59 Don't look down on runaway slaves!
(AN: And here is the second chapter! hope you enjoy!)
3rd Person POV
Jackson has no idea what the newspaper said about that incident but he quickly understood that it might be beneficial right now.
"I don't understand what you mean. They are humans no different from us. No, in fact they are even better than us, since we were offered food and shelter despite them being poor."
So without batting an eye he started spouting bullshit. Of course he didn't fight Kizaru for strangers and neither did he fight him for the thrill. He fought because Kizaru recognized Robin and Jackson noticed his intention to capture her but Hancock doesn't need to know about that.
His crew members who by now, knew him more or less looked at him strangely again, not understanding what stunt their captain is pulling right now.
"But Jackson-nii! He wanted to-"
Sabo even spoke out almost blowing whatever Jackson was about to sell as the truth. but the later reacted just in Time and grabbed the blonde kid by his mouth. He came close and whispered in his ear, with a tone that sent chill down his spine but the truly scary thing was, what he said to Sabo.
"If you don't shut up, there will be a replay of the night when I accidentally told grandpa, that the first territory we would conquer as great pirates would be the Navy HQ itself. Guess which role you will be playing."
These two sentences reminded Sabo of what was probably the most traumatic night in his whole short life, so he obediently shut his mouth and looked down at his own feed thinking about the color of his shoes.
Meanwhile Jackson turned back towards Hancock who was glancing at him. The warlord then raised her head and leaned backwards while pointing at Jackson with her finger from a raised point, showing the greatest disrespect despite the apparent difference in their strength.
"Are you trying to insult me?! The same humans as us? You think I will believe you because you spout such nonsense?"
Of course she was acting the haughty part in order to better deal with her own mental scars but it was true that she didn't trust Jackson's words.
Still, that didn't hinder Jackson from spouting whatever came to his mind.
"Oi Oi Oi! I don't care whether you believe me or not but I get the feeling that you are looking down on them?"
"Hmpf! Of course I am! So what? Angry? It doesn't matter whether you're angry with me, since in the end you will forgive me anyways. Because... I am Beautiful!"
"Kyaa! Empress Sama!" (Kuya-pirates)
The Snake princess was still playing the cold and uncaring bitch so Jackson took it as a signal to up his bs game a few levels.
"The Lion! The Witch! And the Audacity of this Bitch!"
...
"..."
Jackson returned the same words she spoke to him before, leaving everyone as gobsmacked as he felt then.
Behind him sights and 'yare' noises could be heard. This 'great pirate' could perfectly imagine what 'kind' of look they were giving him at the moment but it didn't matter now. He had to continue to speak before it fully registered in Hancock's brain what he just called her.
"How dare you look down on them because of what? The suffering they had to experience? The scars they were given? Or the mark on their backs?"
The Boa sisters flinched at the last remark but Jackson still continued.
"Despite suffering unimaginable horrors, they still took their lives in their hands and not only ran but actually took their lives back in their own hands! Earning money on their own! Interacting with people! Giving it their all to overcome the nightmares."
By now Jackson started to mix his speech with whatever came to his mind regarding slavery. Obviously he neither truly understood what slaves went through nor did he want to.
"Such amazing and unbreakable will... It deserves utmost respect! To not give in to any of that and carry on with life. Such slaves... no! Such amazing people, who are able to do that, I could even accept as kings of nations or gift them my love! DON'T INSULT THE WILL TO LIVE EVEN AFTER ALL THAT!"
...
At this point everyone was silent. Jackson himself didn't realize it at first but during his speech he began to shout more and more. Only after a minute did it click inside of his head and he noticed that he himself believed in what he said. At least partly.
Besides him, Sabo, Kuina and Law and his trio noticed it as well. And unexpectedly the Boa sisters as well.
"...Big sister..."
Marigold called out to Hancock who at this point was looking down. Nobody knew what went through her head, not even she herself. Her eyes weren't visible to the others as she turned around and went inside.
"We are leaving. Set course to Amazon Lily."
And with this the Kuja-pirates retreated under the watchful eyes of the Jackson-pirates. Jackson turned around only to see everyone looking at him.
"What?"
"...Nothing."
Kuina responded and they all retreated their gazes.
"Okaay? Anyways, Bepo set our new course. Let's see where the log will leads us next."
And the journey continued but little did they know the chaos that would follow them soon.
The island their log pose locked on turned out to be the Lulusia Kingdom, located south-west to the navy base G-2, which they reached in 5 days. And since neither Jackson nor the others new about the news he caused when he defeated Kizaru, they carelessly entered the kingdom like they did before. Or at least they tried.
As soon as their jolly roger was spotted anywhere near the sea region, the whole kingdom mobilized it's army and raised the danger level to the public to the highest level.
The navy was informed and Jackson and his friends were treated as an invading demon army in a fantasy novel.
"What the hell is going on?" (Pinguin)
"Beats me. We were never treated this way." (Sachi)
"...Yeah. Not before we visited the sky islands... before captain beat a navy admiral. I guess while we were up there, the news spread quickly down here."
Robin was the first to link the dots and make sense of the situation.
"Okay. New plan. Sabo get so far up that we can't be detected. Later when the situation calms down, Augur, Robin and me will enter stealthily and gather intel and an eternal pose before leaving."
Jackson made this decision while keeping in mind that the WG or the navy could send forces, now that they have a hint about his whereabouts so the first priority was to make them lose the track they gained.
And because of this after another 1 and half week passed, they all got to read 'that' article along with their captain's new bounty.
"... Holy shit... I didn't even know that a bounty could get this high."
Sabo's eyes almost popped out while he counted the zeros.
"Does that mean the captain is someone famous now? Is he a well known big shot?
Enel asked but nobody could accurately answer him since no one had fully grasped the whole meaning of this.
"Oh no. Captain you must be careful to not get captured and slowly tortured to death somewhere in a dark and cold cell."
"Can you stop saying such psycho shit?!"
Kuina retorted Robin with so much emotions that her teeth resembles Arlong's for a moment. But unexpectedly for them all, Jackson only had a smirk and acted normal otherwise.
"Bepo! I got us an eternal pose. Set the course now."
"Aye captain!"
Bepo took the eternal pose in his soft paws and went to prepare everything needed but stopped midway and asked a question while looking at Jackson with his round black eyes.
"Captain, where are we even going this time?"
"We are going to visit an old friend of my dad."
His nonchalant answer broke everyone from their trance after hearing his answer. A friend? From his dad? From the late pirate king himself?
Everyone wondered who might that person be but Jackson continued to speak.
"To be precise we are also going to save an old shipwright there."
"Jackson-nii, where exactly are we going?"
In response to Sabo's question, which was also on everybody's mind Jackson answered with a wide grin on his face as he started to think about all the original people he is going to meet.
"Cliffhanger."
(AN: Hey Everyone! What do you think of my new way to write cliffhangers? It wasn't easy to come up with but with enough time to cultivate even the most normal mortal shall advance on the path of dao! Jokes aside I think some of you already know where he is going next but still... leave me this bit of sadistic joy! Some of you surely enjoy it as well…Anyways I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of today!)
