20 Chapter 020 – Home

[Kaienreki Calendar 1506, January]

Three days had passed since Lupin had acquired wings, as that was how long it took for him to fully regain his strength and shed his exhaustion completely after the ordeal with the devil fruit.

During that time he had made significant progress in learning how to control his wings. His already perfect mastery over Seimei Kikan had helped massively in doing so.

He had also tried to swim in the ocean to see if there were any issues, luckily there weren't any.

Still, he had also discovered some problems with his new appendages.

The biggest and most troubling was that while his body had been tempered by years of brutal physical conditioning, his new wings had not. Thus they essentially represented two big targets, which his enemies could take advantage off.

Something he planned to rectify in the coming months of course, but it would still take time to bring them up to standard.

A smaller problem was that his balance was now slightly off. This led to there now being exploitable openings in his movements, because he had to correct his balance with minute shifts that a fast and experienced opponent could easily take advantage off.

Again though this was something he could correct with some training in the coming weeks.

Another issue was that his whole fighting style would wave to change greatly, since his wings where huge when completely extended.

Sadly this was something that could only be done by experiencing a lot of combat, which is why he planned to return to training as soon as possible.

Additionally his beastly aura seemed more prominent and had gained a trace of majesty that wasn't there before.

Also, instead of a silent presence in his mind, the wolf part of his being, had become more vocal, letting Lupin's human side conceive its raw emotions. Before today, Lupin had always suppressed this side of his through the mental dominance of his human side.

This equilibrium had been broken, as he felt his beastly side had integrated more deeply with his human side, making it impossible to simply suppress it completely as he had done before. So now, he received the emotions of both his human and wolf side with nearly equal intensity.

Luckily, this shouldn't be that much of a problem as Lupin was very much in control of his emotions as a human and after some getting used to, he believed it would be the same for his beastly ones.

There were some things though that he had to do for now, before he could devote himself to training again.

Returning the Wado Ichimonji was one such task he had on his plate, luckily another task coincided with that one. And on his way towards the East Blue, he could also pick up something that he had wanted to take for himself from the very beginning.

One incredibly convenient thing he had discovered over his days of rest, was that he could compress his wings' size using Seimei Kikan, like he could with his wolf form.

This made it possible for him to delay his training for a little while until he had taken care of his business.

Packing up his things, he shrunk his wings and put on his last remaining sleeveless hoody, shorts and sandals. It seemed like it was high time that he stole himself some new clothes.

His shrunken wings were only a foot long, while retracted and hardly noticeable when he had his backpack on.

Strapping the Inquisitor to his back and Wado Ichimonji to his waist, he had finished his preparations.

A moment later he vanished from the unknown island. Greatly relieving the local flora and fauna, though it would probably still take some time to cope with the horrors of the last view days.

…

[Kaienreki Calendar 1506, February the 1st]

Somewhere between the clouds of the Grand Line there lay a city.

A city that had in its center a massive temple that had a lot of similarities with a pyramid. In the top most hall of the temple there was a small altar and on it lay a strange fruit. The fruit looked like a light blue peach with violet swirls on it.

For the inhabitants of the island that fruit represented the reincarnation of their god, so they protected it fiercely.

Hundreds of strong warrior priests lived in the temple, ready to protect the last vestiges of their god with their lives. They believed that one day the fruit would somehow be the origin that their god would be born from, again.

All higher ranking priests, which amounted to more than several dozen, also possessed a special technique called Mantra that allowed them to foresee dangers, which made them very efficient guardians.

Today though they were destined to fail their duty.

Almost at the same time all those priests proficient in Mantra were suddenly filled with a feeling of dread and danger. Sadly before any of them could react accordingly, a figure descended onto the temple, directly into the altar room.

*BOOM*

…

*BOOM*

It had taken Lupin two weeks to find Birka, the sky island he knew the Goro Goro No Mi, or Rumble Rumble Fruit, was at.

It was an extremely valuable Logia fruit that made one a Lightning Human upon consumption. In the original storyline it had been eaten by Enel and used to destroy this very island, Lupin found himself on currently.

Waving his hand, Lupin dissipated the surrounding dust cloud with a gesture and immediately locked his vision on the devil fruit that lay on the altar in front of him.

Ignoring the groaning noises of the guards behind him and the shouting warrior priests that approached the hall, Lupin appeared before the altar and simply grabbed the fruit.

"HALT YOUR ACTIONS HERETIC! HOW DARE YOU TRY AND STEAL OU-"

"STOP YOUR BLASPHEMUS AC-"

Simply ignoring the shouts Lupin, used a burst of Conqueror's Haki to clear his path and also sent the rest of the roof flying, before he took off using Kamisoru again.

He had what he come for anyway, what was the use of staying any longer?

Also tomorrow was his birthday and he planned to enjoy it somewhere nice.

…

[Water7, Kaienreki Calendar 1506, February the 2nd]

Being back in Water7 for some birthday snacks and new clothes was a pretty enjoyable way to celebrate this day.

Even though he would much rather have someone by his side, who cared about him. At quiet moments like this, where he just relaxed on the rooftops of the city and watched the clouds, Lupin felt his loneliness like a heavy boulder weighing on his chest.

Longing. Family. Bond. Even the emotions of his wolf side were the same.

It was also moments like this where he thought about his mother the most. Where her death pained him the most and where her sacrifice felt the most precious to him.

The necklace laying on his chest feeling just a bit heavier than normally.

And even though he enjoyed his solitude and freedom, there were times where it pained him to not have her or Ina by his side. Their tranquil presence comforting him in a way nothing else could.

Still, he was very clear on the fact that her death couldn't be rectified, he had accepted that fact long ago.

Sorrow.

He also knew that it had been the right decision to leave Ina behind in the past. Her strength simply hadn't been enough to follow him on his journey thus far and even his abilities had their limits.

He knew he could not protect her at all times, even if she were with him. So it had been safer for her to stay in the East Blue and train.

At least until her strength reached a higher level, something he planned to facilitate soon. Then he wouldn't have to worry so much about her safety anymore. No matter, where he took her.

Bond.

The whole world would be theirs to explore and discover.

These were the thoughts that went through his mind until he fell asleep on the roof.

Afterwards Lupin dreamed of how he would show her all the special and secret places only a few people had ever managed to visit, like the sky island or Zou.

Or how he would take her to the top of the Red Line, so they could watch the sun come up.

And as the boy imagined all the places they could visit, a small smile formed on his handsome face.

A smile, so rarely visible on his face, that not a single person had ever seen it during this life time of his.

…

[East Blue, Shimotsuki Village, Kaienreki Calendar 1506, February]

As Lupin had woken up the next morning, he had directly left Water7 in the direction of the East Blue using Kamisoru, which had long since been ingrained in his body.

Several days of full sprint later, he had set foot on Shimotsuki Island again after nearly two and a half years.

Directly appearing in the courtyard of the Isshin Dojo he had trained in during his stay, he lay his eyes on the charming figure of a young woman in her late teens.

Black hair dancing through the wind as she twirled around her staff with finesse and strength, her eyes closed.

Suddenly her eyes shot open and her staff aimed in the direction of Lupin's face at astonishing speed, firing an air bullet at him.

Easily deflecting the projectile with his bare hand, Lupin looked Ina into her beautiful green eyes as he said.

"I am back, Ina. Have you missed me?"

As if the Soru-powered tackle and hug wasn't enough, Ina also answered him verbally, as she buried her head in his chest.

His size was around 1.90m at this point, while Ina herself was still 1.75m tall. Finally, he didn't have to look up at her anymore.

"I did. I missed you so much."

There was no need for falsehoods between them, so Ina saw no reason to hide her longing for his presence these past years.

Family.

"I missed you too."

Hugging her back tightly, Lupin felt his heart settle and his loneliness being melted away by her mere presence.

Home.

…

Several hours later, after he had shared stories of his adventures with Ina and answered all her questions about his attack on Mary Geoise and the rest of his journey.

They found themselves in a little clearing in the forest laying in the grass right next to each other. With Ina resting her head on his chest, while he used his hands as a pillow.

Lupin's swords and belongings rested by the roots of a nearby tree.

Thankfully, his new wings didn't give him any kind of discomfort while he laid on his back.

After several minutes of amicable silence, Lupin was the first to speak up again.

"I can feel that your strength has advanced greatly in these last few months. You may even be able to tie with some Rear Admirals now. Have you learned Haki?"

Smiling proudly to herself at Lupin's compliment, Ina answered: "I have learned the very basics from Koushirou, even though I am not very proficient in Observation Haki. Also I wasn't able to learn Hardening yet, only the invisible form of Armament."

"I am not surprised. It is very difficult to learn Haki without the pressure from strong opponents and Koushirou's strength should already be lower than yours, so you won't advance any further in spars against him. Still, it's good enough that you know the basics, we will work on the rest together. I know the perfect place to train you."

"...Together? You mean...?"

The hope in Ina's voice was very clear to Lupin's ears, so he didn't hesitate to assure her.

"I will take you with me, after I have returned the Wado Ichimonji to Koushirou. There is a place more suited for your training, where I will train you for a few years. Afterwards we will just set off to travel the world, isn't that what we agreed on."

"YAY!! … But won't I burden you with my strength? Especially with your new bounty?"

Shouting in glee, Ina pressed herself into his side with more force, while she hugged his waist with one arm. Though a worried frown appeared on her face a moment later.

Ina knew about the danger Lupin would face should the Marines or the World Government find information about their location.

Lupin practically spat in the World Government's face with his stunt on the Sabaody Archipelago and the subsequent massacre in Mary Geoise. Him killing three Vice Admiral and Sakazuki, wasn't a matter to be taken lightly. The World Government wouldn't let him just be, they couldn't if they wanted to maintain their reputation.

"Normally you would be right, but I have brought you a gift that changes things a little.", Lupin said with a light smile.

"What gift?"

Controlling his long hair to grab two things from his bag, Lupin first presented Ina a black apple with orange-red swirls on it.

"This is a mythical Zoan devil fruit called Tokage Tokage No Mi Model: Salamander. It will give you the ability to turn into the flame spirit salamander, which means you will be able to create and control fire from your entire body. It will also give you a rather significant boost in strength and endurance, some poisonous abilities and the ability to fly using your flames with some training."

Taking a moment to let the information sink in, he continued shortly after, presenting a blue peach with violet swirls on it.

"This is the Logia fruit called Goro Goro no Mi. It will give you the ability to turn into, control and create lightning. Granting you incredible movement speed and pushing your Observation Haki to a whole new level. Another advantage is the typical Logia intangibility along with strong fire power. Keep in mind that most high-level fighters, especially in the New World know how to use Armament Haki, so your intangibility will have limited usage in high-level fights. Still, the decision is yours, choose whichever one you like more."

After a moment of silence Ina answered him.

"I know from what you have told me, that both of these fruits are incredibly rare and strong even for their category, the mythical Zoan even more so. It couldn't have been easy acquiring them, so I think you should pick one for yourself, before giving me the other."

Smiling gently at her consideration, Lupin replied.

"I can't eat a devil fruit, I have tried it with another fruit I managed to get my hands on and it nearly killed me. The only thing that changed is this."

Sitting up, while Ina followed his example, he took off his hoody and expanded his black wings to their full size of nearly 3.5 meters each.

"How beautiful...", Ina whispered at the sight before her.

Lupin's handsome face with his crystal eyes and framed by two long strands of hair, while the rest of his hair was tied up by itself into a long pony tail.

That combined with his perfect physique, the massive black wings and the beastly aura he exuded even when he rested, Lupin looked like a Fallen Angel. His charm and attraction almost a weapon in itself.

Ina simply couldn't stop herself from brushing her hands through Lupin's wings.

For Lupin though, it was like lightning had struck him at the unfamiliar sensation and pleasure he received by that act.

Having obtained his wings only weeks before, which had never been caressed or stroked, he wasn't prepared for the pleasure it brought him and let out a low drawn-out moan.

He wasn't embarrassed though, as it wasn't the first time that Ina's gentle ministration turned his whole body into jelly. And even though the temptation to simply lie down and let Ina continue stroking his wings was great, he knew they should finish their conversation first.