A War In The Seas

We had continued sailing for about five or six days after we stopped by that troublesome island. 

The seas showed no signs of any storm in the distance, yet the more we had continued to sail forward. The more darker that the sky became, my frown could only crease more and more as I kept seeing this. I was sure that I couldn't sense no storm in the distance, yet a storm was already being formed right in front of my eyes. 

If a storm was normally formed within my area of sensitivity, I could normally stop it by the power of Ghidorah's Devil Fruit. However, there were some limitations that came with it, a good example would be a storm caused by a battle of wills. The clash between Conqurer's haki could be so immense sometimes that it could result in a storm being formed. 

That kind of willpower overrides Ghidorah's ability to disperse and or conjure storms as a result. I wasn't sure whether this could be changed in the future, however, at this point of time this was one of the few times that I couldn't control the weather. 

This had also meant that there was a battle between powerful people was ensuing, and we were heading straight towards the cause of the storm. I quickly ordered the men to get ready for battle as I went down to my cabin to grab Labrys while the other crew did quick checkups on the cannons and their weapons. Stussy quickly put her book to the side and stared intently at the distance, where shockwaves could be felt from. 

With Observation haki, it was easy to deduce that there were two powerful groups of people that were currently fighting. Lifting Labrys on my shoulder, I could sense the two familiar auras go at it at the heat of the storm. The golden and red lightning streaks were slowly slithering on top of the sea water as they continued to clash. I don't know what would happen should I get into the middle of the battle. Shiki and Roger were two people who enjoyed a great fight, and one more person joining the fight would only make them all the more merrier.

I could see The Golden Lion's fleet surrounding the sole ship of the Roger Pirates. I decided to order the men to drop the anchor and watch from a distance. I had no affiliations with neither Roger and Shiki, but it wasn't like I could have just breezed through the commotion without getting dragged into it. High in the sky, I could see Shiki floating there looking down at the Oro Jackson. His face had contorted to a mocking smirk as he instantly lunged at the ship. 

Roger, who smiled as always, made a giant leap from his ship to meet Shiki mid-air. It was clear that the other crew was busy handling the other fleet of ships as I could see Rayleigh sinking one or two ships on the farther side of the battle. The rest of the crew were either arming the cannons, or defending the Oro Jackson from the Golden Lion's cannon barrage. The Roger Pirates were incredibly organized with how they were handling the situation.

Moreover, with Roger fighting off Shiki in the sky. It gave the Roger Pirates a little more breathing room as they continued their battle. There was no doubt that the Golden Lion Pirates had powerful subordinates, however, their power paled in comparison to the Roger Pirates. They had nothing on the likes of the Dark King and Scoppers. 

Roger's and Shiki's clash was proving to be more and more detrimental to the surroundings than I had thought. Shiki's flying slashes were splitting the sea more and more as Roger continued to dodge them. Roger would retaliate with even more powerful slashes which Shiki would deflect and dodge as well. These slashes would split clouds open, causing bits of sunlight to appear for a moment before it was blotted with more clouds. 

Rayleigh and Gabon, who had been making progress in sinking the Golden lion fleet's ships. Had abruptly stopped on one ship individually. Judging from the aura that the two were currently emmiting, it wasn't hard to conclude that they had met some rather formidable opponents. Rather, opponents that were powerful enough to stall them for the moment. 

My crew nervously watched on as they continued to fight, Ken's knuckles had turned white by how hard he was gripping his katana. It wasn't an everyday occurence that you would see powerhouses going at it the way that we were currently seeing. The stray cannon fire or flying slash would occasionally fly to our direction. However, one of the crew or Ken would just deflect or outright destroy the slash. the impact making fierce winds that tugged on our headsail.

I didn't want to risk having our headsail getting torn off. However, I didn't want to put the crew in danger as they tried to tie up the headsail. The stray attacks were getting more and more frequent to the point where even I had to get involved in defending the ship. 

Things further escalated when one of the crew members ran back to the main deck where I and the rest of the crew were currently at, and informed us that they had spotted a fleet of Marines approaching from the distance. That wasn't good, if anything, I wasn't expecting for the Marines to be interfering in any Pirate activities for the next month. The approaching of the World Conference would have objectively spread their forces thin trying to ensure the safety of their alliance members. 

"Why the hell would the Marines be here? Aren't they busy gathering Alliance members?" I asked aloud. 

I wasn't really expecting an answer to that question, however, Stussy wasted no time responding to my question with a solemn look. 

"I knew something was up! The World Conference normally starts around the end of next week. Meaning that they would have started gathering members at the start of the next week. They might have started gathering members who resided in the New World in advance so that they could ensure their safety in light of all the commotion that has been happening here!!!" 

Her replied shocked the entire crew, me included. If the implication behind her statement was accurate. That would mean that the conflicts that I had contributed to within the New World had some form of impact towards the plot. I had never read much on the Edd War, but I did know for a fact that the Marines had no part in it. Additionally, even if they were at the scene, the storm that was caused during the fight would have instantly broken their clash. Meaning that the Roger Pirates would have been able to escape. 

This was not a good look, the worst case scenario meant that the likes of Garp would be on one of those fleets. It wouldn't be shocking to find an Admiral tagging along with him to boot. Moreover, the fact that I had stumbled onto Roger and Shiki fighting meant that they had been fighting long before my arrival. I doubted they had the energy to fight both an Admiral and that monster Garp together. I let out a troubled sigh as I gave out some new orders, I cursed quietly as I raised my axe and pointed towards the oncoming Marine fleet.

"Turn this ship the fuck around!!! ALL FORCES ATTACK THE MARINES!!!!"