Contemplation and Departure.

_________ POV Narration_________

Enel didn't leave to meet his so-called clown immediately. Buggy was also not the only person that the lightning emperor needed to visit.

As there was also Shanks and his crew, he needed to pick up Sengoku and bring him over to Bonney.

At first, Enel wanted to bring Bonney over to Sengoku and Shanks, but she was firmly against leaving the side of her nephew while he was in a coma.

Enel couldn't quite bring himself to drag her away either so he decided on just bringing Sengoku, and hopefully Shanks's crew, to the Sky Islands, they certainly had enough space...

Enel was still in no rush to leave, as he knew Sengoku was in good hands. He first finished off his training with Wyper and Francisco for the day.

The First Mate was by all means still well above Enel and Wyper put together when it came to haki, but it couldn't be helped.

The legendary pirate had a few decades of experience on them, and he was also extremely talented, so catching up to him was going to take a very long time.

Well, it was certainly bound to take longer for Enel than for Wyper, but that was just the way things went, unfortunately.

Talent was not something Enel could control, besides, he was already gifted enough in terms of Observation Haki.

Enel decided to take a scenic route back home, and he got to sit on a cloud and witness Garp drilling his recruits.

He also caught Bellamy and Bonney fighting both against each other and against Garp.

He was also pleased with their progress. Seeing Bonney back to training did make Enel a bit conflicted.

He wasn't about to ask her to come with him to Sengoku again. At that point, he knew it was a waste of time trying to make her leave the island.

But something else entirely was on his mind.

'Should I ask her to heal me as well?'

Bonney was now already part of his crew. She had absolutely no reason to refuse him. But he still hesitated out of principle.

There was another thought nagging him, scratching at the back of his mind.

'If she uses her abilities on me... Does that mean I'll return to how I was back then? Does her Devil Fruit also affect my soul?'

Enel really had no way of knowing for sure, as it had never been tested properly.

In the first place, Bonney's power was a confusing one, and it was extremely difficult to study its effects on the soul.

The only examples he had were Shiki and Francisco, and they were both turned younger. Francisco did assure him that everything would be fine, but he didn't really know for sure.

It did in fact not seem to affect haki from the examples that Enel had, but there were simply not enough examples for him to be sure.

In the end, the lightning emperor simply rubbed the bridge of his nose and decided to leave it be for now.

'Screw it. I don't need an arm anyway. Even without it, I'm stronger than ever. I'll be just fine for a few more weeks. I'll speak to her once I've also brought Sengoku to meet her.'

He continued floating away, this time he ran into another group of people fighting. Smiling, the emperor looked down at them all with glee.

Oven, Larthy and Robin were sparring. More specifically, Larthy and Robin were having a bit of a catfight/spar, and Oven was just making sure nothing got too out of hand.

It was rather strange for Enel to see Larthy fighting, he was much more used to her sitting on a chair and reading about moonrunes.

'I wonder who'll win...'

Robin herself was also a bookworm mostly, but she had already trained a few weeks with Enel, and he had seen her fight before.

The fight seemed to be pretty cut and dry. Larthy had a great advantage with her mastery of Armament Haki and Fishman Karate and Robin was only able to keep up thanks to her versatile use of her devil fruit powers and Rokushiki.

Enel landed right beside Oven, not surprising the Sweet Commander at all with his presence.

"Done training for the day?" Oven asked as he continued looking at the two women duking it out in the field, their attention too concentrated on one another to notice Enel's arrival.

"Yep, for the next week or so, I need to depart today..." Enel gave the Sweet Commander a grin as he spoke, before turning his head and also observing the fight.

Larthy seemed to be moving in a rather inflexible manner, somewhat hampered by the hands that seemed to constantly grow around her and grab at her legs and arms.

Robin was doing a really good job of controlling the battle despite her disadvantages, but she wasn't able to keep Larthy in place for long.

'This Head of the Research team... She sure is stronger than I thought... I guess you do need strength to be in any leading role in an organization that directly opposes the world government...'

Armament Haki really did provide Larthy with a rather unfair advantage. Enel and Oven both observed how the Head of the Research department simply tanked dozens of flying slashes sent by a few legs that sprouted out of the ground.

It was at that point that Enel also noticed that Robin was already getting winded.

'I guess using the Rokushiki on several limbs at the same time is a lot more draining... I might end up resuming my training with her.

Getting her to grow stronger might also help with Nika's awakening since Luffy isn't likely to get Law's help anymore...'

The Lightning Emperor simply rubbed his chin and nodded with a smile on his face.

"Something got you excited?" Oven decided to interrupt Enel's thoughts with a slight jab, his elbow hitting the emperor's ribs a few times.

Enel just yawned. "Don't know what you're talking about..."

"Oh, c'mon now... I saw you peeling your eyes at Robin. You ain't fooling me. It's perfectly reasonable for a man your age to already have kids, I bet you're just looking for someone to make them with!" The Sweet Commander looked at the emperor by his side with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"... I am in no way looking to have a kid in today's climate. Especially not with IM and the world government breathing on my neck." The Emperor shook his head, slapping the taller Sweet Commander with one of his earlobes.

The slap cracked the ground underneath Oven, who managed to protect himself with armament in time to not get slapped into the ground.

The Sweet Commander felt some annoyance rising up in his bloodstream when noticing what Enel had slapped him with, but he didn't get to comment before Enel continued speaking.

"Besides, there's barely enough time for me to relax lately, I can't really afford to get involved with someone at this stage..." The emperor's voice was rather quiet, only Oven who stood by his side managed to hear it.

"Heh... I didn't hear you denying the fact that you were staring at her either..." Oven's voice was even quieter than that of the Emperor when saying that phrase. To the point where Enel barely heard him.

The Emperor just rolled his eyes and ignored the Sweet Commander by his side.

Eventually, the spar ended in Larthy's favor, as she had finally managed to get close enough to knock Robin out.

"Pretty decent fight..." Oven said as he scratched the back of his head.

"... Decent by New world standards?" Enel raised an eyebrow and gave Oven a confused glare.

"Not really... But neither seems to have the role of main fighters in their respective crews..." Oven ended up just shrugging.

Both Larthy and Robin were certainly stronger than regular grunts in the New World, but any half-decent captain would likely be able to take them on.

"They don't, but they do need to be able to protect themselves at the very least. They still have time to grow thankfully." Enel smiled as he then proceeded to walk over to the two women.

Larthy was helping Robin up when Enel walked up to them.

Robin had only been knocked out for a few seconds, nothing major. Enel used to injure her more during training after all...

"Enel! Since when have you been there?" Larthy did seem to perk up when seeing him. She smiled a bit as she helped up Robin and patted the dust off of her ass.

"Good to see you here..." Robin also started speaking out, only giving Larthy a sideways glare.

"Hope I'm not intruding... The two of you seemed to be going at it, though it might be helpful to keep an eye on your surroundings in the future..." Enel simply waved his cane around in the air.

"Noted! But we aren't exactly in an 'unsafe' environment here." Larthy shrugged a bit. "There's also that big guy to protect us." She then pointed at Oven, who just waved at them from the distance, not bothering to get much closer.

"He seems a bit harder to approach though..." Larthy tapped her chin with her index finger as her blonde hair danced in the wind.

"Don't mind him, he's just shy around new people. He's quite nice once he opens up." Enel was quick to explain away the awkwardness.

Oven in the distance glared at him for saying he was shy but didn't do anything else.

It wasn't really about being shy with him, it was just that he didn't really know who to approach, as he was still very much an outsider to most of the people around him.

Enel was really the only one he considered a dear friend.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see..." Robin smiled a bit as she looked towards Oven, before turning her head back to Enel.

"Soo... What are you up to now? Want to read some books? Larthy found a few interesting ones regarding some lesser-known parts of history." Robin's smile became even wider as she spoke, quickly proposing to spend some time with Enel.

Larthy gave her a sly sideways glance.

'Heh? Weren't we supposed to train for a few more hours?'

At that point, she and the rest of the Revolutionaries had already learnt that Enel and Robin weren't husband and wife and that Enel wasn't a wife-beater.

So to Larthy, it was now more about a blossoming love story that she wanted to see unfold.

'Some romance and sweet moments while fundamentally destroying the world government and everything it stands for... So romantic!'

Robin's smile did feel a bit contagious even to the Lightning Emperor, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to leave that day if he did join the Straw Hat Archeologist in her studies.

"I'd really love to, but I'll have to decline for now. I'll be leaving the island soon..." Enel smiled a bit, rejecting her offer as nicely as he could.

But as soon as he spoke, he could basically feel the disappointment radiating off of her.

"... So soon? I guess you're busy since you're the leader and all that..." Her voice sounded a bit gloomier, but she still kept up her classy attitude. Still, Enel could see a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"I mean, I've been here for a few weeks already, it was really about time..." Enel's own smile became a bit strained when he felt her disappointment, and he could also see Larthy writhing at the side.

So he decided to at least give Robin some reassurance.

"Sorry for not spending more time with you. I'll be sure to rectify that when I return."

Robin immediately perked up when hearing that, all of her disappointment and sadness disappeared and a sly smile spread on her lips.

"Oh? I'll be looking forward to it then." She said as her eyes shined mischievously.

'Shit... This gal played me...' Enel scowled a bit internally.

Outwardly he only stared at Robin with narrowed eyes.

"I'll also resume training you, I want you to be strong enough when you leave off to rejoin the Strawhats. We won't have a safe word this time around."

Just as her mood had skyrocketed, Robin's spine shuddered a bit when hearing that last part.

A 'safe word' for training. It was a rather unusual concept, but Enel did eventually come up with it. As a way to cut Robin some slack momentarily during training.

Now that she seemed a bit stronger, Enel was ready to just abolish it entirely.

But not everyone had that bit of context.

Larthy's eyes immediately perked up. She ended up taking out a small notebook and writing a few things down while nodding her head and staring at the two of them.

Oven to the side just nodded with a proud smile on his face.

Enel simply ignored them both.

"Anyway. I'll be taking my leave. I'll return with Sengoku in two weeks, and maybe some other people depending on how things go." Enel immediately changed the subject.

"You're planning on recruiting even more people?" Larthy was a bit confused when hearing that. Their army was already really powerful.

They were likely able to take over the world through sheer force... Well, only if the world government didn't have so many annoying tricks up their sleeve.

"The Red-Haired Pirates... I'll see if I can also talk them into joining our alliance."

"I see... Well, they did help you and the marines once. Maybe they'll be willing to join us and face a common enemy." Robin nodded when hearing Enel's answer.

Having yet another Yonko crew join them was certainly a good thing. But it was only a matter of whether or not it would really happen.

"I don't know... Red Haired Shanks is rather well-known for just doing his own thing... But, as Robin said, he did help you once. So who knows?" Larthy knew a bit more about the emperors, so she was not as hopeful about Shanks joining, but she still trusted Enel's judgement.

In the end, Enel left the training grounds with a smile on his face, turning into a bolt of lightning and travelling through the clouds.

'Now then... I wonder who should I visit first?'

He smile a bit as the thought surfaced in his head. He found it rather amusing that he was debating on which of Gol D. Roger's deck boys to visit first.

In the end, he just smiled and turned into lightning once again, his figure vanishing and disappearing in a random direction.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Not much to say, have exam really early tomorrow, so gtg sleep now

Also, don't worry too much about the arm, it will get handled eventually, and it really doesn't nerf the main character much now, it's there for a reason still is all I'll say

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)