Chapter 97: Wrath of an Angry Sibling
Warning! Chapters 95-97 were posted back-to-back! Make sure you pick the story up in the right place!
Chapter 97: Wrath of an Angry Sibling
The initial Air Door to the remains of the Frozen Library took them to an empty field. Predictably, the battle had moved away, and everyone had moved with it. Thankfully, despite Luffy and the others deliberately leading Tharaaxx off, the fighting was still close enough by that Kaya immediate pointed, easily able to pick up the massive amounts of Haki in use. Vivi was quick to open another line-of-sight Air Door as far in that direction as she could. She, in fact, cheated and opened it in the air, and Nojiko seamlessly followed up by providing a platform for them all to ride though.
This time, they came out in full view of the battle still ongoing. Tharaax looked like he’d taken some actual lasting damage at this point, but he was still obviously a going concern, and Kuina and Zoro had at least temporarily tapped out. That made a degree of sense, unfortunately. Their highest-level moves required them to charge their attacks with both Haki and spiritual energy, and neither of the sword wielders had massive reserves of either energy just yet. Both were standing between Strawberry’s subordinates and the rest of the crew that had remained behind…though there were fewer of the Marines than before. Possibly concerning, but not the focus at the moment.
The focus, of course, was the fact that a roar of anger had snapped Thraaxx’s head around right as they’d floated through the Air Door, and the giant drake did an excellent job of looking panicked. He outright bolted, surprising Luffy, Yamato and Strawberry by breaking away and toward the mountains, completely ignoring them. ‘The Great Thraaxx’ didn’t make it far before the much larger form of Neethrax appeared out of the sun and slammed down on his back. The blow shook the ground, causing anyone actually in contact with said ground to stumble.
“YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU BROKE MY LIBRARY, DID YOU THINK I WOULDN’T FIND OUT?! IF NOT FOR THE MEMORY OF OUR MOTHER, I’D BURY YOU FOR THE AFFRONT!”
Tharaax managed to recover, trying to roll onto his back and snap at her, but Neethrax used a single clawed hand to punch his face back down into the ground.
“TAKING A TIME OUT WASN’T ENOUGH, OBVIOUSLY! THIS TIME, I’LL HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOUR PUNISHMENT STICKS!”
The elder dragon breathed, thick frost pinning her brother to the ground, then lifted off of him with her forelegs as he attempted to break free. Everyone who was even moderately spiritually sensitive flinched as both of her massive foreclaws lit up with energy and began pulling something from her brother. Her brother wailed, then began to plea.
“No! No, please, big sister! Don’t! I’ll be good! I’ll fixed your stupid library!”
Apparently, the drake was not very good at talking his way out of trouble…
“STUPID?! YOU DARE COMPOUND YOUR SINS?”
The energy draw redoubled, gaining more colors, and Thraaxx began to shrink. His desperate struggles redoubled, but became even more pointless as he visibly lost strength with every meter of size. The watching crowd watched in numb shock as ‘The Great Thraaxx’ shrunk to the size of a carriage before his sister let him go. He scrambled away, hissing…and that hiss caused her to lash out, punting him into the distance, toward the mountains.
“UGH, WHAT A DUMBASS. I SUPPOSE I’LL HAVE TO DESIGN SOME SORT OF TRIAL OR TEST OR SOMETHING TO LET HIM HAVE HIS ELEMENTS BACK. EVENTUALLY. IT CAN WAIT UNTIL MY LIBRARY IS FIXED AND FULLY SORTED. THAT SHOULDN’T TAKE MORE THAN A DECADE OR SO IF I GIVE IT PERSONAL ATTENTION…”
The much larger dragon turned to look at where Vice Admiral Strawberry was staring. She pointed a claw at him and made a terrifying unhappy sound in the back of her throat.
“AS FOR YOU. I WILL HAVE WORDS. YOUR WORLD GOVERNMENT AND I HAD A DEAL. YOU WERE NOT TO MEDDLE WITH THE AFFAIRS OF MY PEOPLE, AND I WOULD RETAIN MY PROMISE NOT TO SPEAK OF CERTAIN THINGS. I WAKE NOW TO FIND YOUR MARINES BARRING ENTERANCE TO MY MINE. THIS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO PASS. YOU HAVE THREE DAYS TO SUMMON YOUR SUPERIORS TO DISCUSS TERMS OF OUR CONTIUNED DEAL, OR I WILL VOID IT MYSELF.”
Abrupt, with a harsh clap of her hands together…the Marines vanished. The action felt disturbingly like Vivi’s Air Doors, and Luffy was abruptly reminded what he’d discovered, what seemed so long ago now, about Devil Fruits. That they were effectively training wheels. As the thought flashed through his mind, he became very certain he didn’t want to know just how many other Devil Fruits this dragon might be able to duplicate the effects of. Moments later, he and the others who hadn’t seen her other form yet blinked as Neethrax shrunk again, retaking her more human, but still distinctly draconic, form.
“Now, what to do with you lot. You may have been trying to stop my brother, but you also participated in a fight that damaged my library. Still…”
Neethrax’s gaze focused on Robin, then slid to Nojiko. Slowly, she nodded.
“Child of Ohara, what is it you seek to do with the truth of the world?”
If Robin was startled, she didn’t show it, though she obviously took a few seconds to formulate an answer.
“One could call it curiosity, and they would not be fully wrong. Though the deaths that have come with the search have given it a different weight. I, along with the rest of those in Ohara who tried to find out about the Void Century, believe that the past is important. Without knowing it, we are uninformed about the now, as well as about the future. That missing knowledge makes the world a worse place, though even if it didn’t, I would wish to know for myself only. What I will do with the knowledge, I know not. Only that it would be better to know than not know.”
The dragon woman studied Robin carefully, before slowly nodding again.
“A seeker of knowledge, rather than someone who merely wants to use that knowledge as power to harm others. You would have done well as one of my Librarians, little one. Unfortunately, the oath I gave was quite…binding. I can tell you only the vaguest of details until such a time as the one who bound me no longer exists. Do you wish to know what little I can say?”
Robin visibly considered, then slowly nodded.
“Another offered to tell me what he knew, but said I would not be able to do anything about it as I was. Still, my desire to know is strong. Having a vague idea would be nice, I think, so that I can focus on finding out more for myself.”
Neethrax chuckled, the sound almost rueful.
“An echo of my own heart, and the many troubles knowing things has caused me. Very well, your punishment will be in the knowing, as it will drive you on to seek answers. The only other thing I demand of your group is that she comes to learn more about her Devil Fruit. The one with the dimension doors can bring her.”
Nojiko blinked as the woman pointed to her. Luffy looked a question at her, asking if that was something she was actually okay with. She knew he would fight it if she wasn’t, but honestly it was an opportunity she’d be a complete fool to pass up, given that the dragon woman had known a previous user of her fruit. She nodded acceptance and Neethrax gave her a pleased smile.
“Excellent. Now, for what little hints I can give your Seeker.”
Neethrax’s face grew solemn as she turned back to Robin.
“Know that the most important event of the period you know as the Void Century revolved around a Great War. One that pit the twenty nations who would form the World Government against a single far Greater nation. A nation so advanced that, even combined, they struggled to overcome it. The ending of that war, in so much as it ended at all, saw the use of truly terrible weapons. The world as you know it now was shaped by that use, the worldwide water levels rising by over 200 meters. Many of what you know as islands now were either much larger or even outright connected, prior to that destruction.”
There were gasps and dropped jaws among the crew as they tried to wrap their mind around a fact that…enormous. Tried to imagine what could cause destruction on such a massive scale. Neethrax looked unhappy as she continued.
“I can tell you little more, without violating my oath. I will give you only one more hint, one dangerous in the extreme. Something that technically isn’t covered by my oath due to how it was worded. Listen and listen well, for I will say this only once. The Empty Throne, isn’t.”
As they all tried to process just what that last sentence meant, Neethrax moved. Her body shifted back to her full dragon form, great wings beat and wind buffeted them all. Despite her great size, she was gone in only moments, presumably returning to her lair. Those that had met her there suspected that she would likely shift appearance again as soon as she was out of sight, and probably dive into the books that had been brought. A quiet word passed from Luffy to Vivi and an Air Door snapped open behind the Pirates…just as Vice Admiral Strawberry came racing back to their location using Geppo.
The Marine halted in the air, staring at the lack of a dragon and the presence of the Air Door, before looking deliberately away. Luffy snorted quietly as he ushered his crew out. Clearly the Vice Admiral was smarter than most Marines and knew when to pretend he hadn’t seen anything, in order to let sleeping dogs lie.
Now, Luffy just needed to quietly loot some drakestone before they left. He wasn’t leaving without that, but what the Marines didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them…at least until such a time as an inventory was done of their own supplies of the stuff. He’d put Vivi and Nami on the job of sneaking some of it out. He’d have happily paid the locals for the stuff. But, honestly? If he could steal it from the World Government instead? All the better.
Stepping back onto the deck of the Discovery, still underwater and being manned by an anxious trio of Nami, Pagaya and Perona, Luffy sighed. Somehow, he thought it was going to take some doing to tell the various sides of this story, when all he really wanted to do was get some food to replace the massive amount of energy he used up fighting. Well, at least he was the boss, so he could do a little something about combining the two things.
“Sanji? Food. This is going to be a long story to catch everyone up, and we could all use a pick-me-up. Perona, help him out.”
Oddly, despite not having any real skills in the kitchen, Perona seemed to like helping the cook, and there were enough people on the crew now that he could use the extra set of hands. Said cook snapped a sloppy salute and wandered in the direction of the kitchen.
“Aye, aye, Captain. I’ll have it ready in no time!”
Luffy nodded acknowledgement, then turned to Dis.
“Dis, I want you to dive a bit more, but keep an eye on that Marine fleet with your sonar. Strawberry seemed content not to cause trouble since we seemed to be leaving, but I wouldn’t put it past him to order ships to do passes looking for us. We’ll dive right down to the sea floor if we need to, to avoid any Haki sweeps, as I don’t want them realizing your underwater travel abilities just yet. We still have one or two things to do here on the island before we move on, so we’ll just have to dodge their senses until we finish up.”
With Dis’ acknowledgement, he chivvied the others off to various tasks. They would all meet up to compare notes shortly, once Sanji had the food ready…
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: So, I used Neethrax to drop a few details that would have been up to Vegapunk's broadcast in the future. This way, the Strawhats have some additional details to work with, while trying to piece together details about the Elders that they've already had an encounter with. For now, it's just hints and clues for them to work with.
A/N 2: I actually didn't originally plan this to be a potential source of upgrade for Nojiko, but I realized there was a lot of similarity between manipulating ice as a primary element and doing the same with Crystal. So I figured...well, why not?
A/N 3: You probably know this bit by now, but I need to say it anyway ;-)! Once per release, I point out that I have a Page with Early Access content. Chapters 98-101 of One Piece: Halfway Broken are already available there, adding rouhgly 16,000 words which will remain in Early Access until next month. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released. Typically, there are 75,000+ words of additional early access content for patrons at any one time, all for just a dollar a month! As well as chances to vote in polls that influence which stories are updated, pairings, and other such things.