[77] The Boin Archipelago (1)
Chapter 77: The Boin Archipelago (1)
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Two months was a long time, and it was enough to change the views Tsunade had on Hashirama’s situation. Initially, she was confident that he would be able to pass the Calm Belt with ease, but given there had been nothing on his name for the past two months, Tsunade naturally couldn’t help her worry.
He was a strong boy, but he was reckless. It wouldn’t be impossible if he was assaulted by multiple Sea Kings too big for him to handle.
As a result of all this worrying, Tsunade picked her cigarettes back up. She lowered her nicotine intake the few days she was in search of him, but now she couldn’t help but pick it back up. She wished she could drink, but that wasn’t possible while on duty.
As for the incident with Vergo, it was taken care of by Garp. A Vice-Admiral killing another was unheard of, so when the incident came to be known to the higher-ups, they demanded an official report from Tsunade.
Thankfully, Tsunade had a story built from before – she just revealed to Garp how she found out the signs of Vergo working with Doffy, but wasn’t sure if she was just connecting false dots.
Garp, as the leader of SWORD, managed to track Vergo’s career, and now that he was looking with the intention of finding anything suspicious, he soon caught the things wrong in his missions.
“So Doflamingo is after your brother…? Do you know why?”
“I have no idea.” Tsunade lied with a straight face. “Regardless, I apologize again, I was planning to bust Vergo’s cover officially, but lost control of my emotions when I realized he was after my brother.”
That was the summarization of the conversation they had, and while Sengoku was a little mad that she killed him, since catching him alive would have been a lot better, he understood the reaction.
Most of all, he deduced it was a fight between two similarly strong people, so the death of one was hardly in control of the other – it would have been harder to defeat him and keep him alive.
Tsunade just stood in silence when the two of them reached the conclusion and waited until she was brought to Kong, the World Government Commander-in-Chief, where they had another version of the same conversation, except this time Garp and Sengoku helped her explain the situation.
At the end of the whole ordeal, Kong gave her one warning, “Doflamingo is quite a hungry beast. He will most likely target you, so be careful.”
Tsunade was aware of that from the moment she kicked Vergo’s severed head like a football. She just wished she would get to beat Doffy to a pulp with Hashirama by her side.
* * *
Back to the present time, inside the Fleet Admiral’s office, something comical was taking place.
“Goddammit…”
“Bwahaha!”
“Stop laughing, Garp!”
Sengoku nearly punched Garp, but he evaded it with a panicked expression. Cutting the call on the Snail on his desk, Sengoku sat back down in his seat, groaning with an annoyed expression.
Garp calmed his breathing, controlling his laughter, and breathed out.
“Alright, alright, sorry, I just remembered when Ace set sail and how you reacted to me and suddenly this situation seemed funny. But uh hey, your daughter is strong, why are you worried that she fled from her home? It’s not that she became a pirate, either.”
The daughter of the Fleet Admiral was strictly a secret to most people. Living on a small island in South Blue, she didn’t know how the real world worked – even if her strength was incredible. When Garp met her for the first time years ago, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t surprised seeing a brat like that using Haki.
Just now, the butler working for that girl called Sengoku to let him know about the sudden turn of events. She was nowhere to be found on the island, and it was safe to assume she had fled her home, the place that she claimed was nothing but a prison.
Sengoku sighed at Garp’s logic, “It’s not that. Alice wants to come to the Grandline, I just know it, since she has been talking about it for years. The problem is the hurdles she would face on her way.”
Garp shrugged, “Told you to not raise your kid like farmed chickens. Look at Ace and Luffy, they’re not only strong but independent-”
Garp was cut short when the door of the room opened fast. Garp’s right-hand man, Bogard, walked in looking nervous, quite opposite to his usual expression.
“Sorry for barging in like this, Fleet Admiral. Sir Garp, Dadan called, and she said that your grandson… Luffy has set sail as a Pirate.”
“….”
Garp went silent, his mouth unable to continue munching on his rice crackers, while Sengoku didn’t waste a second before he broke out in a burst of laughter. Now with the tables turned on Garp again, the room turned loud as the two old friends went at one another about this and that, Bogard quickly leaving at a moment’s notice.
All the loud quarreling continued until another Marine came to report, this time knocking on the door, to let the Fleet Admiral know that Vice-Admiral Tsunade is on the move again.
According to the report, Hashirama Senju had been spotted in the Grandline just a while ago.
“Gosh. What is up with this generation? So many annoying brats.”
Garp and Sengoku shook their heads, annoyed yet worried about the kids who could be doing better; at the same time – feeling the larger storm these smaller incidents would cause in the future.
* * *
The first thing Hashirama did after returning to the Grandline, was to actively look for pirate ships and beat them up. He didn’t kill them, neither did he send them to the marines – as that wasn’t his job – he just looted their ship and continued on with his adventure.
He did this for two reasons. One, to get rations from the ship, their loot, and money as well, as to keep his own crew living. Two, so that Tsunade learned of his name and stopped worrying.
Though they weren’t on talking terms right now, he knew she loved him more than anything in this world. The reason why he left the wooden middle finger was to make her laugh for once, and calm down a little. Now that he had been unheard of for the last two months, he had to do something big to let her know he was fine and kicking.
At this point, after two months of solitude in the Calm Belt, he was ready to confront her. So he wouldn’t run a zig-zag if she came after him. Not that he would be a sitting duck either, he would move according to the plans, towards the other Calm Belt.
However, on his way, he came across an interesting island. While the girls used Binoculars, he used his Observation Haki to zoom forward into the island in the far.
It was quite an exotic series of islands, all shaped like flowers that started from one point and moved from one line to another. From the size, just to roam around it, should need a month at the least for most people.
“No matter how I look at it, it looks super suspicious.”
Nami said as she watched the island, and Mikita scoffed at her.
“So what? Suspicious doesn’t mean dangerous. What is a danger to us, at this point, now that we can defeat Sea Kings easily?”
“Don’t be so arrogant, girl. I feel like I saw this island somewhere, but I can’t quite remember. That means we go inside and check what it’s about.”
Hashirama gave a spank to Mikita’s ass, making it jiggle, and nobody saw it since all had their eyes on binoculars. Mikita controlled her yelp with a grunt, while he started to use his chakra.
The ship began to move forward; the girls could do nothing but sigh as the ship appeared on this suspicious island, the legendary Boin Archipelago.
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