Chapter 96

"So this is... sky." Dan spoke up in awe, as Prominence now floated above the solid mass of clouds.

At the highest point of the clouds, the tip of the Sprout was seen to be gaping open and expelling the water at a rapid pace.

"Wow." Carina remarked as her sight landed on the phenomenon of the water from the blue sea mixing with the water from the sky, "So much of water is infused into these clouds, and yet, not even a single drop of it leaking down to Spriggins."

Dan leaned onto the rail as he acutely observed the scenery, "The water brought all the way up from the deep part of the blue sea. Sea... seastone. Seastone is mainly constituted of pyrobloin, and from what I've studied, this molecule has an ability to form covalent bonds with countless number of water molecules in a semi-uniform fashion, establishing a structure whose physical property lies somewhere between solid and liquid. So this is how it lays out in real life."

Retracting his gaze, Dan began to write down his perspective in the notebook.

"...What?" Cavendish frowned in confusion and total obliviousness, "I don't get a single thing that you said. How are the seastones and clouds related?"

Ignoring Cavendish, Dan continued to mutter his judgement, "Additionally, these sea clouds are flowing in uni-direction. This is probably the reason why Spriggins doesn't experience as much rain as it should have; the clouds simply move out from this region before it has a chance to precipitate."

"We're landing." Rowan stated calmly as Prominence began to slowly descend onto the current of sea clouds.

*BOOM* With a final boom, Prominence landed onto the sea clouds, which surprisingly didn't splash due to their high density.

Immediately after, the rapid current began to carry Prominence at high speed.

*Swooosh* The velocity of Prominence has risen to an astounding level, to an extent where the sounds of wind gushing were heard from the surroundings, and the crew members, except for Rowan who stood firm on his spot, had to grab onto the rails to prevent themselves from getting ejected out of the ship.

"Hoorayyy!!!!!" Cavendish screamed at his lung vibrantly, unable to conceal his joy as the white and gleaming clouds surrounded the entire view of the crew.

"Carmen, the Flame Empress who reached heaven. I shall now be known as the 'Flame Goddess.'" Carmen muttered with an excited gleam.

"Carina," Rowan spoke up casually, earning Carina's attention, "how fast are we right now?"

Carina extended her free right arm and closed her eyes to concentrate. After few minutes, she retracted her arm back and opened her eyes, "The fastest we've ever been. As you can see, these sea clouds are flowing not only at a high speed, but also from a high to low altitude. Coupled with the gravity that pulls on these dense clouds, I estimate that if we were to travel at this speed from Daifuku to Alabasta, it would've taken us around two hours only instead of ten."

"And the direction?" Rowan asked as he indulged Carina's information.

"With the current time being 2:36pm, and the sun floating over there, we are roughly travelling in a south-east direction." Carina stated. "This means that we are rapidly moving away from the Reverse Mountain. Overall, this path is like a super shortcut across the Paradise."

Rowan nodded with his hand on his chin, "As expected of the Grand Line. Everything is so chaotic and jumbled up; I don't even know what to expect anymore."

Simultaneously, Rowan extended his other hand and grabbed onto a blurry projectile, that shot out of the rapid current, with an incredible reflex, since he was able to sense it through his Observation Haki.

"A fish?" Rowan tilted his head, as the thing in his hand was revealed to be a large and flat-shaped fish. His face slowly morphed into a smile, before he turned to Carmen, "Carmen, is this thing edible?"

Carmen grinned excitedly and received the fish from Rowan's hand, "Leave it to me, captain."

"Hmm, fishing in the sky..." Alfred stroked his mustache with a thoughtful look, before his eyes met Dan's knowing gleam.

The duo grinned excitedly as they rushed into the ship after Carmen, before bringing out four fishing rods and passing two of them to Rowan and Cavendish, who held onto the fishing rods giddily.

Carina and Robin watched the scene with a sweatdrop, while their hands firmly gripped the rail with their hairs wildly flying around.

"The fishing rod will break-" Robin pointed out the conventional norm, but had to freeze in the middle of her speech as the fishing rods on four men's hands turned black, indicating the use of Armament Haki.

Haki was something Robin came to learn recently, since most of her runaway life was spent in West Blue, and Crocodile never used any sort of Haki in front of her. When Rowan previously taught her the methodology that the crew used to awaken and train Haki, she knew that acquiring this power for herself will require a good amount of time.

However, the fact that all the others could use Haki still irked her, with Carmen's poor and minimal control being the only consolation.

"Haha," Carina lightly chuckled as she looked at Rowan, "I sometimes wonder if Rowan is human even. He has been consistently using Observation Haki every day, and we still don't see any sign of exhaustion from him."

"The only plausible explanation for his abnormal prowess of Observation Haki is his eyes." Robin said as she focused her eyes on Rowan's blindfold.

'Vasilia... I still have no idea what it's supposed to be. The Poneglyphs I've read up to now never mentioned such name.' Robin thought in a serious expression, 'But I can be certain of one thing: that he is opposed by the World Government just as much as me, if not more. With this notion, I can be assured that... him betraying me is unlikely to happen.'

Sensing Carina and Robin's gazes, Rowan turned his head and gave a light smile as he yawned in boredom. Within a bucket on his right, there already were many fish flapping in desperate struggles.

"Tch, how is that possible?!!" Cavendish complained as he glared at Rowan's bucket, "I only caught five so far!!"

"Five?!!" Dan's eyes widened, "S***, only two for me."

"It seems that monsieur Dan is quite lacking when it comes to the art of fishing." Alfred commented as he hooked onto another fish with ease.

Rowan grinned, "Today's dishwasher is Dan, huh."

With the joyful interactions of the Grimheart pirates, Prominence continued to sail through the white sea at a very rapid pace.

________________

[Mariejois]

In the middle of the holy land Mariejois, occupied by the World Nobles, also known as the Celestial Dragons, there lied a gigantic castle, Pangaea. Within Pangaea castle, a peculiar scene, where the top officials of the marines were conversing with the pirates, was displayed.

"I should at least greet you. Welcome..." Sengoku spoke impassively, "...Scum of the sea."

A tall man at a height of 305cm with sunglasses and a pink feather coat, Donquixote Doflamingo who is one of the renowned Seven Warlords with his frozen bounty amounting to 340 million Beli, turned his head and faced Sengoku with a sense of casualty.

"Heeheeheehee!" Doflamingo smirked, "Oh, that's not nice."

"However... he's right on target." Another one of the Seven Warlords, whose frozen bounty amounts to 296 million Beli, Bartholomew Kuma, said stoically as he held onto a thick book with the word 'Bible' written on top.

"Shall we begin? There is no use in waiting any longer, and I doubt anyone else will show up," Sengoku paused, momentarily as he took a seat for himself, "two out of six is more than I expected."

"Heeheehee, I gotta say, I am quite interested in the matter you've brought up this time." Doflamingo grinned as he leaned forward, "Tell me, it's about him, isn't it?!"

Kuma stood still without any response.

Sengoku's eyes sharpened as his hands, which were hidden under the table, clenched in anger.

*Tap* *Tap* Suddenly, the footsteps were heard from the room, signalling the entry of another individual.

"Interesting." The individual with a large cross-shaped sword on his back, Dracule Mihawk, said with a slight amusement in his voice as he approached the group. "The two great powers of the Seven Warlords of the sea and the Fleet Admiral of the marines, for them to willingly gather in one place..."

"Hawkeye! I didn't think you'd...!" Sengoku exclaimed his slight surprise while keeping his body posture retained.

"Well, well... this is a surprise." Doflamingo raised his eyebrow.

"Hmph. I'm just here as an interested bystander. I'm a little curious about the pirates you'll be discussing. That's all." Mihawk stated in a reserved tone as he narrowed his eyes, "If my speculation isn't wrong, the main topic of this meeting is... 'Grimheart' Rowan!"

Sengoku clicked his tongue in annoyance without refuting agaisnt Mihawk's claim.

"Indeed. With Grimheart's overbearing victory over Crocodile," Sengoku spoke up with a heavy dislike in his tone, "we've been considering to recruit him as one of the Seven Warlords."

Of course, Sengoku was never willing of this action, especially after the Grimheart pirates destroyed the whole Marine Base G-11 three years ago. After all, he raised Rowan and his crew's bounty to an incredible amount to attract many bounty hunters and other powerhouses.

However, the Five Elders of the Celestial Dragons, Gorosei, had different thoughts on this matter. They passed on a command to fill Crocodile's spot with Rowan himself, seeing that the recruitment of someone as potent as him will strengthen the balance of the three great powers.

"Hm, that's slightly discouraging." Someone casually spoke up from the side.

Sengoku's facial expression turned grim as he noticed an uninvited individual sitting by the large window, "Who the devil are you?! How did you get in here?!"

Said person jumped from the window and lightly landed on the floor.

"If all goes well, I hope..." The man spoke with a slight smile as he held onto his black hat and repeatedly tapped his feet, "...To participate as well."

From the right of Sengoku, a Vice Admiral who stayed silent during the conversation, Tsuru, opened her mouth, "You're Lafitte."

"You know my name. I'm honored." Lafitte said as he twirled the cane on his hand, "However, who I am is of no concern. Today, I'm here to recommend someone else, other than Grimheart, to be the new Warlord of the sea."

"Heeheeheehee!!" Doflamingo laughed in a twisted delight, "Oh how the turn tables!!"

"How did he bypass the security?" Another Vice Admiral, who was sitting next to Sengoku, muttered with suspicion.

"Are you saying that your candidate outperforms Grimheart Rowan?" Tsuru spoke up in Sengoku's stead.

Laffitte's smile widened as he lifted up his cane and opened his arms wide dramatically, "I introduce to you, the captain of the crew that I belong within, Marshall D. Teach!"

"Marshall D. Teach?" Tsuru said questioningly, "Unfortunately for you, I've never heard of him."

"Oh, do not worry about my captain's capability." Laffite replied casually, "As of the current moment, my captain managed to catch Mad Treasure of 85 million Beli, and Baten of 95 million Beli."

Sengoku's eyes widened upon receiving this piece of information, "...Baten?"

"However, such measly amounts aren't enough to compare to Grimheart, am I correct?" Lafitte continued, as he flipped his cane and lightly tapped his feet once more, "Therefore, we shall bring you... the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard pirates, Portagus D. Ace himself."

"Heeheeheehee, heehahahaha!!!" Doflamingo burst out a laughter uncontrollably.

"Portagus D. Ace the 'Iron Fist,' a man wanted with 550 million Beli." Mihawk stated with narrowed eyes, "Are you saying that the man you speak of, Marshall D. Teach, is capable of defeating such a foe?"

Laffite tilted his head slightly, "Why, of course. In fact,

they should have met by now."

_______________

[Mock Town, Jaya]

"Ace. Commander." Teach said as he grinned maliciously. None of his crew members were seen nearby, as they already retreated onto Mad Treasure's ship with two bounties they caught.

"Teach." Ace frowned as he was seen to be sitting amidst a large rock within the ruins, "You were waiting for my arrival? After months of running away?"

Teach replied casually, "A slight adjustment had to be made in my plan!"

Subsequently, the Conqueror's Haki blasted out of Ace and Teach. The whole scenery seemed to be dominated by their will, to an extent where Ace's surroundings turned green, while Teach's surroundings turned purple.

*BOOOOOOOOM* The whole air shook as two Conqueror's Haki of green and purple collided. It seemed as if the whole nature ceased to move—as if they were scared to be caught in the clash between two supreme kings.

Ace narrowed his eyes in surprise, for Teach never showcased his Conqueror's Haki back on Whitebeard's ship.

"Zehahahaha!!!" Teach laughed boisterously as the dark wisps began to emit out of his body. "Ace, you will have to become my stepping stone!!"