Chapter 58- Reactions and a surprise
The next day, the world shook. The Straw Hats have returned. The news came out of nowhere, people just got their daily newspaper, and now they had to deal with this bombshell?! Everyone knew that with the return of the Straw Hats, things were about to get messy.
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On a small tropic island, a couple of dozen men lied down on the ground with terrible expressions. Some had their backs to a tree for balance, and some lied down on others for a pillow. "Captain!" A yell from a man running towards them woke the pirates up. The runner froze as he got death glares from all the now mad pirates. "What?" The captain spoke up, looking intimidating as he tried to recuperate from his hangover. "I-it's the S-Straw Hats, t-they returned." The man barely managed to say before handing the newspaper he was holding to his captain.
"Hahaha! He's finally back, I wonder what took him so long." Shanks smiled. "Gather around, boys, this news calls for a feast!" Shanks announced. "YEAH!" The crew cheered.
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"Pops! I've got something you'd like you to see!" Marco called as he walked over to Whitebeard with a newspaper in his hands. "Gurarara! The kid is back, took him long enough." Whitebeard laughed. "Bring me the Sake! We'll have a banquet!" Whitebeard announced much to the delight of his crew. "Hey, Ace, why do you think Luffy did while missing?" Marco approached Ace with a glass full of beer. "I don't know, but whatever he did, I bet we'll hear about it very soon." Ace said with a smirk.
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"Mama! The Straw Hats are back!" Cracker ran into Big Mom's room and reported the news. "Mamama! So he's finally back. Get everything ready, I want to set out and kill him." Big Mom crackled as she got excited over the thought of killing Luffy."
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"Fleet Admiral!" A vice-admiral stormed into Sengoku's office, holding on to a newspaper tightly. "No need, I already read the newspaper. I need you to find out what Straw Hat did in those two years. There's no way he just sat still." Sengoku immediately gave out a command, as he had a very bad feeling.
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"Dragon! Did you hear the news?" Sabo asked with a smiling face. How could he remain calm? his brother had been missing for two years, and now he was finally back! "We have one of the best information networks in the world, how could I not know?" Dragon asked with a smirk. "I was just about to call him, how dare he not tell his own father when he plans to disappear for two years." Dragon said jokingly, or at least that was what Sabo thought. {Honestly, I started to write why I made Dragon a caring Dad, and a little bit of a tsundere, but I think he's actually very caring in the original that it's even a little creepy. I mean he stalked Luffy in log town and spent his free time looking at Weast Blue like some sort of seagull. Plus he denies it all, so yeah, he's a bit of a tsundere in my books.}
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"What's wrong, Luffy?" Nami asked as she saw Luffy walk out of his room with dead eyes. "I just had a talk with my dad. Apparently, he didn't really like the fact that I went missing for two years without notifying him." "Really? Dragon?" Law asked. "Yeah, honestly, he's an overprotective Dad. You should see how much he uses his information network to make sure I'm doing fine. The last time I was there, I snuck into his office and found a lot of reports about my situation. He seems to tell them it's for information gathering about one of the Yonko. Actually, I really want to see how much he looked for me during those two years." Luffy said.
"That was unexpected. I guess he's really the opposite of your grandfather." Robin said. "Tell me about it. I bet Grandpa didn't even care I was gone." Luffy said in a depressed tone. "Not really, he probably missed the entertainment of finding out what crazy shit you did in the newspaper" Sanji laughed.
"Please, you have to right to talk, Sanji. With your Father, my Grandpa seems like an angel." Luffy rebutted. "...yeah, that's fair." Sanji sighed in defeat. "Anyway, what's our first target?" Sanji changed the subject with a more serious tone. "Definitely Water-7. Merry needs some desperate upgrades. Plus, if we control Water-7, we gain a huge advantage as we can basically control who is allowed to get a quality ship. There will be a huge fight, no doubt, but the reward is worth it." Luffy explained. "Alright, I'll plan our route," Nami said as she pulled out a map.
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As the Straw Hat pirates arrived in Water-7, the city was in turmoil. Yonko never exited their own territory, much less exit the New World, since they didn't want pests or other Yonko moving in on their land. Luffy, however, had no territories as far as the public knew, so he was the exception. And precisely because of that, the city was in mayhem. The Marine presence on the island was scared out of its mind and desperately called for reinforcements while attempting to lay low, which was very ironic in the eyes of basically anyone.
"Hello, Straw Hats, what can we do for you today?" Paulie, the vice president of the famous Galley-La Company, welcomed the Straw Hats at the entrance to their building. Although he was sweating bullets, he kept an outer friendly appearance as he knew why Luffy came here with one look at his ship. It wasn't in a bad condition, but not great either, not to mention its tiny size and harmless appearance, it was not fit for a Yonko. If they came for business, he needed to look the part.
"Hey, how are you doing? Though I expected Iceburg to welcome us instead of the vice president" Luffy greeted back but then he notices Iceburg was missing. He didn't mind, he couldn't care for his status, but he had fond memories of the man and wanted to see him again.
"Oh, you don't know," Paulie said with a sad tone of voice. "...What happened?" Luffy had a bad feeling. "Iceburg was murdered two years ago by unknown assassins," Paulie reported to the shocked Luffy.
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How do you like that twist? It's time for Luffy to get a reality check. The pacing will be faster for the next chapters, though I don't know how fast since I have an overall idea of the story but I'm also kind of winging it.