209 Unexpected Surprise
A day of traveling later.....
"Why the hell are we at the Calm Belt?...." Kid wondered as he was on the deck of his ship with his crew.
"Thankfully everyone's ships are self-propelled." Bonney commented as she was on Luffy's ship eating a hearty lunch with Luffy, Jinbe and Ivankov.
"The only real problem we would encounter here are the Sea Kings." Luffy replied as he chomped down a piece of meat.
"But we have Observation Haki and lots of strong guys with us, so we'll be alright. " He added after swallowing the food in his mouth.
It has been a day since the war between Whitebeard and the Marines ended. Luffy, his subordinate crews, his alliance, Whitebeard's crew, the 43 crews under his protection and Shanks' crew were all traveling with them with no one backing out.
They encountered violent storms, extremely rocky waves and weirdly blizzards and heat waves but it wasn't what everyone couldn't handle. Most of the large group were from the New World, they were all extremely used to the bizarre weather at this point.
"So which island are we going to?" Bonney asked, having no clue about their final destination since Luffy, Ace, Marco, Jinbe and Shanks managed to keep it a secret.
If they didn't there would be extreme panic.
"You'll see soon enough. I guarantee you'll love it." Luffy replied with a mischievous grin on his face.
"This is you we're talking about, Mugiwara-boy. Whatever surprise you have prepared for us, I don't think we'll love it at all." Ivankov commented while wiping his lips with a giant napkin. Luffy just laughed while Jinbe staying silent and enjoyed his meal, not trusting himself to not reveal it.
"Hey, to each their own." Luffy replied vaguely before suddenly remembering something.
"Oh yeah, this should be the time where the News Coo would deliver the newspapers." Luffy muttered as he looked at the sky. Jinbe hummed.
"Perhaps Big News Morgans is still preparing it. Maybe we'll get a special edition like the one we got when Enies Lobby was destroyed and the three Tenryūbito were killed." Jinbe theorized.
"It is Big News(pun intended) after all. There's a lot to write about. There are a lot of incidents like the Impel Down incident and the battle at Marineford. There's lots of big names involved. He also has to get the wanted posters ready too, so there's a lot of work to do for sure." The Fish Man added. Luffy patted his shoulder.
"Man, you're really smart Jinbe! That's probably what's happening right now!" Luffy complimented him. Jinbe blushed a little at being complimented.
"It's nothing special, Luffy-kun. Being out here sailing in these dangerous seas could wise up a person a lot." Jinbe replied humbly. Luffy hummed as he rubbed his chin.
"Wonder how much will mine go up this time? Ah, better not think about it, it'll give me a headache." Luffy grumbled before wincing a little and clutching his chest. His body, including his arms, legs and head were wrapped up by bandages.
"You're still recovering from all the injuries, Luffy-kun. You should rest. Garp's attacks did more damage than you thought it did. You were just really determined to save Ace to realize it." Jinbe advised the pirate.
" I could get Marco to use his Devil Fruit powers to heak it up. That should save you the trouble." Jinbe suggested but Luffy waved it off immediately.
"Don't need it, he's already got so many problems to deal with now that he and Ace are the interim captains of POPS' crew, I don't wanna stress him out even more than he already is." Luffy replied before he got up.
"Ace said they're discussing where to bury the corpses with the division commanders right now. Can you imagine that guys, discussing where to bury your dead friends?" Luffy looked back at them with a sad smile on his face.
" I hope I don't have to do that to any of you guys one day. I don't know what I would do if I lost my friends."
"Oi don't say that, ya bastard! You wanna make me cry or something?! " Bonney shouted, a little touched that Luffy cared about her and considered her a friend.
Luffy laughed before he walked away from them. Bonney huffed and pouted before she looked back down on the dining table.
"Oh, there's still some lunch left. Guess it's my lunch now, hehehehe!!"
.
.
"The Calm Belt is a great choice to bury them. It's quiet and secluded. No Marine or any haters of the Whitebeard Pirates will be able to find their graves and vandalize or destroy them." Ace explained to the division commanders.
"It's a great decision but which island? It's gotta be a peaceful one, they deserve it after all the shit they went through." Marco wondered. Everyone nodded, agreeing with him.
"Let's ask Luffy and—"
"What about me Ace?" Luffy asked as he landed gracefully on the Moby Dick after leaping from his ship to theirs.
"Oh, Luffy. We were just discussing—Ahh!!" Ace squealed, feeling flustered as Luffy immediately laid down on her thighs and snuggled against her stomach while wrapping his arms around her entire waist.
"Perfect." A satisfied Luffy grinned as he closed his eyes. The division commanders and the people on the Moby Dick all grinned slyly at Ace who felt her face heating up without the use of her Devil Fruit powers.
"Now what were you saying?" Luffy asked.
"I think Ace wanted to ask you about the stash of Eternal Poses you have. I think she wanted to know if there's any more to other islands in the Calm Belt." Marco explained. Luffy hummed.
"I think we do. I haven't really organized it. Not in the mood since you know, every corner of my body is covered in bandages." Luffy pointed at his mummified body.
" I'll ask Jinbe to help me later, for now....*Yawn*, just let me snuggle my future wife's body." Luffy muttered as he immediately fell asleep soon after he completed his sentence.
If Ace wasn't flustered before, she was flustered now.
.
.
At the same time at Marineford Town, in a private hospital room.
Sengoku, Garp and Kizaru were gathered in a bright room with a window that showed the devastated Marineford Town. It was dead silent and it was making them all uncomfortable.
The only sounds made was the crunching of rice crackers from Garp and the ceiling fan spinning rapidly.
Sengoku was the first one to break the silence.
"You were in here before us, Borsalino. How is he?" Sengoku asked Kizaru. Kizaru who was smoking a blunt of weed, blew the smoke out of the window.
"He's obviously alive. But if you count being an alive mummy alright, then he's alright." Kizaru replied while looking at the bed which had the sleeping Aokiji who had an blue sleep mask covering his eyes on it.
The ice Admiral was also enveloped with bandages, his head especially and he also had casts around both of his broken arms, all from fighting Whitebeard.
Sengoku sighed in relief as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Garp stayed silent and shoved another rice cracker into his mouth.
Silence followed. This time it was a comfortable one. The tension was relieved as soon as the news about Aokiji being alright was revealed.
This time the silence was broken by Garp.
"We lost, Sengoku. That much is obvious. What's gonna happen now?" Garp asked. Sengoku had a grim expression on his face as he looked at the white tiled floor.
Sengoku then looked at himself. He was covered in bandages from the injuries he had sustained from Dorry's and Brogy's Hakoku attack.
"Well for one, something's definitely gonna happen to FA. There's no way WG would let him get away with failing this horribly." Kizaru replied while pointing his weed blunt at Sengoku.
"I'm probably going to get either dishonorably discharged or demoted." Sengoku muttered.
"Not if you retire first like I did." Garp revealed as Sengoku looked at him with a surprised expression.
" You didn't know? Garp-san already went to Kong-san to file for retirement." Kizaru added. Garp laughed at Sengoku's expression.
" Don't worry, I was reassigned to be an instructor of training new recruits of young Marines while my records were kept intact. I'm not leaving anytime soon." Garp assured Sengoku who sighed in relief.
"There's a great chance that Sengoku-san is going to retire or if not, demoted from his position. If that happens, who's going to succeed him and be the new F.A.?" Kizaru asked him.
Without hesitation, Sengoku looked at Aokiji.
"I want Kuzan to succeed me." Sengoku replied seriously. Kizaru whistled before he flicked the already short weed blunt out of the window before closing it.
"Oh?~ Why him?" Kizaru asked, interested in Sengoku's decision.
"Why are you asking? Are you jealous or something?" An amused Garp asked Kizaru who shook his head.
"No, why should I be jealous of someone who's gonna do more work than me?" Kizaru asked, making Garp laugh loudly. Sengoku sighed at the two of them.
"Because he's similar to me." Sengoku answered.
"Huh?" The two Marines focused back on the Fleet Admiral.
"Kuzan has a similar sense of justice and principles as I do. He is a compassionate man and he does not hesitate to do what is necessary for the needs of the Marines, even if reluctantly." Sengoku explained.
" The man is kind, Borsalino. He's also difficult to control and is able to think for himself, that's lne of the qualities required to be a leader." Sengoku explained. Garp swallowed the rice cracker in his mouth before looking at Sengoku.
"I'ma be honest, you just want him up there because he isn't a dog to the World Government." Garp commented. Sengoku narrowed his eyes before he reluctantly agreed by nodding.
"Oh~What a surprise~" Kizaru commented sarcastically before Garp laughed loudly.
"Oh, you finally admit it, you hate the World Government like I do!"
"I did not say any of those words!"
" You can say anything you want in here. We ain't snitches." Garp replied before opening another bag of rice crackers.
"Just..... You heard about what he did back then at Ohara didn't you? About how he fired at a civilian ship because he thought there were scholars in it?" Sengoku asked Garp who nodded silently.
"Yeah, guy's fucking stupid for doing that. Instead of stopping it and manually checking it, he was trigger happy. He killed them for no reason." Garp grumbled. Sengoku nodded.
"Why would I want someone like him be a leader if he does something like that? Why would I want a bloodthirsty man be a commander of an army?" Sengoku asked them.
"I have a question for you two, what do you think will happen to the Marines if Akainu became the Fleet Admiral?" Sengoku asked while crossing his arms.
"C'mon, I'll wait. I have all the time in the world." He added. Garp and Kizaru stayed silent.
"Excuse me, but could someone remove my sleep mask? I want to not feel like I'm dead by staring at darkness please." Aokiji asked after waking up from all the noise. Garp raised the sleep mask up to his forehead.
Aokiji winced at the light before closing his eyes a little. After a while he opened them again.
"So, what's all the commotion about?" Aokiji asked them.
"Do you want the simplified and blunt version or do you want the long and beat around the bush version?" Kizaru asked him.
"The former, please."
"Thank you for being smart unlike a certain someone. So, Sengoku-san is gonna retire like Garp-san and he wants you to be the one to wear the F.A. coat. Akainu's out of the questions since we don't want a Marine who can't think for themselves and licks five old men's privileged boots at the same time."
" Ah.... interesting..... Garp-san, can you put my sleep mask back on please?"
To be continued...
(And that concludes the Marineford Arc)
