Capitulation and Clean-up

_________ POV Narration_________

Kaido stared at Francisco with sweat building up on his forehead.

He was frustrated, angry, but most importantly, confused.

To him, it wasn't like Francisco had just de-aged himself. It was more akin to having gone back in time.

It simply didn't make any sense to him, how could an old cripple turn back time on himself?

Kaido already knew Francisco to be a monster, but that was way beyond anything he had expected.

'There must be some Devil Fruit user that alters time on that island...' The Injured Emperor thought to himself as he continued to hold his damaged arm in place.

Under normal circumstances, Kaido would either quickly try to take that person and make them join his crew. Probably make them work in the mines till their wills broke and then recruit them.

But now he didn't have the luxury to make such a choice. How could he?

In fact, he was well aware that he had no chance now, especially not as injured as he was. One moment of carelessness was all that Francsico needed to effectively take him out of the fight.

'This is all because of that time fruit...' Kaido could only grit his teeth in anger, as the reality of the situation completely set in for him.

Not even mentioning the fact that Garp was still on the Sky Islands. The old marine didn't even need to be returned to his prime, he was a Yonko Level fighter even as an old man.

And with Francisco there... Well, Kaido really only had two choices at that point. And they were the ones that his old crewmate had so 'generously' given him.

'Die or surrender, huh?'

The 'generosity' of that offer made Kaido scowl a bit.

'On the one hand, I am not afraid of death... I would normally welcome it.

But not only do I feel indignant to lose my life to this man, I also don't want to die when so close to my goals...'

To Kaido, he was already almost there, almost to the point where he could start the Great War that he had dreamed of.

He was ever so close to pulling those arrogant world nobles down to their levels, to put them through the shredder and allow only the worthy ones on top.

Strength. That was the only qualification for a World Leader in Kaido's warmongering eyes. To him, as long as the person leading the world was strong, nothing else mattered.

The news of the weakened marines and World Government gave him the opportunity to advance his plans.

Now, fleeing did reach Kaido's mind at first. But there was one problem.

'Francisco can likely kill me as soon as I turn my back on him or try to run away...

I wouldn't even have the time to turn into a full dragon, and if I fly off like this, I'm unlikely to get more than 100 meters before he cuts me down.'

It wasn't like Kaido could create some distraction either. He didn't even have any more chances left to even destroy the island.

However, even with all of those factors combined. Kaido wasn't some weakling to be caught like that. If he truly tried, he could likely escape...

But the fear prevented him. The fear that had been ingrained into him from a young age, a trauma that he had been trying to shake off for many years.

Sure, Francisco wasn't the main actor in that trauma, but he was someone that only helped amplify his suffering at some point.

It was a reasonable fear, the First Mate of the Rocks Pirates was considered a monster in a generation where legendary pirates were a dime a dozen.

To Kaido, the only person that came close to reaching their strength was Gol D. Roger, but he became stricken with illness, so he didn't get to match them in the end.

So, with all of that in mind, Kaido raised his only currently working arm, surrendering himself to the smiling Francisco.

Garp also jumped back towards them at that point. With a confused face as he hadn't expected Kaido to get blown away like a leaf in the wind.

His eyes widened when he saw Kaido's sorry state. Once considered an unkillable Emperor looking like he had been almost cut in half by one sword strike.

Garp only knew of one man capable of such things.

'Shit...'

Was the only thing Garp could think of when seeing Francisco's appearance.

Up to that point, the old marine was only happy with Francsico being around because he thought him to be an old man, close to death.

That was also how they had bonded in prison. Garp was not the type to befriend pirates, especially not the type that sailed with Rocks.

The fact that Francisco was nothing more than a shell of what he had been formerly was what allowed him to look over his past and not kill him in Impel Down.

'Bonney must've seen the situation and decided to do this... Not sure if it's a good thing though.' Garp gritted his teeth as he hopped in the air in front of Francisco, who looked at him with a small smile.

"Garp, glad that you could join us." Francisco was still just as polite, but Garp wasn't about to let his guard down just because a pirate was being polite to him.

The old pirate also noticed Garp's raised guard. He narrowed his eyes and spoke out with a polite smile.

"I can understand why you wouldn't agree to this. But I believe you better take this up with Bonney, it was her decision at the end of the day.

I followed Enel's orders, not requesting her help even once. She was the one to so gracefully give us assistance."

The old pirate patted his chest as he sheathed his cutlass. To him, an injured Kaido wasn't even a threat, he didn't need to be cautious in any way.

Kaido's expression shifted slightly upon hearing their conversation.

'Enel?! Don't tell me...'

"Hmph, just because you followed the captain's orders doesn't mean I have to like the outcome."

"Well, you don't have to like it, but I sure as hell do! You're just jealous you also didn't get brought back to your prime." Francisco covered his mouth as he smiled mockingly at Garp.

"Bah! Jealous my ass! Unlike you, I'm still holding up just fine!" Garp crossed his arms with a huff.

Francisco's smile turned a bit strained, as he realized his interactions with Garp would likely become different from that point on, as the old marine was not likely to let his guard down around him anymore.

"Umm... Would you guys mind capturing me and stopping my bleeding? I may have endurance, but this isn't exactly the type of wound I can just shrug off..." Kaido spoke out, reminding the two old men that he was still present there.

It was at that point that the two old men decided to continue their spat at a different time.

Garp went off to grab some Kaido-sized seastone chains, and Francisco ushered Kaido to the island, to find some medical supplies and patch him up.

And so, Kaido's one-man invasion of the Sky Islands ended in his capture, a complete and utter failure for the Beast Pirates.

One of which they actually had no idea of! To them, Kaido's fate, as well as the fate of King and Queen, were a big question mark. But they figured they'd all be fine, Kaido personally had gone after them, so nothing bad could've happened to them!

And, well, the incident was only over for Francisco and Garp, who chained Kaido after a doctor put him back together and threw him in jail alongside the rest of his crew.

The rest of the island now had a lot of work to do. The people of Skypea now had to rebuild a lot of work to do in rebuilding the houses that had been destroyed in the conflict.

And the Shandians, residents of Upper Yard, now had an entire forest fire to worry about thanks to Kaido's Blast Breath.

Well, they would've had it a lot worse had Garp not dragged King there to suppress the fire with his inborn abilities as a Lunarian.

Momonga and Wyper both helped as well as they could, especially making sure no fires reached the 'New Foosha Village'.

After that, both of them basically went to train. Both going to Francisco directly, Wyper starting to take his Conqueror's Haki training religiously, and Momonga asking for training in swordsmanship.

The old pirate obviously agreed to also help Momonga.

'The more powerful people around Enel, the better. He does want to go against the World Govenremnt after all...'

To Francisco, returning to his youth was also a very good thing for his captain. With that, the strength of Enel's crew basically skyrocketed.

'But this group is still a lot weaker than the Rocks Pirates... And Enel himself still has a lot of room for growth when it comes to Haki. I don't think we are anywhere close to prepared to face the World government.'

The old pirate simply shook his head, his blonde hair dancing in the wind as he continued on with his day, officially starting the training of both Wyper and Momonga at the same time.

As the residents of the island scrambled and worked hard, Bonney was still off to the edge of the island, sitting on the sand and looking at what remained of the sea of clouds.

'All that we've got to do now is wait for Enel, huh?'

The gluttonous woman thought to herself as she saw the way the situation had ended.

She, much like everyone else, hadn't expected the situation to turn around so drastically.

She honestly thought Francisco had just been bragging as any senile old man would.

She remembered him being a legendary figure, but she thought he'd at most manage to make Kaido flee... She didn't expect Francisco to literally blow him out of the sky.

The previously intimidating and gigantic Kaido looked like a worm being blown away by a storm in front of Francisco's flying slash.

'A blunt cutlass is able to do that...' Bonney simply shook her head as she thought more and more about the situation.

It just served to show how powerful the people Enel had underneath him were. Bonney could only bite into her nails with a bit of frustration.

'I guess seducing him is not going to happen anytime soon... But I've technically done him a favour by altering Francsico's time, right?...

No, he's been helping me for a while now. Asking for something off of him would be rude on my part.'

Bonney thought about using her power as leverage for a second. To make a deal with Enel. But it just felt off for her.

Using her powers on Francisco now was more of a necessity, as she didn't want to needlessly endanger the people of the Sky Islands anymore.

But she always had a sinking feeling in her gut when it came to using her powers on others non-offensively.

It likely had a lot to do with the fact that she had been hunted down for her powers constantly. But the situation somewhat shifted when thinking about her nephew...

'No... This has gone on long enough... I can't let Kuma remain like that much longer!'

So, she decided. She was going to use her devil fruit power to trade with the Lightning Emperor.

'I think he'll be pretty interested in learning more about my Devil Fruit too... He was the studious type after all...'

As that situation finally wrapped up on the Sky Islands, Enel finally managed to get out of bed properly and prepared to take off.

"Are you sure about going away already?" Shanks asked, his crew behind him looking at Enel warily still. But they weren't being hostile to him in any way.

"I am feeling a lot better already... Poor Sengoku had it a lot worse. I'll entrust him to you for now, but I'll come back to take him off your hands when he gets better." Enel said as his earlobes swayed in the wind.

His golden hair was now swept backwards, he was wearing a white half-unbuttoned shirt, one rolled-up sleeve and one empty, swaying in the wind alongside his earlobes.

He also now wore a black pair of pants, and leather shoes. All of those clothes were gifted to him by Yassop, a tanned man with dark blonde hair worn in dreadlocks.

Enel could somewhat see the resemblance between him and Ussop. Though Yassop was actually handsome, unlike his son.

'Well, I guess Ussop's still a kid, he'll look better eventually...'

"I also would need a ship to sail with, and I've somewhat lost mine in that whole mess at Baltigo..." Enel continued speaking as he scratched the back of his head with an earlobe, gaining a few odd looks from Shank's men.

"I see... Well, I won't stop you. But do try to be careful out there..." Shanks said with a wide smile.

"Heh, I'll be careful. I'm only visiting Big Mom for a bit, I've done so before, so no fighting will happen. By the way, thanks for the clothes Yassop!" Enel said as he tapped his white cane into the ground and took to the clouds.

"... I think he'd fit pretty well among us, honestly," Yassop said as he scratched his chin.

"Why? Cuz he's a weirdo?" Lucky Roux, the round man with round sunglasses said as he took a bite out of a piece of meat.

"Yeah!"

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Sorry for the small break, got busy with other stuff :(( Still have university and work, and motivation is always an issue lately.

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