The Sabre of Xebec tore through the Calm Belt, a ship of monsters carving to leave a scar across the glassy sea. The deck was a barely-contained riot of titanic egos.
At the port rail, Edward Newgate leaned against his massive naginata, his gaze fixed on the horizon, a colossal gourd of sake in his free hand. He was quiet, observing.
Opposite him, Charlotte Linlin was not quiet. She was devouring a three-tiered wedding cake, her joyous "MA-MA-MA-MA!" punctuated by the terrified squeals of the small, soul-infused beings, Prometheus and Zeus, that hovered near her.
"Jihahahaha!" Shiki, the Golden Lion, cackled, levitating a few feet off the deck as he explained a bored-looking Captain John and Wang Zhi with a boastful, impossible story. "And then I told the Admiral, 'If you want my treasure, you'll have to pry it from my cold sword--'"
"Shut up, Shiki," John grunted, shuffling a deck of greasy cards. "Unless your story ends with a pile of gold, I don't care."
On the quarterdeck, Stussy, the ship's brilliant and ruthlessly efficient navigator, was meticulously checking her charts, her cold eyes occasionally flicking to the chaos below. Near her, Gloriosa, the former empress, fanned herself, looking bored.
And at the prow, standing alone and away from them all, was the monster who kept them in line.
Rocks D. Xebec was staring at the sea.
He was motionless. He hadn't spoken in hours. This was his new, 'weird habit,' one he'd picked up a few years ago. His crew, a collection of powerful individuals, knew this mood. This was not his boisterous, chaotic, "Vohahaha!" mood. This was his silent, cold, thinking mood.
This was the mood where, if disturbed, he was at his most lethal. No one dared approach him.
Except for the new blood.
"Captain... Oi, Captain!"
A massive, drunken, teenage figure stumbled across the deck. Kaidō. He was the newest, and perhaps most arrogant, of the titans Xebec had recruited, a monster of a youth who believed his own strength was already absolute. He was bored. And when Kaidō was bored, he liked to fight.
"Captain! Fight me!" he slurred, an iron kanabō resting on his shoulder.
Xebec did not move. His gaze remained fixed on the endless, flat water, his mind a thousand miles away, on a small, hidden island with a boy who had his eyes.
Kaidō's brow furrowed. Being ignored was worse than being attacked. He stomped closer. "Oi! I'm talking to you..."
He poked the Captain in the back.
The entire ship went silent. Linlin stopped eating. Newgate's hand tightened on his gourd. Shiki's cackle died in his throat.
Xebec did not turn.
Enraged by the lack of reaction, Kaidō's drunken mind took over. "Fine! If you won't fight, I'll just--" He lunged, snatching the large bottle of rum from the rail next to Xebec. "Worororo! I'll take this, then!"
He chugged it, rum spilling down his chin. "Weak! Even your drink is bad."
But still no reaction.
"This stupid coat then....." Kaidō growled, reaching out a massive, clawed hand. He was going for the one thing Xebec was never seen without. He was going to grab the heavy, black coat given to him by Eris, which of course no one knew. But they knew he really liked it.
He was an inch away.
The sound stopped.
The wind, the waves, the creak of the ship, they all died. The light itself seemed to dim, as if the sun had flinched. It was not Conqueror's Haki. It was just his presence. A suffocating, cold, terrifying gravity that slammed down on the deck, making the very planks of the Sabre groan.
Every single member of the crew froze. Newgate's eyes were wide, Linlin was on her feet, her spirits cowering. Shiki had dropped to the deck, his face pale.
This was him. Not the captain. The Demon. The one true King that kept this ship of warring titans from tearing each other to pieces.
Slowly, Rocks D. Xebec turned his head.
His eyes were not wild. They were not manic. They were cold, empty, black voids, utterly devoid of emotion.
His voice was a low, terrifying hiss, barely louder than a whisper, yet it carried across the entire, silent ship.
"If you... ever... try to touch this coat again..."
He looked Kaidō in the eyes.
"...I will split you in two before your brain can even register the pain."
Kaidō froze. The kanabō slipped from his suddenly numb fingers, clattering loudly to the deck. An Apex. A being of such incomprehensible, absolute power that Kaidō's own monstrous spirit didn't just cower; it shattered.
A cold sweat, a fear he had never known in his life, burst from every pore on his body. The bottle dropped, spilling rum.
"I... I..." he stammered, his arrogance completely vaporized.
"Understood... Captain. Understood."
The pressure vanished. Instantly.
The sound of the world rushed back in. The sun was bright again. Xebec's face split into its signature, terrifying, manic grin.
"Vohahahahahaha!" he roared, the sound blasting the fear away. "That's great that you understand it, brat! Now go! Go bother Newgate and stop bothering me! I'm thinking!"
Kaidō didn't need to be told twice. He snatched up his club and scrambled away, his face still pale, his heart hammering. The crew, letting out a collective, shaky breath, went back to their business, though the energy was far more subdued.
Just as Kaidō reached the main mast, Stussy's voice, sharp and professional, cut through the air.
"Captain! Ship incoming! Starboard! It's World Government!"
Xebec's grin widened. "Vohahaha! Are they that eager to die? What is it this time?"
Newgate grunted, taking a long pull from his gourd. "Gurarara... They never learn. Sending those bubble-headed fools out here is a death sentence."
"Shut up, Newgate," Captain John laughed, already pulling his pistols.
"You should never say no to free treasure. Let 'em come!"
"What are your orders, Captain?" Stussy called down from the quarterdeck.
"Let them come!" Xebec roared, turning to face the approaching ship, his good mood fully restored. "Who knows what they might want? Vohahahahahaha!"
The World Government ship was sleek, gray, and bore the markings of Cipher Pol. It docked alongside the massive, dark Sabre of Xebec with an arrogant, unearned confidence. A ramp extended, and a unit of agents in gray suits marched out, led by a tall, older man with slicked-back gray hair and small, circular glasses. They looked less like soldiers and more like accountants, but their auras were cold and sharp. They were the CP-2.
The leader walked forward, stopping a respectful, but not fearful, distance from Xebec, who was grinning down at him from the railing.
"So," Xebec boomed, his voice dripping with amused contempt. "What brings you pigs to my ship?"
The crew, gathering behind their captain, grinned. They expected the man to be shaking.
Instead, the CP-2 leader smirked. He pushed his glasses up his nose, his voice as cold and formal as Garling's.
"Rocks D. Xebec. By order of the Five Elders, I am here to deliver a message."
"A message?" Xebec laughed. "I'm not interested, unless it's an unconditional surrender!"
"We have recently," the agent continued, his smirk widening as he relished the moment, "taken into our protective custody a woman known as Eris, of the 'No Name Clan.'"
Xebec's grin didn't falter, but his eyes went cold. The crew behind him stirred, the name 'Eris' an unknown.
The agent continued, "Along with two... byproducts... of your association. A one-year-old boy named Teach D. Xebec..."
The air pressure on the deck dropped.
"...and a four-year-old boy named Aster D. Xebec."
The grins on the crew's faces vanished. Newgate, Linlin, Shiki... all of them stared at their captain. Xebec? D? His... sons?
Xebec's face turned cold stone. His voice was dangerously soft. "Where. Are. They."
The CP leader's smirk was one of pure triumph. "You are to report, alone, to the island known as God Valley, in three days' time. If you fail to comply... your family... will be reclassified. They will be turned to slav--"
The word was not finished.
BOOM.
It was not a sound. It was an eruption.
A tidal wave of pure, black-red, suffocating power exploded from Xebec.
This was not the cold, focused 'presence' that had terrified Kaidō. This was Haoshoku. This was the raw, unrestrained, furious will of the Supreme King.
The crew of the Rocks Pirates struggled.
Kaidō, who had just gotten to his feet, was the first to go down, his eyes rolling back, instantly unconscious. Captain John, Wang Zhi, Silver Axe, and half the lesser-named crew dropped like stones.
Shiki was on one knee, his swords drawn, the veins in his head bulging as he resisted. "G...Gah... Captain...!"
Linlin was on her feet, her Haki flaring, her spirits sizzling as they were crushed by the pressure.
Whitebeard was the only one still standing, but even he was straining, his knees buckling, his hands gripping his maginata so hard it creaked.
"Gurarara... So... this... is his reason..."
The CP-2 unit was obliterated. All of them, save the leader, were unconscious, foaming at the mouth. The leader himself was flat on the deck, his glasses shattered, his body pinned, his face a mask of pure, abject terror. He had read about this. He had never felt it.
Xebec walked forward, the deck groaning under his Haki. He loomed over the terrified, pinned agent.
His voice was no longer human. It was a low, demonic, vibrating growl.
"I don't know how you found them... It was that moon-headed bastard, wasn't it? It doesn't matter."
He crouched, his face inches from the agent's.
"God Valley. I will be there."
He grabbed the man by the throat, lifting him effortlessly. "You give them this message. If there is a single scratch on her... on either of my sons... I will not just fight the Government. I will erase Mary Geoise from the map. Even if it costs me my life. You... understand?"
The CP leader, his face blue, clawed at Xebec's hand. "Un...Understood... I will... convey... let me--"
SHING.
Xebec drew his saber. A black, Haki-infused blur. The agent's head separated from his body. Xebec didn't even look. He let the body drop and, in a single, fluid, horrifying instant, his blade flashed, and the rest of the unconscious CP-2 unit was permanently silenced.
The Haki vanished.
The world rushed back in. The crew who were still conscious gasped for air. The ones who had passed out began to groan.
Xebec sheathed his bloody saber. He turned, his face a grim, cold mask.
Gloriosa, fanning herself with a shaking hand, was the first to speak.
"Captain... those names. Are they... your..."
"Yeah," Xebec said, his voice flat. "They are my family. My wife and my kid." He paused, a flicker of something dark and complex passing through his eyes. "...and by the looks of it, now... two kids."
He turned to the entire, staggering, terrified crew. His voice was the voice of a King.
"WE'RE GOING TO GOD VALLEY! NOW!"
He pointed at them. "You all stay back. Guard the ship. This is my fight. I got some pigs to slaughter."
The crew just nodded. This was not a debate. This was not a request. This was an order from the man they all, deep down, knew they could not defeat.
As the crew scrambled to get the ship moving, Xebec turned to his navigator. "Stussy. That Vivre Card I gave you. The one you hate. Where is it?"
Stussy, her face pale but professional, checked her charts, pulling out a tiny, fluttering piece of paper. It was pointing due to south.
"Due south, Captain. He's close."
"Good," Xebec grunted. He walked to the southern rail. The crew stopped to watch, confused. He drew his saber. He flooded the blade with a storm of black-red Haoshoku, a mirror of his "Collapse" attack. He swung, a massive, screaming black-red crescent of pure power, and fired it south, over the horizon.
The crew was baffled. Xebec just turned. "Get this ship moving."
*******************************************************
Meanwhile, on the Oro Jackson...
The mood was dark. Rayleigh, his face a mask of cold fury, polished his sword at the railing.
"It's been a year, Roger," he said, his voice low. "A year... and Shakky is just... gone."
Roger clapped a hand on his First Mate's shoulder. "Rayleigh... we'll find her. I promise. We'll tear the world apart, but we will--"
Buru-buru-buru... Buru-buru-buru...
The Den Den Mushi in the cabin rang. Roger ran to it. "What've you got?!"
The voice on the other end was an investigator, one of many they had hired. "Captain! We found her! Our man inside CP-9 confirmed it. She was taken by the World Government a year ago. They're... they're holding her. As a slave... at God Valley!"
The air on the deck froze. Rayleigh's head snapped up, his Haki flaring. The glass in his hand shattered.
"THEY. DARE." he roared, a sound of such pure, cold, murderous rage that the crew members flinched. They had never seen Rayleigh this emotional.
Roger didn't hesitate. He slammed the receiver down. "CHANGE OF PLANS, BOYS!" he bellowed, his own Haki flaring. "WE'RE HEADING TO GOD VALLEY! PREPARE THE SHIP!"
"YEAHHH--"
The crew's roar was cut short by a lookout's terrified scream.
"INCOMING! DEAD AHEAD!"
A massive, screaming, black-red thing was tearing across the sky, a crescent of pure, dark power that seemed to split the clouds.
"THAT BASTARD!" Roger roared, recognizing the signature instantly. He drew his own saber, Ace. "Everyone, get down!"
He infused his blade with his own crackling Haoshoku. "DIVINE DEPARTURE!"
He unleashed his own attack. The two golden-white and black-red crescents met, five miles from the ship, in a world-shattering BOOM that vaporized the clouds and boiled the sea for a square mile.
Roger, panting slightly, lowered his sword. "THAT DAMNED ROCKS!! DOES HE NOT HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO THAN PICK A FIGHT?!"
The crew, rattled, assumed this was just another bizarre, long-distance brawl between the two titans.
However, there was a pair of eyes that understood the message. The eyes for whom the message was intended.
---xxxx---
You can read advanced chapters on my P@treon. Just search Joe_Mama p@treon on google