Heart-to-Heart and Departure

_________ POV Narration _________

"Haap!"

A loud exhale was heard, followed by an even louder crashing sound.

Enel's fist dug into the stone, cracking it and sending shockwaves all around him. He wasn't using any haki, he wasn't using his devil fruit.

But slowly, he was starting to chip away at the monumental task put in front of him.

Slowly but surely, his punches started cracking more than the small rocks he was aiming for.

The force behind his punches was becoming more and more wild and chaotic.

At the same time, Enel's mind became more and more disciplined, as he powered through the training regime and near isolation with a smile on his face.

It wasn't easy. And it never got easy, but at least the Emperor got used to the pain in his muscles. He got used to the feeling of his torn muscles screaming in agony.

That part was almost becoming satisfying... Enel slowly started seeing that pain as a reward for his training... A sign of constant growth, a sign that he still had a long road ahead.

Enel knew that he was unlikely to finish his training in the year he had mentally given himself... But he wanted to at least give it his best, and come out a much stronger man.

To him, growing stronger felt like one of his few paths of progression left.

He planned on visiting the Grave of the Thunder God in the future, but he wanted to do it only after Luffy was also set on his journey.

That way, both Nika and Raijin would return at around the same time.

It just felt more poetic that way, and Enel doubted he'd even be able to awaken his devil fruit with such a weak body anyway...

So, he decided to power through the training. This was the method that Garp had used to train himself.

By his own admission, he had destroyed 7 mountains in the course of 2 years using that same method.

It just went to show just how monstrous Garp truly was... A freak of nature by all definitions.

At first, it was also slow for him, but he slowly got better and better. And by the end? He could break down a mountain in less than half an hour.

A few well-placed punches were all it took for him to shake an island to its very core.

Enel hoped to be able to reach even a quarter of that strength before attempting to awaken his devil fruit.

But that was going to take a while to pull off...

His lunch break came quickly, at that point Enel knew when to stop before his food even got there.

But this time, things were a bit different... Instead of the ground shaking because of Garp's arrival, a more lithe figure sailed through the clouds on a scooter.

A woman wearing a marine coat and a violet costume showcasing a bit of cleavage. Her pink hair was definitely her most noticeable feature...

The Lightning Emperor immediately realised who he was looking at... And he sighed as he realised that he had somewhat harmed her with his secrecy...

Hina landed on the island near Enel.

Her eyes immediately found the man she had been looking for. Her mind began to race as she saw him sitting on a few rocks, his arms crossed and his eyes locked onto hers.

She felt a mix of emotions flooding her body - anger, hurt, betrayal. Seeing his calm face made her want to punch him. But at the same time, she held back, not wanting to start off their conversation in such a way.

Enel looked at her, and for a moment, the two simply stared at each other. The tension in the air was palpable, and the silence between them seemed to stretch on forever. Finally, she broke the silence.

"Enel... Or should I say, Emperor Enel...?" Her voice sounded a bit hurt, though she seemed to be hiding her feelings, speaking coldly as her icy gaze studied Enel's tired body.

"Don't call me that... Just Enel is fine. We are friends at the end of the day..." Enel smiled a bit as he met her gaze and nodded.

Hina's reaction was not that great, unfortunately.

"Friends don't keep such secrets from one another... " She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

It was exactly what the Emperor had expected to hear... She was, after all, one of the people that he had disappointed most with his departure from the marines.

Enel looked down at his hands, unable to meet her gaze. "I know," he replied, his voice filled with regret. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

Hina took a step closer, fearless, her eyes never leaving the Emperor. "You lied to Hina, Hina vouched for you... Hina trusted you..." Her voice trembling with emotion.

"You made Hina believe in you... Then you threw everything away and ruined the marines in the process... How could you do that?..."

The Emperor finally stood up, his eyes finally meeting hers. "I didn't wish to get you all involved in this mess at first...

I hoped that you would all stay safe... I did everything in my power to help as many marines as possible, even back then..."

"I didn't want to put you all in danger, I hoped I would be able to talk the Navy into staying out of this war later down the line... But it seems that fate has other plans..."

Hina felt a wave of emotion wash over her as she looked into his eyes.

She saw the pain and regret in his gaze, and for a moment, she felt a flicker of forgiveness. But then the memories came flooding back - the lies, the deception, the betrayal...

She clenched her fists, thinking of lashing out at him, of finally taking out her repressed anger on him. A rage that had been bubbling and boiling for quite a while...

Yet, she couldn't find it in herself to hurt the man in front of her. Not when seeing his friendly gaze, not when remembering the time they had spent together.

"You have all the right to be mad at me... I won't blame you even if you try to hit me, I won't even fight back.

Know that whatever happens, you will still find a friend in me, even in your darkest hours..."

Enel's soothing voice washed over her, forcing her to look away for a moment. His words were what sealed the deal for her...

She simply couldn't stay mad at him...

"I... Hina won't need your help... Hina will become stronger..." At that point, Hina could just turn around and leave, throwing Enel his food as he watched her back with a startled gaze.

'... That could've gone better...'

Although the Emperor thought that, in reality, it couldn't have gone any better.

Hina had come towards him with the worst thoughts possible. All of her emotions had mixed inside of her and boiled for an entire month since she arrived on the Sky Islands...

But his words managed to turn her around completely. His honesty and goodwill had paid off.

Maybe she was too trusting for her own good, but she immediately gave Enel a second chance. And she immediately went back to training.

Hina was not the type of woman to rely on others for protection after all... She needed to stand by her friend's side, equals, as all friends were.

And so, Enel's meeting with Hina concluded, and the Emperor was left with a few onigiris to eat.

He picked up the nicely packed lunch box with a smile.

'I guess she made them for me... Garp never bothers with making things look presentable.'

He slowly took one out of the box and took a bite, before chuckling a bit and shaking his head.

"Yep... It's tasteless..." He then took another bite, with a smile on his face. 'But delicious all the same...'

The Emperor sighed as he looked at the state of his training site, cracked rocks and soil surrounded him as he ate in peace.

The silence was his friend, and it gave him plenty of time for introspection.

'Friendship is an odd thing, I hope I'll be able to fix things with Hina in the future... But for now, I must go back to training.'

Enel knew that he couldn't be a good friend, not a good leader, as long as he was too weak to protect anything.

And so, he scarfed down the last few onigiris that Hina had prepared for him and went back to his training, his training site shaking and trembling under his strength.

And as Enel picked his training back up, one of his subordinates was preparing himself for a long journey...

"Oi, Francisco, are you sure this is a good idea?" Shiki asked his old friend as he floated in place.

In front of the Golden Lion was a small ship, a Dinghy, loaded up with supplies.

"Yepp! You know I don't exactly enjoy sitting in the same place for too long... Man like me requires a change of scenery from time to time..."

The old swordsman sighed as he buttoned up his white shirt fully and placed a regular cutlass on his belt.

"Maybe... But I don't know if it's a good idea, what with all the shit going on in the lower seas." The Golden Lion spoke in a bit of an uncertain voice.

He couldn't help but sigh as he hated the fact that he was now acting as the voice of reason between the two of them. And that was never a good sign.

"Shiki, we both know I'll be safe wherever I go. Besides, I happen to have a quest as well this time!" Francisco gave the Golden Lion a confident smirk as he swept his golden locks backwards.

"..." 'It's not you I'm worried about, but everyone else...' Shiki wiped some sweat from his forehead as he gave Francisco the stink eye.

The old swordsman seemed to be able to read the Golden Lion's thoughts, as he responded to his gaze with an amused smile.

"C'mon now ol' pal. You know I'll stay out of trouble. I do have some things to take care of as well. I've been postponing them for a while now..." Francisco sighed a bit by the end.

Shiki couldn't help but roll his eyes at that.

"Still adamant about finding that greedy bastard's body? Fine, you do you, I guess... It ain't my business, but try not to attract too much attention to yourself while down there."

Shiki then clapped his hands, and the seas in front of them seemed to shift, earth coiling into them and forcing the waters to part ways as Francisco's small boat started floating as well.

The old swordsman laughed a bit as he jumped and landed on his boat with little trouble.

"I'll look out for anything interesting, who knows, maybe I'll even find a sword, or visit a few old friends... Not going to make any moves without the captain's permissions anyway."

Francisco shrugged as Shiki floated near his boat, the two of them were slowly descending to the lower seas, passing above the red line without any issues.

"I bet... I won't say anything useless, you can take care of yourself... Go easy on ol' Whitebeard, he's not a bad guy." Shiki shook his head as they slowly reached the wavy seas of the Grand Line.

"Hah! I can't even blame him considering the circumstances... Xebec did hold all he cared about hostage... I do want to meet him though, he's an old friend, much like you." Francisco didn't seem to have any spite or hatred on his tongue as he spoke of Edward Newgate.

"..." 'An old friend that stabbed you in the back... Whatever though, he won't get into conflicts with a Yonko without asking for permission first, he's just that loyal.'

"Sure thing. Anyway, off you go." Shiki crossed his arms as he plopped Francisco's dinghy onto the seas.

"Good luck Golden Rat! Look out for our home while I'm gone!" Francisco waved at the Golden Lion as he started rowing, his strength sending waves through the waters with every move.

"..." 'Look out for it my ass... Even if I go into hibernation we'll still be fine with how much power there is in this army...'

In the end, Shiki just shook his head and floated back to the skies.

'... I just realized this... Garp is going to be VERRRY pissed off about this!' Shiki smiled deviously as he envisioned himself giving the news to the old Marine Hero.

__________________________________________________________________

Sorry for the dry spell.

Been running into quite the inspiration issue. But I finally got to it tonight, managed to write out this chapter first try actually(Been a while since that happened with this story).

Hope you enjoyed this lil heart to heart tho! Hina isn't the love interest, but she was the mc's friend while he was in the navy, it was a brief stint, but they spent a few weeks together.

Anyhow, have a nice day! Don't worry bout me dropping this story btw, that won't ever happen.

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)