True Strength

The next morning at the crack of dawn, Ori once more opened his eyes. As he did, the lacklustre gaze from the day before had all but disappeared. Ori's pitch black eyes shone with conviction and the way they glistened under the light from the sky made it look like they held the infinite wonders of the universe.

He stood up stretching his body off. He hadn't moved a muscle for over 2 weeks now, so when he stretched, bone after bone made crackling sounds. He took one final look out to sea as he clenched his fist tight.

[Roman. Wait for us!]

As he made his way through the streets of Water 7, everyone would stop and stare.

"Isn't that the Heavenly Demon?!"

"Yeah, that's him!"

"Did you hear? The bounties of him and his crew have all increased after their battle 2 weeks ago."

"Yeah I heard. I heard even the member of his crew with the lowest bounty, that mixed blood creature has a bounty of £100 million."

"Yeah but it's said he's the son of the infamous Fisher Tiger. I believe Silk was his name. He's been dubbed the Demonic Sea Mink"

"If that's true it's no surprise he has such a high initial bounty. Fisher Tiger single handedly broke into Mary Geoise, freeing hundreds of slaves the World Nobles held captive."

"Forget that, did you hear about the young genius they recruited. Apparently he's only 10 but can already defeat most adults."

"That's not the most interesting part though. He was given an initial bounty of £150 million because he's apparently using the Mythical Zoan type devil fruit that once belonged to the late Admiral, Sun Wu."

"Seriously?! Didn't Admiral Sun Wu die to one of the Joyous Pirates years ago?!"

"You probably didn't hear the full story. I only found out because my uncle's an officer in the marines.

Apparently Dracule Mihawk is the master of the Heavenly Demon and also has a deep connection with the Joyous Pirates. The marines suspect that after killing the Admiral, the Joyous Pirates gave the fruit to Mihawk who then in turn gave it to his disciple, who gave it to that kid Sabo AKA The Demonic Ape."

"Wow I didn't expect there to be such a back story."

"It's not just them though. The former assassin Malia AKA the Demonic Assassin now has a starting bounty of £220 million, Akainu's son Benjiro AKA Demon Sound's new bounty is £350 million, The Demonic Blood Archer Monkey D. Shaya's got a bounty of £500 million, the Heavenly Demon's First Mate, the Demonic Dragon has a bounty of £600 million and the captain; The Heavenly Demon himself has a bounty of £880 million.

Even Enel's bounty has increased reaching as high as £540 million."

"Didn't you hear? That Roman fellow is no longer the first mate of the Heavenly Demon Pirates as he jumped ships joining the Beast Pirates."

"Shh you shouldn't talk about this matter right now!"

As he said that, the man speaking hinted at Ori to warn him not to speak about Roman's matter in his presence. Seeming to understand the meaning behind the warning, the man hurriedly stopped speaking.

Ori heard their words but paid it no mind, his state of mind was no longer as fragile as it was when he just heard about Roman's situation. He still wanted to bring Roman back and take Kaido down in the process, but he knew that as he was currently, he wasn't strong enough. Even though he wasn't strong enough now, he had confidence that he would be in the future.

As he arrived at the inn, he felt that all of his crew rushing towards him from their respective practices.

When they all saw Ori's figure they were all stunned. He looked a lot thinner than usual, but his aura was extraordinarily calm, and his eyes radiated a confidence that affected them.

"Ori you're back…"

Hearing the young blondes words he smiled gently as his eyes scanned his crew. When he landed on Shaya he said.

"The whole world believes that Roman joined the Beast Pirates that day because Jack was too strong, but you and I both know that if Roman had used 'that' and you used the other half of your abilities killing Jack would've proved easy!"

Sabo and the others didn't understand what Ori meant. They also believed that Roman thought they wouldn't be able to defeat Jack, so he gave himself up to avoid a fight.

Shaya looked down at the ground as she knew Ori was right. The fact that she had 2 devil fruits and the other was the coveted time fruit was a secret that an extremely limited number of people knew, in fact other than her brothers and master the only people who knew were her uncle; Monkey D. Dragon, Otohime and probably Fabian.

Benjiro as a former marine and Akainu's son fully understood the power of each of the leading Pirates of the Era.

"What do you mean, how could Shaya and Roman kill Jack, he's no weaker than an Admiral. Even though Roman and Shaya are strong, they're not at the level of an Admiral.

Ori glanced at the young musician with a light smile.

"Both Shaya and Roman have had to hold back slightly for different reasons. Since we're all one crew then you deserve to know. Shaya ate the yin-yang fruit which allows her to control 2 devil fruits. First is the Blood fruit you all know about, but the other's the Time fruit which she had to keep secret so as not to attract a disaster!"

When they heard that, they all turned to Shaya in shock. Especially Benji and Malia who understood how powerful the Time Fruit truly was. Although understanding a Devil Fruit that controlled the laws of time would be extremely powerful, Sabo didn't completely understand the implications behind having it. Being the first one to awaken from his shock, he turned to Ori and asked.

"What about Roman, what's his secret power?"

Ori smiled as he said.

"Roman's like you, when he ate the Dragon Fruit he achieved Perfect Assimilation granting him 3 innate abilities. It's just that for some reason one seems to be sealed and the other comes at a price to use."

Hearing that Roman had also achieved Perfect Assimilation when eating his Devil Fruit surprised Sabo, but when he remembered how monstrous Roman was his surprise vanished.

"What were his 3 abilities?"

"First is Dragon Arts, which is a sort of Martial Art for Dragons that is insanely powerful. But seeing as it focuses on comprehending the path of a Martial Artist, other than 'Dragon Breath' and 'Roar of the Dragon' He doesn't really use it.

Second is the ability that is sealed for a reason none of us can comprehend. It's called 'Dragon Prestige'. It allows the user to suppress all non-Mythical Zoan type Devil Fruits. So Jack as an Ancient Type Zoan would have his strength suppressed to some degree but it works best on those weaker than you.

Third is arguably the most Heaven defying, it's called Dragon Soul. It's a technique that attacks the target soul directly. I call it Heaven defying because when Roman was younger and far weaker than he is today he was able to directly crush the soul of a beast at the Vice-Admiral level. The only problem was that after using it, Roman's left unconscious for 10 days and it takes him a month to make a full recovery. But if he had used that on Jack, even if Jack had managed to survive, Killing him wouldn't have been difficult for Shaya and the rest of you."

Once they got over their understandable shock, they realised that if Shaya and Roman really wanted to kill Jack that day it wouldn't have been difficult at all.

Ori saw that Shaya still had her face down as if pressed by guilt. He put his hands on her shoulder to comfort her.

"I don't blame you for what happened that day. Roman made his choice and eventually when we go to the New World, I'll personally go kick his ass for his stupidity and make him watch as I take Kaido's head.

I just wanted to tell you that from this point on, you are never to hold back because you're worried about bringing me or the crew more troubles in the future. For better or worse we'll deal with everything that comes our way together!"

When she heard that she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Not because she no longer had to hold herself back, but because the thing she was scared about most was Ori resenting her for not going all out.

"I understand!"

Seeing her face brighten up he faced the others smiling lightly.

"We've been here for long enough, it's about time we made our way to Sabody Archipelago. But before that…

I NEED FOOD!"