Whitebeard's Verdict

[ Third Person POV ]

Moby Dick

Whitebeard had just received news about The attack on Falke Island.

Boris had successfully fended off the Marines, defeated Admiral Zephyr, and killed all six of the World Nobles. 

Normally this would be great news for Whitebeard, however, he was furious. What was the World Government's angle on all of this? Were they playing with him? Did they want a war?

He couldn't seem to get their intention of letting the World Nobles dabble in his territory. As a result, he wasn't sure on how to respond. Whitebeard didn't want to start a fight that he knew he would probably lose. Most of the pirate crew were young, the older ones had left the Moby Dick and started to settle down within his territory. Acting as the island's guards for whenever Boris wasn't around.

The younger ones had slowly began to take over, shrinking the crew size from 16,000 to a little over 5,000 people. Many of the ones who left had sailed with Whitebeard even before he joined Rocks. Others were simply too scared of the gigantic moves that Whitebeard had been making, and opted to settle down in one of his territories. 

Whitebeard's young crew showed immense potential, however, they weren't there just yet. Going to war would mean having to rely on Boris' efforts; and he was young as well. 

Whitebeard was sitting on the huge chair on his ship drinking frustratedly as he thought about this. Although the conflict ended with his victory, he had to show the seas that messing with his territory would lead to devastating consequences. 

The rest of the crew had heard of what had happened, and they were just as furious; if not even more furious, as Whitebeard. This was a blatant provocation at the Whitebeard Pirates, one that they had refused to turn a blind eye to. Many of them were ready to invade a Marine base, but Whitebeard hadn't given out the order.

They could only watch in anticipation as Whitebeard continued his drinking. Leaving him alone to his thoughts, Marco, suddenly perked up before getting his transponder snail and calling Boris' number. The transponder snail had rung for quite some time before it was picked up.

However, instead of Boris picking up the call, it was Stussy who did. Stussy by then was considered the Vice-Captain of the 0 division. Since she was already hanging out with Boris nearly all the time. The crew could only assume that she was the second-in-command of the group. 

She picked up the call and responded in her normal sweet voice. Marco wasted no time asking about Boris.

"Stussy, is Boris alright? We just got the news about his victory on Falke Island." Marco inquired.

"As a matter of fact, we don't even know yet. We are a couple of days out from Falke, he had left as soon as he got the news about the World Nobles." Stussy replied seriously.

"Ok, just call us when you get there, Boris might need some medical treatment for his wounds." Marco advised, they had little to no knowledge about Boris' healing factor. In fact, they had never heard Boris talk about it before.

Marco hung up the phone immediately after that, some of the crew seemed unfamiliar over the new voice. After all, some of the new members had never actually met the 0 division; they had only heard stories about them. So hearing the woman's voice proved to be surprising for them, they didn't seem to think that the 0 division existed. Even though they had been told otherwise by older members of the crew.

Marco looked up to his father Whitebeard. Who remained with a stoic expression as he heard the call with Stussy. He remained uncertain over whether he should retailate or not. It was quite a predicament for him. 

He finally sighed before giving out his verdict over the matter.

"Children! Although I want to attack the marine's over what they did. I don't want to lose family members over this squabble. The battle had ended in our victory, in Boris' victory, meaning that he had landed a devastating blow at the Marines. However, I'll wait for Boris' opinion before finalizing my intention. So no stupid activity on the Marine, you hear?!" Whitebeard announced.

The whole crew cheered in agreement. Oden, who was currently training with his sword, suddenly turned to look at the rowdy crew before running over. Toki was watching him train with a dazed look. 

"You guys! What happened? I heard cheers coming from here!" Oden yelled as he went over.

One of his men of the second division promptly answered his question. To this, Oden could only exclaim in shock.

"HUH?!?! That pipsqueak has that much power?!?! I gotta fight him sometime!!!" Oden remarked. 

Oden's loyal retainers who were currently sailing with him could only sigh in frustration. They knew the truth that Oden had fought Boris before. It's just that he had lost and got knocked away. He must have been hit pretty hard to forget his memories over that battle. Yet, they refused to say anything, it seemed that they wanted their Lord to learn a lesson or two about curiousity.

[ Stussy POV ]

0 Division's Ship

The ship was getting closer and closer towards the island. 

There was a storm surrounding the area. The more closer we got to the island, the more it rained heavily. I had slowly began to spot more and more remnants of Marine ships the closer the ship got to the island. From shipping debree to Marine soldier's bloated bodies that were floating on the chaotic surface of the sea. 

Our ship was struggling to make it towards the beach of the island to dock. I could only guess that this was Boris' work. Trying to prevent any more intruders from invading the island. Was he injured? 

I could only get more worried as we slowly began to dock on the island. I remained on the ship and didn't moonwalk because I didn't want to get struck by Boris' lightning. He probably could detect and recognize our presence, but that wasn't guranteed if he was injured. I wanted to be careful approaching him.

We landed on the beach, and briefly began making our way to the village. It seemed that Boris had made the island itself the eye of the storm. The sun was shining brightly on the island, and as we got closer to the village. I could hear children playing and people talking while performing their everyday activities. 

It was almost as if the battle hadn't happened within the island. In the corner of my eye, I spotted a grave. It seemed to have been built recently as I could see some freshly dug up earth near the grave. 

Finally, we arrived in the town, the villagers were looking at us warily as we made our way to the middle of the village. Suddenly, a bald old man made his appearance, his face was covered in bandages as he took his time to scan through the crew and I.

"Welcome back to the village. The Storm Dragon has been expecting you" The village leader said. While we travelled, we had made it a habit not to mention Boris' name. It was mostly because they would only recognize him as the Storm Dragon.

Anyway, we soon began to follow the village leader to him. We left the town, and slowly began to approach the shores of the island. I was beginning to get skeptical over whether Boris would be here or not, when I felt his presence up ahead.

'Boris! he's here!' I thought to myself as I used moonwalk to get to him.