15 The Red Head Pirates
The Grandline Paradise, Somewhere close to the Sabaody Archipelago.
*SPLASH!*
The ship of the red head pirates had just arrived in Paradise from the New World. The ship resurfaced while covered by a gigantic bubble that exploded softly when the ship made an act of appearance.
A red-haired man jumped from the top and landed at the edge of the ship.
"Sabaody is right behind our stern, captain!" Yassop spoke from inside the ship
Shanks checked the vibre card which curiously enough, was leading him away from the direction Kuraigana was supposed to be, instead... the vibre card was pointing in the direction of the Tarai Current.
"Aren't you going to visit Mr Rayleigh?"
"We can go to his shop on our way back to the new world, I'm intrigued about Mihawk's location now".
"She must be doing something in Sabaody," A member of the crew, Lucky Roux, stated behind him; only to receive a fierce smack.
*SMACK!*
"Sabaody is behind us, idiot! How could she be there if the vibre card is pointing in the opposite direction!" scolded Limejuice.
Somebody else approached the captain from behind, it was his first mate, Benn Beckman.
"Don't tell me she was captured and sent to impel down?" Asked Shanks with a fierce expression, ready to storm the prison to save her.
"Dracule Mihawk... captured?"
"No".
The whole crew came to that conclusion. The Florian Triangle was an accursed place in paradise, countless ships had disappeared within their limits. It was a triangle composed of three important islands: St. Faldo, Kuraigana and the Namakura Islands.
As for the Tarai Current beneath the previous one, depending on the perspective it could be even more threatening as the islands compositing it were: The Marine's main headquarters, G1, The World's government court, Ennies Lobby, The World's biggest and most important prison, Impel Down.
It was a place that pirates would avoid at all costs, much more so a pirate like Dracule Mihawk.
"We will follow through the calm belt, avoid the Florian Triangle and the Tarai Current... I didn't come all the way here to fight with an admiral" Shanks stated quietly and headed back inside to have a drink.
"We're going to have past Amazon Lily, boss..."
"Ignore them, Amazon Lily doesn't pose a threat right now... not when the Kuja Pirates are this weak".
**
**
"Look there is an island there".
"This is the calm belt, there are sea kings everywhere" Ben put his tobacco aside and sighed in irritation, pointing his gun to the sea where an enormous shadow was looming around the ship.
*BOOOOOMMMMM!!*
A majestic explosion took place underwater before a dead beast resurfaced, at least ten times bigger than the red ship.
Towards the horizon land was visible. The Red Head Pirates successfully avoided the Tarai Current without sighting a single marine ship; a suspicious fact. They passed by the infamous Amazon Lily and approached the island that seemed to be the one where Dracule Mihawk's vibre card was pointing at.
"I know that island... it is called Rusukaina. The Roger Pirates used to meet here to hold banquets. Why would she be there?" Shanks rubbed his straw hat in confusion, he didn't even know Mihawk was aware of the existence of this island.
The Red Haired pirates landed on the island right next to a marine battleship which made things even more suspicious. All their worriers however were cast aside when they caught upon the silhouette of a female sitting on a wood log, watching them jump from their vessel.
"Hey, Mihawk!" Shanks called her enthusiastically and drew his sword with a smile, expecting her to lunge anytime now... but instead of the reaction he expected, Mihawk just waved her hand at him and yelled something he didn't expect.
"DO YOU HAVE WINE?!"
"What the- wine?" The members of the crew all looked at each other in confusion before shrugging their shoulders together, Yassop went downstairs to get some booze since they didn't have wine.
He then saw a kid walking away from the forest together with some giant baboons; looking at them threateningly as if they had invaded their sacred territory.
"What is going on, Who is the kiddo?" Lucky Roux whispered to Benn Beckman who deadpanned and exhaled the smoke of his tobacco.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?".
...
The crew met on the soft sand of the paradisic beach with a lot of awkwardness. Mihawk took the Booze from Yassop and looked at it in disappointment. If there was something she missed from the island... was the wine and the newspapers.
For the newspapers to arrive, a subscription needed to be done in the closest hub, Sabaody... until then the news coo would not fly around and deliver. Since Rusukaina was inhabited there was no coo coming around here to deliver anything any time soon.
"Long time, Shanks... do you have today's newspaper?" Mihawk extended her hand forward, her face indicated anxiety. It looked like she was going into a dragback.
Veyron stood behind her without saying a word, his eyes were looking at Shanks with stars, his other favourite character aside from Mihawk.
Shanks tried to sit down next to Mihawk, quite close in fact... and that was when Veyron's expression changed completely.
"You too, what's wrong, you're not motivated? Why are you here?" Shanks placed his arm on the lady's shoulder, it was then that he felt the killing intent coming from the side. More accurately, the dark-skinned red-eyed kid.
Mihawk gave Shanks a sidelong glance and moved away a little, drinking the booze albeit reluctantly.
"I'm living here with my son now, we moved away from Kuraigana a few days ago".
"..."
"..."
"HA!?"
Disbelief, chaos... the whole crew felt like an idol had just died. Dracule Mihawk the Goddess of the Sword, not only had been taken but even gave birth to a son behind their backs. Shanks felt his whole world was crumbling.
"You're telling me this brat is your son?!" He pointed his rude finger at Veyron who didn't lose a chance.
*MUNCH!*
When the pain came forward, Shanks witnessed how the boy he had seriously underestimated coated his whole mouth and teeth with armament haki, fiercely bitting on his hand like he wanted to tear it off.
"HAAAAAA!!!"
**
**
It had been half a day and yet Shanks' mouth hadn't lost its 'O' shape... moreover, his hand was still bandaged. Of all his surprises of the day, the most shocking was to see that not only did his crush have a son behind his back... the little sh*t even knew armament haki at such a young age!
'I guess it can be expected from her son...' He rubbed his forehead which was still going through a deadly headache and possibly migraine.
"How long are you going to look at me like that?" Asked the deadly beauty as she read the newspapers delivered to her while the rest of the crew ate the flesh of the sea king they hunted. They were sitting around a bonfire with a load of baboons sprayed around with full bellies, sleeping peacefully.
Mihawk was sitting with Veyron sleeping on her lap.
To her enquiry there was just silence until Mihawk sighed and put the newspaper aside, she then started playing with Veyron's hair. Shanks couldn't help but notice a softness and feminine side of her that he didn't know even existed. She was always so cold and apathetic that he didn't believe there even existed competition.
And yet she already has a son! His only hope was the fact that her son and her don't look alike at all.
"Why are you here, Shanks?"
"You said you'd be visiting your friend for a month before returning to the new world. I even wondered if you had a friend at all but who could have told..."
"I was going to sail back but we had some... delays" Mihawk drifted, she didn't want to say anything about her fight with Veyron. For anyone in this world, to know that this boy could do anything more than be completely hopeless in front of her... would be the same as sending him to a laboratory to be investigated, let alone Veyron whose power she calculated was already at the level of a marine vice admiral or even an admiral.
And although she knew Shanks was not such a person... she couldn't be a hundred per cent certain either considering his 'background' with the celestial dragons or more accurately, with that person.
She believed that Veyron's prowess would stagnate after some point, she even hoped that would be the case as his being too strong and too young could be problematic. A part of her hoped he was indeed older than he let out, which meant he'd be responsible with his power, but the same side of hers that wished for that, felt complex about the nature of their relationship if that was the case.
"-you here? Mihawk?"
Shanks caught Mihawk deep in her thoughts, "What did you say?"
"I asked why are you here instead of Kuraigana?" He repeated himself.
"... I fought a powerful individual and ended up destroying the whole island in the process, I swam together with Veyron for a whole day until I met some marines and borrowed their ship".
"Borrow she says-".
"Shut up!"
...
"Who was this bastard that attacked you?" Shanks's eyebrows furrowed, he didn't recall anyone on this side of the Grandline aside from the marine higher-ups that could face Mihawk to the point of destroying a whole island.
She flinched at hearing her son being called a 'bastard' but held it in since Shanks doesn't know anything.
"A powerful pirate that I have never seen before... his ability resembled that of the Golden Lion Shiki... he could make things float" She gave a vague explanation.
"A devil fruit user? To think he can contend against you, he must have kept low this whole time in the East Blue or South Blue" The red-haired man divagated until his gaze caught up with the sight of Yoru who was together with another sword that was identical yet slightly bigger.
"That's my son's sword..."
"Oh? So you made a sword for him to use in the future? how cute, they even look the same~" The crew fooled around and teased her but Mihawk merely rolled her eyes and kept drinking her booze.
'If only they knew... but they better not know' She didn't add anything else regarding that.
"So... who is the father? Is he a hybrid?" Shanks inquired then the question he wanted to ask, upon seeing the boy's features only a particular race came to mind, one not everyone was aware of, but he and Mihawk were due to their backgrounds.
"..." His question left Mihawk momentarily astonished, She knew what race he was talking about, but it wasn't until he mentioned it just now that she thought about that particular race.
"His father is a member of the Lunarian Race? if he's a hybrid it would explain why he doesn't have wings and the flame" The pirate explained further but wasn't too convinced of it either since a hybrid of human and Lunarian had never been spotted in history, let alone the Lunarians were so scarce that they might as well be extinct. The existence of this child was something he would need to 'report'.
Seeing his gaze, Mihawk understood everything that was going through Shanks' mind and realised that now she could not avoid 'him' from knowing Veyron's existence. She bit her lips in anger but shut up.
'It doesn't matter if 'he' knows anyway... I'm strong enough, Veyron is strong enough.
They were not in a helpless position, but that wasn't something Shanks was aware of.
'The Lunarian Race... I never thought about it but Veyron does resemble them... but then who exactly are you?' He did resemble the lunarians but she recalled Veyron had admitted to her a few days ago that he wasn't from this world. Although he didn't clarify.
'Did he mean that he's aware he's a Lunarian and Lunarians come from another world? there is a lot of mystery around their race, it is only known they lived in the Red Line'.
"I don't know who the father is" She decided to answer for now since the path ahead wasn't clear... little did she know, her answer caused outrage.
*PFT!*
All the crew members spat their food and drinks.
"Y-You don't know!?".
'How many guys did she-'
Upon seeing the whispering that had just started in the crew Mihawk lost her temper.
"He's my adoptive child you fools!"
"OH! Now that makes sense!"
They all sighed in relief as for Shanks, it was like a whole load was taken down his shoulders.
***
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