An Eternal Bond

Mugiwara

"Well... I can cross seeing people fall out of the sky from my bucket list." I said, earning a deadpan from Marco.

Almost magically, the ship landed right where Jozu had cut out a hole, so it landed in the water. Luffy's luck is something else, sometimes. WAIT, WATER?

"Marco, give me a moment." I ran up to the hole and jumped in, my legs turning to a tail as I searched the waters. "There!"

I sped towards them, grabbing Luffy and Buggy's arms, while... "Jinbei?"

He looked over at me with a few others clutched in his large hands.

"W-Where have you been?"

"In jail."

Hm, makes sense.

The two of us lifted the Devil Fruit users to the surface. "Just sit tight, Luffy... until you wake up, anyway." I gently placed him and Buggy on their ship and looked back at Ace, jumping off and running into the plaza again.

"So that's the Luffy you and Ace talk about?" Marco asked. I nodded with an awkward chuckle. "Yeah... it's a strange group, huh?" Marco looked back at them.

"Captain of the Revolutionaries, Mugiwara Luffy, some prisoners, Buggy, and Crocodile.... Yeah, it's pretty strange."

I eyed Crocodile, as he eyed Oyaji. Him and Luffy do not have the same goal here... but he won't be a nuisance, right?

NOPE, WRONG, DEFINITELY WRONG!!

"Oyaji!!" I was about to run over until I noticed Luffy from the side of my eye. "Or.. not."

"You didn't tell me Ace's brother was such a fighter." Marco said, seeing Luffy kick Crocodile's hook away.

"Well... fighter, yes. But he doesn't have the same fear of Oyaji as everyone else does."

Just as I said that...

"Do you know who you're dealing with? Out there, you're dead meat."

"...Shut up! You don't have a say in that!! You want to become King of the Pirates? Well, that's not going to happen! Because the King of the Pirates... will be me!!"

I turned around, moving my hair out of the way in an "I don't know him" fashion. "Let's, uh... Let's go." I motioned for Marco to follow, him giving a slow nod and following me.

I could no longer hear what Oyaji and Luffy were saying, but from everyone's facial expressions, I assume Luffy wasn't acting like people normally do with Oyaji.

"Wait..." I noticed a guy, pretty brawny with blades on his arms, with a whole square missing where his heart should be. "Marco, look."

He glanced over and tilted his head. "It's like he's missing his heart or something..."

Missing his— Oh!

I used Marco's Devil Fruit power and flew up to Oyaji. "Hold on, I just need to get something!" I yelled.

"Y/N, wait a moment."

I stopped and looked back at Oyaji. "Is something wrong?" He nodded. "Apparently, they're planning on doing Ace's execution off schedule."

Marco landed as well, right next to me. "So it'll be sooner, right?"

"Right. How are Squard and the others doing?"

"They're tied up with the vice admirals right now."

I squinted to the other crews, seeing that Marco was right. "I'll fly over and—" "Wait. I bet it's part of his plan for us to be leaked information and advance."