[153] What Is This Side-Quest?

Chapter 153: What Is This Side-Quest?

Author Note: Sadly we didn't meet the goal 🙏Hopefully today we will since today I didn't post ES. So if we're at 250 Stones by tomorrow, I'll post a chapter right away. If we're at 400 stones instead, I'll post two instead! VOTE!

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Queen Nefertari Titi sipped tea as she read the newspaper. A gentle, cool wind that was now native to Alabasta hit her face, her hair swaying in the process. However, despite the paradise-like atmosphere around her, the beauty of the royal balcony she sat on, and the smell of the most fragrant flowers that the world had to offer by her side, her frown didn't lessen a bit.

The newspaper has been extremely irritating these past few days. Three days ago, it was the bounty of her daughter and that… boy. That brat, stupid kid. As well as the very emotional Tsunade, who Titi was sure was pulled into this path by that boy too.

To be clear, she didn't hate him. Despite him having kidnapped Vivi, or in a better case scenario having falsely convinced her to leave with him, he wasn't treating Vivi any worse. From the news, Titi had gathered that her daughter was happy. 

In fact, Titi was a lot more understanding than her husband, King Cobra. As a woman of vision, Titi understood that her daughter was in the teenage rebellious age, and the overwhelming superhuman strength she had meant she must find the usual royal life boring. In her heart, Titi had always dreamt of adventure, so she was a little happy that her daughter was getting to live such an adventure even if she never managed to.

So, while Titi had cried a lot in the beginning, she didn't hate Hashirama. She knew that boy perhaps better than even Tsuande, she couldn't hate him just because he was a romantic little fool who dreamt of adventure.

The same went for King Cobra. He was rather joyous, in fact. "C'mon, Hashirama is with her, she'd be fine. Let her enjoy life, she can play Queen later." – this was what he had said in the beginning.

But now, things have gone out of hand a little.

|| Hashirama Senju || || 1,100,000,000 B ||

|| Tsunade Senju || || 1,500,000,000 B ||

|| Vivi Nefertari || || 300,000,000 B ||

The future Queen of Alabasta, the planned future King, and his sister too, were now big, wanted criminals. Her daughter had a bounty of 300 MILLION!

Although that was a piece of bad news for the princess of a country, as well as the mentioned country, Titi was unable to hold back a peal of laughter when she first read it. 

Three days ago, she giggled and kicked her feet like a little girl seeing her daughter make a name for herself! She would have been mad if Vivi was doing truly illegal stuff, but she had just saved a country from a corrupt warlord! Alabasta and Dressrosa were in quite a similar situation, so Queen Nefertari Titi was joyous seeing Vivi clear Dressrosa of its evil. She was proud.

Naturally, Alabasta had reached out to the government just a few days after Vivi left to never put on a [Dear or Alive] tag on her future bounties, and it was working. So Titi and Cobra didn't fear her daughter's death, and since she had Hashirama and even Tsunade by her side, she should be even safer.

All in all, nothing had happened that truly worried or irritated the two Royals.

Until today.

A piece of news was published. It's apparently an event from three days ago and was not supposed to be published, but Big News Morgan was as unpredictable as ever.

A group of knights riding flying pegasus, whom Titi recognized as the God's Knights from Mariejois, had flown to the Prodence Kingdom to hunt down the Senju Pirates. Not much detail was spared, but apparently, the entire crew was seen being consumed by a flash of light. It wasn't confirmed if that was them suffering from some kind of attack or a sign of escape.

"Dammit," Titi cursed, throwing the cup of tea to the floor where it shattered. 

She had never felt this frustrated since the day her country's face began to change. Were they being delusional for being happy that Vivi was a famous criminal now? In this world, Titi doubted the number of people that could match the Senju Pirate, with two of their members having bounty over a billion. But the number wasn't zero either.

But why did the God's Knights of all people have to go after them?!

Even if it were an Emperor of the Sea, Alabasta could have sent backup. Although there was nobody as strong as the strongest members of the Senju Pirates' Crew here in Alabasta, there were still decently strong individuals here now. But how could they go against the government just for their daughter?! Innocent people were living in this kingdom, Titi couldn't just discard their lives and send backup for the Senju Pirates.

Things were so bad that she didn't even know if her daughter was alive right now. How could she make sure that she wasn't worrying over nothing right now, that things hadn't gone beyond saving already?

Just when she was about to get up and grab a few more things to throw, because she could do only that now, throwing a tantrum like a child, the Dendenmushi on the table rang like a bell.

"Peroperoperopero…. Peroperoperopero…. Peroperoperopero…."

She stared at the snail, an urge telling her to throw it too, moreover since it was an unknown number, but she sighed and picked it up in the end. "Hello?"

["Hey Aunty, how're you?"]

"....."

Although it wasn't her daughter's voice, Titi hadn't felt such relief in her life. She sank into the chair with a deep sigh, before yelling at the cheerful brat.

* * *

The wind rippled on the sail, as the ship streaked across the blue sea. Sail of Ohara moved toward the direction of Sabaody Archipelago,

Seagulls creaked overhead, while Clone-rama Senju sat above the main mast of the ship, with a snail in his hand as he talked to the Queen of Alabasta.

["Are you certain you're not lying? I'll be really, really mad if you're lying to me the first thing even though you're calling me after so long."]

"I'll be damned if I lie to my dearest Queen," the Clone said, earning a grumble from the other side. "You know I wanted to call you the moment I heard you were crying, I felt bad, but then I felt scared you'd yell at me. My fragile heart couldn't have endured all that, that's why I am calling now."

["You have no idea how lucky you are that I am a queen and therefore shouldn't be cursing you right now, but- YOU SON OF A BITCH!"] her voice boomed from the other side of the snail as Hashirama winced back, clearing his ear while she began to really curse for the next five minutes.

And it was the second cursing session of this call.

After she was done, panting from the other side, she asked calmly, ["What you said about everyone being fine is true? Don't lie."]

Hashirama cleared his throat and said, "I am not sure. I'm sure I am alive, since as I told you I am a clone, and since I haven't dispersed yet it means that the original is also alive. But as you know I'm kind of unkillable, so who knows if the others are fine?"

["...Why are you telling me this? Couldn't you just have lied and told me everyone is fine? Stupid brainless idiot."]

"But you-"

["Shut up! If something happens to my daughter, you're dead. Unkillable? Immortal? I will fucking bury you and see how much of that is true, you motherless bastar-"]

'Geez, this woman is foul-mouthed for a Queen…' He found her kind of cute.

["Tell me, when can I expect to hear back from my daughter? No, where are you right now?"]

"I don't know for the first question, and for the second, why? I'm right about to reach Sabaody. Then I'll go to Fishman Island through which I'll enter the New World."

["Turn your sail around. Pick me up, I'm going with you. I wanna see my daughter with my own eyes."] she suddenly said.

"What?! Are you crazy?! Ain't no way I am going back the entire way to Alabasta!" Hashirama insisted, earning a growl from her side.

["You would do it or I won't give you my daughter's hand when the time comes."]

Hashirama scoffed, "Your cute little daughter already loves my dick, thank you very much."

["...."]

"I'm sorry." Hashirama realized the mistake and cleared his throat. "I'll be there in a bit. I'll leave my ship here first to get it coated in a bubble, it usually takes a few days, in that time I'll go back to Alabasta and pick you up. Deal?"

Truthfully, he didn't mind traveling with his girlfriend's mother. There was a certain charm to it. Plus, it's not a bad thing if Viti and Titi got to meet after so long, he owed them that for kidnapping Vivi out of the blue like this.

So, after dropping his ship to get it coated in a bubble, he did just that. He pulled out a pair of wings and streaked through the sky. Following an Eternal Log Pose pointing to Alabasta, he reached the kingdom, his home, in just a day.

In the meantime, on the other side of the world, the real Hashirama and his crew were about to enter the Emerald City.

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