Home Sweet Home

After leaving a cordial and normal message for Bege, Fred and Perona went to eat their ice cream and in the way they… inverted… part of the money earned on new clothes for Perona...something that drained years of life from the poor Fred...

However, after recovering physically and mentally Fred reduced the equipment to chihuahua teeth's and created and create a flying living vehicle with his Life Life No Mi power. A vehicle with which they now sailed the skies towards their new destination

"WOOUUU!!!

FASTER! FASTER DUCKY!" Perona screamed with excitement, as if she were a fearless child riding a roller coaster for the first time. "Wait… no so fast…"

"You've been like this for over an hour..." Fred said, emotionally exhausted like a father after a long day of work, shopping and family trips "Will you never get tired?"

"NO!" Perona exclaimed energetically "I had dreamed of flying all my life! Let me enjoy the moment!

BAAAAAKA!!!!"

Even Po the panda, who had been hugging Perona all this time without looking down for fear of heights, seconded the motion.

"Meee!!! Meee!!!"

A childish attitude that practically touched the false adolescent with real age to be a father "Children...

When you begin to develop the powers of your Akuma No Mi and learn to fly by yourself as one of your hollows, this will be nothing to you…"

"OH YEAH! I REMEMBER IT NOW!"

You seemed to know a lot about my Akuma No Mi!

Tell me more!" Perona asked, quickly diverting her attention completely from the scenery to listen to Fred.

An attention that Fred appreciated, since for some time he had tried to bring up the subject of Perona's Akuma No Mi to motivate her to train on her own.

"That's right, I once read that the Horo Horo No Mi is quite versatile.

Your ability cannot only create depressive ghosts, but also explosive ones, separate you from your body as a ghost and even allow you to fly with your own body like a ghost at some point" Said Fred, listing the powers seen in the manga and anime, before getting more speculative and deep ""But even if that alone sounds incredible, in my opinion your Akuma No Mi can do more than that.

According to my theory, the Akuma No Mi have a connection with the will of their user and depending on the user, the abilities of said AKuma No MI can…"

"Oh look! That bird has a pink ass!" Perona said, focusing again on the scenery "So cute!

Right, Hawky?"

"KIAH!!" Answered Captain Mcnugget, though he knew she wouldn't understand him.

"...

...

..." 

Fred was completely ignored when he was about to explain one of his most important theories to date. Theories that he partly confirmed when experimenting with the powers of his Akuma No Mi from a few days ago. A theory that he really wanted to share with others... especially now that he had been able to bring up the subject almost naturally...

But Fred didn't let being ignored in this way get to him... at least not too much...

"Children and beasts...

They're not prepared for intellectual conversations...

...

I miss Stephen..."

It had been months since his key research stalled due to lack of resources and thus he decided to go on his most ambitious pirate-hunting campaign to date in order to obtain the equipment they needed to further expand their business venture. An extremely long period of time in which he couldn't work calmly in his large laboratory full of specialized equipment side by side with someone of his intellectual level in a joint project in which biology and engineering went hand in hand.

Certainly, during those months Fred was able to work inside the submarine and call Stephen with his Den Den Mushi between massacre and massacre, but he couldn't do any really meaningful work for lack of equipment or discuss important matters with Stephen in case someone intercepted his calls.

For this and much more, he already wanted to see his short little brother be able to tell him everything that had happened in his last adventure and the brutal change of plans for the company after obtaining Akuma No Mi

"Oh! I can finally see an island!" Perona said, pointing to the first piece of land they saw since they left the last island "Is it Narhad?"

"That's right! My native home, operations center and resting place" Fred said while he sharpened his eyes to see better from afar "Although it has changed a bit in the last few months that I haven't been here.

Stephen and Marlon will have built something new…"

"There's a lot of movement down here...

Are they having a beach party or something?" Asked Perona, that the closer she got to the island, the better she could verify that there were many more people than Fred had mentioned

And all of them seemed to be participating in some sort of event.

"Hmm...

It seems that we have received unexpected visitors

Let's go down and see how things go." Fred answered, who not only had better vision and hearing to capture what was happening, but also a global context of the situation.

Although his fame already came from before, from the day Fred began his adventure as a bounty hunter he became a notorious and important figure throughout the West Blue. Therefore, everyone could easily get a lot of information about Fred, such as his birthplace, the location of his company, operation base and even his loved people…

Everyone could know, strangers, acquaintances, friends and above all... enemies. But even with this information within reach, no one in their right mind would dare mess with an elusive, versatile, relentless, ruthless and extremely vindictive killer famous for torturing his victims in unspeakable ways for absolutely nothing.

But the fact is that neither in this world nor in the other world there were never too many idiots!

POMMMM!!!! 

RATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!

PAM! PAM! PAM! 

PLASHHHH!!!

Mindless idiots who wanted to make a name for themselves by taking down Fred and knew only one place to look for him. Idiots who believed the story of Fred's fortune buried on his island and wanted to claim it for themselves when he was working outside. Even idiots who managed to escape from one of Fred's massacres and wanted revenge on Fred in the only way they could think of, by attacking his home, his property, and his loved ones...

Many kinds of idiots, too many to count them all...

PAM! PAM! PAM! 

PLASHHHH!!!

POOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

It wasn't very common for this to happen, but whenever one of those idiots happened to set foot on the island, Fred was always calm, since he knew that there were strong defensive measures established around the island.

"DAMN IT! 

SOMEONE!! 

DO SOMETHING!!!"

Before the Lumberjacks Pirates could set foot in Narhad, dozens of cannons scattered around the island were mobilized and fired on their ship together, sinking it in a very short time. They lost the ship, but not all of the pirates were killed, so they swam and dived towards shore to avoid being seen by the cannons.

But when they reached the shore there was something waiting for them.

"NOTHING WORKS!

THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN STOP THAT IRON MAN!!!"

No matter how much they fired at that man's armor, the bullets ricocheted off without even making a single dent in its metal surface! And they couldn't even check if their axes could have any effect, since that armor wasn't normal armor!

RATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!

RATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!

PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! 

PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM! 

In the arms, shoulders, legs and torso were incorporated multiple firearms with outstanding power and precision that prevented the pirates from approaching for fear of ending up pierced like Gruyere Cheese.

It was as if they were facing a human-shaped bunker!

"HE IS SLAUGHTERING US!"

It was a real massacre...

They couldn't get close to that iron man, there was no place to hide or protect themselves on that beach and behind them was the immense ocean which now they could only cross by swimming

Besides...

That iron man was getting closer to them and seemed to want to use his huge metallic hammer on them instead of his firearms!

"Captain! Only you can stop him!" Said one of the pirates, who had taken refuge behind a mountain of corpses of their own Nakamas

"Leave it to me!

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

As if he were a mole Barry [The Lumberjackr], with a reward of 32 million, in order not to be seen or shot by the iron man he dug from the underwater beach sand to the surface, coming out a short distance from his enemy with enough power to give him a good swing with his axe.

CLANK!

CLANK!

Ax and hammer struck each other in a mighty blow that lifted and shifted the sand beneath their feet, however in that area no sand curtain that could prevented from seeing the result of that clash of weapons was created.

Crack!

Everyone could see perfectly how the wooden handle of Barry's ax yielded to his adversary's attack, splitting the weapon in two! And losing all resistance the hammer broke through until it struck Barry's unprotected torso!

PLOOOOMMM!!!

"CAPTAIN!!" The lumberjacks who were still alive seeing how his boss hadn't only lost in that exchange of blows

HE HAD GONE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR!

"This is what you get for using a wooden bar on your ax

STEEL! STEEL! STEEL!" The iron man said as he raised his left wrist to the sky, from which a chain propelled out and attached to Barry's ankle.

After checking that he was well tied, the iron man held that chain with his left hand and began to spin his opponent in the air, making him crash into some palm trees, using him as a weight to hit some of his men and above all making him dizzy for a few seconds until...

PLASH!!

With a couple of shakes Barry stopped spinning and instead the chain made him flew helplessly at great speed towards Iron Man, who was waiting for him wielding his hammer with both hands to hit him with the weapon reverse

"If I smash your head in, I won't get a reward, so..."

And the reverse of the warhammer was a metal ax!!!

SLASH!!!

A metal ax with which he lopped off the head of Barry [The Lumberjackr],, with a reward of 32 million and panicked his orphaned crew

"OH NO! HE HAS CUT OFF HIS HEAD AS IF IT WAS A TRUNK!

"MONSTER!"

"RUUUUUUNNNN!!!

I mean… SWIIIIMMMM!!!!"

Seeing themselves completely cornered and terribly afraid of the iron man, the woodcutters saw no alternative but to try their luck swimming across the sea, where surely that man who carried tens or maybe hundreds of kilograms of steel wouldn't pursue them.

Yes, they knew that it was physically impossible for them to survive in the open sea until they reached another island and that if they tried to swim around the island to take refuge there, that monster would find them sooner or later and kill them...

BUT THOSE WERE PROBLEMS FOR FUTURE LUMBERJACKS! 

Now the priority was to live as long as they could and the sea was their best way out!

Or so they thought...

"HEY HEY!!

Are you having a good time?" Said a red-haired boy with a psychopathic demon creepy smile who suddenly appeared above them on the back of a giant duck...

A creepy smile of a psycho demon grimly sketched a face they knew too well

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

NOOOO!!! NOT YOUUUUU!!!!" The surviving woodcutters screamed as they witnessed an even greater terror upon them than the one they had left behind.

But the real danger came from below...

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"AAAHHHHH!!! MY LEG!!

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Being farsighted, Fred with his Life Life No Mi and some feathers, created in advance several great white sharks with orders to kill anything that tried to leave the island… and they began to have a great feast with the escaped lumberjacks.

"I hate not being invited to parties...

Mmm... delicious" Said Fred, who was eating an apple while he was enjoying the carnivorous show.

However, Perona didn't have as good a stomach as Fred at that time "I think I have gotten used too quickly to seeing massacres, dismemberment, flying organs…

Before I would have thrown up... now I just gag..."

After making sure that the sharks had eaten everything, Fred detransformed them to avoid misfortunes in the event that someone bathed here someday and afterwards the team finally landed on the beach littered with pirate corpses of Narhad. Where the iron man finally took off his metal helmet, showing his face for the first time before them this day.

"Blessed the eyes! IT'S FRED!" Shouted Stephen, whose face and hairstyle almost didn't changed from three years ago "HOW HAVE YOU BEEN LITTLE RASCAL!!"

"Is he Stephen? The boy you talked about so much during our trip?

He's your boyfriend? 

Horo-horo-horo-horo-horo!" Perona asked mockingly as she watched Stephen run towards them in slow motion and with his arms too open

"Ha...ha...ha...did you come up with the joke yourself?

You already know very well...

He's my childhood friend, best friend, little brother, partner, team engineer, steelhead, muscle pack and a little guy who doesn't understand the concept of personal sp…" Fred said proudly, as he watched how his little Stephen was getting closer to him "Huh!? BUT WHAT..." 

But the closer he got, the easier it was for him to realize that something had changed in his friend.

Before his departure, Fred was two heads taller than Stephen, however, now it was the opposite!

Stephen was two heads bigger than Fred!

 And that's considering that Fred had also grown several inches since he left!

In just under five months Stephen had grown approximately one meter! And that taking into account that he was two meters before!

THE YOUNGER BROTHER HAD SURPASSED THE OLDER ONE! And that great shock didn't let Fred react properly to Stephen's most powerful attack...

"A HUG, BROTHER!!"

A powerful non-hostile attack that hurt him morally... and also a little in the ribs...

"PERSONAL SPACE!!! HAVE YOU ALREADY FORGOTTEN WHAT THAT IS, FUCKING TELETUBBI!

AT LEAST TAKE OFF YOUR FUCKING AMOR TO HUG ME! FUCK!" Fred yelled, who after contorting his body to escape Stephen's huge metal arms asked "Aside from that...

When have you grown so much? And why haven't you informed me?"

"I started to grow shortly after you left a few months ago.

Now I measure three meters and twelve centimeters!

I didn't tell you anything because I wanted to see your surprised face..." Said Stephen, who stood right in front of Fred with his back very rigid, his head held high and his eyes downcast as he finished by saying with a mocking and evil smile "Dwarf..."

A word that felt like a metallic kick in Fred's testicles

In his previous life, Fred had a certain short complex! A complex that he thought he had left behind when he was born in this world and reached the height of the tallest human in the history of planet Earth, but now, after seeing how his little brother had surpassed him in height… in this life too… he realized that this wound never fully healed

"Bastard..." Fred said, holding back the urge to hit him on the head, mainly because he would have to jump to do it.

And now that Stephen had his dose of hugs and was able to enjoy his harmless revenge, it was time to ask for explanations.

"And speaking about reporting…

How could you not call me to tell me you took on a big shot from the Grand Line? And what the hell happened to your Den Den Mushi!? You're untraceable!

Why didn't you tell me that you already had enough money and that we were moving on to the next phase of the plan? I had to find out thanks to the newspaper!

Why didn't you call me to tell me you were coming? And how come you came riding a duck? Where's my submarine?" Stephen said, not hiding in the least how confused and angry he was "And who that girl? And the panda?"

Neither he nor his parents had heard from Fred for days and the worry was killing them!

They were afraid that something bad had happened to him as if they were extremely paranoid and overprotective mothers the Steels started coming up with all sorts of theories that might explain why the most phone call obsessed guy they'd ever met couldn't get a Den Den Mushi to explain that he was okay.

And now that Stephen was in front of him, all he wanted was a convincing explanation.

"This...

You hide things from me and I hide things from you...

We're in peace!"

"..."

An insulting bullshit explanation that didn't convince Stephen, or Perona, or Captain McNugget, or Po, or a lumberjack pirate who had been pretending to be dead...

BANG!

...Until that moment...

"Okay, maybe we're not at peace..." Fred said, knowing he couldn't get away with a good scolding. "But before you start tormenting me, can you explain to me what's happening?

A few days ago when I called you, you were also attacked...

How many times has someone tried to invade since I left?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you...

The frequency with which we have been attacked lately has grown exponentially.

Various pirates, some treasure looters, and quite a few bounty hunters" Said Stephen, quite worried but also glad to have opportunities to test his weapons and combat prowess "Who have you offended lately?" 

"I think I would finish faster by listing who I haven't offended

But I think I already know who could be the responsible..." Answered Fred trying to use humor hoping to make his friend forget the problems he had caused to him "An hey! I killed one pirate that you forgot to kill, teamwork!" 

"…"

But his humoristic strategy didn't worked at all… 

Stehen was still angry and it was very difficult to make him angry

"I know that I have behaved badly and I will accept your scolding 

But can we go change first? The journey has been hard and our ass is asleep...

Then I'll tell you what happened and help you clean up this mess" Said Fred, hoping that everyone would stop looking at him with those terrifying eyes as he wiped his cold sweat with the gun with which he had just blown the lumberjack head off "...

…

Okay... I'll clean I up myself... "

Apologies that satisfied Stephen's minuscule capacity to accumulate and retain anger and resentment

"You're lucky that I'm the kindest and most understanding brother in the world..." Stephen said as he bent down to greet what would surely be his new friend "Nice to meet you, my name is Stephen...

How did a girl as cute as you end up following a man as terrifying as him?"

"Mmm" And after thinking about what to answer, Perona finally explained her story "Let's say he woke me up at night, caught my attention and deceived me using some cute pandas... before I realized I was asleep again but ... when I woke up I was in another room… next to him and another girl in his bed

And now for some reason I have to follow him all my life now..."

A story that caused a great reaction in Stephen...

"Fred... you... have... with..."

His best friend, the person he trusted the most and who had shown the greatest respect and confidence in him up until now was looking at him as if he were the biggest scum on the face of the earth!

An abominable scum, of the worst kind and whom he would surely have to… reform… with his warhammer therapy!

A disgusting scum who even dared to look with hostility at the poor victim who had dared to denounce his horrible misdeeds!

"....

This time you did it on purpose right Perona?"

"Horo-horo-horo-horo-horo!"

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You'll be able to see 8 chapters in advance in my Pa-treon

pa-treon.com/user?u=83938371