𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ➳ 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐚 (one piece fanfic)

Chapter 105 ✊🏻

Even Garp was watching them without showing any signs of wanting to pursue them. And even though he was visibly pissed off, it wasn't at them. He glanced up at her—her stone-face overlapped with the smirk of a one blue-haired marine.

When the hot anger cooled down and the situation fully hit him, he was left with an uncanny calmness. He used moonwalk to go up to her height. "Konan or Nanko..." His voice was heavy with emotions. "What should I call you?"

Konan didn't glance up at him, not wanting to see whatever emotions were painted on his face, probably loathing or wrath if she had to guess. "I was born with the name Konan," she replied, tense as she prepared for whatever would come her way—a punch, angry shouting, she would accept both. The silence that soon came filled her with dread.

Finally she looked up at him, her stomach dropping as her eyes crossed his. Neither of her guesses were right it seemed. "It's not fair..." she mumbled under her breath, gritting her teeth. "Don't do that..."

Garp was looking at her in understanding, like the pieces of the puzzle had finally come together to form the person that stood before him. Perhaps he was one of the very few people in this world that had come to form a bond with both Konan and Nanko. He knew both of these people very well and while he didn't know why she had fooled them all these years, he wasn't blind. Nanko might have been a facade, but he had always treated them sincerely.

And weirdly enough, both Nanko and Konan had always seemed oddly similar in his eyes, some gimmicks and gestures, some laughs and smiles that he always overlooked as simply similar finally came together to unlock their secrets.

Though that didn't mean he wouldn't have a nice little talk with her once everything had passed. Her betrayal deeply hurt him, and it would probably be hard to trust her again. But he could also see—the way she avoided his gaze, clenched her hands till they bled, the way she kept on glancing at Hina below... she was probably the one hurting most from losing every relationship she had built over the years.

More than anything, he also understood that it wasn't the time to deal with that betrayal.

Parts of Konan's body already started dispersing into pieces of paper. His anger would have been justified, deserved even. But his lack thereof only dug deeper at her wounds, she felt like trash.

"You won't be able to escape forever, Konan," Garp said, raising his eyebrow.

And she knew that, but damn was she good at it.

Meanwhile, far from there, a certain hot-blooded admiral was watching her with clenched fists. Akainu had never liked the arrogant blue-haired Marine, his slyness always ticked him, his side-smirks as he passed by him, the unbridled arrogance he displayed... The fact that he had been the one to catch the slippery Ko when even he didn't manage to catch one single hair of hers, it pissed him off to no end.

Thus as he watched him reveal his true identity, he felt like the pieces finally came together. That's why Nanko never seemed particularly justice-driven, and why everytime they crossed paths, he felt weirdly pissed off. But no matter what he did, Nanko never seemed bothered at all, no amount of insults, annoying missions and uncanny demotions could ever scratch the grin off his face.

But he had finally found his weakness... He glanced down at the pair of brothers making their escape and he felt a smirk grow on his face. Ace was objectively someone who shouldn't live, as the unique legacy of the Pirate King, he couldn't allow him to escape... while Straw Hat was a growing threat and a burning spark that could one day set the world on fire. And he had just found another reason to get rid of them. How awfully convenient.

As he flew in their direction, he wondered what kind of face he—she would make as he punctured a hole through her precious brothers? But it would surely break that perfect mask of indifference. Maybe she would break down crying, begging for mercy? or charge at him with unbridled loathing and fury. He shivered at the thought, he couldn't wait for that to happen.

He approached Ace's position like a vulture, a magma punch already flying in their direction. "Running away the moment you got Ace... What a bunch of cowards, the Whitebeard pirates... Well it's not surprising considering what your captain is like... A failure from the previous era."

Ace stopped dead in his tracks, anger eating at him like a flame.

Luffy panicked when he saw that, "Ace! don't stop now!"

But there was no use, Ace didn't seem to hear anything. "A failure? Take back what you just said!!"

Akainu threw the hook and the fish bit, how simple and stupid, he thought. "Stopped by your father in blood and couldn't become king even after Roger's death, Whitebeard is and will forever remain a failure. Which part is wrong? Being called Pops by a bunch of sea scums, acting like a disgustingly warm family roaming the seas. Don't get confused, you all are just scums."

"Shut up!" Ace shouted, feeling his temper rise as he listened to these baseless insults. Whitebeard had given a home to them, a place to return to, a family when the whole world rejected them.

"He gave us a place to belong to! You people will never understand his greatness!" He was a greater man than Akainu could ever hope to become, and he refused for his legacy to be tainted so recklessly.

"Humans that don't walk the right path have no living value, the world has no place for you pirates! Whitebeard will die a pitiful death, and will be soon forgotten. He lived a meaningless life like all of you scums."

The fire of rage consumed Ace. Words had no effect on his opponent so he did what he knew best, and raised his fists. "Don't insult our savior! The name of this era is called 'Whitebeard'!"

Fueled by fury, Ace fought, but he soon discovered that his fire was far inferior to Akainu's magma. If noble justifications provided greater powers, the world would be a much better place... Unfortunately, the reality was cruel.

And Akainu was crueler still. "Take a good look," his magma fist headed in the direction of Luffy who had fallen to his knees—the aftereffects of pushing his body too far. Akainu knew where to hit to hurt the most.

Everything happened in a split second, and the world seemed to stop for a lot of people.

Ace was standing before Luffy, protecting him, eyes closed, panting and coughing. Luffy stared at him with wide eyes, not fully registering what was happening, "Ace?" The distinct sound of flesh burning could be heard.

.

Deafening silence spread on the battlefield.

.

Then a wave of chaos spread as everyone registered what had happened.

"You reckless fools," a calmer and gentle voice could be heard. "Why did you stop?" She coughed up blood, staring at Akainu dead in the eyes as she spoke.

"Konan?" Ace turned around, feeling tears well up as he saw her back, her huge wings forming a barrier between them, and then he smelt burnt flesh. "Konan?!" He pulled her back, completely ignoring the frozen Akainu.