Deep waters (Edited)

Crocus came back several minutes later with a dusty wooden box

There wasn't anything special about the box. Its craftsmanship was pretty rough.

Just a simple wooden box.

-I don't have much to give you, but I hope this suffices.

-There is no need to…

-Stop. This is yours anyway.

He opened the box revealing a pirate hat. It was Roger's hat.

-I know he wasn't the best of fathers… No, he didn't even have the chance to be a good father for you. But be sure that for him, you and Rouge were much more important than Laugh Tale.

-I am sure that if he could've chosen, he would have preferred to abandon the Title of Pirate king if it was to stay with you two.

He picked the hat up from the chest.

-As for his sword, it died together with him. For such a strong man, they will fuse with their sword, so when he died, the sword broke down with him.

(Just like you can make a black blade by infusing armament, I imagine something would happen after infusing the sword with conquerors for many years.)

Ace accepted the hat with conflicted emotions. He hates but at the same time respects his father. Now that he learned that his father was ill, he doesn't know what to think of him anymore.

He wasn't dumb, he could piece everything together. How his father chose to get caught and spring load the great age of pirates… But why? He could've always died in the corner of the world somewhere.

-... Whitebeard will always be my father.

-Hehe… That's fine, a man can have two fathers… I don't have much else to give apart from stories.

-When you all leave, make sure to acquire a Log pose as soon as possible. else you aren't going anywhere.

-Just go East and you will find Cactus island just a day or two from here. There you should be able to find a Log pose.

-I only have one question for you.

-I will answer anything, as long as you don't ask about Laugh Tale.

-Why did he choose to die like that?

-... What a tricky question…

Crocus thought for a long while before replying:

-We were too early. Now go. I am tired.

Crocus kicked Ace out and I followed after them.

We went to the door and exited the house.

We gave our farewells and made our way to the ship.

-Just one more tip. Think before you act! There are people out there who care about you.

/Clang/

Crocus said his last line and closed the door.

-... I know… Unfortunately, I realized that too late.

Ace put on his hat, but it wasn't the usual black pirate hat, it was Roger's hat.

He looked very similar to Roger now, with his red clothes and hat. With his bandana, some may even think he is Cosplaying as Roger.

-That's going to cause us trouble. I said

-Are you afraid?

-Not really, but my policy normally involves avoiding trouble.

-Hahaha! Then you are in for a bad time!

-...

…

After one night of constant repairs from the clones, the ship was ready to set sail again.

Although it looked rather ugly right now, it was enough for us to get to Cactus island

The Rougass brothers looked pleased with the end result.

/Fwup!/

Both me and Ace jumped into the ship

-Is everyone ready?

-Yes captain! X crew

-Then set sail towards the East! Our next destination is Cactus island!

The sails opened and the ship turned.

(I assume it's the East, I will drop an image of the map here.)

-I just hope we don't get hit by a storm…

-You Jinxed it! Said Loodwick to Popeye

-You believe in that sort of a thing? Let's bet then! 100K berries nothing happens until we reach the island!

-You are on!

I just sat on a bench and took a nap. I needed some rest after all.

…

Somewhere in the New World.

A man with white-haired afro hair was sitting at a table looking at some papers.

-What's this? He asked

-This should be the reports from South blue, sir.

-...Valet explorers? Is that right?

-Yes sir, they are a new promising group that originated in East blue. They aren't pirates, nor are they bounty hunters. They are… Explorers. They just go around the place exploring.

-They traveled so far across both East and South blue and were last seen going to the reverse mountain before that event.

-And what's their problem?... Why do the higher-ups want me to put up a bounty on such a group? From the reports, they seem like a rather stable group.

He picked some papers and started to list what was written.

-Here… They helped us multiple times catching pirates and they even sold several Devil fruits to us in exchange for some incomplete techniques… I don't see the problem.

The other man was about to open his mouth when Sengoku replied

-I can already imagine what happened. So my answer is simple. Stash it up.

-! But sir…

Stashing up means "ignoring" the orders. It's more about delaying it.

-First, we don't have that much personnel. With the rise of so many pirates and powerful people, we need to make allies, not enemies.

-Even then, all of our higher-ranking personnel, people who can take on this group are all occupied with something…

-We don't have time to care about such a thing. Send a Captain to tail them for now, see how they react. If their personality is good it might be a good idea to try and recruit them into the Marines.

-Even if they don't accept it, we can still cooperate later. Considering their luck, they might actually find another devil fruit. But if they have a bounty, to whom will they sell it?

The other man couldn't answer.

-This matter is over then, next one please Commodore Eden…

Eden took out a stack of papers, this time it was about the new Fleet admiral.

Sengoku read the files and his eyes narrowed, eventually, he released a sign.

-So The kid did it huh? Few. How time flies. Has it already been over 20 years? I still remember when the brat was causing trouble in the training camp.

-Time flies, huh. Said Eden

-How was the reaction from the others?

-Most seem to accept the new Fleet Admiral, but many show concern for his age, saying he might be a bit too early to lead. However, none have doubted his strength ever since he clashed against you.

-He is still better than Sakazuki. Although his brain is half muscle, half of it still functions properly.

-...

-Anything else?

-Most of the Vice Admirals have already accepted him, but one of the Admirals hasn't.

-Let me guess…

-Indeed sir, Admiral Sakazuki still hasn't accepted him, the new Vice Admirals like Fujitora have shown full support for him though, even Kuzan has gone out of his way to show him support, which is…

-Weird. Never thought that lazy guy would go out of his way to do something at all! He might skip lunch if it was too far away from his bed. Hahaha! Said Sengoku

-There is a fight scheduled to happen in a month, the position of Fleet Admiral is at stake.

-Sigh. What do they think the position of Admiral is? Candy?... Sakazuki doesn't have a chance, the kid's Devil fruit is the bane of all Logia.

-...Tell them I give the kid my full support as I said all those years ago. He won that bet after all... If those old men ask for an explanation just say the kid did a lot to deserve the position. Just think about how effective he was so far.

-He recruited 7 powerful Vice Admirals with clean backgrounds that can contend against one of the Admirals. He even convinced Zephyr to stay. The Marine hasn't been as strong since the old days…

-I am sure Garp would say the same.

Sengoku placed his back on the chair and relaxed a bit.

-Next!

-Then let me inform you of the next movement of the strongest Bounty hunter in the New World.

-Oh? That girl. How is she doing?

-... She just clashed against the Fallen monks and almost managed to capture everyone, but she was repelled by the timely appearance of a mysterious figure.

-We currently don't know who it was but it was a person of considerable power, if it wasn't for one of her crewmates Devil fruits she would have probably died. Although her ship was destroyed in the fight.

-The CP agents on the site didn't manage to see anything more than that.

-Hum… What do we know about this man?

-He seemed to have some sort of Lighting fruit, but it's certain that it was not a Logia, the final verdict was that it was a Mythical Zoan.

-Mythical… Those can be either Bad, or overwhelming.

Sengoku picked an old photo from his table, there were several people in the picture, one could see himself and Garp several years younger, Kuzan, Zephyr, Borsalino, Sakazuki, and even Tsuru.

It was a very formal picture, with all of them wearing some sort of luxurious clothes, but one could see a small child jumping trying to fit into the picture. Only his small head managed to appear in the picture though.

Sengoku had a small smile on his face and he said:

-Next.

…

(Very important)Notes:

I think I should refresh your heads about the abilities he used so far. They may have changed since several months have passed, but that would be a spoiler.

These abilities are from the perspective of the readers so take it with a bit of salt.

Abilities:

-Soru+Hamon[Soru: Senkō]- High-speed silent movement. Not even will splash if run in it.

-Geppo+Soru+Hamon[Geppo: Suisei no o] High-speed forward movement in the air, it's like a comet is flying in the air.

-Falling petals dance+Hamon [Feet style: Haru no hizashi](Sunlight in Spring) Martial art that involves advanced footwork Similar to Soru. It allows some level of maneuverability, but it consumes high amounts of stamina. The reason why it was not combined with the Rokushiki was because of the pressure exerted on the body.

-Shigan+Hamon [Shigan: Taiyōkō-sen] (Sun Ray) A piercing golden ray of light is released from a single finger. It can blind and burn the enemy, but it lacks impact.

-Tekkai+Shigan+Hamon [Tekkai: Kōsan] (Yellow Mountain) Closing the fist and enveloping it in Hamon, releasing the stored energy by using Shigan. It's very similar to the previous technique, but it loses the piercing power for impact force.

-Stone monkey fist+Tekkai+Shigan+Hamon [Tekkai: Tetsu o moyasu](Burning iron) The advanced form of Yellow mountain. Stronger, faster, and better. Can be used over long distances or by touch. It's obviously much stronger up close. The only martial art he fused with the Rokushiki so far.

-Special attack used against the Sea king. A combination of everything? Unnamed so far

(Apart from the Rokushiki, everything else was learned at Karate island. There is the possibility of him learning something else by analyzing the replay of the fight at Marineford, since there were many other Combat styles there.)

(Putting the name of the technique first means that the particular move has that martial art as its base: Tekkai: something for example. That means that Tekkai is the basis for this move. Feet style for example only means he uses his own legs and not any fancy technique. He could name it, but he didn't.)

Remember that I categorize Haki as the following: Very basic, basic, intermediate, high, advanced, Final.

(Future sight would be final for example. But Fujitora super long-range vision could be said to be advanced as well. As for his ability to see living beings' "auras", I consider it to be between Advanced to Final.

As for the voice of all things, that's quite hard to place. I would say it's something beyond the Final range, But it needs something else to trigger. After all, some can be born with it.

Fujitora has also demonstrated the ability to read and hear the true thoughts and emotions of other people. I would classify this as the early stages of the voice of all things.

Ene is quite similar, but he pushes some concepts further but I will not talk about him right now.)

It is pretty similar for martial arts: Basic, intermediate, high, advanced. Any higher would be either perfection or the person surpassing the technique and creating something new or beyond it.

(Finally, I want to talk about Ace's overall strength.

Although I don't think he is strong enough to destroy an island, Ace is more than capable of covering an entire island in flames as we saw in his fight against Blackbeard.

During these past few months, Ace did not train his fruit at all. Apart from some uses here and there, he mainly focused on his Haki training.

As to how strong he is with it… He should be strong enough to clash in Armament against a proficient vice admiral. So I would put him in the High category. He should be able to imbue weapons with Haki, but he should be just short of being able to use Emission.

His Observation is still rather rough, but I would say it's at least early intermediate.

His last form of Haki should be slightly stronger than Luffy's since he could at least recognize it when he saw Luffy using it in Marineford. I would say Basic to intermediate. Just on the cusp of improving to the next level.)

That's all my own opinion, give me your own opinions.