197 Waking up, Karasu Island and Meeting

_________ POV Narration_________

It wasn't difficult for Whitebeard to realise that something was wrong when he woke up...

Especially since he could hear his sons grieving at his side.

The old man's eyes softened when he noticed Ace's figure also present in the room.

Guilt and shame seemed to hang around the young pirate, as Whitebeard's tired eyes scanned the room a few more times...

'... Which one of my sons have I failed?...' Was the first question that rose in his mind.

It wasn't long before everyone in the room noticed him waking up, they all rushed to his side.

"Pops!" "Father!" They looked both happy and desperate at the same time.

"What's with the fuss? Not like I died..." Whitebeard scoffed as he slowly stood up, ignoring his injuries and cracking his neck a few times.

"P-Pops... It's better if you stay in bed for now..." Ace said as he patted his father on the shoulder.

"Bah! Stay in bed and then what? I ain't getting much better than I am now..." Whitebeard scoffed as he looked at his injuries.

Normally, such injuries would take months to heal... But Whitebeard was well aware that he no longer had that time. He was on his last legs.

'... From the way I feel... I have only a few weeks at best...'

"Pops..." Ace's face seemed to contort into a painful expression. Which prompted the old Whitebeard to slap him over the head.

"Don't get all sappy with me now... I ain't dead yet..." The old man's eyes were warm as he patted his son's head.

It didn't matter how many times Ace had tried to assassinate him in the past... Ace was now his son.

Now...

"... Where is Vista?" Whitebeard's question seemed to silence the cries of his sons and daughters.

"... Pops..."

__________________

"I told you letting him go off on his own was a shitty idea!" Garp shouted as he crushed a table underneath his fist.

"All things considered, this might be for the better... Whitebeard is Enel's ally after all... Which means he's also our ally."

Sengoku shook his head at the side, patting the head of his goat, which Tsuru had made sure to bring with her when departing from the World Government.

"Ally or not, Francisco did go and kill a Yonko. It's hard to say whether or not this is a good thing..." Garp scowled a bit as he crossed his arms and sat back down on his couch.

"That particular Yonko was more of a nuisance to us... Remember Red Hair's report?" Shiki also didn't seem too concerned about Kaido being killed.

"Big Mom, Kaido and Shanks... Normally such an alliance would make the World Government go crazy... At least they would pretend that it was a threat to them..." Zephyr at the side also scowled as he remembered the report of the Red Haired pirates...

Benn Beckman had noticed that government agents were present in Wano, so Shanks was able to surmise that they were simply not doing anything to stop the meeting/alliance from happening.

They either couldn't or didn't want to do anything about it. Shanks had surmised that it was likely the latter.

"They likely just hope the emperors would band together and fight us..." Tsuru shook her head as she rolled up the sleeves of her pink shirt.

"Their plan doesn't appear to have worked that well... Shanks is already allied with Enel, and Big Mom does also appear to be on friendly terms with him..."

Akainu rubbed his chin, the permanent scowl on his face lessening as he thought about how yet another nuisance had been removed from the seas.

"A big issue here is the Gap that Kaido's death has created... The smaller pirates will certainly act up now... Well, if Big Mom doesn't swallow up all of his territories by then..." Kizaru's voice sounded lazy and slow, but also unconcerned.

Why exactly would they be concerned after all? They still had the strongest army ever created.

An alliance between Pirates, Revolutionaries, and Marines. From Emperors to Warlords, from Admirals to Marine Legends.

Hell, they even had Kings and entire Kingdoms on their side... They had the full support of the Riku Family, with Dressrossa, and the full support of the Nefertari Family, with Arabasta.

At that point, their army held just as much influence as the World Government itself... And likely just as much power, if not more.

"The New World has always been a messy place... The pirates will have to sort themselves out." Sengoku sighed as he realized just how many lives would be lost due to Kaido's death.

But at the same time, Kaido himself wasn't a heroic spirit. His rule over the New World was anything but peaceful. So in a way, things weren't changing all that much.

"Doesn't matter... I don't care about that Dragon Brat dying off or something. But we were supposed to lay low for now... I say we call Francisco back to the Sky Islands..." Garp seemed to be fixated on the fact that letting Francisco free in the world wasn't a good idea.

Unfortunately for the old marine hero, no one in the room seemed to support him. And to Garp's surprise, the first person to speak out against him was none other than his best friend... Sengoku.

"I say it's best to let him roam for now... He's technically taking attention away from where our base could be. Him taking out Kaido is also a good thing, since the King of Beasts was our enemy."

The Former Fleet Admiral's tone was calm and thoughtful. It was clear that he had given the situation much consideration before voicing his opinion.

"... He may have done a good thing for now... But you can't deny how dangerous of an individual he is... Are we all just going to forget the incident at Karasu Island?!" Garp didn't even try to refute Sengoku's points, instead, he brought up another thing...

"... That massacre, huh?" Sengoku also sighed as he remembered the incident.

Almost everyone in the room knew what Garp was referencing, one of the many 'exploits' of the Rocks Pirates.

There were only two people present that didn't know of the events on Karasu Island.

"... Would any of you mind giving me a quick rundown of that? I am not that well-informed, I'm afraid..." Gan Fall was one of said people.

The other was Fujitora, who hadn't been in the navy for all that long. He just silently listened, somewhat thankful that he didn't have to be the one to ask for clarification.

"Oh... It was nothing less than one of the worst massacres in naval history... It was in the New World." Sengoku sighed as he remembered a few more details from that day.

"Around 46 years ago, Karasu Island was getting ready to join up with the World Government, having finally formed a Kingdom after years of struggle... Unfortunately, Xebec had other plans."

Sengoku's voice sounded a bit melancholic as he spoke of those times, despite the grim nature of the story...

"You see, that island was supposed to be part of his territory, but the civilians had decided to rebel, and sought help from the Government... But we were too late." Sengoku's tone changed from melancholic to regretful as the details of that day became clearer.

It was one of the most shameful moments for the Navy.

"It was a bloodbath. Soldiers, Guards, Men, Women, Children, Elderly... Hell, he couldn't even be bothered to spare the cats and dogs. Not a strand of grass was allowed to remain alive on that island." Garp scowled as he also remembered the incident.

He had been one of the first at the scene, it was not a pleasant sight for him.

"The island itself wasn't spared, it was shredded to the point where it just looked like several smaller islands close to one another..." Sengoku shook his head as he continued where Garp had left off.

"It was all the work of one pirate... Guzman, that bastard. He may act friendly now, he maybe changed since then, but that doesn't change his past in any way." The former Fleet Admiral looked at Gan Fall, who had a somewhat shocked expression.

"I- I see... I wasn't expecting Francisco to have such a past..." Gan Fall sighed a bit, not expecting to hear about such a massacre...

'... I think I can understand why Garp wouldn't trust him... Even if he's an ally now...' Fujitora also frowned a bit when hearing the story.

He didn't have much knowledge about the Rocks Pirates, but what he knew didn't paint them in a good light... It seemed that they were worse than any rumours could've painted them as...

"I wouldn't hold that against Francisco..." Shiki spoke up in the end, his voice lacking much of the emotions that the Marines had when recounting the story.

"He was under Xebec's orders... That was the price that the Karasu Kingdom paid for disrespecting Xebec's rule." The Golden Lion also remembered that day.

He hadn't been there, but he vividly remembered Francisco volunteering to be the one to take care of them.

"That doesn't make it any better. We have all the right to hold that against him! Even you never did something that heinous!" Garp's response was just as fiery as expected.

But Shiki's next words did help pour a bucket of cold water over his head.

"Trust me, Francisco did them a favour... No one gets off that easy when disrespecting Xebec..."

Garp opened his mouth, he wanted to refute Shiki. But deep down, he knew that Shiki was telling the truth.

The old Golden Lion didn't care how he was perceived by others. He had no reason to lie in order to 'gain sympathy' for him or for Francisco.

He was a pirate through and through.

"Death was a blessing to them. Especially compared to whatever else Xebec had planned for them... It was a blessing that only Francisco had the power to bestow. The rest of us didn't have much say..."

Shiki sighed as he tapped his bladed feet on the floor of the office a few times.

"... I understand... Still, he did have the choice to rebel against Xebec at all times... Hell, the rest of you would've likely joined him without skipping a beat..." Garp was still a bit spiteful, unwilling to ever forgive Francisco for that incident.

"Hey, didn't say Francisco was faultless!" Shiki laughed a bit as he shook his head.

"I don't know how that bastard Xebec did it... But Francisco was much sooner willing to kill himself than to betray him..."

"... We can leave such a discussion for another time... I believe we all understand the risks of him being out now..." Sengoku said as he clapped, gaining everyone's attention.

"But I believe that the benefits still far outweigh the risks. So I vote for him to continue his journey for now." The old Fleet Admiral started the vote.

And in the end, most people voted as he did.

Zephyr, Garp and Akainu were all against Francisco being allowed to roam, but the rest all agreed that it was a good thing.

"In the end, the captain's decision matters most... We should call Enel here, just to make sure..." Garp scowled, somewhat dissatisfied.

He hoped that Enel would side with him, but deep down he knew that it was unlikely to happen.

Still, he felt that such matters needed to be run by Enel either way. He was the one that had brought them all together after all...

"That might be for the best. We need to bring him up to speed on Shanks's reports as well." Gan Fall seemed to agree with Garp.

So did everyone else in the room. Who couldn't understand the importance of the Sky King?

Hell, he was the whole reason such a meeting could ever exist.

Imagine leading figures from all factions somehow gathering in one spot peacefully... Such a thing was simply unheard of before he came along.

"I'll go grab him... He's quite diligent in his training..." Garp slowly stood up and walked out the door.

"Let's wait for them to return... In the meantime, let's talk about food production, we're running quite low on vegetables after all..." Gan Fall looked towards Shiki, who just sighed.

'More work for me, huh?'

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Eyyy, Priests.

Trying to keep up the daily uploads again(daily as in, alternating stories and all that).

This story may be somewhat close to ending, but it's still got a few dozen chapters left. Maybe closer to 100 tbh

Basically, I'm in no hurry and I wanna make sure everything get's addressed even before the final battle if possible.

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 15 chapters in advance (or 10/5 depending on tier)