𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 19

Nanko didn't expect the question, it snapped him out of his reverie.

There were two things Konan had ever wanted in life, peace, and love and she had lost both.

The first came from a desire to destroy what made her and a thousand other children suffer, she wanted – desperately so – to protect their smile.

The second grew out of her yearning for some semblance of affection from someone, anyone.

Yahiko, was her beacon of light, he was her – their – hope, a hope that was mercilessly crushed.

Nagato, was her life rope, she held onto him because he was the only one left of a time long gone. What tied them together was their foolish hope of a better world. While she stayed trapped in the past, he was rotting in a dream.

In conclusion, Konan didn't have a good experience with dreams. She was perfectly fine, living days by days, protecting those she cared about and helping some people along the way.

"My dream?" Nanko glanced at the waiting old man before looking up at the night sky filled with stars, "I have none, I just want to have fun before I die."

Garp stopped to stare at the unexpected answer. He wasn't used to teenagers talking about their death so easily. Maybe he was too old, he thought. People used to have more grandiose dreams like becoming an admiral, the pirate king, or hell, even head of a revolution. They used to think about conquering the world, becoming the strongest. He couldn't help but wonder what changed.

As if Nanko could sense he had toppled Garp's world views, he dragged him to a bar, "Let's drink tonight! Tsuru won't know." That quickly pushed Garp's worries out of his mind.

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"You thought I wouldn't know?!" Tsuru shouted at the two men kneeling behind her. "What's that??" She pointed to the poorly drawn characters on the walls of the normally plain blue and white marine buildings. Two people could be distinguished grinning on the walls, one with blue hair and the other with wrinkles and a grey beard. Over, there were black doodles, a mustachio on the blue-haired one, glasses and black teeth on the other.

The other marine officers watched the scene with barely hidden smiles. No one actually felt like getting rid of the drawings.

A bit further, Hina was holding her forehead in her hand, nursing a headache at the sight while Smoker chuckled in amusement beside her. "He is quite something," he commented, exhaling a puff of smoke as he watched Nanko who he could see laughing silently with Garp behind Tsuru's back.

Tsuru left once again after her subordinate called her for something, not before leaving some threats hanging over their heads.

Nanko turned to whisper to Garp, "Technically..." he started while gesturing to their magnificent drawing.

Garp seemed to catch his train of thought, "She didn't say we had to get rid of it..."

Both smiled mischievously as they walked their way while whistling, leaving the spectators dumbfounded.

When Hina saw him head in her direction, she crossed her arms and stared at him in a disappointed manner. Smoker watched with a hint of pity as he knew the feeling, Nanko could only give up and take the nagging.

Their first meeting went just as Hina had expected it would, she stood awkwardly between the man-child and the arrogant man waiting for either to start talking.

Smoker looked Nanko up and down, purposefully taking his time, "You're shorter than I expected."

Nanko sneered, "and you're just as rude as I expected."

Hina could see the sparks flying between the two men, and shook her head, they were both too prideful to get along well.

In addition, Nanko was forbidden from participating in the rest of the festival so he settled on encouraging Hina and booing Smoker, just so see him pissed off. Though that worked more or less, so instead, he settled on monopolizing Hina's time and ignoring Smoker.

Smoker couldn't help but curse, every time Nanko acted as if he was air, "That shitty brat."

And in return Nanko's smirk would grow bigger, while Hina, already used to their childish behavior, continued on with her life.

In this manner, it became normal to see both argue and fight, only to be somewhat pacified with Hina around. When she wasn't there, they were still seen hanging around together, only to start randomly fighting against each other.

The only reason Konan allowed herself to do this was because she learned how to deal with a Logia user, or so she told herself. Maybe a part of herself enjoyed being able to vent without fearing hurting anyone, well except maybe the smoke man himself, not that she cared anyway. Her haki was becoming more and more polished, and Smoker was having a harder time dealing with the fighting enthusiast.

As for Smoker, this allowed him to somewhat run away from his responsibilities as a Lieutenant and go against someone that was growing at a frightening pace. It pushed him to not slack off, lest his arrogant junior surpassed him, as that would deal a great blow to his pride.

This competition didn't go unnoticed and soon got to the ears of a troubled Tsuru and an amused Garp.

No sooner than a month after their first meeting, Nanko was assigned to Smoker's section. When given the chance to finally get rid of the troublesome junior, Tsuru decided to dump Nanko in another troublesome brat's hands. No one else wanted to have a ticking bomb on their laps, one which they knew wouldn't obey them.

That would return some of its peace to the headquarters, and she wouldn't have to hear Garp's rambling about this genius fighter again or feel the trembling from Nanko's fighting from a kilometer away.

"So you're my subordinate now? Midget," Smoker taunted as he loomed over the smaller man.

"Old man, why haven't you retired yet, you should give your old bones some rest, and give way to the younger generation," Nanko retorted with ease, examining his callused hands and stepping out of the way of a flying smoke punch. "You've gotten rusty too..." He continued poking, as his steps grew quicker, soon he was stepping on the air, looking down on the smoking man. "Smoking will only bring you closer to your grave," he avoided another attack, "old~" he smirked, amusement tinting his voice, "man~"

They were at a standstill, with Nanko walking in the air and Smoker flying in his smoke form.

The six powers created by the marine was an interesting concept, one she couldn't stop herself from stealing for herself, plus it would be a shame not to when the Marine Hero was that interested in her—Nanko's—potential. Moonlight especially was a good technique to have, given that she couldn't exactly have papers sprouting from her back as Nanko. And she mastered it quickly enough given that she had perfect control of the chakra in her body and it was a bit similar to walking on water except she was walking on air flux.

However the five other techniques were pretty much useless to her: Iron Body could easily be defeated with a strong enough blow, and the user wouldn't be able to move, Finger Pistol was too disgusting for her liking, she preferred using weapons to come into contact with her opponents, and not sticking her finger in someone else's chest, plus with a bit of timed haki, her finger would be broken, Instant Transmission was too bothersome, while jumping around ten times, a skilled enemy would have long before attacked, or at least she would, Paper Art was useless to her, she didn't need it to avoid attacks, as for Six King Pistol, it would require the mastery of the other 6 and she didn't have that kind of patience.

"Where did you learn that," Smoker questioned with a raised eyebrow, eyeing the marine techniques a mere junior was displaying with barely months of training. Though he shouldn't be surprised considering that junior of his was anything but normal.

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I will probably do a time skip of a year or so soon (not before solving one event though) ;)

PS: I turned a year older yesterday, yay... 🎉