased everything regarding Alexander.
"We have a man with a strength similar to the Yonko, a Shichibukai for a wife and another one who had joined recently, three young strong pirates, and... Kidri D. Alarin, whom everyone presumed was dead..."
He felt tired. Another powerful pirate group had risen, someone who might break the balance, either in their favor or he'd make a huge mess that was almost impossible to fix.
"Did anyone die?" asked Garp all of a sudden.
"No casualties had been reported..." Tsuru replied.
Garp nodded his head then turned around, walking out of the room.
"I suddenly crave some tea. Sengoku, wanna join me? These kids will heal fast enough..."
"All you think about is your stomach! Can't you see how much of a mess we have on our hands?" Sengoku, unable to contain his anger, burst out yelling.
Garp stopped and looked back. For a second, everyone swore they had felt a hint of seriousness flash through his eyes; however, it vanished as quickly as it came.
"Ha ha, what are you mad about? No one died—if everyone gets to live another day, then there's no loss..."
Sengoku was shocked for a second, then he quickly walked to Garp and caught his suit's lapel.
"You're not the one who has to report to the higher-ups!! And what about Kuma? He now roams free witho—"
"Sengoku..." Garp's voice startled the Fleet Admiral. He cut off what he was about to say and looked into his friend's eyes, and what he saw was raw, unbridled anger about to escape.
"Don't you ever talk about that matter in front of me... otherwise, I don't know what I'll do..." His words sent a chill down everyone's spine as they saw the yet-to-vanish shadow of the Marine hero through Garp's old, weary eyes.
Sengoku let go of him. When Garp learned about what Saint JayGarcia had been planning for Bonney due to Alexander's actions, it took everything he had plus multiple guarantees to stop the madman from storming Sorbet Kingdom and taking the girl away.
Garp looked at the Fleet Admiral for a moment, then walked out, leaving Sengoku silently contemplating.
A half dozen heartbeats passed in silence before he sighed and took a step following Garp.
"What should we do about this situation?" Akainu asked before the Fleet Admiral stepped out of the door.
Sengoku paused his steps. "Nothing. We can't afford to lose any important officers to hunt a pirate group that might as well be called a Yonko group... we'll raise his bounty... those were the orders..."
His steps echoed behind the door. Everyone tried to think about what this new powerful group would do. Are they after the One Piece? Or will they act in revenge...
Too many questions and no answers. The only thing they knew was that a new force had entered, contending with the various superpowers.
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"Papa, are you really going to stay with me from now on?" Bonney asked, sitting on Kuma's giant knee while looking at Kuja pirates transporting everything within the church to their ship.
"I will, Bonney... From now on, we will be sailing together!" Kuma smiled and patted her head.
"Yay, I love you, Daddy! Are we going to look for One Piece or maybe Nika?" she asked, her eyes showing their brilliance even in their place that was protected from any sunlight.
"I don't know about that," he said while holding his daughter from falling. "We'll have to follow the Captain's order, and you need to keep away from the sun for another year!"
"Ah, what a bummer." Seeing her pout made Kuma chuckle and realize that he had made the right decision; otherwise, he'd have missed these precious moments.
"Don't worry. Once we sail, there'll be plenty of adventures for you to do," he said, smiling.
"But we first have to get her strong like her favorite warrior Nika." A sudden voice interrupted their talk, as Alexander and Hancock entered the church and walked closer.
"Alexander!!" Bonney shouted. Then all of a sudden, she inflated with muscles like a balloon and jumped, tackling the shocked Alexander to the ground.
"Hahaha, do you want to be a warrior, little girl!" Alexander laughed as Bonney lightly punched his stomach.
"I want to be like Nika, stronger than everyone else!" Bonney shouted while rolling Alexander on the ground.
"Then you'll have to defeat me first!" he replied and caught her playfully.
Kuma on the side smiled and shook his head.
"Bonney!" he called, but the girl paid him no attention.
"Leave them be!" Hancock said with a gentle smile on her face. "He seems to enjoy playing with the little girl."
Kuma looked at his new captain. He never thought that he'd one day join a pirate crew and be under the captaincy of another person.
But the choice had already been made on the shores when Alexander fought for him and his daughter. It was a gesture few could do, especially when he went against an Admiral and emerged unscathed.
For now, his captain was a mystery, but he knew that with time he'd be able to get closer and learn about him.
A few minutes later, Andretta entered. By that time, Bonney had settled by her father's side with Alexander and Hancock sitting on Salome as the Kuja worked.
"Captain! There's no new bounties..." She seemed sad as she sat down beside them on the floor.
"Why do you care about bounties?" Alexander looked exasperated; almost everyone in his crew paid attention to any news regarding their posters.
"But captain, we need bounties—we are pirates!" she said, her lips twisting into a pout.
"Where's Alarin and the rest?" he asked, changing the subject; otherwise, she'd talk nonstop.
"They're helping, loading the sea stone we took from the battleships... all thanks to Mr. Kuma."
Alexander slapped Kuma's back. "It's good to have you with us; otherwise, we would have tied those few remaining Marines until we've left!"
Kuma's back shook under his strike. "I merely helped by sending them back... but aren't you afraid of their retaliation..."
Alexander leaned on the throne that was Salome. "Why would I? Haha," he chuckled and lifted his hand. Red lightning flew from the corner of the room to form the bolt in his hand.
"I haven't even used this legendary weapon."
"Legendary weapon, you say?" Kuma furrowed his brows. He had never heard of a weapon similar to Alexander's, not even among the Meito.
"Oh yes, this weapon didn't belong to this world—it came with the beast, and when I held it, I understood its origin..." Alexander said while caressing the weapon.
"And this is but a fragment forged in the original appearance of an even greater weapon..."
"What do you mean by fragment?" Andretta asked.
Alexander looked at them for a second, then continued.
"Its name is Bolt of Gransax, named after an ancient dragon whose scales are made with sharp, impenetrable gravel stones, hundreds of meters long and four wings that could bolt the sky..."
"I've never heard of such a creature..." Kuma murmured.
"Is it strong?" Bonney asked with shining eyes.
"Strong?" Alexander scratched the stubble growing on his face. "Strong isn't enough to describe it... I doubt anyone would've been able to stop that dragon. When it unleashed its powers, stretches of lands would be erased like nothing..."
"How do you know about this?" Kuma asked, bewildered by this information that he had never heard anything about.
Alexander smiled and continued with his lie. "The weapon told me about where it came from, a land so far away among the stars."
"It's hard to believe there could be life out there..." Kuma said while everyone nodded in agreement.
"I know, but the corpse our ship is dragging is enough proof of that." Alexander knew that it was a hard reality to accept, unlike him who came from another world and had seen enough wonders and horrors for a lifetime.
"Do you know what that place is called?" Andretta asked, intrigued by the new stories he'd from time to time speak about, under the guise of the weapon telling him.
"The Lands Between..." he murmured, while his eyes grew reminiscent.
"So can this bolt talk?" Bonney asked out of innocence.
Alexander shook his head. "No, it doesn't, but it has a will of its own that responds to me alone..." which was true as the weapon had been specifically sent to be bound to him and him alone; other people wouldn't even be able to use it.
"Can I see it for a second?" Kuma asked.
"Sure, go ahead."
Once in his hand, he noticed how heavy it was. He exerted a bit of force and felt the firmness of the metals.
"It's a strong weapon," he said and returned it to Alexander.
"Yes, which is why I didn't use its powers; otherwise, I might have killed Kizaru..."
"A wise decision..." Kuma said, a bit relieved at the safety of the one who once was his friend.
"Hebihime-sama!" Rindo called while hurrying closer to the group.
"What's the matter?" Hancock asked, puzzled about how anxious she seemed.
"A Sky island! An island is descending from the sky!"
"What?" Hancock immediately jumped from Alexander's side and rushed with everyone toward the church's door.
"That thing is huge!!" Rindo shielded her eyes from the sunlight as she tried to measure its size.
A moment of silence prevailed as everyone stared wide-eyed at the island made from clouds superimposed on each other and supported from the bottom by a giant bubble quickly descending while it approached the island.
"Damn me, isn't that Weatheria Sabine told us about!" Andretta muttered.
"It is," Hancock replied absentmindedly, in awe of this creation.
Alexander's eyes shone. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and welcome our visitors..."
"Sabine should be excited right now."
He hoped.