Chapter 130: Incompetence reached a new height

 

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

A powerful, distressed and full of rage scream could be heard from all over O’hara. It scared most people, who were simply civilians, into thinking someone was being attacked. Even members of the R.A. thought it was the case. Thankfully an officer in the know explained what it was to Sabo who had returned to this part of Grand Line.

“That’s… Huh… Chief Koala went to talk to Miss Kaza about recent news.”
“Did Rick die?!” the blond asked quickly. He had recognized the voice’s owner, had known Kaza for a bit here and there and knew how batshit insane she was about the man. He didn’t envy Rick at all.
“Not exactly, sir.” the officer replied and offered a wanted poster to his superior.
Taking a moment to understand what he was seeing, Sabo’s eyes popped right out of their orbits when his brain began to work again. “Holy shit!”

~~~~~

“How can that be?!” yelled a downtrodden Sanji, looking at the reward on his new wanted poster.
“Don’t worry, Sanji. It’s just a mistake from the World Government.” his sister tried to cheer him up.
“I know how you feel.” sympathized Chopper, sporting a big smile on his face. For once, the Navy had done their job properly and actually saw Chopper transform. In consequence his bounty had been appropriately modified.
“Besides, the bounty is not about one’s strength, it’s also about one’s deeds and she did one hell of a deed. Yohohoho.”

To the side Eri was shocked speechless at the wanted posters pinned against the wooden wall.

Monkey D. Luffy, Captain of the Strawhats pirates: 4B
Wal D. Rick, ‘World’s worst traitor’,Vice-Captain of the Strawhats pirates: 4,150B

Roronoa Zoro, ‘The Pirate hunter’, world strongest swordsman: 3.6B
Jimbei, Knight of the sea: 1.3B
Vinsmoke ‘Black Leg’ Sanji: 1.250B
Vinsmoke ‘Poison Pink’ Reiju: 900M
‘God’ Usopp : 800M
Franky the Cyborg: 636M
‘Soul King’ Brook: 578M
Baby-5: 480M
Tony-Tony Chopper: 300M

Nami and Robin not having taken part in the fight against Buggy and the rest of the Cross Guild their bounty stayed the same. It was the very last poster that had the teenager out for a loop.

‘The Traitor’s daughter’ Wal D. Eri: 3B

One of the Cypher Pol agents had been undercover in the Cross guild and saw Buggy ‘fly’ from the main building to lend on the Sunny where Eri proceeded to quickly kick his ass, using her observation haki to dodge all his hits and ended up knocking him out with a strike of the pommel of her sword to the head. With his binoculars and skills, the agent learned her name and who her father was by reading on the lips of the members present. Once the crew left in a hurry, he reported everything to Fleet Admiral Sakazuki through den den mushi and to Admiral Fujitora in person who was leading the marines fleet that came on the island to take down the Emperor and his people. The rest is history.

The teen was not proud at all. More than anything she was confused and fearful. She hadn’t planned to become a pirate, she just wanted to spend time with her father and explore the world. Now she had a big target on her back and she wasn’t nearly strong enough to fight the people that went after a 3 Billion Berry bounty. 

“I think you broke some kind of record.” said Ussop trying to help.
“I’m thirteen!”
“It’s alright, you get used to it.” comforted Nami who had been in her situation. Sure she had been older and her first bounty was not that astronomical but she understood.
“I don’t want to get used to it! Dad!”

She tried to find some support from her father but the news of Robin being taken by Shanks and his crew had sent him in a murderous mood and had none to offer. The Emperor had snuck on Sunny and after using his conqueror haki to make everyone on board unconscious, took Robin with him back to his own ship and left. Eri, barely holding to her consciousness, saw him just before passing out. She had woken up a few minutes before Buggy landed on the deck.

“Then train to the point you don’t have to worry about anyone coming after you.” Zoro said, tossing her Ryusei.

Looking at her blade in her hands then back to her teacher, she steeled herself and nodded. Drawing the blade, she went with him to a free part of the deck and they began a spar. On the side, Mihawk, now the second best swordsman in the world, was sitting at the table where Reiju and Brook were enjoying drinks. The man, always impeccable with his look, wore simply his regular pants and a white shirt, mostly open in the middle. Anyone could see his heavily bandaged torso. He didn’t understand at first why he was on their ship when he woke up but Chopper had been very thorough with his explanation. Just like he had spared Zoro’s life the first time they met, Zoro had spared his. He was on the Sunny because his wound had needed a lot of work and they couldn’t do that on the island when a whole marine fleet was not far away. He was grateful for it, not for being alive but for being free. During the day he had been up he had come to observe the strawhats  and found that they were not like any pirate crew he had ever met. They were the kind of crew that you met once in a blue moon, more interested in freedom and adventure than in pillaging, plundering and all other pastime activities that pirates were known for. While feeling a constant chill running down his spine any time Rick was closed, the man emitting a disturbing amount of killing intent, he got used to it. Instead he used his time convalescing to watch Zoro teach a little girl which, he had to admit, was quite good for her age with a blade in hand. It was obvious for a master like him to recognize it as one of the 50 skillful blades. He couldn’t mistake it as Ryusei had a very peculiar appearance. All black with white dots on it reminding one of the sky at night.
That wasn’t what drew him to watch her. No, it was the way she used her haki. She imbued her blade with armament a split second before the hit struck and used observation to deviate the trajectory of her opponent’s sword instead of parrying it. That created openings for her to counter attack. The worst was that it seemed that she did it instinctively. She was fighting with everything she had but made absolutely no waste in her resources. Be it her movements, her stamina or her haki.

‘A true prodigy of the sword.’ the former shichibukai thought and couldn’t help but wish to have a go at a spar with her. He would win for sure but he wanted to see how she would react to his own style. Maybe one day, once she had become a master, cross blade for real too.
Regardless of what he was thinking, he found himself not in a hurry anymore to heal and leave this ship. Not like he could anyway. He was no prisoner since his own sword was available to him but he couldn’t really go anywhere. In the end, he made the decision to relax and enjoy his time.

On the side, Nami and Reiju were talking about Rick with Luffy.

“I’m worried he’s going to lose it.” said the redhead.
“He won’t.” retorted the pink haired princess to which Luffy agreed.
“He won’t but… he will blow up at the first person that isn’t us.”
“What are we supposed to do then? And what about Robin?” inquired Nami.
“Shanks will not hurt Robin, he’s not like that. He will treat her well, but I do want her back.”
“You do remember that without her we can’t get to Laugh Tale?”
“I do and everything will be fine, Nami.”
“I don’t think red-haired Shanks has all the rio poneglyph.” Reiju’s thoughts were spoken aloud.
“What makes you say that?”
“Two of them were under the watch of Kaidou and Big Mom. He may have found the one on Zhou with his ties to the mink tribe and perhaps know of the location of the last one but he is most likely missing some of them.”
“... Why take Robin away then?” asked Luffy.
“Because it was a golden opportunity. He could always ask for an exchange. Robin for the rio poneglyphs writings we have.” explained Nami.
“Oh, okay.”
“You know him best, Luffy. What do you think he would do?”
“Hmm… Shanks is a pretty laid-back guy. He doesn’t like fighting but would if it’s to protect the people he cares about. He would choose not to fight if it’s possible though.”
“So that gives some weight to the possibility that he would make a deal with us. The question is why didn’t he contact us yet?” wondered Nami.
“Dunno.” shrugged her captain.
“And what about Rick?”
“I was thinking of changing my mind about going back to following the pose. There is no point to an adventure if we’re not all together so instead, I’ve decided to go after Blackbeard. That way he can let go and we can save grandpa.”
“That might calm him down a bit.” remarked Reiju.

“Alright, I’m getting the eternal pose for Hachinosu.”

On the spot, Nami went to the Map room where the eternal poses were shelved, picked the one she was looking for and came back outside the ship to give it to Jimbei.

~~~~~

Robin had not spoken a word ever since she had been woken up by Shanks on his ship. Not when the man began to talk and tell her stories about her mother. She wasn’t scared one bit, not after the life she had and thanks to the knowledge that her friends, wife and most notably husband were looking for her. Attentive was the word. She tried to learn everything she could about every member of the Shanks pirates to use it to her advantage at the opportune moment. The second the situation was favorable for an escape and her captors with their guard down, she would act. She had looked the shop from top to bottom to find something that could help her but her lack of Karma Points didn’t allow her to buy anything useful except food.

“It’s been two weeks already. Don’t you think it’s time to stop being stubborn and talk? Or at least eat? It’s not poisoned.” said the emperor as he brought to her room some food.
“... I have nothing to say that would interest you. Unless you like the prediction of your death, in that case I have plenty of words.” she replied in a passive aggressive manner making the man laugh.
“Finally! I’m not particularly fond of death predictions but if it’s the way for you to begin having a conversation then please go ahead.”
“By kidnapping me, you unleashed one of the most dangerous men in the world. He won’t stop at just you if you’re unfortunate.”
“Ah! Your husband. Had the pleasure to meet with him briefly in Wano. Charming, I have to say. Quite daring too. Taking down a zealous Admiral while I was trying to make him back off.”
“...”
“I guess that was all the words I was going to get from you today. A tad disappointing but it’s fine. Here, you may find the news interesting.” he said, putting a newspaper at the edge of her bed.

Robin picked it up and reading the head news, smiled amusedly. Her husband was really out to get her back.

“That’s two emperors down.” she remarked aloud.
“And I’m supposed to be next? Perhaps. Not if I have anything to say.”
“You don’t. Not when you’re facing them. Especially him.”

~~~~~

A few days earlier

Nami had tried her very best to cheer up and comfort her husband but it was to no avail. It was to the point that Diana gave him a time out and took control. That sent the whole crew in panic when Rick joined everyone at breakfast with horns and blood red eyes.

“I put him to sleep. His thoughts were irritating me.” she said as she sat down near Usopp, who was trembling like a leaf, picked a few waffles from the plate in the middle of the table to put in her own and took a bite as if everything was normal.

It took the navigator of the crew a few minutes to explain what was going on and who Diana was. When Luffy said that she was cool, the Goddess looked at him in the eyes for a moment before going back to chewing her food. Afterwards, Nami took her to the side.

“Is he really that furious that you had to take over?”
“No.”
“Then why…”
“His self loathing was annoying.”
“Self loath… He’s blaming himself?!” exclaimed the redhead.
“He is. He could have left a single clone with you but did not. The Sunny was sufficiently far away from the fight and he didn’t think you needed protection since you all can take care of yourselves. His mistake was to not think of an Emperor of the sea showing up no matter how low the odds.”
“That’s… He can’t predict everything! Even the best observation haki user can only see a few seconds in the future, not hours!”
“It doesn’t matter to him.”
“Any idea how to help him?”
“Find Robin.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Then find him something to punch until he can’t raise his arms anymore. He has a tendency to channel most of his emotion into anger.”
“Good thing we’re almost at Blackbeard’s island then.”
“Yes…”

Nami didn’t miss the lost look in Diana’s eyes but didn’t comment on it. They weren’t close enough to ask personal questions and the moment became awkward. Fortunately for the ship’s navigator, Chopper came running to her.

“Hachinosu is in sight, Luffy said to gather on the deck.” he told them and left to where he came, Nami following him.
‘Are you going to stop or should I stay in control?’
‘...’
‘Fine, suit yourself.’
‘You broke your promise.’
‘Out of care for you.’
‘... It sounds weird to hear that from you. Your calm and collected manner of speech is even weirder.’
‘Look, you and I are roomies. Has been for a long time. Your friends? I don’t know them, they’re strangers to me so I will definitely not be all mushy with them. Now are you going to stop moping around or not?’
‘... I will but only because I need to vent.’
‘Good.’ she replied and gave back control of his body.

When he came onto the deck, everyone looked at him.

“What?” he asked curtly.
“Since you clearly need it, you get a headstart to blow some steam.” answered Sanji.
“...Nice. How long do I have?”
“Half an hour or less if you're having troubles.” replied Luffy.
“That’s a lot. Don’t complain if there is no one left to fight.” commented Rick, ignoring the part about having trouble.

Taking to the sky he flew towards the island and landed on its edge. He raised his hand up and summoned a dozen meteors who fell all over the place. He started to walk casually, using his gravity to knock out people against each other or against a wall or the ground. It took three minutes for competent pirates to notice amidst the chaos that he was there attacking them. They all were knocked out too. That is until he reached the center of the island. There awaiting him was Blackbeard and his officers. He knew only two of them, the former warden of Impel Down, the one before Maegellan, and Aokiji.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the strawhats vice-captain.” the emperor welcomed.

Rick’s answer was simple. He sprouted arms in a circle around him and with heavy gravity pushed away everything around him. He had put so much strength in it that no building was left standing. The group facing him  had used haki to fight it and stay on their feet.

“My island! You’re going to pay…”

Blackbeard stopped his sentence when Rick disappeared from his line of view to reappear right in front of one of the officers with horns and a very long and thin mustache. The strawhats Vice-captain made a slash movement with his arm. His hand, all in black, forming a claw, simply ripped through the man, destroying his body from his left shoulder, including the neck, to the other side of his torso.

“Next.” was all he said after killing an officer.

Too dumbfounded by his display, Rick didn’t miss the opportunity to attack again and nearly got a second officer if not for the intervention of Aokiji. The iceman had blocked the hit with his arm covered in armament but he could feel the strange and powerful suction Rick’s hand was emitting.

“I’m only going to tell you this once, Uncle. Don’t intervene or you will be among the bodies.”

That was the only warning the former Admiral got before a hand sprouted on his back and sent him high up in the sky. His senses in alert and using his observation haki, Rick covered his whole body in black, absorbing every bullet or weapon that came in contact with him. One had been dumb enough to hit him with his fist and got his arm ripped apart.  Not missing the opportunity Rick made his black holed hand go through his head.

“What kind of monster are you?!” inquired in disbelief the former warden holding his broken sword in hand.
“I am Death. Devourer of worlds.”
‘That’s not the line!’

Ignoring her, Rick sprouted seven clones. One for each of the officers. Taken by surprise again, two opponents were absorbed by the clones’ black holed bodies. The first sported a star on the left side of his forehead, the other was the only woman in the group. The five others dodged and survived but the clones were not idle and put them on their back foot.

“Enough!” yelled a furious Marshall D. Teach, using his Yami Yami no Mi abilities. His body had something looking like black flame around it and the ground surrounding him was the same with one difference. The flames rippled towards their creator.

Feeling a pull forwards towards the Emperor, Rick increased the gravity of his black hole more to counterbalance the darkness sucking power. That was a risky gamble. He had practiced covering his skin in armament haki then concentrating his gravity, to the point of creating a black hole above it. It was a very demanding action requiring his whole focus and an amount of haki so great that he couldn’t use this ability for long. That was the reason why his failed assassination attempt on Blackbeard’s officers from his clones forced him to stop them using this skill. Having five clones draining his haki like that was simply suicide. It was better to let them fight normally. However, with Teach’s darkness, he couldn’t afford to do so. 

“Do you really think your paltry imitation of gravity could equal me?” He taunted the emperor.
“Darkness swallows everything!” said back the man, trying to suck Rick into himself.
“Not everything but that’s not the point anyway. You can ‘regurgitate’ everything you swallow in a mangled state but I can’t because gravity is that much stronger. It shreds everything to nothingness, even time!”

At that point, as if to prove what he meant, the heavy hitters of the crew arrived at the fight’s location. Yet it hadn’t been thirty minutes for Rick, nor has he been in trouble. The only explanation was that with a black hole opened and in full effect, time slowed down the closer you were to it. From the corner of his eye, Rick saw Sanji and his opponent, who were the farthest from him moved at a speed that should be humanly impossible.

After letting out a scream of anger, Teach rushed forward to take a hold of Rick and the latter answered by grabbing both fists in his hands. Thanks to Darkness having a canceling effect, Blackbeard wasn’t sucked in and they were locked into a suction contest.

“Trying to prove who sucks the most, Eh? For once the one who does will be the winner.” Rick joked openly, trying to hide the fact that he was struggling like hell. Teach was darkness itself. It was a state of being, he just was. Rick on the other hand wasn’t gravity incarnate and creating a black hole needed a lot of focus. It wasn’t his natural state. While Diana not blocking his power made it way easier for him to manipulate gravity he wasn’t gravity itself. Adding to that, he has to use armament to protect himself from the black hole’s effect.

Rick wasn’t in a good situation at all. While gravity was a law of nature that was ruling nature itself, which Darkness was part of, he wasn’t that law and could only use it as he wished. That’s why, despite being more powerful he couldn’t obliterate Blackbeard on the spot; he needed control to use that power when his opponent did not.

To use the maximum of his strength, both gravity and haki, Rick made his clones disappear and stopped the black hole surrounding his body to put everything in his hands. He didn’t need his body protected anymore as his hands were attracting everything to them. In a one vs one that would have been the best move to make, unfortunately it never was a one vs one fight.

One of Blackbeard’s officers, with some kind of sniper sight for glasses, could teleport and did so right behind Rick. Gun in hand he immediately shot at Rick’s back before teleporting away. The bullet missed the heart by some kind of miracle but got a lung. The shock broke his focus for a moment and Teach didn’t miss the opportunity to absorb Rick’s hands, going up to his forearms. This time Rick held on and could still feel his hands in whatever place everything the emperor sucked in, went.

It was a strange feeling but presented a perfect opportunity. Rick pushed his gravity and armament to the limits and Blackbeard began to be sucking into his own darkness.

“Wha… How do you do that?!” a panicked Teach shouted.
“You may be nature itself but I control a law that rules over nature. You were never a match!”

Unable to do anything, the emperor was sucked into his own darkness then completely compressed into Rick’s black holed hands. The officer had tried once again his stunt against Rick, but thanks to the use of observation haki, he turned around just in time to have the man swallowed by his captain’s darkness then his opponent’s black hole.

Once Blackbeard died, Rick took a breather. Or at least tried. A punctured lung, blood filling it, made him suffocate more than anything.

‘Diana, could I regenerate my lung?’
‘You could in theory.’
‘In theory?’
‘A lung is not that complicated but you still have it. Should you fix your wound your blood would still be in your lung and you would still suffocate.’
‘Alright.’

Trying to take a big breath to prepare himself for what he was about to do, he realized it was a bad idea when he began to cough blood. Gritting his teeth he covered his right hand with a black hole once again and put it where his damaged lung was supposed to be. It wasn’t a strong one, just strong enough to tear his flesh apart on contact. The hard part was not damaging his heart who was so close. His carefulness paid off and his lung was sucked in. Quickly he sprouted a new one along with ribs, blood vessels, skin and muscle. Falling to the ground he coughed air this time.

‘You’re a madman, you know? You could have just gone to your doctor and they would have operated on you.’
‘The battle is not over, they…’
‘You defeated this pirate crew’s captain and half of its officers, the rest are being dealt with by your friends.’
‘...’
‘Gosh! We really need Robin back, you’re behaving like a moron when she’s not there. Why couldn’t I be back to self awareness inside of her? She has such a nice body too.’
‘On that we agree.’
‘Now don’t do anything stupid anymore! I feel all you feel, remember? I felt enough pain for the whole month.’
‘My bad. Sometimes I forget.’
‘See that you don’t from now on.’

The conversation stopped and Rick looked around. His crew mates seemed to have the situation in hand. Remembering that he had sent Aokiji up to a height of a sky island, he brought him down.

“That wasn’t really nice.” commented an irritated iceman.
“Of course not. You’re uncle Nice after all, not me. But joke aside, I just killed Blackbeard and five of his officers. Do you really want to be the sixth?”
“...” eyes narrowing, was the only answer he got.
“Personally I’d rather not. Instead I’d rather go search for grandpa. He’s being held up here isn’t he?”
“... He is.”
“Lead the way, then.”
“...”
“Please?” Rick asked in a childish voice. Letting out a tired sigh with a hint of annoyance, Aokiji agreed. What could he do? Try to take Rick on when he had dealt with him so easily? Even tired? Unlikely for that to happen. Not like he wanted to try in the first place.
“Even death didn’t change you. You D… I’m blaming Garp! Between Dragon, your captain and you… Fine followed me.” the former Admiral replied and began to walk towards the giant and flat skull mountain behind them.
“Soooo. How is it going? Did I fucked your mission up?”
“...”
“Ah, right. First rule of being undercover, deniy being a double agent at any cost if you’re suspected.”
“... Too smart for your own good.” 

They reached the skull and entered it. After going down some stairs they arrived at what was a dungeon with multiple cells. In the last one was a very weak Garp.

“What are you doing here?!”

Or rather a very weak looking Garp.

“Shanks kidnapped my wife while we put Buggy and his Cross Guild down. I needed to punch someone to oblivion and Luffy in a stroke of genius decided to go after Teach. That way I could blow up some steam and as a bonus rescue you.”
“...Really?” asked a subdued Garp.
“Of course. You’re my grandpa. I can’t let you be someone’s prisoner.” Rick replied with a warm and disarming smile that Garp would deny having missed.
“... Oh.”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t come and bust your ass out? Sure, if Luffy had forbidden it I wouldn’t have. On the spot at least. I would have waited for the moment after he became the pirate king to do it.” Rick replied, shredding the steel bars of the cells with his gravity and using armament to break the chains warped all around Garp.
“Who asked you for help? Huh? Nobody!” the old Vice Admiral said, a bit embarrassed.
“That’s the thing with family. You never need to ask for help, you just get it.”

Rick pulled his grandfather up and hugged him, something that Garp didn’t hesitate to do back. When they separated Rick had an evil grin on his face and Garp was brought back twenty years back for a split second.

“Just to make it clear, I may not like someone else having you as a prisoner but I have no such qualms about myself.”
“I knew it! I knew that crooked smile!”

Aokiji couldn’t help himself and smiled at the sight. Something that Rick certainly didn’t miss.

“You’re my prisoner too.” And just like that the former Admiral’s smile disappeared. “Come on, let's go back to the Sunny. Chopper will have a good look at you, Grandpa and I’m sure you’d be delighted to see Eri.”
“Eri... She’s here?! Are you mad?! You took your daughter to the New World?!”
“First off! You don’t get to mouth on me when you dropped me on an deserted island to fend for myself, facing wild beasts when I was six! If I’m screwed up in the head it’s probably because of you! Second! She sneaked onto the ship when we left the island she and Kaza were hiding on. I’m both super annoyed and super proud of her for that.” The explanation was done with a bright grin on his face.
“She also has the third highest bounty of the strawhats crew for taking down Buggy.” Aokiji commented.
“WHAT?!” Garp nearly fainted at that.
“Oh, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the ship.”