Out for Karma: One Piece

Chapter 106: When love is real…

“A super god? King of gods? Super duper king of Gods?” Rick said with a chuckle.

He landed on the grass in the middle of the garden in a perfect silence and started to walk towards the celestial dragon.

“You know the world is a fucked up place when scum like those are in powers, thinking themselves beyond their station. They are the worst humanity has to offer and they are treated like gods. What a bad joke.”

He arrived in front of a world noble, crouched and raised the fat man’s head to have a good look.

“ Oh! I know you! You’re the worm that my captain and I punched the lights out on Sabaody two years ago. Guess it wasn’t enough to set you straight.”

Without another word the celestial dragon was launched into the sky at a frightening speed. In no time the fat man disappeared out of sight.

“Don’t worry, people. He’s a god, he’ll survive, besides gods are supposed to be with angels. I just sent him home.” he said with a vicious smile while looking at the people present.

“Now, can someone kindly deliver a message to Vice-Admiral Garp? He’s to meet me, alone, in two days at the last place we met at noon. Not before, not after.” 

His task done, he began to rise into the air before landing back on the grass.

“I almost forgot the hostage.”

At those words plenty of royalty members present shredder in fear. Most of them knew who that man was, knew of his deeds. If they were not aware, throwing to a certain death a celestial dragon into the sky was enough to confirm how mad and serious he was.


“So… Any one volunteering?”

He was looking mainly at men, but most of them were either frozen in place or shaking like a leaf.

“Really? No one? I guess I’ll pick out a volunteer myself then. Eeny, meeny, miny…”
“I’ll go with you.”

Turning around he found himself face to face with the fluffy princess he loved so much. She was even more beautiful than the last time he saw her. Gone was the pretty girl and in was the beautiful woman. Her face was full of determination, her eyes burned with fury.

“Yeah, I’m dead.”
“Very well princess.”

Rick turned around and in a cold voice chastised the royals.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves. This princess, barely a woman, has more balls in her pinky that you have in the entirety of your family trees. To think that the people are ruled by cowards like you is bloody disgusting.”

He took Vivi in his arms and began to float.

“Don’t worry king Cobra. I’ll treat her like… a princess” he joked, before taking the sky again for good and leaving.


~~~~~

The trip lasted just a few minutes but seemed like an eternity. Vivi may have been quiet, but she radiated anger. They finally landed in front of a house. When his hostage noticed where they were she thought it was a joke.

“Marineford really?! He’s mad! Completely mad!”

They had indeed landed in Marineford. The former HQ of the Navy Less than an hour away from the Red Line and Marie Geoise. Rick chose this place, for two reasons. One it was close, meaning would not be absent too much. Two, only a tenth of the forces now lived on the base. It was easy for him to sneak in.

He broke the door’s lock and opened the former, then motioned to Vivi to get inside. He followed her and closed the door behind them. Turning around he didn’t have the time to react to the powerful slap who landed on his left cheek. Bringing back his head in its normal position he looked her right in the eyes. None of them said anything. After a moment she raised her hand and slapped him a second time. He let her.

“We can talk or you can keep on slapping me. Your choice.”
“You deserved it.”
“Yes, and much more.”

If look could kill he would have died a thousand times over. However Vivi relanted. She had two days to let out all of her feelings on him after all.

“What is this place? A hideout? Right in the middle of a marine base?” she asked, turning her back to him and looking around.
“This is the place I grew up when I was not on a navy ship. It is also the place where I died.”

His words had an effect and she spinned around to face him.

“Explain.” she ordered.

He raised a finger in front of her and with his unoccupied hand searched for something inside his overcoat. With a yes of victory he pulled out a shell and presented it to her.

“Are you mocking me now?”
“No! It’s a record dial.”
“A record dial?”
“Dials are special shells from sky islands. This one’s type can record everything it hears and play it back. I… I used it because I got tired of explaining the same things over and over again.”

He pressed the appropriate part of the sheel and the recording began to play.

~~~~

“...”
“...”

The recording stopped playing minutes ago already and none of them said anything. Vivi was deep in thoughts while Rick was just waiting nervously for her to talk. Suddenly she moved and left the entrance to go to sit on the sofa not far. Rick followed her and, despite his instincts telling him to not do so, sat beside her.

“That’s…”
“Insane?”
“Yes! What else can it be?! Do you really think I’ll believe any of it?!”
“Honestly? Yes.”

That answer earned him another slap.

“That one I didn’t deserve!”
“You did, for lying to me!”
“I never lied to you, Vivi, and I never will!”
“Really?! Then answer me this then: did you sleep with Nami?”

Rick was taken aback. That question was so out of the blue.

“I.. did, what‘s the link bet…”

And he got slapped again.

“Okay enough with the slaps! What does sleeping with Nami have anything to do with the topic at hand?!”
“I…I wanted to see if you were telling the truth. That you would never lie to me I mean.”
“Okay… but how did you…”
“Princess Viola.”
“I should have known.” he replied with a sigh.
“I feel like an idiot you know; pinning after you all those years…”
“Vivi, if there is one thing you’re not, it's an idiot.”
“Ha! As If! Look at you! You’re married, having a girl in every port. And there is me, the stupid and naive princess who declared in front of her whole kingdom that you’ll marry me.” she said in defeat, tears appearing in the corner of her eyes, putting her face in her hands.
“You were too young back then but now I can ask you.”
“Ask what?” she asked.

When she didn’t get an answer she raised her head from her hands and saw Rick kneeling in front of her.

“Vivi Nefertari, will you…”

Once again he couldn’t finish his sentence. The slap was the hardest one yet.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” She was beyond furious.
“Why not?”
“Because you're already married for once! And I refuse to be another one of those girls that spread their legs for you for a good time and left alone after being used!”
“There are no girls that do that for me.”
“Oh yes? What about Nami? Uh? What about Princess Viola and Princess Shirahoshi? What about Boa Hancock the pirate queen?!”
“It’s not like…”
“Don’t you dare say it’s not like that! It’s exactly like that!”

Rick resisted the urge he had to roll his eyes; he didn’t want to be slapped again. Instead he just sighed.

“Nami is Robin AND I’s fiancee. Hancock is mine but I’m sure she will be Robin’s too. Neither Robin nor I ever were intimate with Shirahoshi as she didn’t feel ready to join us. And Viola… Robin is really fond of her and so am I. And there is no one else.”
“...”
“...”
“What?” asked Vivi in confusion. That was too much information in one go for her.
“Robin and I… we connected in a way that… we never connected with anyone else… Nami helped a lot with that actually and along the way Robin decided she wanted Nami in our relationship too. Obviously, Nami agreed to it and now two years later… well she kinda swindled me into proposing to her. I don’t regret it though.”
“So Nami is a skank, never would have thought of that of her.”
“She’s not!” Rick replied with anger in his voice.
“Okay, maybe I need to detail how my relationships came to be.”
“As if it would change anything.”
“It will.”
“Go ahead then, tell me about the fabulous tale of Wal D Rick and how he built his harem.” Vivi said with so much sarcasm it could have peeled paint on a wall.
“After we left Alabasta, Robin made herself known to the crew. She had sneaked in before we left on Merry. Luffy being luffy, she joined the crew.  As we were both newcomers we spent a lot of time together. We share many things together, nour love for history for one, our age for two but what brought her together was our fugitive past. We were both framed for something we didn’t do. We both had to constantly watch behind our shoulders, to distrust anyone and everyone, just to survive. Fortunately I had Nami on my side.”

The mention of her friend, or now ex-friend made Vivi frown.

“She was teasing, and flirting a bit with me, nothing really untowards though. She quickly caught on how I felt for Robin. At the time she was still very distrustful and with my past in the navy… Well it didn’t make things better. It took me risking my life by fighting CP9 agents, destroying a buster call and having the shit beat out of me for her to finally trust me.
“CP9? Buster call?”
“Cypher Pol 9 is a secret Cypher Pol unit of the world government specialized in assassination. A buster call is the greatest strike force of the navy. It’s ten galleon warships gathered in one place with one purpose: eradicate everything in their way. O’hara and its inhabitants were the victims of one. No one must survive, no building must be left standing.”
“That’s…”
“Evil, that’s what it is. Especially when most of those people were innocent bystanders.”

Vivi didn’t know what to think. After Crocodile, she knew the navy and the world government were not as perfect as they wanted people to believe, especially after giving credit to a captain of the navy for the defeat of the warlord, but doing things to that extent? She quickly put that information in the corner of her mind for later, and signaled Rick to continue his story.

“Anyway… After Robin and I got together, Nami still kept flirting with me to tease the both of us. Mainly she was feeling left out.  And after the life Robin had for twenty years well… She got scared that I would leave her for someone else, since apparently I’m a woman magnet.”
“You really think highly of yourself.”
“I don’t. Robin’s words, not mine. So she got the idea that by allowing me to sleep around I’ll be more inclined to stay with her as another woman would not be as understanding.”
“That’s a stupid idea.” Vivi commented
“Yes, Nami and I told her. But Robin was so scared to lose the one good thing she had for the first time since O’hara that her mind went off the rails a bit. It turned out, she also had another motive.
“She wanted to participated too as she’s bisexual.” stated the princess earning a raise of the brow from Rick.
“Viola told me. And Nami being her fiance too didn’t help either.”
“Well I don’t have to explain that then, good. The problem with her idea is that I would have to be share with others and her to be shared too.
“Her too?”
“I believe in equality in a relationship. If I am to sleep with someone else, then Robin too would be free to do so. It wouldn’t be right otherwise.

“That’s incredibly…”
“Normal. All romantic relationships should be like that where if one does something the other has the right to do it too. Anyway, I wasn’t interested. I din’t want some random guy having sex with her, nor did I want to have sex with someone else. Robin assured me there would never be another man. I caught on that she implied that there may be other women and in the end, we both agree to share others and not ourselves. From then, Nami was naturally added to our couple. Though she had the shock of her life when Robin kissed her.” he said with a chuckle.
“So Nami is really bi too then.”
“I don’t really know. She loves what Robin does to her and deeply loves her. She seems really interested in Shirahoshi but that’s it. I never saw her showing any interest in another woman, except you, maybe.”
“ME?!” she yelled in shock.
“It’s just a maybe but she constantly made reference to me about you. While they were all about the two of us, I wonder if deep down she’s not interested in you too. When I left to come here I think she was hoping for you to join us.”

That’s another piece of information that Vivi put in the corner of her mind. She never saw Nami that way, so she didn’t quite know what to do with that knowledge.

“Then we got separated on Sabaody. From there, on my way to Impel Down to save Ace I met with Luffy and Hancock.”
“So that’s where you know her from.”
“No. I met her years earlier. A few months before I met you actually.”
“Ahh! So naturally you picked up your relationship where you left it.”
“Nothing of the sort. When I met her she… was on the run from a crime she didn’t commit and nearly got caught. I helped her and we went our separate ways. 5 minutes was the time we spent together at most. There wasn’t any relationship of any kind.”
“So you started a relationship, more than a decade after, just from those five minutes? I have to say I’m impressed at how fast you work.”
“That’s not it.”
“What is it then?”
“The crime she was framed with… it was really bad. I can’t tell you what it was as I won’t break her trust but let’s just say that my help back then left a really deep impact on her and me being framed for attempting to kill a celestial dragon didn’t help to lessen it, quite the contrary. She… kinda became obsessed with me?”
“Obsessed?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to go there. When she learned I was involved with someone she became murderous.”
“I can understand why.” thought Vivi.

It was easy for her to see herself in Hancock. Being saved by Rick at a young age, falling in love, being in love for years to discover that he’s with someone else. Yes, she could relate. The part about the celestial dragon puzzled her though. She thought about the time Rick and Hancock met and realized what was the crime Hancock committed.

“My god! She was a slave! One of those Fisher Tiger had freed. No wonder she developed feelings for him, he saved her for going back to slavery! For a young teenage slave girl to finally have someone extent a helping hand… I can definitely see how she became obsessed with him.”

Like she had done twice previously, what she learned was properly stored in her mind.

“I could only calm her down whenI talked to her about the deal.”
“The deal? What deal?”
“Robin’s deal. Every single woman who wants to have a relationship with me needs to be with Robin.”
“Like some kind of tribute?”
“More or less. For every time someone wants to be intimate with me, they have to be intimate with Robin too. Hancock being the Amazon queen was more than fine with it.
“Yeah, I’m not really surprised here.”
“Me neither.”
“So if a woman wants to sleep with you she has to sleep with Robin?”
“Yes, not any woman though. A woman both Robin and I agreed on.”
“And she agreed with me?”
“She said she agrees with every woman I love as apparently I have good taste. As long as the deal is respected I’m even free to marry. Hence why Nami and Hanock are my fiancees.”

Vivi froze at the mention of love and wanted to know more.

“You love me?” she asked tentatively, making him frown.
“Of course I do! Why do you think I’m on my knees proposing to you?!”
“I don’t know?! To play with my heart because you’re sadistic?”
“I’m not and I would never do that.”
“And yet you were proposing before telling me about your other relationships.”
“I.. Fair point, I may have been too fast in doing things.” Rick replied in realization.
“You think?!”
“What can I say except it’s proof that I love you?”
“Riiight.” she answered clearly not believing a word.
“What about Shirahoshi and Princess Viola?”
“Shirahoshi joined us but she doesn’t feel ready to go beyond kissing and caressing which is fine as we don’t force anyone to do what they don’t want to do. Viola… I don’t know. I don’t know her well enough and I don’t know how well Robin knows her. If it was a one time thing or more, I can’t tell.”
“...”
“...”
“Is there anything else I need to know? Any more conquest under your belt?”
“Yes and no.”
“Yes and no?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“Speak.” Vivi ordered.
“Back when I was in the marine I was in a very unhealthy relationship with my captain.”
“How unhealthy?”
“She waited almost a decade for me to be legal, unhealthy. My age was the only thing that kept her in check, barely.”
“Ouch.”
“She’s not a bad person. Quite the contrary but if Hancock is obsessed well she’s… way beyond. Anyway, while she’s one of the best people I know and the only person who didn’t turn her back on me when I was framed she kinda swindled me too.”
“Swindled how?”
“When I ate my second devil fruit she went into shock. When she woke up she wouldn’t let me get away from her embrace. I … had to promise her to marry her too to finally be let go.”
“Marry her too?”
“It’s amazing how everyone but her notices the too immediately.” he said with a chuckle.
“Who was the other woman?”
“Vice-Admiral Tsuru and before you say anything, I was six at the time. I did end up having an intimate relationship with her when I was eighteen though. And Yes my ex was in the know and okay with it.”
“... If she’s worse than Hancock I doubt it.”
“Kaza… that’s my captain name, was okay with it because she knew Tsuru very well. They.. have some sort of mentor mentee relationship. At least she could trust Tsuru to not steal me away, since at the time Kaza and I were on different ships. My relationship with Kaza is… more coercion from her side than anything. I won’t lie though, I did agree to the relationship but I wouldn’t consider it as a boyfriend - girlfriend one. That’s why I’ve been with Tsuru, with whom the relationship was the same. My first real relationship and girlfriend is Robin.”
“...”
“...”
“How are the two of them still relevant today? They are marines, you’re a pirate, I don’t see how that works.”
“I gave my word to marry them. Yes I was a kid, but I still gave my word. If tomorrow they want me to keep it, I will.”
“How honest of you.” she said in a sarcastic tone, not pleased one bit by what she heard.
“Anything else?”
“Yes. I came to Marie Geoise for two reasons. One to see you…” Vivi snorted at that.
“That’s true, I would have taken you as a hostage even if you didn’t volunteer, then to bring you here and to ask you to marry me.”
“Riiight. And the second reason?”
“To get from grandpa the location of Kaza and our daughter.”


Of all the information, of all the things she heard today, that one, was the one that did in Vivi.exe. What brought her back to the world was Rick grabbing one of her hands. She quickly retracted it.

“Daughter?”
“Yes. I wasn’t aware of her existence until Tsuru told me about her after the fight on Dressrosa. Unbeknown to me when I fled the Navy, Kaza was pregnant. Many knew of our relationship and that put her and the baby in danger, so Tsuru asked grandpa to hide them and only he knows where they are.”
“...”
“...”
“You have a daughter.” Vivi repeated in disbelief.
“Two actually.”
“WHAT?!”
“Her name is Lynda, she’s nearly two. Hancock is her mother.”

Vivi brought her hands to her temples and began to massage them, to calm the headache that she now had.

“He’s married, engaged to two other women, maybe four, with at least one other woman on the side and two daughters. One almost a teenager and one still a baby. Girl… What the hell did you get yourself into? Why the hell did you fall in love with that man? Why couldn’t you fall in love with a normal, nice guy who kept his dick in his pants? Ugh that’s not right, it’s not like he’s chasing girls right and left. Not like Sanji. Ugh I’m defending him now and using Sanji as a standard. What is wrong with me?!”

She abruptly stood up making Rick fall on his ass.

“Break! I need a Break! It’s too much.”
“If you want to lay down; second room on the right, upstairs.”

Without another word Vivi left towards the stairs.