Chapter 106: Meetings
Chapter 106: Meetings
Luffy did his best to act natural, echoes of Han Solo insisting Chewie ‘fly casual’ ringing in the back of his mind despite how long ago his first life had been by now. He’d lived over a decade in this reality, yet sometimes still found quotes no one else would understand floating to the surface of his thoughts. Core memories of a past life, he supposed.
In this case, it was a decent enough distraction, which helped put him at ease as Rayleigh and Hancock landed on the island in a jolly boat. With them were two other women, who Luffy suspected to be her sisters, given their slightly unusual appearances. Those appearances weren’t nearly as exaggerated as he’d once seen on a screen, though one was still towering and stocky while the other really did have a larger-than-usual head. Though neither to the point that it honestly detracted too badly from their looks.
Not that Luffy had found himself able to do much more than glance their way, or Rayleigh’s either, despite the older man’s own understated aura of power. No, despite his best efforts, he locked onto Hancock and…well, he could now attest that it was no exaggeration when she was called ‘The Most Beautiful Women in the World.’ Tall, slender, with gorgeously lustrous and flowing black hair, not to mention ‘vast tracts of land’ as another old movie might have said it. She was the very image of a classic beauty, flawless in a way that Luffy suspected only a Devil Fruit allowed for.
Yet, for all that she admittedly captured attention with just her appearance, he didn’t find himself so enthralled that he made a fool out of himself. A quick, appreciative glance at her in totality, from ankles to eyebrows, then locking onto her face to meet her eyes, seemed to actually please her. Thankful for perhaps the millionth time for his Empathy perk allowing him to read people’s moods, he relaxed a little as Hancock’s aura went from stern, to preening, to approval in a short span. Apparently, she appreciated being appreciated, as it were. But approved even more that he hadn’t gotten lost in her beauty.
Thankfully, he’d carefully chosen Kuina and Robin as the two to come down with him, and both of them had enough self-control that they mirrored him. Even if he noted with some slight, absent amusement that both of them had felt a mild spike of lust when they saw her. That wasn’t too much of a shock with Robin, given that he knew she swung both ways. But Kuina was entirely straight so far as he was aware, which said a lot about just how extraordinary the Pirate Empress’s looks truly were.
“Empress Hancock, it is good to finally meet you. Rayleigh, it’s good to see you in person again.”
Luffy wasn’t much for formality, but didn’t have a clue if Hancock was. Thankfully, sticking to professionalism seemed to be the right move as the former Warlord nodded, even if Rayleigh snorted. It was Hancock who spoke.
“Monkey D. Luffy. I admit I’ve wanted to meet you since news of the battle at the Archipelago. Is it true you killed several of the Celestial Dragons?”
Straight to the point, huh? Well, he could handle that. Best stick to the complete truth, given Rayleigh might well have relayed the details already.
“Intentionally? We wiped out Cipher Pol Nine and I personally killed one of the Gorōsei with Rayleigh and Yamato’s assistance. The Celestial Twats died mostly by accident. The result of being too close to four people with monstrously strong Conqueror’s Haki clashing too close to them. They were, as expected, simply too weak willed to survive that.”
Boa Hancock’s lips curved into a vicious little smile at his description…even as a tightly controlled burst of Conqueror’s Haki shot out at Luffy specifically. He batted it aside negligently with a burst of his own, getting an immediate nod of approval from the Empress.
“I see. A pity they did not properly suffer, but dying in terror is sufficient. Allow me to introduce my sisters, Marigold and Sandersonia…”
Introductions flowed, and Luffy tried not to give away how relieved he felt that he and his had apparently made a good impression on the infamously temperamental woman.
… … …
Following the arrival of and first meeting with Boa Hancock and Rayleigh, it turned out that they had arrived early to set up a meeting site of sorts at the only place on the island the beasts didn’t bother. It apparently emitted a type of pollen they didn’t like, reminding Luffy of the Daft Green plants that had been on Merveille. Though thankfully not poisonous to humans, in this case. More of Handcock’s Kuja crew had come ashore and, under the protection of the three sisters, set up a stone round table and chairs for the upcoming summit.
Sanji took that as a cue to start preparing food for the same, setting up an additional set of more mundane tables in the clearing and making a buffet that he planned to keep stocked for the duration. The Kuja were quite appreciative of his cooking, and for a moment Luffy thought Sanji might cause an incident with how puppy-like they were in curiosity about him. Thankfully, Hina proved to be on top of it, reigning Sanji in by means Luffy didn’t want to know about. Though Hina also proved to be the source of the only real friction that had popped up so far. Apparently, she and Hancock had met before, while Hina was still a Marine, and the pair didn’t exactly like each other. It at least wasn’t full blown hatred, but it was enough that they’d verbally sniped at each other a bit.
Luffy himself, aside from keeping an eye on his crew, ended up spending most of the day with Rayleigh, along with Yamato. The older man wanted to get a proper feel for exactly where the two of them actually were…and the resulting sparring was a firm reminder that, while powerful, neither of them were quite on the level with the true monsters of the world just yet. Rayleigh easily handled them, rather roughly at that, one-on-one. Though they were able to at least make him sweat a bit when they fought against him together. Once he was satisfied, he showed them what he’d done to make himself dangerous to the Elder back at the Archipelago.
The answer was Infusion.
Both Luffy and Yamato had been aware of the concept, at least regarding Armament Haki. They had, in fact, both been fully capable of using it with Armament already. What neither of them had known was that you could extend the same trick, with considerably more difficulty and effort mind you, to Conqueror’s Haki. Doing so caused black lighting to appear around whatever you infused, be it fist, club or blade. Or, if you were Rayleigh, who had taken the trick to the extreme, the lightning could be controlled and re-infused repeatedly back into you. Something which created a deeply unnatural darkness around the man when he demonstrated, making it finally click for Luffy just why he’d been given the moniker of the ‘Dark King.’
The application of the trick provided an immense boost of power, far beyond even what infusion with Armament could do for you, and apparently it was the trick to hurting other Haki masters and regenerators alike. Yamato, in particular, was excited, as her attempts to hurt her father with Haki had always failed. Rayliegh admitted that he wasn’t surprised by that, claiming that the only time Kaidou was ever known to be injured had been when taking on someone who could infused Conqueror’s Haki.
Specifically, his ability to do so is why Shanks was able to turn Kaidou back, keeping him away from Whitebeard’s War.
That knowledge, for some rather obvious reasons, caused Yamato to instantly throw herself into training. Though neither she nor Luffy had managed to get the trick of it down in the mere two days they’d had before the summit began. Luffy, in particular, wasn’t given as much of a chance to make his own attempts, as he’d met with Jinbe when the Fishman arrived the next day. As well as meeting again with Hancock to feel her out about what she was looking for from the summit.
Not that the answer there was a particular surprise.
Both Hancock and Jinbe were both seeking ways to protect their respective islands, now that they no longer had agreements in place with the World Government. Jinbe was, for the moment, in the more awkward spot, as ‘Whitebeard’s Sons’ and Big Mom were effectively warring over the territory closest to Fishman Island. The only saving grace for the fishman, for the time being, was that Garp was keeping the Marines out of it. Apparently up to and including putting out a strongly worded ‘travel advisory’ for the Celestial Twats. He couldn’t actually stop them from visiting Fishman Island if they wanted to, that wasn’t within his authority. But he could discourage it as ‘unsafe.’
Surprisingly, with several of the bubble-brained idiots having died violently recently, the majority were apparently listening…somewhat, at least. Their self-absorbed view of reality had been threatened just enough for them to be wary of ignoring advice not to travel to a specific place. Though Jinbe admitted such likely wouldn’t last much longer. Even when Whitebeard had claimed the island, there had been a trickle of Celestial Dragon visitors that came through from time to time. It was simply too exotic a locale, too close to the Holy Land, to avoid their attention entirely. Something which was, of course, part of the problem in the first place.
Amazon Lily, on the other hand, was still unmolested for the moment. With Hancock not having done anything but fail to respond to the Marineford battle summons, and Garp not caring enough to make an issue of that, the island wasn’t yet under direct threat. Unfortunately, that was unlikely to hold up in the long term for two reasons. The first was that the Kuja Pirates were one of the oldest pirate crews in existence, being one of the only crews still around that pre-dated even Whitebeard, having already existed even in the days of the Rocks Pirates. They predated every single one of the current Yonko, and had been considered a serious power in their own right for the entirety of their existence. A natural consequence of every single member of their crew being capable of using Haki. Worse, despite the fact that only a small fraction of the Kuja tribe were part of the Kuja Pirates, every Kuja was labeled a pirate by the World Government.
The second reason was, in its own way, more terrible than the first. Though it was one that Hancock didn’t outright explain, for some fairly obvious reasons. Reading between the lines of some of her statements, and knowing a bit about her past he really shouldn’t, it was readily apparent that the Kuja were targeted. An entire island with a strong tendency to produce stunningly beautiful women? Women who always had female children, who kept up that pattern of beauty? It had been no accident that Boa Hancock and her sisters had been kidnapped at a young age and sold to the World Nobles. Kuja were prized slaves to an extent even exotic races like Mermaids and Mink were not. After all, if you could ‘breed’ Kuja, you could produce more generations of beautiful slaves from the first one you captured. A disgusting idea, and one that helped explain why the Kuja Pirates existed at all. They, along with the natural protection of the Calm Belt, had been the traditional defense against being preyed on by those in power for centuries.
Unfortunately for the Kuja, the seastone coating method that had been invented by Vegapunk to let Marine ships move through the Calm belt meant that one of those deterrents was no longer as functional. It had been that fact which led to Boa Hancock becoming a Warlord, in exchange for a treaty that protected Amazon Lily. With the Warlord system now defunct, however, it was only her strength and that of Kuja as a whole that was holding the powers that be away. The Marines, weakened as they currently were, likely wouldn’t make an issue of themselves yet. But that could change with time and Hancock was looking for acceptable allies to help safeguard her home.
Of course, before they could do more than discuss some basics, they needed the final two members of the summit to arrive. Something which didn’t occur until the morning it was scheduled to start. When that final set of arrivals came, it came with a major surprise for Luffy…
… … …
Luffy blinked, surprised as he felt a familiar presence entering the range of his Observation. With so many Haki users on the island, or in the waters nearby, he’d kept his Observation pulled in for politeness sake. Something which seemed to be the unspoken norm among those powerful or skilled enough to blanket whole islands with it. As a result, it was only when that presence stepped onto the island itself that he noticed them, and his shock froze him…for a second or two.
Then he blinked away from where he’d been training with Yamato and Rayleigh, disappearing in a bolt of lightning that made the older man curse as it sent spots dancing in his eyes.
Those closer to shore, aboard either the Kuja vessel or the Discovery, were witness to a more alarming sight as the same bolt of lightning shifted back into Luffy and tackled the blonde-haired man in a tux and top hat. Jozu, who had arrived on the same ship, was the only one who didn’t tense at the action, the Whitebeard pirate’s laugh going a long way to causing those who had witnessed the apparent ‘attack’ to hesitate in their instinct to retaliate. Which was a good thing, most of them realized a moment later, as both the blonde and Luffy were laughing.
“Sabo! Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming to this! I didn’t figure Dragon thought it was important enough to let go of his second in command while fighting for the West Blue!”
Seeing the huge smiles on both men’s faces, those who had tensed, thinking Luffy had broken the peace agreement for the summit, finally relaxed. The blonde, now known to everyone in hearing range as ‘Sabo,’ was quick to reply.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get away, Luffy. It was going to be Koala who came, if I couldn’t. But the Marines have pulled back from the latest round of fighting over the Kano Kingdom. With the Happo Navy finally deciding to side with us, Kizaru decided it wasn’t worth trying to take it back, again. Things are stabilizing a bit for now, as the Marines and the Revolutionary Army both lick our wounds. In the meantime, making potential agreements elsewhere, ones which might well inconvenience their ability to pull more ships into the West Blue, was seen as important enough to send me.”
Luffy nodded. It made a degree of sense, at least considering what little information was coming out of the West Blue these days. Depending on who you asked or what reports you listened to, the Revolutionaries currently controlled anywhere between twenty-five and sixty percent of the West Blue. Based on what few islands Luffy knew for sure had been taken, he personally guessed it was somewhere around forty to fifty percent. Likely all the Revolutionary Army could realistically hold with their comparative size versus the Marines.
With things in the North Blue seeming to be cooling under Kuzan, the Revolutionaries had to be worried that the Marines would shift more of their combat power to the West Blue. Anything that had the potential to complicate life for the Marines was therefore likely of interest to them, and any agreement between two former Warlords, the Whitebeard fleet remnants, and Luffy’s crew, had the potential to do just that. Personally, Luffy doubted whatever agreements they came to would be actively disruptive. Yet merely the potential to be so would ‘keep the Marines honest,’ as it were. Forcing them to keep more of their fleet deployed in Paradise and the New World than they likely wanted at the moment.
“Well, I want to hear all about it! At least as much as you’re allowed to say. Later, though. For now, you and Jozu were the last to arrive. So I suspect we’re going to be getting started soon.”
Sabo nodded at that and the two brothers-by-choice parted for the time being. It was time that the summit that had been called get properly underway…
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A/N 1: Boa, much like Sanji and Usopp, is a character I have...mixed feelings about. Like them, she's so much of a wild caricature of a person that I find her difficult to like. As you might expect, given what I've done with those two, she's going to get...dialed back slightly, in my version. Not changed, per se, just having the dial on her run away, two-dimensional, character traits dialed back a bit.
A/2: I'm going to be honest, Sabo and Jinbe are part of the problem with the Summit. I just don't have a good feel for either of them, and it's causing problems. I reallllyyy need to sit down and read some of the post time-skip manga...
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 P-atreon Page with Early Access content. Chapters 107-110 of One Piece: Halfway Broken are already available there, adding roughly 15,000+ 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.