Chapter 253: Plan, Agreement and Departure
_________ POV Narration _________
The first thing in the morning was the splitting of rewards.
The party was great, and the festival and atmosphere were amazing.
But the ones who had participated in the mission to take down Kaido did want to sail further away.
Luffy, Law and Kid were the only ones who took some things from the old Beast Pirates, and they all took a copy of his Road Poneglyph.
Enel also took a copy of it, yawning as he realised he had access to three Road Poneglyphs.
One was provided to everyone in the team by Law, who had taken it from Zou. One came from Luffy and the Straw Hat's struggles on Whole Cake Island.
The third was essentially pried away from Kaido's cold dead hands.
But the fourth one was still very much a mystery.
Enel only really had a few clues as to where it could be, all thanks to Morgans and some information networks he had set up.
Their communications were scarce, but Morgans was still sometimes sending some interesting or relevant news to the residents of the Sky Archipelago.
He was, of course, doing so through coded messages on live broadcasts. He was not ever going to be using what remained of the News Coo to deliver the messages, as the birds were still traceable.
And through those coded messages, Enel and the troop learned that the last 'unknown' Road Poneglyph was in the possession of a man nicknamed 'Hinokizu', the man possessing a burn scar.
His whereabouts were unknown, but it was rumoured that the seas themselves sank any ships that came even close to his pitch-black ship.
Enel decided to share that piece of information with the Supernovas as well, but he didn't really know the man's location at all.
He didn't seem to be present in the parts of the New World that Enel could sense. But at the end of the day, the Sky King didn't really care about the One Piece, he figured Luffy would manage to get it before or after the war if it was truly fated to him.
Either that or Shanks would finally go and get it himself after Luffy awakened finally.
Whichever it was, Enel had already pieced enough of a picture of the Void Century to know what had happened, the things the government were trying to hide.
His mission was to now take it down, and share his findings with the rest of the world, to crush the Celestial Dragons on their thrones and prove to them that they were not any better than other men.
But most importantly, he had grown to want that idea to also be etched into people's minds. The idea that there was no such thing as one born above another.
A leader was always supposed to have a responsibility towards the people they ruled over, such was supposed to be the law for centuries.
But the Celestial Dragons were, as things stood, nothing more than parasites.
The world nobles, the elders, and IMU had all been taking full advantage of their power to put themselves above all others and to ensure that no power would ever rise against them.
That was the reason they had worked hard to keep a balance in the world. A balance that only someone like Enel had been able to break so early.
But regardless of their efforts, the balance was bound to tilt and crack at some point. If not for Enel, then surely someone like Luffy could've done the job.
He and the other Supernovas. They were called the 'Worst Generation' for a good reason after all.
And now, the Captains of the Worst Generation within Wano were preparing to set sail, saying their goodbyes and waving off at the new friends they made along the way.
Kid was set on his journey, his direction seemed to be towards Elbaf, the land of the giants.
He seemed to be gunning after Shanks, eager to prove himself. Enel didn't bother to douse his fire by telling him that Shanks was an ally.
It wasn't like Kid was going to listen to him anyway, so he figured he'd just let Shanks humble the spirited young man.
Law seemed to be headed off in another direction, Enel didn't remember the exact name of the island, but he assumed that the Death Surgeon would be fine just about anywhere he went thanks to his devil fruit.
As long as he didn't go around trying to mess with any other Emperors...
Luffy took off in the direction of Egghead Island, making Enel just shrug.
All of the Supernovas present did promise something to the Sky King and his crew.
'When the day comes, and the drums of war sound. We shall join the army of blimps and flying ships that sail over the horizon.'
Now, Luffy's pledge was a bit more simple, he just said he'd jump on Enel's ship when the time came.
That was Enel's plan.
Starting from the Red Line, he would march the Sky of the Grand Line in its entirety, collecting all of his associates and preparing to strike the World Government at its heart.
They were definitely going to know that the attack was coming, so he decided to 'advertise it' in such a way.
After all, the opportunity for a surprise attack was off the table from the moment Shiki and Francisco attacked the Holy Land to save Kuma.
Making a tour of the Grand Line was just Enel's way of Psyching the Government out. And giving hope to the people.
In that 'march' he wouldn't just collect his allies, but also rain down lighting on any and all Government Agents and Pacifistas still working to suppress the revolts.
There weren't going to be too many of them left anyway...
After all, the World Government was going to expect him and his Army at the Holy Land, a place that was now fortified beyond anything in the world.
Kuma was probably going to have a rather surreal experience, seeing that many lifeless versions of himself running amok.
After all, besides developing the Seraphs, Vegapunk had continued pumping out more and more Pacifistas, even improved models of the original Pacifistas.
His laboratory seemed to be running constantly, with not a moment of rest.
Enel wondered what shenanigans Luffy was going to pull off when reaching that place. But he wasn't going to be there personally for it.
At the end of the day, Luffy was now at a state where Enel didn't need to help him at all.
He had awakened, and he was a lot more powerful than even in his original awakening.
Enel assumed it was because he had forced the Rubber Man to face stronger and stronger opponents than he was originally supposed to.
After all, Luffy's talent was simply insane. He was only really held back by his own sometimes childish way of thinking. He was thankfully quite smart when it came to fighting though.
There was really no one better in the world to inherit Nika's powers. Luffy was a perfect match for it.
As the ships of the young pirates disappeared into the horizon, Enel smiled and stretched.
The Red Scabbards, Yamato and Momo seemed to be rather saddened to see them leave.
Yamato had decided to not join the Straw Hats and remained in Wano to protect it. And Momonosuke decided to not open up the country, as he felt that it wasn't quite ready.
No one could really blame him, besides Yamato and the Red Scabbards, it didn't have that many protectors.
That did put a bit of a stick in Enel's plans, as he wanted to see if he could take Pluton. But at the end of the day Pluton, just like Poseidon, was not really necessary.
Enel could always destroy the World Government without it. The Army he had gathered was going to be enough.
And there was also the chance that Momonosuke decided to join him in the war too.
The young leader seemed a bit flustered when asked about joining the war, especially since Luffy acted as if it were a given.
"I-I don't know if the Land of Wano is prepared for a war in its current state... I can't make any promises, but I will consider if our land has enough time to heal before the war..."
That was his official response, Luffy seemed a bit disappointed, but Enel was understanding of it.
After all, much like with Shirahoshi, Momonosuke was still essentially a child. Even if his body looked a bit older, his mind was that of a child.
And he had the role of leading his people now, he couldn't just make the choice of opening his country's borders and entering the greatest war in history on a whim.
The fact that he didn't agree instantly was already a good sign that Momonosuke was going to be a responsible and good ruler to his people, so Enel left that conversation quite pleased.
And eventually... Shiki broke a piece of land from the wilderness, and the Sky King and his people also departed Wano.
"Onwards to our home! We have a war to plan..." Enel narrowed his eyes as he stood straight above the clouds. His smile radiated confidence now, and the people behind him could feel it too.
"Honestly, I'm just glad everyone's made it out alive to this point..." Bonney muttered while scowling a bit.
"In all fairness, I doubt this would have been the case were it not for you." Francisco smiled as he looked at Boneny with gratitude.
"Heh, god damn right. It feels good to be young again!" Garp rolled his shoulder sa he laughed out loud.
"... Yeah... Must be nice..." Zephyr muttered, seemingly a bit jealous at the fact that he was still stuck being old.
It wasn't just about jealousy though. He also felt ashamed at not having been able to help much against Kaido.
His mechanical arm being melted off was a bit annoying too, since he was now constantly off balance. And his old back didn't like that.
Bonney looked at him with a scowl, before walking over and slapping his back.
"Just ask dipshit!" She said as she used her devil fruit on him.
The old man's body immediately started glowing at his withered and old muscles seemed to revitalize instantly.
His muscles shifted, growing sturdier, more refined, and in place of a stump, he now also had a fully muscled arm.
"Holy shit?! It's almost as if I'm back in my Admiral days!" The now younger Zephyr seemed to be in a state of euphoria.
Everyone looked at the scene with warm gazes. It was nice seeing how quickly Z's mood shifted after all.
Bonney seemed quite pleased with herself too.
"Oy, why the hell didn't you do that before we fought Kaido? Might've been more helpful..." Shiki was thankfully there to piss on everyone's parade, using logic... Rather unbecoming of him.
"..." Everyone looked at him with shock.
They didn't even know what to feel strange about. That they indeed hadn't thought about reverting Zephyr's age before the fight, or that Shiki was the one to point it out.
"... In my defence, I thought that Zephyr had incorporated his mechanical arm in his fighting style..." Francisco raised his hand and took a step away.
"I second that." Enel nodded and turned his head to the side, whistling slightly as the rest of his wayward crew started arguing about who was stupider in that situation.
'Hah... It almost feels like a big and nice family...' The Emperor's thoughts rang out as he consciously chose to ignore the swearing in the background.
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Hey there! Hope everyone's doing well.
Still pretty busy, and also lacking inspiration. Took two days off work to unwind for a bit, will try to get back on track with writing using that time.
It's 3 am for me again, so I'mma go sleep now
Story Shoutout : Hell Difficulty Tutorial
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