_________ POV Narration _________
The Lunarian Hunters hadn't known what to expect after feeling that earthquake rattle the earth, they only knew that they needed to rush back to their tribe to help.
Many were concerned for their families, and their children. Both men and women looked at the ruins of their village in a petrified state.
The first one to act was one of the men... A father that could only see the unmoving arm of his daughter sticking out from underneath the rubble of his house.
With anger in his gaze and fire radiating off of him, he threw the first spear, which sped past the village like a bullet, threatening to impale Xebec in an instant, only barely dodged by the Pirate captain.
The hunters then saw their dead or dying elders on the field, rage had well and truly set in.
Dozens of warriors, winged men and women descended upon the Rocks Pirates with unextinguishable fury.
Xebec was powerful, so only the strongest hunters tried to encircle him, only to be burned by his blue flames, as they gained a black hue.
"You fucking mindless ants! You all should wait for your turn to die!" Xebec's angry voice shocked them, as some finally recognized him.
Whitebeard, Francsico and Shiki had to deal with a few dozen warriors each, with Kureha assisting Shiki as much as possible.
Xebec's fight with the Chieftain continued, and some of the hunters that had been encircling Xebec decided to try and use some ranged attacks.
Rocks did his best to fight off both the injured Chieftain and the stronger hunters, but he still ended up receiving 3 spears in his back, which prompted him to shout.
"FRANCISCO! YOU BETTER STOP FUCKING AROUND AND GET TO WORK!" Xebec's angry voice cut through the battlefield, angering some of the hunters further.
Francisco just sighed as his blade cut through a few more hunters before he finally took a deep breath and dashed towards the stronger hunters that had been circling around Xebec.
He ignored the spears and arrows headed for him, he ignored the raging flames that burnt his skin as he danced around the Hunters, spilling their blood and guts everywhere with each move that he made.
Xebec heaved a tired sigh as he finally got some time to recover his energy thanks to Francisco's rampage.
The Chieftain still looked at Xebec with pure anger, before his gaze also landed on Francisco and the rest...
'Shit... They're all too strong!'
In the background, Whitebeard was also accumulating injuries, but his shockwaves were crushing the hunters around him and rattling the battlefield constantly.
It also seemed to help Shiki with his powers, as he was able to float up and control more and more of the battlefield thanks to Newgate.
The hunters were quickly losing, and the Chieftain knew that he had to kill Xebec quickly.
Taking a deep breath, a powerful white flame covered him like a cloak, he seemed to melt the ground around him wherever he stepped, his blade extending and flinging some magma towards Xebec.
The Chieftain ended up raising an entire wave of Magma formed out of the Red Line with his blade, one that threatened to swallow Xebec up.
But the Pirate Captain seemed undeterred, he instead also covered his body in a cloak of blue fire, his eyes shining as he punched through the wave of magma and propelled himself forward into the Chieftain.
The Chieftain's sword was already cutting into Xebec's torso when he passed through the wave of Magme, but he was unable to kill off the Pirate Captain's momentum.
Instead, Xebec's punch impaled the Chieftain's chest and brought him to the ground, segmenting the lava and field all around them and sending any nearby hunter flying backwards.
The Chieftain's sword impaled Xebec through the chest as well, just as his vision started going blurry...
In the end, Xebec's flames ended up eating at the Chieftain's body, turning it into charcoal almost instantly as the Chieftain could only look at Xebec with a fearful gaze.
That was the last emotion that the Chieftain had felt. Fear... Fear when gazing into the eyes of the injured beast he had been fighting. Fear at the monster he had helped create...
After the Chieftain's death, the fight didn't last much longer...
Xebec was already far too tired and injured to get involved in it, but the hunters were extremely discouraged, allowing Francisco and the rest to take them out much more easily.
In the end, the Rocks Pirates were injured quite severely during the conflict, Kureha was safe thanks to Shiki floating her up on some rocks when the hunters appeared.
For all of his posturing and teasing, Shiki did care quite a bit about their older doctor...
Maybe it was a bit of a childhood crush on a more mature woman. Who knew? But Shiki was the reason Kureha was able to survive against the Lunarian Tribe.
Shiki and the rest however were all littered with life-threatening injuries. Even Francisco had received a few arrows to his back and had narrowly avoided being impaled through the heart.
In the end, Xebec still had enough strength to leave his Jolly Roger planted into the ground, using one of the spears that had been planted in his back as a pole.
The Jolly Roger stood there as a sign of conquest, and the Rocks Pirates left soon after that...
__________________________________
",,," Enel sighed a bit when hearing the depressing way that things had ended for the Lunarian tribe.
Entire lives were ruined on the whim of a revenge-driven madman...
"In the end... What did you ever learn about the full situation? Why did Xebec do what he did?" Enel ended up asking as he crossed his arms.
Both Francisco and Shiki seemed to have grim looks on their faces as they recalled that day, only Francisco seemed to have the answer though...
"He only explained the full story later on... But it is my understanding that he was too ambitious for his own good, as he put it..." Francisco shrugged a bit as he continued explaining a few things.
"He wanted to go out and explore the world, and he did just that... However, he was hunted down and almost killed by the World Government the second he stepped foot on the Sabaody Archipelago..."
Enel raised an eyebrow at that. How exactly did that tie into the village being at fault though?
"The Chieftain of the village had apparently informed the World Government of his whereabouts... I don't know how Xebec managed to learn of that, or how the Tribe's location remained a secret to the government...
But I know that Xebec was fortunate enough to have a Celestial Dragon take a liking to him, and turn him into a slave on the spot, which saved him from dying..."
Enel scowled a bit when hearing that, wondering why the government even bothered granting all of the wishes of the bottom feeders that called themselves world nobles...
Alas, it seemed to have saved Xebec's life, though Enel was unsure if he could call that an overly good thing.
Shiki just looked to the side and took another sip of his drink, seemingly not interested in the story, as he likely already knew it.
"He escaped a few years later when he was dragged off with his 'master' to an auction... I was the slave on the stage at that time, shackled and bound.
Xebec killed the Celestial Dragon and freed me along with the other slaves. I was decently strong even then, so he invited me to join his crew... and I did." Francisco smiled a bit as he remembered those times, the few times his former Captain had acted decently...
"And the rest is history..." Enel continued as he sighed.
"Huh, this story's always annoying. Out of everyone, you were recruited in the least antagonizing way... Makes me a bit jealous..." Shiki scowled as he remembered how he and the rest had to be both beaten down and threatened into joining Xebec's crew.
"Heh... His recruitment methods were truly not conventional..." Francisco just scratched the back of his head and showed the other two a forced smile.
"Not conventional?" Shiki's scowl deepened. "No need to defend him. He was actual scum and treated others worse than the dirt he stepped on. It was the main reason so many people banded against him..."
Shiki's words sounded personal... And who could blame him? His experience with Xebec wasn't all that nice (to say the least). Even then, he had believed that Xebec would be able to accomplish something great at one point... Only for everything to fall apart at God Valley...
"I can't argue with the truth... He really wasn't a good captain. But he was strong, ambitious... I wanted to trust in his vision as well... But we may have gone overboard in many places..." Francisco just sighed as he finally downed his bottle of Sake.
"It's all in the past now..." Enel said as he slowly stood up, having heard what he wanted. "I won't hold it against either of you..." The Lighting Emperor smiled as he turned and looked at the window.
"So you're off now? Any destination?" Francisco smiled a bit as he looked at his new captain's back.
"Vegapunk... I have quite a few things to sort out there..." Enel smiled as he turned his head and gave Francisco and Shiki one last look.
"That guy?" Shiki scoffed before giving Enel one last glance.
"Watch out around him, he used to work with Buckingham Stussy, a former crewmate of ours... Real weirdo." The Golden Lion scoffed as he remembered that crewmate of theirs
"She just had some weird obsession with Whitebeard... Nothing too strange." Francisco simply shrugged, and Enel raised an eyebrow at their conversation.
'Stussy...? Wait a minute... Wasn't she the agent that directed me to Vegapunk? But she's too young to have been a Rocks Pirate... I guess I'll have to ask Vegapunk more about it...'
"Hmm... Thanks for the heads up... I'll have to look into a few things with him..." Enel waved at the two old pirates and disappeared in a flash of lightning.
Instead of reappearing at his home, he reappeared in front of a different house. The sun had already set, so only the dim light of the stars was shining overhead.
Maybe emboldened by alcohol mixed with a desire to see someone specifically... But he decided to take the next step as he raised his hand slightly to knock on the door.
Enel's fingers gently knocked on the wooden door a few times. He stood there with a small smile on his face, a tired yawn could be heard from the other side before the door opened.
The dishevelled figure of Robin answered the door, with messy bed hair and tired eyes.
The Lightning Emperor was a bit amused to see her like that, he smiled and leaned on the doorframe.
"Well, weren't you sleeping in rather early?" He asked in a cheeky tone as one of his earlobes quickly shot up and prevented Robin from slamming the door in his face.
And Robin did try, looking a bit frustrated at the Emperor that rolled up to her door at midnight.
After trying a few times and failing, she ended up rubbing the bridge of her nose and opening her mouth.
"What? It's really late and I'm tired from training..." Robin sounded truly exhausted, which made Enel feel a bit worse about interrupting her sleep.
"Well... I just felt like dropping by, seeing you and all that..." Enel scratched the back of his head with an awkward gaze, it was only then that Robin noticed something and her eyes widened...
"W-wait... You have both hands now?!?" She seemed to instantly gain a burst of energy as she got closer to Enel and studied his body for a few seconds, blinking a few times as she tapped his newly regrown arm with a curious gaze.
"This... Did Bonney help you after all?" She asked as she finally looked up to the much taller Enel, her eyes shining a bit underneath the dim light of the stars.
"Yep... Sengoku is also on the island now... How have you been?" Enel smiled a bit as he answered her question in kind.
Robin looked into the Emperor's eyes for a few seconds, before simply sighing.
"Well... Since you're here you might as well come in... We can talk more inside, maybe over a cup of tea..."
Enel just smiled and walked in...
The two of them ended up speaking for a good portion of the night, with Enel falling asleep at some point, and Robin covering him with a bed sheet before going back to bed herself...
__________________________________________________________________
Hope you liked the chapter!
Kinda liked writing about the Rocks, might(will certainly) make another storytime like this later on ;)
Sorry for not posting yesterday, had a bit of work and ended up being unable to write anything at all. At least I got around to it today :))
If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)
_________ POV Narration _________
The Lunarian Hunters hadn't known what to expect after feeling that earthquake rattle the earth, they only knew that they needed to rush back to their tribe to help.
Many were concerned for their families, and their children. Both men and women looked at the ruins of their village in a petrified state.
The first one to act was one of the men... A father that could only see the unmoving arm of his daughter sticking out from underneath the rubble of his house.
With anger in his gaze and fire radiating off of him, he threw the first spear, which sped past the village like a bullet, threatening to impale Xebec in an instant, only barely dodged by the Pirate captain.
The hunters then saw their dead or dying elders on the field, rage had well and truly set in.
Dozens of warriors, winged men and women descended upon the Rocks Pirates with unextinguishable fury.
Xebec was powerful, so only the strongest hunters tried to encircle him, only to be burned by his blue flames, as they gained a black hue.
"You fucking mindless ants! You all should wait for your turn to die!" Xebec's angry voice shocked them, as some finally recognized him.
Whitebeard, Francsico and Shiki had to deal with a few dozen warriors each, with Kureha assisting Shiki as much as possible.
Xebec's fight with the Chieftain continued, and some of the hunters that had been encircling Xebec decided to try and use some ranged attacks.
Rocks did his best to fight off both the injured Chieftain and the stronger hunters, but he still ended up receiving 3 spears in his back, which prompted him to shout.
"FRANCISCO! YOU BETTER STOP FUCKING AROUND AND GET TO WORK!" Xebec's angry voice cut through the battlefield, angering some of the hunters further.
Francisco just sighed as his blade cut through a few more hunters before he finally took a deep breath and dashed towards the stronger hunters that had been circling around Xebec.
He ignored the spears and arrows headed for him, he ignored the raging flames that burnt his skin as he danced around the Hunters, spilling their blood and guts everywhere with each move that he made.
Xebec heaved a tired sigh as he finally got some time to recover his energy thanks to Francisco's rampage.
The Chieftain still looked at Xebec with pure anger, before his gaze also landed on Francisco and the rest...
'Shit... They're all too strong!'
In the background, Whitebeard was also accumulating injuries, but his shockwaves were crushing the hunters around him and rattling the battlefield constantly.
It also seemed to help Shiki with his powers, as he was able to float up and control more and more of the battlefield thanks to Newgate.
The hunters were quickly losing, and the Chieftain knew that he had to kill Xebec quickly.
Taking a deep breath, a powerful white flame covered him like a cloak, he seemed to melt the ground around him wherever he stepped, his blade extending and flinging some magma towards Xebec.
The Chieftain ended up raising an entire wave of Magma formed out of the Red Line with his blade, one that threatened to swallow Xebec up.
But the Pirate Captain seemed undeterred, he instead also covered his body in a cloak of blue fire, his eyes shining as he punched through the wave of magma and propelled himself forward into the Chieftain.
The Chieftain's sword was already cutting into Xebec's torso when he passed through the wave of Magme, but he was unable to kill off the Pirate Captain's momentum.
Instead, Xebec's punch impaled the Chieftain's chest and brought him to the ground, segmenting the lava and field all around them and sending any nearby hunter flying backwards.
The Chieftain's sword impaled Xebec through the chest as well, just as his vision started going blurry...
In the end, Xebec's flames ended up eating at the Chieftain's body, turning it into charcoal almost instantly as the Chieftain could only look at Xebec with a fearful gaze.
That was the last emotion that the Chieftain had felt. Fear... Fear when gazing into the eyes of the injured beast he had been fighting. Fear at the monster he had helped create...
After the Chieftain's death, the fight didn't last much longer...
Xebec was already far too tired and injured to get involved in it, but the hunters were extremely discouraged, allowing Francisco and the rest to take them out much more easily.
In the end, the Rocks Pirates were injured quite severely during the conflict, Kureha was safe thanks to Shiki floating her up on some rocks when the hunters appeared.
For all of his posturing and teasing, Shiki did care quite a bit about their older doctor...
Maybe it was a bit of a childhood crush on a more mature woman. Who knew? But Shiki was the reason Kureha was able to survive against the Lunarian Tribe.
Shiki and the rest however were all littered with life-threatening injuries. Even Francisco had received a few arrows to his back and had narrowly avoided being impaled through the heart.
In the end, Xebec still had enough strength to leave his Jolly Roger planted into the ground, using one of the spears that had been planted in his back as a pole.
The Jolly Roger stood there as a sign of conquest, and the Rocks Pirates left soon after that...
__________________________________
",,," Enel sighed a bit when hearing the depressing way that things had ended for the Lunarian tribe.
Entire lives were ruined on the whim of a revenge-driven madman...
"In the end... What did you ever learn about the full situation? Why did Xebec do what he did?" Enel ended up asking as he crossed his arms.
Both Francisco and Shiki seemed to have grim looks on their faces as they recalled that day, only Francisco seemed to have the answer though...
"He only explained the full story later on... But it is my understanding that he was too ambitious for his own good, as he put it..." Francisco shrugged a bit as he continued explaining a few things.
"He wanted to go out and explore the world, and he did just that... However, he was hunted down and almost killed by the World Government the second he stepped foot on the Sabaody Archipelago..."
Enel raised an eyebrow at that. How exactly did that tie into the village being at fault though?
"The Chieftain of the village had apparently informed the World Government of his whereabouts... I don't know how Xebec managed to learn of that, or how the Tribe's location remained a secret to the government...
But I know that Xebec was fortunate enough to have a Celestial Dragon take a liking to him, and turn him into a slave on the spot, which saved him from dying..."
Enel scowled a bit when hearing that, wondering why the government even bothered granting all of the wishes of the bottom feeders that called themselves world nobles...
Alas, it seemed to have saved Xebec's life, though Enel was unsure if he could call that an overly good thing.
Shiki just looked to the side and took another sip of his drink, seemingly not interested in the story, as he likely already knew it.
"He escaped a few years later when he was dragged off with his 'master' to an auction... I was the slave on the stage at that time, shackled and bound.
Xebec killed the Celestial Dragon and freed me along with the other slaves. I was decently strong even then, so he invited me to join his crew... and I did." Francisco smiled a bit as he remembered those times, the few times his former Captain had acted decently...
"And the rest is history..." Enel continued as he sighed.
"Huh, this story's always annoying. Out of everyone, you were recruited in the least antagonizing way... Makes me a bit jealous..." Shiki scowled as he remembered how he and the rest had to be both beaten down and threatened into joining Xebec's crew.
"Heh... His recruitment methods were truly not conventional..." Francisco just scratched the back of his head and showed the other two a forced smile.
"Not conventional?" Shiki's scowl deepened. "No need to defend him. He was actual scum and treated others worse than the dirt he stepped on. It was the main reason so many people banded against him..."
Shiki's words sounded personal... And who could blame him? His experience with Xebec wasn't all that nice (to say the least). Even then, he had believed that Xebec would be able to accomplish something great at one point... Only for everything to fall apart at God Valley...
"I can't argue with the truth... He really wasn't a good captain. But he was strong, ambitious... I wanted to trust in his vision as well... But we may have gone overboard in many places..." Francisco just sighed as he finally downed his bottle of Sake.
"It's all in the past now..." Enel said as he slowly stood up, having heard what he wanted. "I won't hold it against either of you..." The Lighting Emperor smiled as he turned and looked at the window.
"So you're off now? Any destination?" Francisco smiled a bit as he looked at his new captain's back.
"Vegapunk... I have quite a few things to sort out there..." Enel smiled as he turned his head and gave Francisco and Shiki one last look.
"That guy?" Shiki scoffed before giving Enel one last glance.
"Watch out around him, he used to work with Buckingham Stussy, a former crewmate of ours... Real weirdo." The Golden Lion scoffed as he remembered that crewmate of theirs
"She just had some weird obsession with Whitebeard... Nothing too strange." Francisco simply shrugged, and Enel raised an eyebrow at their conversation.
'Stussy...? Wait a minute... Wasn't she the agent that directed me to Vegapunk? But she's too young to have been a Rocks Pirate... I guess I'll have to ask Vegapunk more about it...'
"Hmm... Thanks for the heads up... I'll have to look into a few things with him..." Enel waved at the two old pirates and disappeared in a flash of lightning.
Instead of reappearing at his home, he reappeared in front of a different house. The sun had already set, so only the dim light of the stars was shining overhead.
Maybe emboldened by alcohol mixed with a desire to see someone specifically... But he decided to take the next step as he raised his hand slightly to knock on the door.
Enel's fingers gently knocked on the wooden door a few times. He stood there with a small smile on his face, a tired yawn could be heard from the other side before the door opened.
The dishevelled figure of Robin answered the door, with messy bed hair and tired eyes.
The Lightning Emperor was a bit amused to see her like that, he smiled and leaned on the doorframe.
"Well, weren't you sleeping in rather early?" He asked in a cheeky tone as one of his earlobes quickly shot up and prevented Robin from slamming the door in his face.
And Robin did try, looking a bit frustrated at the Emperor that rolled up to her door at midnight.
After trying a few times and failing, she ended up rubbing the bridge of her nose and opening her mouth.
"What? It's really late and I'm tired from training..." Robin sounded truly exhausted, which made Enel feel a bit worse about interrupting her sleep.
"Well... I just felt like dropping by, seeing you and all that..." Enel scratched the back of his head with an awkward gaze, it was only then that Robin noticed something and her eyes widened...
"W-wait... You have both hands now?!?" She seemed to instantly gain a burst of energy as she got closer to Enel and studied his body for a few seconds, blinking a few times as she tapped his newly regrown arm with a curious gaze.
"This... Did Bonney help you after all?" She asked as she finally looked up to the much taller Enel, her eyes shining a bit underneath the dim light of the stars.
"Yep... Sengoku is also on the island now... How have you been?" Enel smiled a bit as he answered her question in kind.
Robin looked into the Emperor's eyes for a few seconds, before simply sighing.
"Well... Since you're here you might as well come in... We can talk more inside, maybe over a cup of tea..."
Enel just smiled and walked in...
The two of them ended up speaking for a good portion of the night, with Enel falling asleep at some point, and Robin covering him with a bed sheet before going back to bed herself...
__________________________________________________________________
Hope you liked the chapter!
Kinda liked writing about the Rocks, might(will certainly) make another storytime like this later on ;)
Sorry for not posting yesterday, had a bit of work and ended up being unable to write anything at all. At least I got around to it today :))
If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)
