133 The Last Road Poneglyph
After the war in Egghead, Ashen and the fleet returned to Hachinosu. Although all the higher rankings survived, they were still casualties among the lower rankings as well as the Zombies and several Gifters.
Before leaving, Ashen made sure to steal the Navy warships that were left behind in order to use them after changing the flags, the Navy brought more than 150 warships and they left around 40 behind.
Also, with the help of York, Ashen stole all the Vegapunk research, materials and everything of value that would help her in her research. Ashen was planning to build a large research lab in one of the islands near Hachinosu.
On top of the 50 Mark III Units, Ashen took the Seraphim as well, S-Shark, S-Hawk, S-Bear and S-Panther. With all the Vegapunk Satellites along with the real Vegapunk imprisoned, York has the highest authority over them after the Elders.
Though there are plans to reverse engineer them to remove the Elders authority and put Ashen and the crew instead.
There was also a few of Lunarian blood left that's enough to make one more Seraphim, so Ashen was gonna attempt to clone himself, after all if you want the strongest human weapon you should use the blood of the strongest.
Other than that, the war prisoner were held in Hachinosu underground prison and were stripped from there shadow so that they won't even attempt to escape. Among them are the followings…
Sanji, Robin, Usopp, Vegapunk and his Satellites, Rob Lucci, Smoker, Momonga, Stainless and Yamakaji. (If you have any ideas for these guys leave them in the comments…note: Robin won't be joining or reading the Poneglyphs for Ashen)
Upon learning of their captain's death, the remaining Straw hats were devastated. Ashen made sure Luffy and the rest had a proper funeral out of respect of Calvin's daughter, he also didn't let Moria turn them into Zombies, though he didn't hesitate to turn Ryokugyu and Momousagi to zombies along with the other dead Vice-Admirals and CP0 agents Kaku and Stussy.
A few days later…Somewhere in the waters of the New World,
Ashen and the main crew along with Pudding were sailing on 'The Sword of Xebec' in their journey to find the Man Marked by Flames and to acquire the last Road Poneglyph, and with help of Pudding who awakened her third eye they would locate Laugh Tale.
Ashen and the rest were gathered on the ship's deck, they were all reading the newspaper in excitement as new bounties were issued for everyone. Ashen's bounty was particularly shocking, even he himself was surprised by it.
"6,5 Billions?!!!" x8.
"Holy shit! Your bounty is crazy, Ashen!" Yamato said in shock, even Enel was openmouthed, though after they thought about it only made sense after what happened.
"Even Roger only had 5,5 Billion and he knew all the history of the world and the secrets of the World Governement…" Ashen calmly said while holding his wanted poster "…I guess killing an Elder, two Admirals and an Emperor in the same day is that big of a deal"
"--No shit!!"
"We're not the only who took down an Emperor…Shiki and Trafalgar Law defeated Blackbeard as well, as expected from them" Ashen informed everyone while smiling in satisfaction.
"Not bad, he's really strong that old man. He's now considered an Emperor as well…" Enel said with his arms crossed.
"…then this will leave us with Shanks and Buggy" Calvin added.
"Pffft--…HAHAHAHA!!!" Ashen couldn't help but burst out of laughter when he heard Buggy's name, the rest might not know the real truth about him, but he does "Oh man I really like this dude…Lol, it seems that Lord Buggy D. Clown-sama is making it to the top even in this alternative universe"
Everyone was confused at his words, but no one questioned him. Ashen then turned the pages and revealed the bounties of the rest of the crew…
['King of Oblivion' Calvin Helios, Dead or Alive 3,000,000,000 Berries]
['God of Thunder' Enel, Dead or Alive 2,950,000,000 Berries]
['The Oni Girl' Yamato, Dead or Alive 2,500,000,000 Berries]
['The Shadow Monarch' Gecko Moria, Dead or Alive 1,510,100,000 Berries]
['The Berserker' Ian Inaki, Dead or Alive 1,150,000,000 Berries]
['Mad Monk' Urouge, Dead or Alive 1,000,500,000 Berries]
['Deadshot' Diana Rose, Dead or Alive 924,000,000 Berries]
['Titanic Smasher' Yamamoto D. Tora, Dead or Alive 750,000,000 Berries]
['Valkyrie' Amber, Dead or Alive 710,000,000 Berries]
[Franky, Dead or Alive 330,400,000 Berries]
[Ken, Dead or Alive 266,300,000 Berries]
"It seems that everyone's bounties skyrocketed after Egghead's War…anyway, l'll head inside call me if anything happen" Ashen said as he entered the captain's cabin and took a nap.
A few hours later…
While they were calmly sailing a sudden change of weather happened before a giant whirlpool appeared out of nowhere and the ship was pulled inside of it. Ashen was alerted and immediately got out of his room.
Other than the giant whirlpool, there was thick fog around as well before a pitch-black ship appeared near 'The Sword of Xebec'. Ashen used his fire power to move the ship out of the whirlpool before he flew towards the black ship.
It was obvious that however is sailing it is the Man Marked by Flames.
When Ashen landed on the ship, the first thing his eyes landed upon is the tall muscular man with numerous burn marks around his body, he was wearing black sunglasses. Ashen immediately recognized him as the left hand of the Pirate Kind…
"…Scopper Gaban"
"What a bad luck to run into the demon himself out of everyone" Gaban said with a grin while carrying two large axes.
"You know why I'm here, if you give me what I want then I will let you go…however if you resist, I'm not gonna show mercy" Ashen said in a menacing tone of voice as he slowly unsheathed his sword.
Gaban seemed to already understand that he was nowhere near the strength of Ashen, but he was still refusing to give him the Road Poneglyph.
"I just received the news…the person I was waiting for is no longer in this world, so there is no pointing in holding onto the Poneglyph. However, I'm not going to allow it to fall in the wrong hands…so you're going to have to defeat me if you want to take it" Gaban said, he looked very depressed and disappointed. He was most likely talking about the man Roger was waiting for which is Luffy,
"So, you were holding onto the Poneglyph until the Joy Boy's arrival and when you were sure it's Straw Hat you finally started moving. Did Roger tell you to do that?" Ashen asked him, Gaban was taken aback by that question and seemed shocked at Ashen's knowledge about the Joy Boy.
"You know a lot…that knowledge is not something anyone would know"
"I still don't understand why you would go around sailing in a ship and making yourself a target for other pirates. Maybe you were trying to make your existence known in order for that person to seek you…and that burn marks as well…" Ashen remarked, then added "Anyway, all of this is meaningless. Just get out of my way, I don't have time to waste chatting with you!"
Ashen immediately dashed at Gaban and struck him with his sword, sending him crashing into the ship's mast. Although Gaban was strong for someone his age and he would certainly beat up most of Ashen's officers, but he was still no match to Ashen himself.
The fight was one sided as Ashen didn't even get serious before Gaban was defeated. He still spared his life, and proceeded to move the Poneglyph to his ship before he left after that.
…
Back at the Sword of Xebec…
(Ashen's POV)
We finally did it, we gathered all the four Road Poneglyph. After all these years of hard work, the adventures we had together and the countless life and death situations we've been through…we finally have all the pieces we need.
I'll be lying if I said I'm not excited about this, it has been my goals from the beginning of my journey and its finally within my reach.
Right now, everyone was sitting on the ship's deck in a circle around the Poneglyph Rubbings trying to locate the last island, Pudding was sitting in the center since she's the one who going read them.
"The four Road Poneglyphs that we have…the lines from those four will cross at the center and that's where the last island is." Pudding read their content loudly using her third eye while Ken took notes.
Everyone looked in anticipation.
Enel brough a map and a pen to write the coordinates of the locations using the information in the Poneglyph before he drew the lines using a ruler and the four of them effectively crossed at the center like it was said.
"…"
"Is that where it is...Laugh Tale?" I asked while taking a look at the map, before everyone smiled in satisfaction.
"Yes, when should we leave?"
"*Smile*…Immediately!"
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I'll be taking a few days to search for some theories about the Void Century, the One Piece and stuff you know.
