3 Flames Pt. 3

"But you do have a plan, we're not just gonna rush in and help them without thinking it through like usual kid?" I say as I decide to say something to cool his head.

"Well… I Uhh…." He stutters for I bit as he scratches his chin, before looking at his wrist as if he was looking at a watch.

"Oh would you look at the time! It's time for my after noon na-" but I grab him by the shoulder before he can try to get away from us.

"Yer not setting a proper example there kiddo, you got to lead them like the Captain you are." I say before I stand next to him while keeping him in place, "So do you have a plan? Or do you need a second opinion?"

"Well… I think it's a good idea to find out the situation here in Wano, and when we have enough info we can figure out a way to help them get to Kibi, and after that will make Kaido pay for what he has done!" He says as he gets more and more confident with his plan before shouting what they will do to Kaido in the end, causing the rest of the crew to cheer.

I just smile before I pat him on the shoulder, "It's a good start kid, but will have to plan more before we decide to pay the Beast a visit." I say before looking to the crew, "You heard him! Let's get off this boat and figure out what the hell is going on around here, but you guys stay here and work on patching up the ship." I say as I point to some of the crew to help look into repairs while we figure things out.

They just nod and start going around to gather materials to repair the ship, while there doing that we all depart our ship before heading into the bamboo forest nearby.

"Huh…. I guess not all of Wano is a wasteland after all… though I know for a fact that most of it is…." I say as I'm surprised there's actually more vegetation the further away from the shore we go, I just assumed that it was some vegetation that survived due to being near the sea.

"Fisher, you say wasteland, how bad are we talking here?" Deuce says as he has a bit of a hard time believing it's as bad as I had described.

"Bad enough that the Monster had to step in to turn an entire region of Wano from a Wasteland into verdant green fields, but because of that everyone outside of the Capital wanted to move to live there, but seeing as they would be losing more of there labor to him, they had to block off all paths going into Kibi unless it's something officially from either Kaido or Orochi and only letting things be exported to the capital and what little left over for the rest of Wano to be exported to them to eat, but as you can see it's not enough for the people out here." I say explaining the overall situation before getting to a clearing that seems to be a plateau showing us the rest of where we are.

The sight of a complete and under devastation of the land turning it into a wasteland while several huge factories off in the distances are smelting metals, polluting the air in the process that there's a smog that covers the sky.

Isuka falls onto her knees at the sight, "This is terrible… those poor people." She says basically everyone's thoughts about the situation in front of us.

"We have to-" but I stop Ace from saying or doing something stupid.

"No, if we go out there and destroy those factories they will increase the defenses around the boarders, making it nigh impossible for us to get anyone from here to Kibi, first thing we need to do is figure what section of Wano we landed in, and judging by that large Torii Gate, that is an iconic symbol for this region, so we must be in Kuri which will make things easy as it's right next to Kibi."

But then I look down and see that the foot prints we were following don't go down to that town, but even further into the Bamboo forest, "Looks like the town down there isn't the people who took our food, let's keep looking into the forest." I say pointing in the direction the foot prints led them off deeper into the bamboo forest.

So we began to follow the trail once again, and after a bit of travel we came upon a village made of what looks like strawhat shaped houses.

We even people happily enjoying our food like it was a great delicacy, but when they noticed us they became scared, terrified even, as they all ran and hid in there houses in fear, though the only exception was one cute little girl who was happily eating her food and not paying attention to her surroundings at all.

Though Ace just grinned at that before he came to sit next to the little girl, "You like the food little girl?" He asks her, but she has her eyes closed with a big smile on her face, "It's so good! I haven't had this good of food in a long time!" She says happily to Ace.

But then she realizes that the person who just asked that doesn't sound familiar to her, so she opens her eyes and notices that she's surrounded by a bunch of unfamiliar people which scares her a bit, but before she freaks out I just come up behind her and kneel to rub her head.

"Then if you and everyone else in this village liked our food so much, how about we get you guys some dessert?" I say before I lift her up and let her sit on my shoulder.

"DESSERT!!!" Not just the little girl but the rest of the people in hiding all come out at hearing that and shout in surprise.

Ace just grins before looking at the rest of the crew that came with, "You heard the old man, we should go get these people some more food right fellas?"

"You got it Captain!" Some of the crew shout out before they start heading back to there ship to give some of the people here some more food.

This makes everyone in this small village very happy, even the girl, but off in the distance a very strange looking man could be seen and my easiest way to describe him is that he's a Tengu, or at least looks like one, but when he notices that the girl that he has taken care of all his life was surrounded and being hold by strangers this made him scream, "TAMA!!! LET HER GO!!!" He said before running at us, somehow as he's running on these stilt like sandals and goes in for the attack after reaching us at break neck speeds.

But I easily see this coming as I cover my one free arm in Haki and block his incoming attacks, "Oh, is this girl your daughter Tengu?" I ask the red faced, long nosed man.

"Master! Don't hurt them! There the people we well… stole food from… but there nice enough not to be mad at us, but are willing to give the rest of the village food as well!" The little girl, Tama, says to the old man that she calls her master.

Hearing this he looks at us, and then back at Tama who just nods in confirmation, realizing he jumped to conclusions he pulls back before sheathing his katanas before bowing his head towards me, "I'm sorry for what I did, Tama is all I have as she is both my student and family to me, so please understand."

I just shake my head before I put Tama down, "It's fine, she like a daughter to you, I know how it feels to be over protective of your kids." I say before I move little Tama along so she can go play with Ace, who was getting help from some of the villagers on how to make strawhats along with the rest of the crew.

But then the old man turns to look at me, and deep in his eyes I see both suspicion and caution while looking at me, "Us old fellows should leave them to there fun, care to come to my place for a 'friendly' chat?"

I get the feeling this old fellow might be able to see through my disguise, so I think it's a good idea me and him have a chat, "Of course, let's have a nice chat, please lead the way."

So I begin to follow him to his and Tama's home, though I will be honest I'm a bit surprised that he can see through my disguise, if he has that is, though he could just be suspicious of all of us in general so I'm not quite sure until he says otherwise.

Though when we reach his home and go inside and as soon as he closes the door he turns to look at me, "Your not who your trying to portray yourself as, are you?"

I shrug before I go and take a look around his house seeing the various swords strewn about the place, "Maybe I am who you see before you, and maybe I'm not, real question is what you see in front of you that's setting off alarm bells in your head." I say before I take a seat at a short table and motion him to sit with me.

He looks at me for a minute before he removes his sandals and taking his seat in front of me, "I don't see an old veteran that has seen many things across the world, but a man who is disguising himself and lurking around in the shadows, hiding who he really is from the people who seem to have come to trust him, so I'll ask again, who are you?"

We just look at each other for a while, the tension was palpable, well for him that is because he might be in danger if I feel like he needs to be dealt with, but lucky for him I'm not that kind of person, so I just grin before my body morphs and changes before returning to my 10ft tall Eagle form.

"Well you got me old man, this is what I really look like, does this face look familiar to you, or should I tell you who I am?" I say with a grin as I lean on his table with my palm holding up my head.

Me morphing back into my normal looks at first shocks him, but then seeing how I really look only sends more questions into his head, "Unfortunately you are still unfamiliar to me."

"Then does the name, Blood Eagle, ring any bells?" As I say this the look on his face might I say was priceless as he was shocked I would say that's who I am, but before he could question it more I specifically release my conquers haki straight on him, but I adjusted the strength so it wouldn't knock him out cold, but it was enough to scare him by the time I pulled back.

After he was given time to catch his breath he then looked at me again, "Then why may I ask, are you with them?"

I just shrug, "More because I just feel like it, another is because the Captain, Ace, is Rogers only son." But hearing this makes the old man stand up in shock.

"He's Rogers son?!" He says before he goes over and opens up a window where he sees off in the distance Tama playing around with Ace and his crew as she teaches Ace about how to make strawhats.

After looking at Ace for awhile, the old man could definitely see the resemblance between Ace and Roger, before he turns back to look at me, "Then what do you guys plan on doing exactly?"

"Well before I answer that, you seem to be more surprised and less disgusted by the thought that Roger had a son, so who was Roger to you old man?"

We look at each other for awhile before he turns to look at 3 specific blades that are up on the wall that the old man especially takes care of most of all, he then goes over to them and lightly touches them, "…. I was one of the many loyal retainers of the Kouzuki family when they still ruled over Wano, these 2 blades specifically were the swords that Kouzuki Oden wielded personally, before his death he handed them off to me for safe keeping to give to his children whenever they return…." He says rather sadly as he thinks back to that day well over 16 years ago where everything fell apart.

I was slightly surprised, but then again this is a hidden village deep within a bamboo forest so it's not a terrible hiding place for one of Odens many retainers to hide at.

"Then what we're gonna do will make you want to hop on board with our plan even more then." I say as I look the old man straight in the eyes.

"Kouzuki Toki is alive."

He's absolutely stunned silent before he goes to clean out his ears, "I'm sorry I must have heard wrong it's almost as if you said Kouzuki Toki is alive."

"I did say that." And after confirming it a second time he grips my collar.

"She's alive! Where! Where is Madam Toki!" He says in a rather demanding tone.

I then forcibly remove his hands from my collar before parting myself down, "She's in Greenfield, the town of Kibi that I rule over after I turned that wasteland into verdant plains of green, she got there almost a year ago, and luckily she was being watched over by the Great Tree Alenu as it kept her from succumbing to her injuries before my doctors could look after her and bring her back to full health, and that's where we plan to bring everyone we can to as well since that's an area that is under my control with only me needing to give out my food in return, so I think it's within your best interests if you guys don't want to be in a situation where your constantly hungry due to a lack of food." I say as I explain both Toki's and Kibi's situation.

He then goes back to looking at Odens old weapons for a while before he grabs them both off the wall before turning around to face me and hands them over to me, "Until we reach Kibi, I think these swords are best to be protected by you until we arrive there then both Enma and Ame no Habakiri." He says as he hands me both swords which I sheath to my left side.

"And that sword over there radiating death?" I say pointing at the blackish purple sheathed sword that was above both of the swords he handed off to me.

"That? Usually I would say that would be a terrible idea to hand that cursed sword off to anyone, but with who you are? I think you can handle it, and should we get to Kibi alive you can keep it, think of it as a thank you for what you have done for us." He says as he takes it off the wall and hands it off to me.

As soon as I grab it I get a notification from the system.

System- Cursed object detected, cursed object is trying to bind with hosts soul, system has blocked this connection, system can change this parasitic curse into a symbiotic one, if host accepts this blade it will grow to match hosts strength and just like Dandelga be one that currently is in equal standing with the Supreme Meito's, does host wish to proceed?

During the course of the system's explanation in both of our eyes a purplish mist tried to enter my body but was stopped and forced back into the blade, but soon after the blade began to shake as though it was excited for me to wield it.

"Odd… it's acting like it has found its perfect partner, maybe it would be best if you did keep Nidai Kitetsu after all." He says after seeing the blades reaction first hand.

"Maybe I will just do that." I say as I strap it on my right side by itself as it keeps humming in excitement for being together with its new owner.

"Well we should go and get everyone ready, it seems the meal is over with for the rest of the town." I say returning to my Fisher appearance before exiting the house alongside Hitetsu.

By the time we reach the rest of the crew we over hear a conversation between Ace and Tama, "When I'm older, can I join your pirate crew Ace?"

"Heh, sure you can kid, but at least wait until your 10 and I'll take you on as a pirate apprentice." Ace says with a smile.

Though hearing that Hitetsu wanted to intervene but I decided to stop him and shake my head no before going to the everyone else.

"I think it's best we test tonight, and tomorrow we set out with our plan to get these people into Kibi proper all right?"

"That sounds like a plan I can get behind, Tomorrow we set out to help these villagers into Kibi, and after we fix our ship will head out and deal with Kaido for everything he has done!" With that declaration the crowd cheers, tomorrow will be a new day where we save the people here, take down Kaido, I hope he's not around or else everyone is gonna die, and then set sail to new waters off onto new adventures.