Monstrous Old Man

A couple of hours later Ori and the others docked their ship at the Cantera Islands port. After docking, they waited for a further 10 minutes on the ship, when a blonde haired dot could be seen moving through the water towards them in the distance. It took another 5 minutes before that blonde haired dot reached the ship.

That blonde haired dot was the young Sabo. When he finally reached the port, it took everything he had to pull him self out of the sea and on to solid floor. As soon as he got out of the sea, the world around him went dark as he lost consciousness.

Seeing him lying unconscious, Ori let out an appreciative smile before appearing beside him and lifting him onto his back.

[Even though you didn't manage to stay with the ship the whole way, you did far better than I thought!]

After lifting Sabo on his back he turned to Shaya and asked.

"Where's your father's friend?"

Shaya pointed towards the middle of the Island as she replied.

"He owns a small shop in the centre of the island and lives above. If he's still here, he should be there."

Ori nodded and followed behind as Shaya led them on their way.

In the centre of the town in an empty antique shop an elegant old man with head full of white hair, was sat lazily with his feet up behind the till. When Ori and the others docked their ships he opened his eyes and glanced in their direction as he let out a little smile.

"Now this is a pleasant surprise!"

As Shaya was leading the group through town, she was looking at the townsfolk with an odd expression. Ori saw her face and asked.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head as she replied.

"I'm not sure exactly… It's the town's folk… They seem a little weird."

"Weird how?"

As he asked that he spread his observation haki analysing the islanders, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't feel anything suspicious.

Shaya didn't reply, she started operating her hawk eye technique to take a closer look at the townsfolk. When she did her mouth dropped in shock!

"This… How is this…"

When Ori and the others noticed her strange reaction they all stopped and looked to her for an explanation.

"What is it, what did you find?!"

Shaya who was still staring at the townsfolk didn't even turn to Ori and the others as she answered.

"None of them… Are real!"

Ori and Roman who could use observation haki freely took a closer look at the townsfolk. Even Silk who had only reached the elementary stage of observation haki tried his best to find a fault with the civilians, but no matter how hard he focused they all seemed like regular humans. It was no different for Ori and Roman, it was only Shaya who could see the difference with the aid of her hawk eyes.

When she used her hawk eyes she could see the aura of everything around her from plants to humans to rocks, including the animated corpses used by Beliard. A lifeform born of nature had a green aura, a normal living creature (i.e. a human or animal) had a blue aura, inorganic objects such as rocks had a grey aura and, dead lifeforms had black auras and Beliard's animated corpses had a dark silver aura.

When she used her hawk eyes to look at the civilians in town their aura's were grey. She walked over to one of the civilians cautiously and lifted her hand to touch them. Suddenly she jumped back distancing herself from the man she was just about to touch. She looked at the man with a face full of disbelief.

"This is impossible!"

Their aura had suddenly turned from grey to blue.

"Nothing's impossible little Shaya."

Suddenly all 4 conscious members of the Heavenly Demon's turned around and saw a handsome older man with a head full of white hair and sparkling blue eyes stood on the roof of a building behind them. He was dressed in a simple but elegant black suit looking down at the group with a gentle smile.

"Shaya, it's been a while!"

"Uncle Fabian."

Ori was shocked by the old man's sudden appearance.

[Although my observation haki isn't as strong as Shaya's I'm still confident in my sensory abilities. For him to appear behind us without either Shaya or I noticing is no small feat.]

Thankfully he wasn't an enemy. Ori and the others immediately understood that this must be the man Shaya had brought them here to meet. Fabian looked at Ori and the other before looking back at Shaya.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Ooh sorry, uncle these two are my brothers Orion and Roman, on Orion's back is our youngest crew mate Sabo and at the back is our newest member Silk. Everyone this is my uncle Fabian, he was a close and personal friend of my father."

Fabian looked at Shaya in surprise then at Ori and Roman.

"Brothers?"

Shaya turned around and looked at Fabian with a smile as she replied.

"Yeah, my sworn brothers!"

Fabian looked at Shaya's smile and felt genuinely happy for her.

[Kernel I hope you can see your daughter now, despite everything that's happened she's still found herself a family!]

Seeing how happy Shaya was to see him, Ori and Roman could tell Fabian was someone Shaya held dear. Both boys stepped forward and greeted him respectfully.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Fabian."

"Haha no need to stand on ceremony around me, you can call me old man Fabian when you feel comfortable enough around me you can call me the same as Shaya, Uncle Fabian."

Both boys smiled and spoke in unison.

"Uncle Fabian!"

"Hahaha good. So what brings the world shaking Heavenly Demon Pirates to my little island?!"

Shaya was the one to reply as she said.

"We need your help disguising ourselves, so we can go to Enies Lobby without being recognised!"

Fabian was stunned momentarily as he looked at her waiting for her to say she was kidding. When he realised she was serious he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha worthily the fearless Heavenly Demon Pirates. Still only rookies and already wanting to break into Enies Lobby. Follow me back to my humble abode and you can tell me what you intend on doing in Enies Lobby."

Just as he was about to lead them away the sound of Shaya's voice stopped him.

"Uncle Fabian, what's with the people here on the island? Why did their aura transform from that of an inorganic object to a living creature?"

Fabian looked at her eyes with a smile as he said.

"Those eyes are truly worthy of being called the most powerful eyes on the planet.

As for the people on the island. They're all created by me using my devil fruit!"

As he said that the islanders suddenly vanished turning the town into a ghost town.

Everyone was in shock by the scene bar Sabo who was still unconscious. Shaya looked at Fabian gobsmacked.

Orion was the first to realise the truth.

"The awakened Illusory fruit!"

Fabian was a little surprised how quickly he was able to figure out the truth. He looked at the infamous Captain with appreciation as he nodded.

"Right! With my Illusory fruit awakened I can turn Illusions into reality. That even includes giving them aura making it almost impossible to see the truth!"

Ori looked at the man in front of him as he said to himself.

"What a monster!"

Fabian turned back to Orion and said with a smile.

"A 14 year old who was able to go toe to toe with an admiral… I wonder which one of us is the real monster here!"

Ori couldn't help but look at Fabian in shock. Although it wasn't intended to be a secret, the only people who knew the truth about his age were his family, his crew, Mihawk and the members of the Roger Pirates who visited his family island. For Fabian to know his age was unbelievably shocking not only for him but for the others too.

Silk on the other hand was shocked for a completely different reason. He was the only member of the crew who didn't know Ori's real age. It wasn't that they didn't trust him, it was merely that it never came up.

[14?! Orion's only 14?! How is it possible to be so strong at such a young age?!]

The others completely forgot that Silk didn't know Orion's age prior to this, they were too caught up in the realisation that Fabian knew their ages despite only meeting them for the first time today.

Understanding what was going through their minds Fabian smiled as he explained.

"When you train your observation Haki to a high enough level you can do far more than just feel someone's presence and figure out the path of their movement. Be it being able to glimpse slightly into the future or telling the age of someone by nothing but their aura, there are a myriad of uses for observation haki!"

After saying that he turned around and walked off.

"Are you coming, or do you intend on heading to Enies Lobby as you are now without any form of disguise?"