8 Karakuri Island

It was night currently, the sea was moving calmly with the current as it dragged a certain marine ship across it.

"I would love to rip this sail off the ship but it would just make my job harder." Nyx sighed as he stared up at the large sail that said, 'MARINES' and had the logo on it, if he decided to rip it off, navigating the ship would become a hassle but it could also cause other marines to approach them, or even for pirates to attack them.

Mihawk who was vigorously training behind him with a different katana, walked up behind Nyx as he was sweating profusely.

"Why did you show your powers?" Mihawk suddenly questioned as his white dress shirt and black dress pants were drenched in sweat.

"I'm busy." Nyx just waved him away as he continued to concentrate on keeping the ship moving correctly since they were the only two manning it without even an engine.

"You can multitask, stop acting like it's hard for you." Mihawk deadpanned as he continued to stare at Nyx with a serious gaze.

"It's quite simple, I want them to be wary of me and if my guess is correct, they might recognize my mysterious devil fruit power." Nyx replied as both his hands were held out in front of him and slightly twisted his wrists to the left to keep their ship on course.

"So you simply thought if you showcased your power they would leave you alone, isn't that a bit naive? And we could probably find out about your devil fruit ourselves." Mihawk bluntly replied.

"Think about it like this, in this world there are many powerful individuals but in most case scenarios the marines don't touch them as long they aren't attacked. Wanna know why? It's because they can't afford to harm such powerful individuals, we need to show our might and power, simply put, the higher the bounty, the more fearful the marines are of us." Nyx finished as he finally relaxed after the currents calmed down.

"I suppose that can work." Mihawk simply said.

Ring!

Ring!

Nyx and Mihawk started to hear a ringing noise from somewhere on the ship.

"This sound? A phone!" Nyx followed the sound as Mihawk weirdly looked at him after using the phrase, 'phone'.

"What's a phone?"

Nyx ignored him and picked up the green snail which seemed to have been dropped at the edge of the hull.

Nyx looked at it weirdly before tapping it.

"Rear Admiral Rino! What's the situation!?" A booming voice came from across.

"My, my, Rear Admiral Rino is quite busy, can I leave a message?" Nyx playfully remarked.

"Who is this!? Identify yourself!" Fleet Admiral Kong exclaimed through the snail.

"With pleasure, this is Nyx speaking, accompanied by Mihawk, Rear Admiral Rino and his men were quite easily defeated by us. Now who might this be?" Nyx replied while smirking.

"This is Fleet Admiral Kong! I demand to know what you've done with my men!"

Nyx could practically feel Kong's furious aura through the snail but that didn't deter him.

"I don't quite remember, maybe they're dead?" Nyx questioned with a slight smile.

"You'll regret this, you damn pirate!"

"Oh will I? Haha, I'll be waiting for that so-called regret."

"WAIT!-"

Nyx ended the call before throwing the snail deep into the sea.

"Was all that really necessary?" Mihawk questioned as he leaned against the ship's mast behind Nyx.

"Nah I just like pissing people off, hehe. And as for throwing away the snail, I'm not sure if they could track that by any means, might as well be careful." Nyx chuckled as he shrugged.

"Where are we even going?"

"Ahem, we are going to a certain island with a scientist on it." Nyx coughed weirdly for some reason.

"Are we even going the right way?" Mihawk questioned with narrowed eyes as Nyx whistled and looked the opposite way.

"Wait.. Are we lost?" Mihawk questioned with his mouth slightly agape.

"Lost? Pfft- Just some navigation errors, don't worry." Nyx chuckled awkwardly as he pushed Mihawk off the deck and toward the door that led to the cabin with their rooms.

"Just have a goodnight! Ciao!" Nyx waved before pushing Mihawk inside and slamming the door shut behind him.

Once he made sure Mihawk was gone, Nyx frowned with furrowed brows.

'What's with this damn ship? I know I'm doing it right but it's not working.'

Until his eyes widened in realization.

****

Mihawk himself was just bored after being locked out from the deck and started walking around inside the ship.

Eventually, he found himself at the bottom of the ship, where the storage is, it was filled with all the stuff Nyx brought from their house.

Mihawk had a slight smile on his face as he looked through the stuff.

There were some art drawings that Nyx would attempt which looked horrendous.

Some money, utensils, old instruments of his parents, even Bob 711 was here chilling in a self-made nest with some bread and water provided by Nyx.

Mihawk's eye's slightly widened once noticing an old drawing of three people.

It was him, his father, and his mother, his mother drew it for a keepsake for him if he was ever scared.

'Knowing Nyx, he could have cared less for the luggage except maybe the money. Did he bring it for me since he knew I would feel homesick?' Mihawk had a genuine smile on his face as he stared at the exquisite drawing his mother had of all three of them.

"Hmm?" Mihawk looked down as felt a touch of water touch his black dress shoes.

"Water? Wait a minute...." Mihawk looked around and noticed the water was slowly rising as their ship continued to sink.

Mihawk quickly ran upstairs and simply broke open the door to the deck.

He could see Nyx there simply sitting on the edge of the deck while watching the sea in distance with an unreadable expression.

"Oh, Mihawk! Back so quickly!" Nyx lightly laughed as he noticed Mihawk approaching with a hardened expression from behind him.

"Nyx! The ship is sinking! I'm pretty sure it's because of all the luggage, we should quickly dump some of them!" Mihawk exclaimed as he stood behind Nyx who continued to look at the sea.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Nyx replied calmly.

'Did he already know this was happening?' Mihawk questioned inwardly.

"Nyx-"

"Look." Nyx ignored Mihawk and pointed ahead of him.

Mihawk walked up beside him and noticed a small island covered in snow.

"Is that the island?"

"Yup, it's called, Karakuri Island, the home of Dr.Vegapunk. We finally made it after over 1 day." Nyx smirked as he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and a small box.

"And it's all thanks to this map and compass."

"Prepare for battle just in case." Nyx added before hopping off the edge and watched as they slowly approached the island.

"It's getting colder and colder as we approach." Mihawk muttered as they were about to dock on the icy shore.

"Yup, I'm gonna try and get this ontop of the ice." Nyx closed his eye's as he spread his arms out and calmly raised them from each side.

As his hands rose, an invisible air started to pick up the ship slowly before carefully putting it onto the hard ice.

"To think you could actually be a decent navigator." Mihawk quietly whispered as they both jumped off the edge of the deck onto the cold ice ground.

"Of course I can, I had to study a lot and practice by myself." Nyx reminisced about the boring training regimen he had to go through.

Wshhhh!

A whistling noise suddenly went off in the air as something seemed to be approaching from the sky, straight toward them.

Nyx and Mihawk immediately glanced up but chose not to move once they noticed there were no hostile intentions at the approaching figure.

Shhh!

Eventually, it stopped itself from hitting the ground as it hovered above the ground for a few seconds before landing roughly on its feet directly in front of them.

Nyx and Mihawk just stared at the 25 feet tall humanoid silver robot in front of them with widened eyes, it had a sword on its back, and its blue gleaming eye's looked down at them intensively.

"State your business intruders." A deep and authoritative voice came from the robot figure as it crossed its arms and looked down at them inquisitively.

Nyx just blinked weirdly while staring at the robot in front of them, it looked quite similar to a robot in a certain series from his past life, the one and only, Optimus Prime.

"We would like to speak with Dr.Vegapunk." Nyx replied calmly while hiding his surprise.

"Does he know you?" The robot questioned back.

"No, but I have something of value for him." Nyx replied.

"I see, it would be quite unfortunate for you to be sent back after all the sailing, so I will ask him first if he wishes to speak with you." The robot nodded in understanding before pulling out a large snail that could fit between his large fingers.

After a few dozen seconds of chatter, the robot put the snail away and looked back at them.

"It seems the doctor does not mind, follow me." The silver robot stated as it turned around and started walking toward the center of the island which was covered in some sort of snowstorm.

Mihawk himself groaned inwardly at having to walk through that snowy atmosphere with only his thin dress shirt and pants.

****

"So you're telling me, you got defeated by two teens?" Kong questioned as he was in his office talking to the snail on his desk.

He had sent two vice admirals to immediately go to the island and see what happened, once the vice admirals arrived with reinforcements on the scene, they quickly freed the captured soldiers including Rino who was currently being questioned as he used the snail given to him by one of the Vice Admirals.

He was on a ship heading back to marine ford with the rest of his men.

"Yes." Rino's voice replied back through the snail.

"And you claim that one of them had two devil fruits which gave them dragon and some sort of paramecia power, while the other is a master swordsman?" Kong's voice slowly started to rise as his fist slowly squeezed the life of the snail.

"Yes sir-"

"You fucking idiot! It's impossible to have two devil fruits! And a 17-year-old being a master swordsman? What a joke!" Kong angrily exclaimed.

"Fleet Admiral Kong I'm not lying!" Rino retorted with exasperation.

Kong calmed down and looked down at the snail as if he was thinking of something.

"Just come back to Marineford immediately! We'll finish your debrief once you arrive!" Kong grumpily replied before ending the call.

'Could it be?'

'I should talk to the five elders about this, if that fruit is back in play, things could get dangerous. And this so-called teen master swordsman might not be a lie either.' Kong abruptly stood up from his office chair and headed toward the five elders' room.