16 Escape and Rendezvous

A/N: I found some interesting ideas like Shiki's Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, and Mythical Zoans. I might use them for Kairo's DF.

(Kairo's POV)

After writing the letter to Instructor Zephyr, I used Observation Haki to detect the presence of my stalkers.

'1 on the roof, 1 is in the room right now, and the other 1 is at the exit.'

I formulated a plan; 'Kill the one in the room and the one at the exit, then activate the explosives to distract the one in the room, then finish him off.'

I unsheathed my dagger and stabbed the one in the room. Then, I used Soru to teleport to the exit and kill the one there as well. Afterward, I activated the explosives, causing massive explosions all around Marineford.

I Kamisori'd on top of the roof and prepared to kill the person there, but he blocked my first strike with a sword.

I was surprised at that, but I kept my cool and thrust my dagger towards him, and he deflected them with his sword, stabbing towards me.

I backed off and dodged the stab.

Then, he activated Armament Haki and reinforced his sword, and so did I.

I used a new move that I invented, "Flowing Star Strike", striking towards him at different angles.

He blocked most of the strikes aimed at vital organs, but he didn't notice the one coming straight at his head due to me belatedly launching that strike.

He ducked underneath the strike, but his mask was cracked.

I didn't recognize his face, but I felt a sense of familiarity with him.

"Who are you? Someone as strong as you should be famous in the H.Q."

"You don't recognize me?", he said with a sad look on his face.

"Well, you and Dragon have always been at the top, so it wouldn't be surprising if you paid no attention to me."

I see... he was in the same batch of recruits as I was.

Who...

"I got third place in the entrance test."

'Third place?'

"No. 30?"

"Ah hah! You finally remembered!"

"You got strong."

"Of course I did. I trained my ass off every day, hoping to surpass either you or Dragon. After Dragon left the Marines, there was a mission to watch over you, and I jumped at the opportunity.

I knew that one day, you would make a commotion to escape the Marines, and I guess today is the day! Now, I will show you the fruits of my labor, to prove that hard work can overcome natural geniuses!"

It seems like he wanted to surpass me and Dragon.

Too bad, I don't have time to play with him.

I got into the stance of Flowing Star Instinct and as he charged at me, I prepared to use Internal Destruction as I feigned using my [Redirection].

I met his Haki-enhanced punch with my own, and my Internal Destruction destroyed his arms.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and I could hear him whisper "How..?" as I tore off his head.

'I don't have time for this.' I thought as I dashed to a remote location on Marineford, where my ship is docked.

As I reached there, I saw Cipher Pol agents guarding the area, and one by one, I silently killed them all.

I prepared my ship and set sail away from Marineford to rendezvous with Dragon.

As my ship sailed away, I could see chaos on Marineford, people screaming, crying, and pushing each other - all for a chance at survival. Not that I blame them.

'Goodbye... Instructor Zephyr.'

...

(Zephyr's POV)

There's no hope.

Marineford was bombed by someone, with my disciple as the main suspect.

Due to his possible actions, I was once again suspended as the Head Instructor and placed under heavy suspicion in a prisoner's cell, coated with Seastone.

'As if Dragon's betrayal wasn't enough...' I chuckled with a bitter smile on my face.

"Zephyr, your students have betrayed Marineford, and we found this letter - it proves that Kairo was the culprit behind the bombing. He also took several of our classified information, no doubt to give to Dragon. Now we know that he was the mole." a voice sounded out as Sengoku walked out from a corner.

"This letter was meant for you, so read it."

I opened the letter and started reading.

'Dear Instructor Zephyr,

Hello Instructor, by the time that you've read this, I have no doubt escaped from Marineford.

I confess it was me who bombed Marineford, and I was also the mole who leaked information to Dragon.

You may wonder why I am telling you this? Well, now that my stalkers are dead, and I am nowhere to be found, I would be the primary suspect in the bombing and as a mole.

Sooner or later, they will have found out that it was me, Kairo!

I am writing this letter as my thank you to you.

I owe you a debt that I will hope to repay eventually.

From,

Rocks D. Kairo'

'Rocks D. Kairo... I see. So he's Xebec's son. I suppose that explains his unnatural growth, he's just like this father. I wonder how Garp and Sengoku reacted...?' I chuckled, thinking about their reaction to a recently dead enemy's child.

(Zephyr's POV End)

(Kairo's POV)

I do hope that Instructor Zephyr got my letter that was meant for him.

No doubt, the higher-ups has already read the letter by the time they handed it to him.

I suppose taking Father's name is a token of appreciation to him blessing me with good genes.

A/N: There it is, genetics has been mentioned once again.

Now that they know that I was the culprit behind the bombing, I wonder how they would react to their Devil Fruits Encyclopedia being stolen?

I laughed as I flipped through the pages of the Encyclopedia, trying to find the names of the Devil Fruits that I stole in my escape.

'Dirt-Dirt Fruit... Plastic-Plastic Fruit... Towel-Towel Fruit'

"F*CK, WHY AM I SO UNLUCKY?"

I grumbled at the thought of being so unlucky, grabbing 3 weak Devil Fruits.

'At this point, I regret not going for the Meito swords... at least they were a guarantee.'

Oh well, I calmed myself down, no use crying over spilled milk.

I followed the Vivre card given to me by Dragon, and it pointed me to an island in a remote area.

'No wonder why the Marines haven't found him yet...'

He was quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

As the island got into view, so did my ship.

My ship was still painted in navy blue and white, the signature color of the Marines.

The people on the island started blasting at my ship, I was prepared to throw a Rankyaku or two towards them, but then a wind stopped the projectiles coming towards my ship.

Ah... it's Dragon.

A mini-tornado swirled on my deck and Dragon appeared from it.

"Long time no see, Dragon"

"Likewise."

It's an awkward reunion because I haven't seen him in a while.

"So... they're your people?"

"Yeah."

Goddamit, I can't start a conversation with this guy...

"Alright, follow me, here's what I grabbed from the H.Q before I got out of there."

I said as I led him down the deck, into the mini-armory that I've gathered up.

"Here are three Devil Fruits, and I got some Meito swords off of the Cipher Pols and uh... No. 30"

Dragon's eyes showed a flicker of recognition at 'No. 30', but he suppressed it and looked at the things I've gathered.

"Great, thank you so much. Any troubles with the Marines after I've left?"

It seems like his personality changed a lot after 2 years. He would be joking around if it was 2 years ago. He's so stiff and formal now...

"Yeah, they placed me under watch with No. 30 and 2 others watching me, and your father, Garp, was placed under heavy suspicion, but no one dared to do anything to him."

Dragon seemed sad that no one attempted to mess with his father, no doubt because of the childhood 'training' (read; abuse).

"Alright, if that's all, let me introduce you to my comrades."

...

We headed to the island and Dragon gathered up his comrades.

"Comrades, here is the Co-Founder of our Revolutionary Army, Kairo! He was the one who supplied us with information on the Marines' movements for the past 2 years and was a Vice Admiral, but he needed to escape Marineford due to them discovering his movements."

Dragon announced to the Army, most of them looking at me with gratitude, while others who presumably shot at my ship looked at me apologetically.

"Tonight, we'll be planning to overthrow the Kingdom of Larento, one of the World Government's building materials suppliers."

The Army cheered, excited to take down another Kingdom related to the World Government.

"Dragon, I need to talk to you for a bit."

"Alright, come with me."

He led me into the forest and found a secluded cave.

We sat down and talked with each other, reminiscing about the times we've spent together in the Marines.

"Sorry Dragon, but I'm gonna travel around the world. I'm not interested in overthrowing Kingdoms because I dislike fighting without purpose."

That's just an excuse to find Devil Fruits.

Dragon looked disappointed, but he accepted my excuse and asked, "Could you provide us with information while you're traveling around?"

I happily accepted. Being an informant isn't bad.

Dragon led me deeper into the cave and moved a rock, revealing the Devil Fruits inside.

According to my memory of the Devil Fruits Encyclopedia, I saw the Zushi-Zushi no Mi in the middle..

'Do I go the safe way and pick the Zushi-Zushi no Mi? Or do I take the risky route?'

"You can take one of them. I've prepared this as a gift for you."

"Thank you... I choose"

A/N: I f*cked up so I'm changing things. Also, I'm choosing Zushi-Zushi because people want it the most.