Legends, Memories and Old Friends.

__________ POV Narration__________

"Would your father happen to be named Francisco D. Guzman perchance?"

Francisco looked at Shiki with a raised eyebrow as he sheathed his blunt cutlass.

'I guess that's a fair assumption to make...' The old, and likely current, strongest swordsman thought to himself as the guard of his cutlass touched its sheath, making a small metallic clang.

Shiki noticed that, and also somewhat relaxed, his blades returning to their usual colour as he stroked his beard.

He was quite sure of his guess, so he somewhat dropped his guard a bit. Something that somewhat surprised Francisco.

'I remember him being a bit more careful than this... But, I guess age does tend to mellow out people... Hell, a younger Garp would have already started trying to kill me.'

Francisco sighed a bit as he started getting closer to his old friend.

Shiki was going to try and keep his distance, but he decided against it in the end.

'Francisco was always a good friend, I doubt his son would try to kill me... Though he sure is just as talented as his old man...'

"Quite sure my father's name wasn't that... Shiki, did you grow senile by chance?" Francisco said with a small frown on his face, as he noticed that Shiki's mannerisms were somewhat odd.

"Hmm!? Watch your mouth you brat! I'll have you know that I was quite good friends with your da- Wait, did you say that wasn't his name?"

Shiki went through a few emotions, from angry to melancholic to confused, all in the space of a few seconds.

This made the old sword master sweat a bit as he tried to remember if Shiki was really that light-headed in the past.

'No... I guess he was always somewhat fleeting in thought... We did use to joke around that it might be a side-effect of his devil fruit, that it also makes his brain float away at times...'

Francisco couldn't help but chuckle at that thought. As Shiki was becoming more and more confused.

"Shiki, though I feel sad that you failed to recognize me instantly, I can assure you that I am Francisco."

At that point, Shiki froze entirely, his mouth and hands trembled a bit as he tried to stroke his beard once more.

"... No, that's quite difficult to believe..."

"Is it though?

Kaido was able to recognize me just by my willpower, I'm sure you are also able to make that distinction.

Especially since you started thinking that I am my own son." Francisco couldn't help but laugh a bit at his old friend's disbelief.

"You really are... You look so young... What the fuck happened? Wait?! You already met with that little shit!?"

"Oh, it's a long story. Also, calm down. He used to be a nice kid!"

Francisco rolled his eyes a bit at his old friend, Shiki at that point also decided to touch some of the old sword master's clothes, helping him float in the air as they continued to speak.

"Nice kid my golden ass! He was always looking for fights and gunning for your position!" The Golden Lion scowled a bit as he remembered a few embarrassing moments from Kaido's youth.

"I guess he was always a tad ambitious... But to get to my position he would've still had to go through you and Whitebeard, which he wasn't quite capable of at the time."

"Well, he fucking tried! Remember his constant sparring requests? Also, it's because of his stupid bullshit that I wasn't there to help you at God Valley..."

As the conversation continued, Francsico managed to remember a few more details about the God Valley incident as well.

More specifically, about how Shiki was somewhat forced by Xebec to go out and look for some strange legendary 'devil fruits'.

Kaido was the one to fill Xebec's head with some bullshit about some 'God Fruits', saying he remembered reading something about them in a book.

Xebec, not having eaten a devil fruit at the time, was also interested in gaining more power. Hence him sending one of his most capable men away.

Sadly, by the time Shiki decided to give up on finding the fruits and check back in with the crew, God Valley had already vanished.

Having been somewhat deep in random research, he only floated towards the island, only to be unable to find anything whatsoever.

The Government had already ereased it. And Shiki was pissed, making it his mission to demolish the government.

Unlike his former captain, he really didn't care much about becoming the king of the world. He only wanted the current government to be brought down.

He later learned of the fate of the rest of his crewmembers. For a while, he wanted to hunt them down.

But Whitebeard managed to calm him down. The two of them remained in good terms despite Whitebeard's betrayal of the Rocks Pirates.

That was mainly because Shiki really couldn't care less about the Rocks Pirates. What he cared about was some of the people that he had met in there.

People that he knew he could work alongside with. That he thoguht he'd be able to achieve greatness with.

He had trusted in Xebec's vision, and wanted to see if the mad captain would be able to see it through.

Alas, his rotten character had caught up to him, something that Shiki had expected to happen at some point.

The only thing the golden lion really found distasteful was the fact that Whitebeard fought Francisco.

Which was why the interactions between the Golden Lion and the Strongest Man Alive were few and far between.

"Still, I'm quite sure that was unrelated... God Fruits did sound like an interesting concept though." Francisco said as he stroked his chin.

"Interesting? Maybe. Too bad they don't exist, old friend... I've tried looking for them, ever since then, I have not managed to find a crumb of information even close to related to them..."

"Hmm... I guess it was a fun idea at the time... Too bad it cost us so much. But don't blame yourself for that, with our Captain's temperament, something like that was simply bound to happen at some point."

Francisco's words seemed to make Shiki quite melancholic, but then again, their entire meeting was causing the exact same thing.

"We have a lot to talk about, old friend. We could catch up on your island, while we talk about the logistics of you almost ramming it into my base." Shiki smiled a bit as he started floating both him and Francisco towards Upper Yard.

"Not everyone has absolute control over flying islands..."

The old swords master simply smiled a bit, some sweat appearing on his brow as the two of them reached the shore.

Instantly, Shiki flew back up, as Garp's figure appeared on the shore as well, fist cocked back and striking what would've been Shiki's landing positon.

"Fucking cockroach!" Garp said as he looked up at Shiki, who seemed a bit confused.

"The marine hero? On a flying island with the former right hand of Rocks D. Xebec? What the hell is even happening anymore?"

Shiki words came out cleanly, his tone lacking any fear or trepidation.

He had faced Garp many times, and had fought battles with other legendary figures, including Gol D. Roger, who he had also wanted to become allies with.

Garp had been one of the people to capture him when he stormed Marineford after Roger's capture. But he had the help of quite a few others, including Sengoku.

Shiki wasn't afraid of facing Garp alone, that was for sure. He was not called the 'Golden Lion' for no reason. There was no assurance of who would win though.

"It's a long story pal..." Francsico said as also floated near Shiki. The Golden Lion had pulled him along when dodging Garp's fist.

"GARP! Stop this madness! Shiki is not your enemy right now." Francisco's voice seemed to only make Garp mad though.

"And who are you to vouch for him!? You're his old friend, right?! Both of you are pirates, who knows what you're cooking up!?" Garp was clearly not comfortable having yet another powerful pirate on the island.

"... To be fair, cooking up some cake does sound good right about now... Can't have a good reunion on an empty stomach..." Shiki said with a goofy smile on his face.

"Indeed. I wonder if Linlin still makes those amazing Soufflés of hers..." Francsico said with a smile of his own.

This only served to make Garp even more mad. The old man clenched his teeth as veins seemed to start appearing in his forehead and on his arms.

"Do you two think I am joking?" His tone made it clear that he was done with their games.

"... And what exactly would you plan to accomplish by doing this?" Francisco tapped Shiki on the shoulder and landed on the ground right in front of Garp, no fear was present in his features.

"Taking care of a presumed threat. I don't know your deal, but it seems you don't plan on dying anytime soon... People like you never go out easily."

"And what do you think you'd achieve by losing against us here?" Shiki said as he also landed nearby, looking at Garp with a raised eyebrow.

His sword legs sunk into the ground slightly, as he stood straight with his arms crossed, long golden hair floating in the wind.

"You aren't just outnumbered here Garp, Francisco being in his prime, by some miracle not yet explained, means that you are also outgunned." The Golden Lion continued speaking, as he shifted to holding both of his arms behind his back, like an old man would.

Garp could only clench his fists. He knew that his chances of winning weren't looking all that great in that situation.

Even aginst Francisco alone things were looking grim, add the Golden Lion to the mix, and he was likely to not even last a full 10 minutes...

"Fighting and losing isn't even the issue here." Francisco said as he shook his head.

"A fight between us will definitely cause a lot of collateral damage. You'll be actively harming the people you think you are trying to protect from us." The old sword master said with a scowl.

Garp froze when hearing that, admittedly, he was a bit on edge lately. Which had caused him to act a bit rashly.

'Shit... This is bad... Where's Sengoku when you need him? He always has plans for situations like this...'

By looking at Garp's reaction. Francisco realised that the confrontation was completely avoided. Shiki was also pleased to see that.

'He's just as good at pacifying others as he was in the past...'

The Golden Lion remembered how well Francisco was able to babysit the entire crew, which was filled with explosive personalities always itching to show what they were capable of.

'He really is the best right hand one can ask for... Maybe I can convince him to join me?'

"Still... I don't like you bringing in more and more of your pirate friends on this island. Keeping Kaido in chains is already enough."

"WAIT! Dragon Dung is imprisoned here?! That's amazing! Jihahahaha!" The Golden Lion burst out laughing when he heard that.

Francisco shut him up with a glare, before turning back to Garp.

"I understand your concerns, Garp. Don't think I can't see where you're coming from. But I assure you, I don't plan on doing anything shady.

For now, whatever greivances we have, I say we wait for Enel's arrival, he will help sort things out since he's the captain.

Besides, don't act lie Shiki's appearance wasn't a surprise even for me..."

'Captain!? Francisco sure brings a lot of surprises... I wonder who this Enel figure is... I might've been in isolation for too long...'

"Bah! He may be your captain, but I'm not part of his crew! Never agreed to join it!" Garp crossed his arms.

"Still... I guess he can help mediate things between us. I will be walking with the two of you from now on, to keep an eye on you."

"Whatever suits your fancy, Marine Hero." Shiki said as he looked a bit at the ground, then at his own Islands nearby.

"Say, I don't really want us drifting too far from this location, it's pretty well hidden. Clouds underneath us make things hard to notice for the people below.

Would you two give me permission to stop your islands from drifting?"

Garp and Francsico both looked at each other.

The island randomly drifting through the world was one of their biggest concerns. Althoguh Garp was a bit reluctant, they decided that it was a better idea to allow Shiki to help them.

'He would've controlled it if a fight broke out anyway...'

Shiki was an extremely annoying enemy to fight. Any island he was on became his territory, and being on the ground was just as difficult as fighting him in the air.

Garp also wasn't against the idea of not drifting randomly above the oceans.

Shiki simply tapped the ground with his palm, and the island instantly started shifting, rotating around the other islands at a slow pace as the Godlen Lion exerted his control over it.

And just like that, the Sky Islands settled, constantly orbiting around Shiki's base at a safe distance.

The three old men then got to chatting, well, two fo them anyway. Mostly just laughing at the memory of the antics they used to have back in the day.

Garp didn't engage much besides the occasional snort whenever Francsico tried to include him in the conversation.

In the morning of the next day, things continued as usual for the Sky People.

And in that same morning, Enel also started heading for Big Mom's castle.

'Might as well get this over with and try to learn more about myself... It's pretty clear that staying like this won't cut it.'

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Hope you liked the chapter, and again, sorry for the delays lately.

Bit of a change, lately I've only been writing longer chapters on Patreon, and I actually seem to like it a bit more, so you will likely see longer chapters, some even longer than this one.

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)