I looked out from the ramparts and saw the forces that the Marines had marshaled to fight against Whitebeard and his crew. It showed just how much they feared and respected his power and the power of his allies.
As the execution was about to start, Doflamingo sauntered up to me and started talking, "Are you going to be ok? I've heard rumors that you're real friendly with Whitebeard's crew. Must be tough for you to be here." He said with a mocking tone.
"You don't know anything about me. Unless you want to be the first casualty of this war, you should get away from me." I said. Doffy really rubbed me the wrong way, just something about his cocky attitude made me want to punch his lights out. It was different than when I used to watch the show, being around a guy like that in person really irritated me, especially considering I knew about all the terrible things that he had done.
"Whoa, how scary." He said sarcastically as he moved away.
As the execution began, Whitebeard's ship made an appearance from under the sea, and the battle began. I didn't really want to get involved, I had made friends with Whitebeard's crew before. But I didn't know what the consequences of changing the story here would be. So I had no choice but to fight against the Whitebeard pirates.
I didn't really want to fight against them, so I engaged in a fight with one of Whitebeard's division commanders. I don't remember his name but he was a fishman. I wasn't fighting too seriously with him, to be honest I was only halfheartedly attacking to drag out the fight to pass the time. As my fight dragged on, it was interrupted by the appearance of a new opponent. Whitebeard himself appeared and knocked me back with a punch.
"It's unfortunate to see you here Galileo. If you think you can get through this battle with such half measures then you're sorely mistaken. If you're really here to fight us, then your opponent will be me!" He said as he swung his glaive.
"You should know I don't want to do this! But the shadow of death is over Ace. Neither of us can save him now he's already fated to die." I said as I blocked his strike.
We then went on to have a brief exchange of strikes. This was completely different than our first fight. Our first fight was so much fun, I was filled with excitement with every strike I threw. This time my heart wasn't in it at all, even against such a great opponent I couldn't bring myself to fight with my full power. Whitebeard then hit me with a powerful strike that sent me crashing into the ground. As usual laid on my back I thought that even though my adaptation ability negated the damage that the hit I just took hurt a lot more than any from our first fight.
"You say you can't help us, but you don't want to fight against us either. You shouldn't be here with such halfhearted feelings. If you aren't going to fully commit one way or another, then you ought to just stay on the ground." Whitebeard said as he kept moving forward.
As I was lying there I thought that he had a good point I wasn't getting anywhere the way I was going. I probably was better off just lying here on the ground until the battle was over. Things had gone really well for me since I came to this world, but for the first time I felt like a real loser. Lying on my back I just stayed there and looked at the sky. The sky. Huh, that's weird it looks like something's falling from the sky. Wait, that's gotta be Luffy! I moved out of the way to avoid getting crushed by the falling ship.
Me and Luffy met face to face as he disembarked the crashed ship. "Huh? Bandanna Guy? What are you doing here?" He asked me.
"I'm a Warlord. I'm here because I have to be." I replied.
"Oh, so you're here to stop me? I'm not going to hold back just because it's you." Luffy said as he squared up with me.
"Luffy, trust me. There's nothing either of us can do anything here. It's Ace's fate to die here. You'd be better off just leaving." I said in a defeatist tone.
"So what? I don't care about any of that! If it's Ace's fate to die, then I'll just smash fate into a million pieces!" He said. "You know, you said that you just wanted to be free to sail the sea and have a fun adventure. You said that was your dream, but right now you don't sound free at all! You're trapped in all that fate talk!" He said as he landed a punch on me and kept moving forward. The punch didn't do any actual damage, but I still went to the ground all the same.
"Whoa! Did Staw Hat Luffy just knock out Buster Gaileo of the Seven Warlords? That's unbelievable!" A Navy Soldier said.
I he was spot on and again I was stuck in thought. It hurts sometimes when someone points out something that you try to avoid thinking about. I had planned on not doing anything to affect the story, but that decision was really holding me back right now.
"Ha! You're using that excuse again! Like I said, you couldn't do anything even if you tried. I'll even throw you a bone. If you manage to save Ace and Whitebeard from their fate, you'll complete a special achievement and I'll give you two draws! Of course, you'll never be able to accomplish anything here either way!" The system chimed in to mock me.
I mostly ignored what the system said, but I got back up and dusted myself off.
"Hehe, Hahahaha!" I started to laugh as I stood back up, causing many of the people around me to look at me with confused expressions. "What have I been doing? Luffy and Whitebeard were right. It isn't like me to overthink things like this. I should just do whatever I want, like I always do." I thought to myself.
"And what I want right now is… to save Ace and Whitebeard!"
I rushed towards the execution grounds. I don't know if time just passed quickly while I lying down feeling sorry for myself or maybe the battle just progressed faster in person. Either way, Luffy was already at the point where he was about to confront the three Admirals. I hurried there to get there as quickly as I could.
"Luffy! Wait! Let me take care of these guys. You just go get Ace!" I said as I arrived at the scene. "Bankai!!! Soo Zabimaru!!!!!"
"Bandanna Guy! What are you doing now?" Luffy asked.
"Sorry about making you knock some sense into me, but I've finally come to my senses. Like I said, you go ahead and leave this to me."
"Hehe, good to see your back." Luffy said smiling and slapping my back. "But are you sure you can handle these guys? They're really strong."
"You're about a hundred years too early to be worrying about me. Don't forget who I am. I'm one of the Seven Warlords of The Sea! I can't lose! I have to win!" I said hyping myself up.
Luffy gave me a thumbs up and went on ahead.
"So you finally show your true colors. Pirate scum." Akainu said.
"It's too bad I'm going to have to kill you here Leo." Kuzan said.
"You don't really think that you can take all three of us by yourself do you?" Kizaru asked.
"Only one way to find out I guess." I said as I activated my Advance to enhance my physical abilities. "Let's go!"
For the first since I arrived in Marineford, I felt my blood pumping. I felt that same feeling that I felt when I first fought Whitebeard. I knew that this was the right choice, this is more my style. A hot blooded battle to save my friends! Of course there's no where else I'd rather be!