Chapter 30

The date and location for the meeting was included with the message Cipher Pol left behind. Three days later, I found myself on a tiny sandbar no bigger than a standard Marine warship. This was easy for me to compare the two, because a small flotilla of seven Marine vessels circled the sand bar. On the islet waiting for me was a white circular table, six lawn chairs, and one very casual Doflamingo. Leaning back in his chair, with one leg crossed over the other, Doflamingo sipped up an orange drink with a crazy straw.

"Ahh~ that hit the spot. Want some?" Smacking his lips in pleasure, Doflamingo held up his half finished glass towards me, and shook it left and right.

"What even is that, orange juice?" I took a seat next to Doflamingo, and ordered tea from a nearby Marine.

"Fuffu fuffu, it's so much more than juice, it's a smoothie. One glass sells for ten million beri. Of course, that's not the only expensive thing on the market right now." Grinning from ear to ear, Doflamingo slapped a wanted poster down on the table.

On it, was a picture of me, and a price of seven hundred fifty million. I quickly looked left and right, worried the Marine's would ambush me.

After a long sip, Doflamingo smiled at me again. "Relax. You're amongst friends here!"

"Your tea, Moria-sama."

"Although…" Doflamingo's cheerful persona died down as he leaned in close to me, as if he was about to share a secret, or conspiracy.

I leaned in close, taking a sip of my tea.

"You're awfully brave drinking scalding hot tea, you know that Moria-chan? You could at least look the server in the eyes and thank him for the drink." Leaning back in his chair, Doflamingo drained his smoothie, and tossed the glass into the sea.

I too leaned back in my chair. With an ugly look on my face, I drank another mouthful of tea to calm myself down. Doflamingo was the ultimate cock tease. Right when I thought I was going to get some useful information out of him, he goes and says something nonsensical. His act of littering was also an eye opener, on a planet of mostly water, where do people throw their trash? I never considered myself much of an environmentalist, but since I did plan on living for a long time here, maybe I should do something to curb rampant dumping.

"Wait a minute. Damn, this tea is really hot!" My mouth felt like it was on fire. No, not only my mouth, my whole body, from my largest artery, to my smallest vein was burning! I began to sweat like a pig, and I gripped my heart, which was beating a million times a second. I stood up in shock, only to knock the table over, and fall on my knees. Is this cardiac arrest, will Moria's obesity be the end of me?!

"Fuffu fuffu fuffu! You really are brave! I never expected you to drink more than half!" Doflamingo gripped his sides in laughter.

"What did you…the tea!" My eyes began to dilate, and the pain became near unbearable.

"Not anything I did, I tried to warn you, but you refused to listen. My hands are clean." He held his spotless hands out for all to inspect.

"Enough of this!" I absorbed a shadow, and felt my condition lessen.

"Ahh, that's better." I sighed in relief, only to have the poison surge again.

"!" I sat cross legged, and began to use observation haki on myself. I could now feel my body at a closer level than ever before. Every thirty seconds, I would absorb a shadow I kept in my pocket from the Impel Down prisoners, and then observed the changes. After getting a better hold on my body, and it's processes, I meditated and focused on my burgeoning armament haki.

"Hnn" With a grunt, I began to force the poison out of my pours. Black droplets soaked my clothes, and fell to the floor. Hisses rose up, killing the grass, and some of the flowers that had grown nearby.

With a final roar, I jettisoned a black stream from my mouth into the surrounding water. I pulled up one of the lawn chairs, and sat down with a meaty thump. The ordeal took around ten minutes, but I felt utterly spent. With my observation haki, I could tell a small strand of the poison was still in my body, weakening me, but there wasn't anything I could do at the moment to destroy it. Something I'll have Hogback take a look at.

"Huh, well what do you know. Good job on surviving the assassination attempt." Doflamingo gave me a thumbs up in support.

I sent him a glare in response, and absorbed another five shadows to recover my stamina. Currently, I had less than a hundred shadows on me that I could use. My fight with Kōshirō last week had me absorb more than three hundred. Those shadows were in a weakened state, and would still take some time to recover. Meanwhile, I could only carry so many shadows in my pockets. Not to mention, I needed to make new zombies to replace the ones I lost. I was really strapped for shadows, and useful corpses at the moment.

Releasing the shadows I had just absorbed, I stuffed the reduced things back into my pocket. Looking around, I spotted the Marine who served me the tea. I reached out my long arm, and held his entire body within my grasp.

"So you tried to kill me, huh?" The dazed Marine looked at me with a swirly look in the eye.

"Justice! You need to die, in the name of Justice!" The Marine fearlessly yelled at me, and struggled to draw his sword.

I applied some pressure, and heard bones cracking.

"Huh, ah? Where am I? Ah! Ah! Let me go! Help! Help!" As if awakening from a stupor, the Marine took one look at me, and tried to escape my grip.

"Begging won't work on me." With a dark look on my face, I prepared to squish the man, and toss him into the ocean. All of the sudden, I felt a large hand on my shoulder.

Hello, what's this? Popping out of me, a palm shaped bubble floated in midair. All the pain, anger, and poison had been pushed out of me. This was a level of relaxation I'd never felt in my life. Forget hot showers, sleeping in, a hot beverage on a cold day, or any kind of masseur!

"Wow, unreal. This is amazing! This is incredible! I feel great! I'm free! I'm alive! Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm awake, I'm wide awake!" I stood from my chair, and chanted towards the sky.

"You can put him down now Moria-san." A soft voice sounded out behind me.

Turning around, I caught sight of Bartholomew Kuma as he put his glove back on. I looked to the Marine in my hand, and had a moment of indecision. Kuma did just help me out…but I really wanted to kill this guy.

"I appreciate you helping me out Kuma, however. Why should I release him, he poisoned me!"

"Daddy." Kuma uttered one word, before taking a seat next to me.

"Excuse you?" I responded in shock. However, Kuma proceeded to ignore me, and began reading his bible.

With no answer forthcoming from him, I came to a decision.

"Eh, you don't make much sense Kuma, but I'll trade this one favor with you." I tossed the Marine to the side.

"It's the pain. He's no longer being controlled." Sitting on another chair, Mihawk swirled a glass of wine, and took a sip.

"Control?" I looked confusedly at the Marine. Something like Doflamingo's string string fruit? I gazed suspiciously in his direction.

Wait a tick. When did Mihawk have the time to sit down?

"Hmph. You could at least take a bath very now and then ingrate. And everyone knows about Wu Tang clans Daddy. The Okama's have placed a 500 million bounty on his head. I'm surprised you were targeted, you're not his type at all. Much to old, and fat." Boa Hancock made her way over, and sat at the chair furthest from me. She scrunched her nose in distaste at my appearance.

"Hey Hancock, are you familiar with the periodic table?" I turned towards her.

"The periodic what?"

"How about, the element of surprise?!" Up in the sky, Doppleman rested above Hancock. At that moment, I swapped out a large portion of my body, and wringed my clothes. As a result, a large portion of the black muck that had sweated out of my pours fell upon her. She was now entirely drenched.

"You. You. HOW DARE YOU!" Hancock gripped the table so hard, it looked like it would break.

"Careful now, she's a feisty one Moria-chan." Doflamingo had his hands in his pockets, observing it all with glee.

With a loud thump, sand was kicked up everywhere. Diverting my attention away from Hancock, a large figure made its way out of the dust.

"Typical pirate dogs. Turning on one another at the smallest slight. How I wish the government would end you all." Walking up to the table, the purple haired, black sunglasses wearing man took a heavy seat.

"Okay everyone, time to get out of the pool. It's senior citizens only time." Doflamingo smirked at the man.

"Bah! I may be up there in years boy, but I'm not senile. Care to test this old lion?" The gruff voiced man glared daggers at Doflamingo.

Both of their glasses sharpened in the sunlight. The purple haired man raised his right arm, a metallic claw opened and closed, prepared to crush. In response, Doflamingo held up his hand, I perceived more than a hundred tiny strings flailing, and trembling around his body.

At the same time, my attention was pushed back towards Hancock. Her killing intent was starting to leak out, and she grinded her teeth in anger. In response, I grinned, and wiped some of the grime off my chest.

Disembarking a Marine ship, Vice Admiral Tsuru, flanked by Vice Admirals Doberman, and Momonga arrived on the sand bar.

"Tch, while I'm here, the Whitebeard Pirates are regrouping. As happy as I'd be to let you idiots kill each other, we have a job to do. And I don't trust you all enough to complete this mission without oversight." Doberman crossed his arms, and scowled at us. He homed in on me, and wouldn't take his sight away.

"Ahem, thank you all for assembling. This time, we're here to take care of one of the recent Impel Down escapees. His name is Byrndii World. He has a mobile giant cannon island and is a grave threat to us all. With his devil fruit, he destroyed an entire kingdom with one blast. We're here to bring him to Justice." Momonga interrupted Doberman's tirade and got to the reason why we gathered.

"Welcome to the Shichibukai Zephyr." Tsuru focused on Z

She then turned to the rest of us. "And so many of you! You make an old women's heart aflutter." Her dry tone of voice was extra thick. When she surveyed us, she spent an additional few seconds observing Kuma.

Why would she? Oh. Oh! Yeah, why is Kuma here. Wasn't he supposed to have made a deal with the government? That he would guard the Straw Hats ship until one of them returned. Does this mean they're going to enter the Grand Line so soon?!

"Tsuru…call me Z. Those old fools told me I can finally kill that bastard if I took up this job." Z spat to the side in derision.

"The sooner we deploy, the faster we can put an end to this farce." Z crossed his arms, and turned his glare towards the Marines.

"No need to rush dear. Cipher Pol intercepted Byrndii's path. He'll be passing this sand bar very soon. You can finally get revenge for Elizabeth and Toki." Tsuru closed her eyes, and waited.

As if her words were some sort of prophecy, the moment her sentence ended, we all heard a whistle in the air. Kuma and I stood to meet the approaching threat. Heading right towards us was a cannon ball. If one measured it by size alone, the ball rivaled Earth's skyscrapers in height, and was unparallel in width. Strictly speaking, this was a weapon of epic proportions.

I was preparing to take action, when I saw the still sitting Doflamingo wave his head back from side to side in the negative. As a matter of fact, Mihawk, and Hancock had remained seated as well. The moment I turned back, I saw the blurry figure of Z hurdling towards the oncoming threat. Several haki empowered soru's made him move at a speed that could compete with the speed of my devil fruit! Seconds later, an explosion of monumental proportions shook the air. The shockwave created from Z's collision was enough to nearly capsize a Marine battleship. Several small tsunamis traveled out into the ocean.

Bouncing in midair, Z charged towards the enemy island turned ship. Suddenly, hundreds of cannonballs launched themselves towards us at incredible speed. I waved my hand, and dozens of shadowy crescents launched towards the cannonballs. Likewise, Doflamingo, and Mihawk swiped their hands once, sending criss cross strings and swords flying out. Kuma thrust his palm in the direction of the cannonballs, and a force reminiscent of Pein's shinrei tensei pushed the canonnballs back. Even Hancock launched a volley towards the cannonballs. Somehow, they turned to stone, and crumbled on their flight towards us.

I shockingly stole a peak of her out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't believe it. Yes, an inanimate object was susceptible to the charms of Boa Hancock! My shock aside, the casual combined attacks of five Shichibukai wasn't something to be underestimated. We decimated the attack headed our way, providing the perfect cover for Z to destroy the cannon.

"Open fire." Tsuru said quietly.

"Open fire!" Doberman was a second behind her.

"Vice Admiral! The Buggy Pirates have been spotted nearby, what should we do?!" A Marine saluted the trio.

"Ignore them, focus all firepower on World!" Tsuru commanded.

"Hai Vice Admiral!"

In response, the Marine battleships began firing nonstop on Byrndii World's ship. Explosions were constantly happening all over the place. A crowd of pirates was swimming out of the now exploding ship. At the sight, a smile graced my face.

"I'll take care of the grunts." Without waiting for any kind of response, I flew towards the swimming pirates. Last time I was fighting side by side the Shichibukai, most of the corpses were destroyed along with Marineford. This time, I can easily get a few dozen, maybe a hundred.

It would be a pain to transport this many guys back alive since I don't have a ship. Might as well collect their corpses. Flying above these men and women, I must appear to be a specter of death I mused. Small triangle shaped shadows, no bigger than a finger flew into the back of their skulls. Almost every single one was an instant kill. These guys were low level paradise mooks at best. It wouldn't surprise me if they had just entered paradise before getting shanghaied.

Every time I killed someone, I had Doppleman scoop them up, and then place them on a small platform of shadow I had conjured up.

Standing bored on top of my platform, I counted up the booty. "Five, twenty, fifty, two hundred. Not a bad haul!"

While I was counting up the corpses I had collected, explosions continued across the ship. "Sounds like a fierce battle, oh well, not my problem. This hazing experience for Z is alright in my book!" I clapped my hands in happiness. This was a great windfall after the losses against that samurai.

*whoosh*

"Dumbass, you think I didn't notice you! Counting up your dead nakama was all a bait!" A giant blue, haki encased fist, the size of a watermelon stuck out of my chest. My enemy had struck nothing but shadow. My observation haki told me of a presence in the water, furthermore, I felt the presence of a shadow nearby.

"It's a trap!" My opponent uttered in shock. He tried to remove his fist, but at the same time, two swords penetrated his back, holding him in place.

"Ki shi shi shi shi! You're going nowhere!" After I replaced my midsection, I had replaced my hands and arms with Doppleman's, thrusting the swords into the fishman's back.

I tried swapping my entire body with Doppleman, but felt a little resistance. Must be because of the haki empowered fist. I spent ten seconds condensing some of Doppleman's shadow, and finally switched places with him. At the same time, my opponent, who I could now identify as a large, sunglasses wearing fishman dropped into the water.

"Did I say you could go?" The moment he touched the water, a scoop made of shadow tossed him high, high into the sky.

The fishman balanced himself, and to my eye, turned invisible.

"Camouflage eh?" In response, I fired a stream of javelins into the sky. It only took a moment for me to find my target, my attack disrupted his technique. Visible now, he encased his fists in haki, and successfully punched his way downward.

"Heh, finally a normal person. This guy can't fly, or jump on air." I flew upwards towards the fishman. My swords at the ready. Shadow javelins, animals, and bullets flew towards him from all angles. A litany of cuts and lacerations saw him bleed copious amounts of purple blood. With a grim face, the fishman focused all of his haki, all of his strength into one fist, prepared to meet me with his all. Right when we were about to clash, I swapped with Doppleman who had been flying behind him.

With all of his strength concentrated in his fist, not to mention my quick speed, he had virtually no time to react.

I cleaved off his legs with one sword, and jabbed the other into the scapula of his left shoulder, completely paralyzing it. The now nearly lifeless fishman tumbled towards the ocean.

"Still alive!" Pulling him near me, I grinned in satisfaction. Taking a shadow from my pocket, I stuffed it into the fishman, stopping the bleeding. Forget two hundred corpses, a new minion capable of haki, that's what I'm talking about!

At the end of my fight, the explosions on the pirate ship had hit a crescendo. Z held Byrndii World up into the sky, and shouted something about atonement. Z then brought Byrndii's spine down onto his knee, and tossed him into the ocean.

At that, Z jumped forward, and landed on one of the Marine battleships, taking deep breaths from his inhaler. Huh, well I guess that settles that. Preparing to fly back to Thriller Bark, since I didn't want the Marine's to arrest my spoils of war, I was surprised when a shadow suddenly loomed over me.

Up in the sky, much higher than my altitude, more than a dozen islands floated up above.

The bloodied figure of Byrndii World gently floated upward towards the island.

"No. NO. ELIZABETH!" An enraged Z barreled up into the sky towards Byrndii.

*HOOONG*

Sparks flew, and Z was shoved down towards the ocean at mach speed.

"Jihahahahaha! Only Garp and Roger could challenge me! You are nothing before my eyes Zephyr! And you World, isn't this how I said it would end up? Come. Join your brothers. Eh, what's this? Captain Buggy, Roger's brat! You come aboard too!" The man with a pair of blades for legs, and a steering wheel lodged in his skull had everyone's attention after the brutal clash. He swooped down in a direction, and then rose back up with a pirate ship. Afterward, he turned toward the Marine flotilla.

"Listen up you World Government mongrels! My twenty year promise is almost up! The day of terror is almost upon you! For you face not just myself, but the elite of the elite! Byrndii World, the man who has the power to destroy the world. Sogeking, the ultimate warrior of the sea who single handedly destroyed Enies Lobby! Buggy the Clown, Red Hair's rival and former Roger crewmate. The former Shichibukai, and my fellow Impel Down escapee, Crocodile. Lastly, there's me, the Golden Lion Shiki. For twenty years I've toiled, soon, you will know suffering! All these men, each and every one of them is a King! We see how ineffective, how gutless the World Government is. The Kaizoku Sovereign Alliance will see this world burn! Jihahahahaha!" After his speech, Shiki retrieved Byrndii, and flew away.

AN: The world is starting to spice up. Will the Straw Hats be "useless" in the coming fight? How are the Beast, Blackbeard, Whitebeard, Red Haired and Big Mom Pirates going to respond? The Kaizoku Sovereign Alliance isn't the only faction that's throwing its hat into the ring, I have two, maybe three or four more factions that you won't expect (hopefully). It's only going to get spicier, more chaotic as time progresses.

I decided not to have Kuma go full brainwashed cyborg. I thought that was a terrible waste of his character.

The fishman captured is named Sebastian, feel free to google him if you're confused. Moria didn't know his name, he was just some big blue fishman guy to him.