13. The Red Force departs! Pirate Empress enters the scene!
│3rd Person Omniscient POV│
East Blue, West Blue, South Blue, North Blue, and the two parts of the Grand Line.
As if it had already been written in history, the news whittled down as it spread, until the only words carried throughout the oceans was the 'Whitebeard Pirates' Victory.'
The world grew restless at this news.
With the news of the victory of pirates in the war between an Emperor of the sea and the Marines, the threat of the Marines significantly decreased in all parts of the world.
Chaos had begun to reign.
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│3rd Person POV│
[Grand Line, Paradise, Outside the waters of Marineford Island…]
"So, how is Luffy doing now?" Shanks asked.
Just then, Marco stopped attending to Luffy and came to the prow of the ship.
Taking his place beside Whitebeard, he said in response to Shanks' question, "He will be alright now! I've taken care of his more serious injuries with my powers.
"As for the rest, he just needs plenty of rest and he will be as good as new. However, he won't be waking up anytime soon."
Hearing Marco's words, Ivankov enlarged his head suddenly and exclaimed, "That's awesome! Hiihaaa!!
"Strawhat-boy was already injured so badly he couldn't even stand before we started our escape from Impel Down! It's amazing that he managed to do so much in that condition!
"My Hormones may have given him the push he needed to move, however, without his amazing willpower, he was able to do all he did to rescue his brother!
"If something had happened to you boy, I don't think your little brother's spirit would've handled that!"
Ivankov said the last part while looking at Ace.
In return, Ace looked at him with a smile and declared, "You're wrong! If something happened to me, Luffy would definitely be sad. But eventually, he would've stood up again.
"Because he had made some excellent friends that are worth living for. Not to mention there's still Sabo who would surely reach out to Luffy if something happened to me."
"Eh? Sabo? Are you talking about a blonde haired boy with a burnt scar on the left side of his face? How does Strawhat-boy knows Luffy?"
Ivankov couldn't help but throw a barrage of questions at Ace once he heard the latter mention the name Sabo.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Marco suddenly interrupted their conversation and questioned Ace, "Ace, are you talking about your other brother, Sabo, who you told us died a long time ago?"
Facing Marco, Ace responded with his smile becoming even wider, "Yes! After I parted ways with Luffy in Alabasta, I found some information about some of the prominent members of the Revolutionary Army.
"Due to this information, I found out that Sabo was alive and had been in the Revolutionary Army for quite some time.
"I didn't have a method to make contact with him, so I wanted to handle Teach first and then use the resources of our Whitebeard Pirates to look for him.
"Though I am extremely angry at him for not trying to reach out to us all these years! When I meet him, he is in for a lifetime of beating!"
Hearing this, Ivankov's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets.
He almost couldn't believe that before being rescued by Dragon and losing his memories, Sabo had such a strong connection with Dragon's son.
"Heh! The good news just keeps coming in, huh?" Shanks said after hearing Ace's story.
When Ace had met him to thank him for saving Luffy's life, Shanks had heard about Sabo from Ace.
He knew how Sabo's supposed death had dealt a huge blow to Luffy. Knowing that Luffy hadn't lost any of his brothers, Shanks was happy.
Shanks' words brought Ivankov out of his shock and he hurried to say, "Ace-boy, you shouldn't be angry at Sabo.
"After Sabo's fishing boat was shot down by the Celestial Dragon visiting the Goa Kingdom at that time, he was heavily injured before being rescued by Dragon.
"When he woke up, he was diagnosed with amnesia as he couldn't even remember his own name.
"It was fortunate that Dragon had met Sabo just a few days before his accident and he knew Sabo's identity of being a son of a noble family of Goa Kingdom.
"Sabo didn't try to contact you because he had forgotten all of his memories before the incident!"
"Is that so?" Ace said with a contemplative expression after hearing Ivankov's explanation.
Of course, he knew all about this because of his past life memories. However, while he could bluff about how he found out Sabo was alive, he couldn't disclose how he knew that Sabo also had amnesia.
So, he took the chance of mentioning Sabo's name while responding to Ivankov's speculation about Luffy's spirit being broken.
Hearing all these conversations, Bonney couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, "What the hell is your family, Strawhat?
"Grandpa is a Marine Vice Admiral, Father is the leader of the Revolutionary Army, One Brother is a Commander of one of the Emperors of the Sea, the other Brother is a Revolutionary!
"On top of that, Strawhat is somehow also acquainted with another Emperor of the Sea!"
With her voice being so low, only Law, who was standing just beside her, could understand what she said and he couldn't help but echo her feelings.
Suddenly, Ace raised his head and declared, "Well, he's still getting a beating for forgetting his brothers!"
"Gurararara!!"
"Hahahahaha!!"
"Hahaha!!"
Everyone laughed hearing Ace's declaration.
Once the laughter subsided, Shanks looked at Whitebeard and said, "Well, I will take my leave now, Whitebeard!"
"Yeah!" Whitebeard just said a single word in response.
As the Red Force started to back off, Lucky Roux couldn't help but question, "Boss, we aren't going to wait for Luffy to wake up?"
Without turning his gaze away from the Moby Dick, Shanks replied, "I'd sure like to! However, if I saw him now, it would break the promise Luffy made to me."
Once the Red Force disappeared from the horizon, Whitebeard went back to his throne-like chair. The Division Commanders also took their previous position around the deck.
At this moment, Marco asked, "Ace, what are you planning to do with your brother? Are you going to take him with us?"
Looking at Luffy, Ace answered, "No, I was thinking of taking him back to his crew. Though I don't know where they are at the moment."
Hearing this, Law stepped forward after a moment of hesitation and said, "At Sabaody Archipelago, when Admiral Kizaru had come to pursue the Strawhat Pirates, Kuma had interfered.
"I heard that Kuma used his Paw Paw Fruit's powers to separate the crew. Nobody except the Warlord knows where they had been sent."
Hearing this, almost everyone subconsciously looked at the unconscious form of Kuma.
Seeing this scene, Bonney stepped in front of her dad's body and stated in an angry voice, "Don't think of doing anything to my Daddy."
With haste, Law continued his explanation, "As Kuma is right now, he won't do anything that he isn't ordered to by the ones who hold authority over him."
Silence fell on the deck for a few moments before Marco broke it, "So, are we taking Luffy with us, Ace? We can't wait here until he wakes up, yoi~!"
"The moment he wakes up, he will want to meet his crew. So, I was thinking of leaving him in the care of Pirate Empress Boa Hancock.
"Luffy knows her somehow as when she came to visit me in Impel Down, she was the one to inform me about Luffy infiltrating the prison to rescue me." said Ace after a few moments of thinking.
After he finished speaking, Ace looked at the Marine Battleship which was occupied by the people of New Kama land.
Walking to the edge of the Moby Dick, Ace shouted, "Hey, Pirate Empress! Would you care to board the Moby Dick for a few moments? I've got a few questions for you!"
Almost everyone had a shocked expression after hearing Ace's words. They also turned their gaze to look at the Battleship occupied by the Ivankov's people.
Slowly, a silhouette of a tall woman appeared on the prow of the Marine Battleship and she had a large snake wrapped around her figure.
Once she arrived on the prow, everyone from the Moby Dick could see her clearly.
Just seeing her appearance, except for a select few, everyone had hearts in their eyes.
The next moment, Hancock jumped from the prow into the sea.
While she was in the air, her snake untangled itself from her and positioned its head below her feet just before Hancock plummeted into the sea.
Everyone who had hearts in their eyes nearly had their real heart jump out of their chest after seeing this scene.
Before they could jump into the water to try to save Hancock, she rose above the surface of the sea, looking as elegant as ever.
At this moment, Hancock was nearing the Moby Dick while being carried by her snake across the sea.
"Heh! That is some neat tricks!" Marco, one of the people who didn't get swept away by Hancock's appearance, said while looking at the scene in front of him.
A few minutes later, Hancock stepped on the deck of Moby Dick.
Arriving in front of Ace, she asked with a haughty look, "Speak! What questions do you have for me?"
With a nonchalant grin, Ace said, "I wanted to ask if you would take care of Luffy until he wakes up. He has been treated for his injuries. However, according to Marco's diagnosis, he won't be waking up anytime soon.
"And it's almost time for us to start heading back to the New World."
"I will gladly take care of Luffy. Just give me a Den Den Mushi. I will call the Kuja Pirate Ship here and take Luffy with me back to the Isle of Women. He can safely recover there."
Hancock didn't hesitate to agree with Ace as she would never want to miss a chance to spend more time with Luffy.
Seeing her respond so quickly, Ace's grin widened. The next moment he shouted, "Hey, someone bring a Den Den Mushi here."
Then, he continued while looking at Hancock, "Tell your people to come to Sabaody Archipelago. Our ships will be heading there now, right Pops?"
…To Be Continued!
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A/N:
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