"I… I got it…"
Hachi did not even have the courage to refuse. He knew that if he angered Ozz while Rayleigh was away, he had no way out.
Fortunately, Rayleigh returned soon after.
"Ozz? What brings you here?"
He had just settled a scuffle at the auction house. Finding Ozz and company seated inside, he raised a brow and asked.
Once Ozz explained, Rayleigh waved it off. "If it is coating you need, it will be quick. Last ti I coated the Oro Jackson, I went to Fish-Man Island with Roger and the crew."
The mory tugged at him. Ozz had once stood on that deck too.
"I trust your hand more than anyone's," Ozz said. "And even if sothing goes wrong, I can keep seawater off us for a while. The Oro Jackson will be fine."
Rayleigh smiled, unconcerned. "I am not worried. A man like you is not going to bow out in the middle of the sea."
"Of course not." Ozz tossed back his fruit liquor. "The hour draws near. I am not about to leave the stage now."
Rayleigh chuckled. He looked at the tall figure and his formidable comrades and, for a mont, saw again the boy who had carried Roger's body from the scaffold.
"Forgive us, Ozz," he said lightly, though the words were heavy. "We selfishly barred you from the new era, even though you were the one most likely to beco Pirate King."
Mihawk and Crocodile traded a glance, sothing unreadable flashing in their eyes. Crocodile especially. She had once set Pirate King as her goal, until Ozz made the dream feel small. She had wondered why soone so absurdly strong did not simply claim the crown. Now she heard the reason and found it intolerable. If soone had to fit conditions to claim the treasure, what did that make everyone who sailed in pursuit of it?
Clowns to fill out the race?
"Enough old stories, Vice-Captain Rayleigh," Ozz said.
Crocodile's scowl flickered as she turned to him.
Ozz was as calm as ever. "My aim is to surpass Captain Roger and stand at the summit of piracy. Let soone else have the title of Pirate King."
Arrogant words, yet sohow reasonable. Rayleigh clinked his glass with Ozz's.
"To surpass Roger… what a damned fine ambition."
They left soon after to wait on the coating.
Crocodile's face stayed dark. She finally could not hold it in. "Hey, Ozz. What did Rayleigh an about you being unable to beco Pirate King?"
Ozz paused and looked back at her set jaw. "Only that I am not the heir to Roger's will and do not et the conditions for the great treasure. And that I do not care to."
Crocodile's brow furrowed. Her tone softened only a little. "I do not recognize anyone but you. Pirate King should go to the one with the greatest power and authority."
He had not expected her to take it so hard. He offered a few easy words to settle her.
Mihawk, anwhile, lowered his gaze in thought. By Crocodile's asure, would Buggy fit the crown Ozz once hinted at offering him? On his own, of course not. Power, force of arms, even presence, the clown was small in every way. But with Ozz's backing, the man who walked like a living One Piece, Buggy would lack nothing. Power, resources, fa, even the hardest thing to swell, one's spirit. With the strongest and most influential at his back, any but the feeblest would grow into the role.
Would Crocodile accept that? She would probably try to cut Buggy down.
As for Mihawk himself, if this was Ozz's design, he would give Buggy a chance. If the clown could earn his respect, Mihawk would stand beside Ozz to lift him up.
Crocodile's anger cooled under Ozz's coaxing. The title's charm dimd for her, the urge to chase it fading away. She still snorted. "Fine then. If the next Pirate King disappoints , I will kill him."
…
"So big…"
"That size…"
As the Oro Jackson slipped under and dove deeper, titanic Sea Kings slid through the gloom. Mihawk and Crocodile watched them tensely. The creatures were fantastical to look at, yet none drew close.
"Relax," Ozz said lazily. "The largest Sea Kings are intelligent. They will not attack us."
He was not worried about the coating either. If anything with a hundred-ter jawline approached, a pulse of Conqueror's Haki would turn it away. If he felt like it, he could have sped the ship along by force of will alone.
Soon a colossal bubble shimred ahead, cradling a radiant island.
"So this is Fish-Man Island. There really are rmaids and fish-n everywhere."
Crocodile leaned on the rail, taking in a city thriving under the sea.
"Yes," Ozz said. "And not just them. Your old enemy too."
"What?"
She did not understand at first. Then a familiar leviathan of a ship slid into view. Blood sead her eyes. Mihawk's expression sharpened. Only Ozz kept his face even as he t the gaze of a giant in the distance.
"So the reports were right. You ca from the New World to claim Fish-Man Island, did you, Whitebeard."
On the far ship, the towering figure focused on the Oro Jackson and narrowed his eyes.
"You are… that brat from Roger's crew?"
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The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
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