Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re a sad man, Kizaru.”

Vegapunk’s words kept echoing in his head as he chased after the scientist, as his sword attacks missed flesh and his beams whistled through the air without meeting their target.

He had brushed the comment aside. A tool wasn’t supposed to show emotions, after all.

Not even when it was tasked to kill an old friend, close enough to have been called a best friend…once upon a time, before it all started to go wrong. Not even when it was aimed at a mere child, because anyone could be deemed dangerous no matter their age in a world filled with devil fruit powers and forbidden knowledge. Not even when it was aimed at a man that had sacrificed everything to save that same child, mind and body and his own humanity.

He had already pushed his luck by asking permission to fight Sentomaru. At least then, he had arguments to back himself up.

When Saint Saturn ran Vegapunk through his chest with one of his sharp, deadly claws, Borsalino briefly wondered if the attack would feel the same as the hole that was now tearing his own flesh from the inside. While the blow wasn’t a direct kill, Vegapunk's fate was sealed: there would be no recovering from such an injury, even if the man still drew breath for now.

The blood was bright red from where it tainted the ground in heavy drops. Borsalino could not tear his eyes from their shine, the cold acceptance of his friend’s inevitable death washing over him like ice crystalizing in his veins.

Saint Saturn’s next order was as brutal as the attack he had just dealt, dispassionate and expected to be obeyed without delay.

Borsalino moved mechanically as he was commanded to kill them all, the scientist, the girl, the man turned weapon, the pirates. He aimed for Vegapunk first, because if there was only one death he could secure it had to be that one, because the pained gulps of breath and the blood dripping on the ground were too much he could bear to hear and see.

He had wanted to give his old friend a quick and painless death and had failed even at that, so the least he could do now was to finish him off in one swift blow.

His hand was steady as he thrust his sword towards Vegapunk, but the moment he thought it connected the world blurred in a sudden array of colors. He felt his body turn to light without his consent, time almost slowing to a stop as he floated around, and then everything went black.

“Hey, Luffy, what’s that?”

Luffy tore his eyes away from the sea below where his fishing rod was still not biting and blinked at Usopp.

“What?”
“What’s that,” Usopp repeated, pointing towards his leg to push his point across, “in your pocket?”

Luffy dropped his gaze to his lap, wildly hoping for a second he might have forgotten some food there and feeling quite interested by a snack. It wasn’t food though, or a type he had never eaten before because whatever it was, it was glowing through the fibers of the fabric.

Now feeling quite curious about this mystery thing he plunged one hand into his pocket and fished out a small spherical object, holding it up for a total of two seconds before dropping it to the deck with a cry of surprise.

“Ouch!” he shook his hand. “It’s hot!”
“Hey, be careful!”

Usopp jumped off his seat on the railing to block the ball’s path with one foot and prevent it from going overboard. Luffy followed suit and they crouched around it, squinting at the light being emitted; his friend poked it gingerly and immediately retracted his hand.

“It’s hot!”
“I just told you so!”
“What is it? What was it doing in your pocket?”
“I don’t know…”

Their conversation gathered at the attention of Chopper and Robin, who had been resting close by.

“It’s like a lightbulb,” Robin mused aloud as she brought one hand close but stopped shy of touching the surface. “It is quite warm.”
“Could it be one of Vegapunk’s inventions?” Chopper enquired softly.

The mood plummeted as the words were said, the old scientist’s death still a raw subject. Luffy had promised both him and the axe guy he would help him escape safely and yet… Even if Lilith had cryptically decided the promise had been fulfilled, Luffy didn’t quite feel the same way. But now that Chopper had mentioned Old Man Apple he suddenly realized what this was.

“It’s Kizaru.”

Three pairs of eyes locked on him.

“Kizaru?” Usopp repeated in a tone that was well on its way to hysteria. “Isn’t he still on Egghead?!”
“No,” Luffy shook his head. “Old Man Apple gave him to me, I just forgot.”
“He gave - ?! This is - ?! You forgot?!”
“That explains the light,” Robin nodded wisely as Usopp struggled to form a coherent sentence.
“Is he coming out?” Chopper gasped.
“Maybe,” she replied. “Maybe he’ll just explode.”
“Explode?!” the reindeer made a horrified face as Usopp dropped down behind him. “I’ll go get Lilith! She might know how to handle it!”

Luffy observed the object as Chopper departed in a hurry. He couldn’t quite sense anything from it, even through his haki; it felt alive…but that was about it.

When Chopper came back Lilith and Franky were on his heels, the last Vegapunk crouching down next to the ball and immediately reaching for it.

“Be careful!” Luffy warned her. “It’s hot.”

She plucked it out of the grass without flinching, showing it to him with a smirk.

“You have to hold onto the reinforced parts,” she explained, her fingers indeed safely placed on the metallic ring circling the object in its middle. “But wow, it’s really warm! How long has he been in here?”
“Ehh… Since we left Egghead?”
“What?” she frowned. “But that was hours ago!”
“Is that a problem?”
“I don’t know… We never went above the one hour limit.”
“So it’s really Kizaru?” Usopp paled. “But why?”
“Stella must have wanted to keep him out of the fight…”

A shadow dropped over them as Franky leaned over, curiosity on his face.

“So that little thing can hold a logia?”
“Only Kizaru,” Lilith shook her head. “It traps light. See that button, here? That’s the release latch.”
“Don’t press it,” Usopp grabbed her arm in alarm.
“You’ll have to!” she huffed. “It was never designed to keep him in for that long. The light is trying to expand again, it could result in an explosion if you wait any more!”
“What was it designed for?” Robin asked, unbothered by the looming risk of an explosion unlike Chopper and Usopp who started to hug each other.
“Oh, to stabilize him. He almost faded away once when we pushed the experimentations a bit too far… Stella was totally freaked out and Kizaru was out of it for two days once we got him to reform,” she grimaced. “So we made this to grab any light particle to make sure they’ll stay together!”

Luffy peered at the sphere. While it would be fun to see an explosion he would rather it did not happen on Sunny, and there was no telling what this would even do to the one inside.

He extended his hand towards Lilith, who had a soft exclamation as she understood what he wanted; she leaned closer to show him where to put his fingers to avoid getting burned and gave him the glowing ball back.

“Wait, Luffy, wait, wait, wait,” Usopp pleaded as Luffy was getting one finger ready to press the release button. “This is Kizaru we are talking about! A Navy Admiral!”

Luffy thought about it.

The battle on Egghead was over, Old Man Apple was dead… Kizaru had fulfilled his mission. Sure, the weird spider guy had been throwing new orders to kill both Bonney and his crew, but he had been defeated. The admiral had been annoying and almost lethal, Old Man Apple only avoiding death by one of his attacks because of this same device Luffy was now holding onto, but he had still done so reluctantly.

“There’s no more reason to fight,” he simply said.
“Well… We are pirates,” Franky stroked his chin.
“Let’s get the others,” Robin suggested. “So we can decide all together.”
“I’m going to head back in,” Lilith pointed a thumb behind her shoulder. “It’s probably better if I’m out of sight for now, especially if you decide to release him.”
“Of course. Can you please let Bonney know, too?”
“Yeah, will do!”

Luffy sat back and waited for his crewmates to gather, the warmth in his hand pulsating at a steady pace as the light glowed like the echo of a heartbeat.

Borsalino’s mind was heavy with a foggy, numb sensation when he came to, his thoughts slow to form and losing any sustenance the second he strung words together. He felt weightless in a familiar way; his whole self was split in a thousand light particles, cutting his essence into the smallest pieces and yet leaving him feeling oddly big as he lazily floated around.

He coalesced into a physical form, solid ground welcoming him as he dropped down. His body was giving him new signals now; a dull ache spreading through all of his limbs as if they had been locked in a wrong position for too long, a slow pounding in his head that seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment, an emptiness in his stomach that betrayed a passage of time he wasn’t quite aware of.

He blinked and as his vision focused he realized he wasn't alone. The faces were mostly worried, some slightly curious, some not sharing any sort of concern altogether; the issue was that he knew these faces. A cursory glance around him confirmed the situation he seemed to find himself in: he was on the Straw Hats’ ship, these precise pirates gathered around him at as safe a distance as the space allowed. He was on the Straw Hats’ ship and everything rushed back to him in a split second; Egghead, Vegapunk, Sentomaru.

Vegapunk.

He phased away in the next breath, blinking to a short distance from the ship as he floundered to make sense of the emotions now battling in his mind. Gone was the feeling of weightlessness from before, even as he shifted to light and reappeared; there was only a heaviness settling in his heart and seeping deep into his bones as the memories played out in his head and reminded him of where he was...and what he had done.

He remembered going for the kill, thrusting his sword towards a man he had once upon a time called a friend.

He wasn't too sure if he was still allowed to do so.

He could not figure out whether his attack had connected or not and was completely clueless as to what happened afterwards. Was Vegapunk dead? What of Egghead, what of Saint Saturn? What of Bonney and Kuma, other friendly names he had been tasked to erase from existence?

What of Sentomaru, which Borsalino had carefully knocked unconscious while avoiding major injuries, hoping to give him a chance to escape as unscathed as possible once it all came to an end?

There was only blue as he gazed around him, blue sky and blue sea, both bright and serene looking and in total opposition to the storm he felt brewing inside his own body. It also meant he was long gone from Egghead; there was no island to be seen, not even as a speck on the horizon, cementing the fact that time had passed without his knowledge.

He caught on the faint noise of exclamations at his back from the ship he had just departed and weighed his options. He should be heading back to Egghead, rejoining his fleet and Saint Saturn and putting an end to this whole mission, but he had no idea which way was the correct one. Travelling at light speed without a target in sight was something he would rather avoid as he was more likely to end up in the opposite direction than the one he originally picked; it was too unreliable for long distances as he could not anticipate potential obstacles that would bounce him off and skew his trajectory. At the speed he travelled at, even stopping every few seconds to assess his environment did not prove helpful. And that was without mentioning the weather…

He feared there was no other option but to see what the pirates had in mind.

The choice wasn’t exactly his only to make either; he gathered as much as a rubbery arm suddenly whipped around him and constricted along his waist, the familiar thrum of haki pressing down his flesh from the palm flat against his stomach.

The trip back to the ship was smoother than expected, especially after the chaotic ways Straw Hat had thrown him around during their battle on Egghead. The landing, though, was rough: Borsalino crashed right into who he suspected was Straw Hat Luffy himself, people around them jumping out of the way to avoid the collision. They tumbled to the ground and he took the opportunity to slip through the loosened arm as the haki pressure disappeared, reforming at the edge of the boat in his usual casual stance. There was no time for the turmoil in his head and the screaming in his heart when he was surrounded by enemies, so he put a lazy smile on his face and dug his hands in his pockets before facing the Straw Hat crew once again.

This would be when he greeted them with a quip aimed to irritate…but he unexpectedly found himself at loss for words, his wit dried up with the events of the day.

Thankfully, Straw Hat immediately opened his mouth as he bounced back from his prone position on the ground, seemingly uncaring about having been smacked down in the first place.

“Don’t bother,” he grinned at Borsalino. “We left Egghead a long time ago!”
“Ahh,” he hummed in reply. “That is indeed…a problem.”

He would not be able to cover that much ground blindly. It was annoying; by now he expected Saint Saturn to be thoroughly displeased by his absence, which would only add up to the long list of his failures on Egghead. He didn’t look forward to the stern lecture that awaited him once he made his way back, nor the reprimands that were sure to pop up from his other superiors. He was also concerned about the fleet and how they handled the last part of the fight, whether or not the Buster Call had been successful. The Straw Hats were there…seemingly unharmed, from what he could gather from their stances and the few bandages on their person, so Borsalino leaned more towards another failure. The fleet had been placed under his command so he was the sole responsible for the outcome of the battle and he hoped his subordinates weren't getting the brunt of the Elders’ disappointment.

“Vegapunk..?” he asked next, because maybe this hadn’t been a total loss…if only from a Marine perspective.

He got his answer in the dimming of Straw Hat’s smile and the gloomy looks appearing on his crewmates’ faces.

“I see.”

It was a victory, yet one that didn’t feel as such. He tilted his head slightly to make sure his lenses caught the reflection of the sun and hid his eyes for a few seconds as he closed them and ignored the pang in his chest.

His reprieve was short, Straw Hat jumping right back onto the topic:

“Why did you want to kill Old Man Apple?”
“I told you already,” Borsalino bit back a sigh. “I did not want to-”
“You did not want but you still tried to! So, why?”
“...Because it was my mission.”
“You said you guys were friends! Aren’t friends more important than a mission?”

It was a foolish take, though one Borsalino should have expected from a pirate, especially one such as Straw Hat; the recently crowned Emperor had always moved sea and land for the people he called friends, whether such endeavors ended up in success or failure. Enies Lobby, Sabaody and Marineford were a few examples that immediately sprung to mind. He had seen the desperation such bonds had wrought upon the younger man and he didn’t envy it.

The comparison was useless in the first place; Straw Hat Luffy was a pirate and by definition a free man, while Borsalino’s freedom was tightly controlled. And, in a shocking turn of events, it did not involve disobeying direct orders from superiors.

He was a coward at heart, after all. A refusal was as good as a betrayal in the Navy’s book, the gravity of such action only growing bigger the higher the rank one was, and high up the ladder he was. Maybe, before, maybe he would have weighed the importance of his relationships in regards to each other to come to a decision... But in such a situation picking one would only lose the other and Borsalino hated choosing precisely for that reason: what good would it bring him when it ultimately ended in the same kind of path?

“An endearing thought,” he conceded, “but one that does…not…align with my oath as an admiral.”
“Can’t you just resign from the Navy, then?” Vinsmoke inquired from the side as he lit up a cigarette.

Borsalino found himself itching for one even though he hadn’t touched the vice for two years now and even longer before that, but the craving always resurfaced whenever he found himself backed up against a wall…especially one of his own making.

“Yeah!” his captain enthusiastically agreed. “The ice guy did, right?”

Borsalino smiled wryly.

“Kuzan did not resign,” he corrected. “He left…and is now a criminal…”
“Eh?” God Usopp frowned. “What’s the difference?”
“It means he would not have been allowed to do so if he went through the proper channels,” Nico answered in his stead before meeting his gaze. “Is that correct?”
“That is exact…”

Kuzan had only managed such a feat because Sakazuki had a soft heart, somewhere deep in that grouchy personality, past the fiery walls of magma and underneath all that blistering justice belief. The Red Dog had not been able to bring himself to kill his fellow admiral as they fought on Punk Hazard even though he had to have known that Kuzan would never stay. Then, in the middle of the chaos that was Sengoku stepping down and both admirals recovering from their extensive injuries following their fierce fight, Kuzan had simply disappeared before a new chain of command could be put into place.

Oh, the Five Elders had been livid when the news reached them. But there was no culprit to pin the blame on, not when Kuzan should still have been too weak to even move around on his own.

Losing an admiral had been a big blow to the organization, both in credibility and in manpower, especially a logia user. The Five Elders had made sure they knew.

Even Sengoku’s retirement was only a pretty façade; while he did not commend the Navy anymore he was still a part of it, living at their headquarters and helping out with trainees and other meetings that did not require Sakazuki’s full attention.

There was no forfeiting strong assets. Borsalino had known for a long time that the only way to effectively resign was simply to die and he still found himself wanting to live, so here was that.

“Just leave, then!” Straw Hat opened his arms wide. “There are no marines here to stop you.”
“And then?” he humored him. “Live in hiding, never to use my powers again? Running away from both the World Government and pirates? No, thank you.”

Borsalino might be many things but inconspicuous was not it. He was too much of a public face to ever hope to blend in the shadows, too powerful to be ignored by the Navy, too hated by pirates to be left to his own devices in peace. 

He would be lying to say he had not entertained the thought as Vegapunk’s dealings with the Void Century came to light. He had disappointed the man many times already, their relationship only straining as Kuma and Bonney came into the picture as pawns in a political game happening outside of their control, but it had never been a direct attack to the scientist. Naively Borsalino had hoped it would stay that way, that Vegapunk’s worth as an inventor would triumph over any slippery research he might find himself nose deep into.

He had been wrong.

He had received the order in person, summoned to the Five Elders’ room one bright morning. He had thought about it then, as Saint Saturn’s dark gaze had swept over his form to confirm his duty would trump any personal feelings; it would have been easy enough to scatter into light and never come back.

But then?

It would mean leaving Sakazuki behind, dooming his oldest friend to even more stress. It would mean all these years spent in the Navy, climbing the ranks, giving his time to their ideals, all of it would be deemed worthless. What would he even do? Try as he might, Borsalino couldn’t quite figure out a future for himself. Maybe it was because of the light, shining too bright, blinding him to anything but the present.

It sounded exhausting.

Vegapunk had chosen his path, knowing fully well the risks of his research. He had been betrayed by himself, something out of Borsalino’s hands, so he would simply keep walking his own path wherever it might lead him; a tool at others’ disposal, a cog in a machine that would be easily replaced if it cracked and broke. Picturing another admiral doing the job he had been tasked with had made him sick. If anything, he owed Vegapunk this at least.

“But the ice -”
“Kuzan only managed so far because he joined an Emperor’s crew,” Borsalino cut the protest down, his tone sharpening at the end of the sentence. He had not intended to lose his drawl, his temper fraying more than anticipated with the turn the conversation had taken; he forced himself to unclasp his hands from where he had balled them up into fists in his pants’ pockets and took a slow, steadying breath.

“You’re still not honest,” Straw Hat looked at him with piercing eyes. “You did not even fight seriously.”

That took Borsalino aback, his eyebrows rising up as he leaned slightly backwards.

“I assure you… I was quite serious there…”
“Nah,” the young pirate dismissed him, crossing his hands behind his head. “You never were. You played with us in Sabaody two years ago, could have killed Zoro before the Old Man joined the fight -”

There was a grunt from the swordsman on the left, a grimace on his face at the mention of what had almost happened. Borsalino had been playing with them at that stage; rookies were always fun and full of surprises, with new devil fruit powers to figure out and the energy and cockiness of youngsters that had just conquered the first half of the Grand Line. Few knew haki, even less so could actually use it in battle, so his logia powers gave him an invincibility that always morphed confidence into despair. He had only intended to knock them down a notch and show them what exactly awaited them in the New World; he had not captured a single one of the so-called Supernovas, a fact that had gotten Sengoku to massage his temples in the hope of stopping the headache that threatened to settle in as Borsalino had relayed the news that all big shots on the island had made it out. Sakazuki had been red with fury with him too, his teeth audibly grinding against each other as Borsalino had playfully recounted his fight with four of the rookies…shrugging when the other admiral asked why he had not secured them before leaving to continue his mission.

Oddly enough, Borsalino agreed with the Dark King on the matter of sprouts; he thought it more interesting to see how far they could go…before another pirate crew took them down. Less work for him that way.

It had not been the case with the Straw Hats purely because of the Celestial Dragons. He would have wiped them all out, no personal feelings involved, and since this was the crew that had dared to declare war on the World Government itself he had felt compelled to make sure they would know the extent of their folly before meeting their end. Sure, it had not ended as expected…but he had still left a mark.

“You played with me during the war, too,” Strawhat Luffy kept going.

In his defense, Borsalino had tried to actually blow him up the first time they met on the battlefield. Then he had given it more thought and decided it would be more pain than it was worth: he was not keen on becoming the man who killed Garp’s grandson. He had left Fire Fist and Whitebeard to Sakazuki for the same reasons, too many responsibilities, too many eyes to be stuck on one’s back in both hope and hatred.

Ironically enough, he had never been one for the spotlight.

“Even now, you weren’t fully serious. You weren’t,” Straw Hat repeated as Borsalino probably made a face of disagreement. “Your heart wasn’t in it. You kept complaining!”
“Complaining does not impact my performance…”
“But it makes you lack an edge. It felt like…you wouldn’t have been angry if you had lost.”

It was too late for it now. The Emperor’s awakened form had kept him on his toes but ultimately had not been enough to keep him down for long, his punch disorientating but not lethal. Borsalino had still used that opportunity to sit out of the fight as long as was acceptable, but with Saint Saturn getting involved his options had been limited.

Somehow, he felt like Straw Hat had not been too serious either, but it might have come from the fact he had been split between containing Borsalino and keeping an eye on his allies’ escape…while under the influence of his awakening. It had been a game of cat and mouse, though one where the roles kept reversing.

“Haven’t I lost..?” he tilted his head. Straw Hat made a face.
“Old Man Apple is dead. I lost.”
“Mhm…”

Two losers, then…

“What now?” he asked as the silence stretched. “Do you have a…nice cell for me?”
“A cell?” Straw Hat repeated in confusion.
“Sunny doesn’t have those,” Iron Man added with a clear affront in his voice.
“Ah… Some seastone handcuffs, maybe..?”

The crew exchanged some looks.

“Do we still have some..?”
“I don’t think so…”

Borsalino scratched his head in bemusement.

“Not very equipped for prisoners, are you..?”
“You’re not a prisoner,” Straw Hat grinned. “I just forgot I had you! We can drop you off at the next island or something.”

His carefree attitude did not seem to be shared by all the other members of the crew: some of them were giving him distrustful glances, showing a level of intelligence superior to their captain’s…not that the bar seemed very high.

“So you’ll let me go,” he decided to confirm, “just like that..?”
“Yeah!” Straw Hat exclaimed, before crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side. “Maybe. If I feel like it.”
“Which is it..?”
“I’ll know once we get there.”

The pounding in his head was not getting any better with these unclear conversations. Borsalino pressed two fingers against his brow in the hope of relieving some tension; he wished he could retreat to some silent area and lick his wounds in peace. A prison cell had sounded wonderful for the moment, but he should have known better than to expect the Straw Hats to even consider such a thing. All accounts of marines that had crossed paths with them had ended in the same way: they were an oddity as far as pirate crews went.

Even Sentomaru had readily forged an alliance with them to secure a safe escape for Vegapunk.

A shrill ringing cut through the air and felt like a spear embedding itself in his brain. The Straw Hats all jumped at the noise and soon all eyes were on him and, oh…was that his transponder snail?

The air which had been tense beforehand now felt positively electrifying, the pirates on edge as the snail kept ringing. Borsalino had no intent to make this worse for himself so he unclasped the device from his wrist and threw it towards Straw Hat, who caught it with a surprised exclamation before curiosity got the better of him and he popped the cover open. 

“My name is Monkey D. Luffy!” he proclaimed loudly. “The man that will become King of the pirates!”

His introduction received no reply: the small black snail kept sleeping in his hands and the ringing had still not abated, prompting the pirates to glance towards Borsalino’s direction once more.

“Ohh,” he said under the weight of their combined stares, realizing he had given them the wrong one.

He checked the pockets of his suit and fished out the real culprit this time around, throwing it to the Emperor once again. Straw Hat wasted no time in establishing the line and was taking a deep breath to repeat his previous introduction when the other side spoke first in a bellow that took Borsalino by surprise, though really he should have anticipated it.

“Borsalino!” Sakazuki’s voice rang loudly on the deck of the Strawhats’ ship. “Why the hell did you not pick up sooner?! I have been trying to reach you all day!”

Borsalino glanced up from the angry facial expression of the snail to the frozen one of Straw Hat when the Emperor stayed silent. The pirate was clutching his chest with one hand, fingers digging into the scar seared into his skin.

That explained where the X shaped scar had come from and why the boy had been sporting it since his return to active piracy. It had been Sakazuki, of course it had been Sakazuki, when the man had hunted him down after the death of Fire Fist and tried to give Straw Hat’s the same fate.

“Borsalino?” the fleet admiral called once more, a hint of concern slipping into his tone.

It sprung Straw Hat into action, the snail sailing back towards Borsalino.

“Ah… Sorry, I was…distracted,” he told his old friend as he caught it.
“Distracted?” Sakazuki growled in return, the worry easily morphing back into anger.

Borsalino turned his back to the Straw Hats and leaned against the railing of the ship, steeling himself for the conversation to come. It was not one he wanted to have with an audience…but there was no choice but to go through with it now.

“You better not be slacking off!” the other accused him, and whatever semblance of sanity he was still holding on shattered on the spot, the sharp edges of the shards making his vision flood with red. “The fleet has been looking all over Egghead for you -”
“Vegapunk is dead,” Borsalino cut him off abruptly, biting back with a snarl of his own. “Vegapunk is dead,” he repeated more calmly as Sakazuki did not fill the silence that followed his declaration. “Egghead is burnt to the ground. You think I-”

The words rushed to his throat and got stuck there, a sudden wave of indignation and anger sweeping him off his feet, heat bubbling under his skin. He had just assisted in the killing of a close friend and Sakazuki of all people had the audacity to..!

“You think I’m slacking off, Sakazuki..?” he growled. His eyes stung and it really wasn’t the moment to open these doors, but the hole in his chest was threatening to swallow him whole. “Then why don’t you go there and see for yourself, you damn ingrate!”

His outburst was met by heavy silence, both from the transponder snail and the people at his back.

Any other time he would feel annoyed at himself for losing his temper so badly and giving people a glimpse of what was below his usual persona, but he was far beyond thinking clearly. There was only pain now, in his flesh and in his bones, drilling inside his head and nesting inside his heart. He swallowed, the words hurting on the way out, feeling like shards of glass lodged in his throat.

“...That was my bad, brother,” Sakazuki finally said, tone soft and careful.

Borsalino could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Sakazuki had apologized to him across the years, and these did not usually involve the word ‘sorry’ or any variation of it. It was a genuine apology, one Borsalino should appreciate, but somehow it only served to make him angrier. Maybe it was the term of endearment, one bond empathizing with the loss of another and reminding him he had had to choose, or maybe it was simply because he had reached his limit.

“Just watch your mouth.”

There was another pregnant pause. Borsalino unfocused his eyes until the sea and the sky blurred in shades of blues, willing for the tears to resorb instead of letting them run free.

“Take your time,” Sakazuki added after a while. “Just…try to go back to the fleet. They were worried about you. Hell, take some leave if you want to once you’re back, and then we can -”
“I’m taking it now,” Borsalino cut him for the second time in their conversation.
“What?”
“The leave,” he said, feeling oddly numb. “I’m taking it now.”

Predictably, there was a small pause of bewilderment before the words sunk in and Sakazuki erupted again. Borsalino turned on his heels and tossed the snail back towards Straw Hat before phasing out and reforming at the top of the highest mast, tuning out the noises down below as he lay down on the small platform. The Straw Hats’ flag flapped in the wind, taunting him with a meaning far out of his reach.

He pushed his glasses up his head and hid his eyes below an arm, and finally let the tears fall.

“- you can’t just take it, Borsalino, there is a process for this!”
“Ah…” Luffy frowned at the small snail in his hands. “I don’t think he wants to talk to you anymore.”

The voice immediately cut off its rant as his own rang out.

“Straw Hat Luffy,” Akainu acknowledged coldly.

Hearing the admiral’s voice so close to him sent shivers down his spine. Sometimes when his dreams turned into nightmares Marineford would play out again in broken pieces, but after two years Luffy had started to forget what Akainu’s voice truly sounded like. He knew what he would hear the next time such a memory decided to plague his night, now.

“...Where is Kizaru?”
“He’s gone up, I think.”

The snail mimicked the noise of a heavy exhale.

“And where are you?”

Nami and Usopp were making crosses with their arms nearby, wildly shaking their heads. Which was funny, because it wasn’t like Luffy knew where they were anyway!

“On my ship,” he simply answered.
“Right.” Another exhale. “What are your demands?”
“My demands?”
“Isn’t this a hostage situation?”
“Hostage?” Luffy repeated, confusion seeping into his tone. What was Akainu on about? “No, why?”
“...What is Kizaru doing on your ship, then?”
“Ah, it was my mistake. I forgot I had him with me.”
“...So, he is free to leave?”

Luffy had told the admiral they would drop him off at the next island, but a part of him wasn’t keen on letting him go too soon. Kizaru had been an insurmountable wall, the cause of his crew splitting off for two years, yet thanks to that they had all become stronger to the point he did not seem so frightening anymore. If anything, Luffy was now curious. He was still frustrated over what happened in Egghead, but he clearly wasn’t the only one, which was intriguing.

“So he isn’t,” Akainu stated after Luffy kept silent, the snail’s frown darkening.
“Why did you send him on that mission?” Luffy changed the conversation. “He wasn’t happy about it.”
“Kizaru is an Admiral. It does not matter what he is happy about, missions take top priority.”
“Well, I don’t like it!” Luffy exclaimed. “I want him to be honest with himself, then he can go.”

There was a low rumble from the snail in his palm and his eyebrows shot up as he realized Akainu was laughing. The chuckle cut abruptly like the man remembered himself and who he was talking to, but his next sentence was still uncharacteristically friendly.

“Good luck with that, kid. Borsalino has never been honest a single day in his life.” Static crackled in the air, cutting the end of the words. “I could never figure out if it’s his fruit or himself, but indifference is wired into his DNA.”
“We’ll see,” Luffy took on the challenge.

The static worsened for a few seconds before it stabilized again.

“Looks like you’re getting out of range,” Akainu commented, his voice less clear than before. “Probably a miracle the call even connected in the first place.”
“Really?” Luffy looked at Robin.
“Baby transponder snails can usually only connect to inter-island calls,” the archeologist explained. “They must have used some sort of equipment to increase the signal range but we are still getting only farther from Egghead.”
“Uh.”

Silence fell again on the deck, only interrupted by the occasional static splutter, the noise louder and longer every time it happened. Neither of them knew how to close the conversation. If Luffy listened closely, he could barely make out the telltale intake of breath of someone wanting to say something more but whose words refused to come out.

Brother, the man had said. Luffy knew the feeling, deep in his flesh, his blood, his bones.

That’s why he opened his mouth once more before the connection cut off completely, earning himself horrified looks from his crew:

“Want our number?”

“Kizaru.”

Borsalino’s ears picked on the call over the rhythmic sound of the sea. His brain was still sluggish, his chest still strangely hollow. He removed his arm from over his face, his shoulder complaining before the muscles settled down, and blinked slowly at the sky where blue had made way for the warmer tones of a sunset, clouds still dotting the vast expanse above him.

How long had it been? His stomach was empty, but that had already been the case when he had found himself on the pirate ship. Weirdly enough, he was still not feeling hungry.

“Kizaru,” the voice repeated, strong and firm and coming from below.

He rose to a sitting position and massaged his brow with a sigh before putting his glasses back on his nose, before pushing himself to the edge of the platform so he could peek down. The deck of the Straw Hats’ ship was empty save for Jimbei, who gestured at him to come down when he saw he had his attention. Borsalino let himself fall as a trail of light and reformed before touching the deck, the grass another oddity to add to the list of the Emperor’s crew.

“Jimbei,” he nodded at the fishman.

The other was looking at him with piercing eyes, thankfully keeping his comments to himself. Borsalino knew he was quite failing at appearing his normal self, what with his tense posture even as he leaned back with his hands in his pants’ pockets, with his sunglasses hiding his eyes and only the shadow of a smile on his lips.

“Do you mind coming over for a bit?” Jimbei pointed towards the front of the ship. “I would like to have a chat with you.”

Borsalino shrugged. He followed the former warlord to the helm, where the other took place behind the wheel as naturally as breathing and adjusted the ship’s path ever so slightly.

“This is a very unique situation,” the fishman finally started after a while of them both watching the sea in silence. “Probably even more so for you than us. I’ll give you a tour of Sunny later on, but first we need to lay some ground rules.”

Borsalino hummed in agreement. He expected the basics, no fighting, no killing. No damage to the ship. Maybe it was too basic, because Jimbei skipped it entirely and said:

“You’re forbidden to go to the basement on the rear part of the ship. I expect you know already, but we have multiple people on board that are not keen on interacting with you.”

Oddly enough, Borsalino did not know. He had kept his attention on the crew in front of him at the very start and had purposefully blinded himself afterwards to stew in his own misery in peace, only mindful of a small area around him to prevent any potential issues.

It was easy enough to stretch his observation haki across the whole ship, small as it was in regards to the Navy battleships he usually sailed on. All presences were ones he was more or less familiar with but three stood out at not being part of the Straw Hats’ crew, and he knew why contact was undesirable as he honed on them.

“Duly noted,” he replied.

So, Lilith had survived. Between her and York, Vegapunk’s knowledge and creativity still lived on…though the man himself was sadly dead. It did nothing to soften that cold truth; the Satellites were born from Vegapunk but shared none of the personality Borsalino had liked in the man, even less the actual experience of spending time together, left with only memories that weren't quite theirs.

As for Bonney and Kuma… He had tried to kill them both. There was probably no salvaging that relationship.

“The men bunk together, much like in Marine’s ships, though I expect you’ve long had your own room. Franky says there is enough space in the storage room to set up a makeshift bed for a few days, as long as you don’t mess with anything down there. Unless you would rather stay up here, on the deck,” he added with a glint in his eye that said he knew what Borsalino would think of it.

While he had had many dubious lodgings in his past and grew used to dorms as he made his way up the ladder in the Navy, it had been a long time since Borsalino had indeed shared a room…at least with people he did not explicitly want there. He was used to a certain level of comfort and while staying awake for a few days at a time posed no issue there was no telling when they would reach an island…even less whether it would be inhabited or not.

“I’ll pass on that second offer,” he easily replied. “I appreciate, ah…Franky’s…suggestion.”
“Good, I’ll let him know. Now, here are the rooms that will be relevant to you…”

Jimbei gave him a cursory look of the ship’s layout, pointing to the doors and explaining which room they led to. The kitchen was bursting with noise when they walked past, the crew getting started on their dinner; Borsalino could feel Bonney and Lilith amongst the merry group. The overview was indeed fast: the kitchen and dining room, the…living room and its aquarium, the men’s quarters and the ladder that led down to the storage room, the library and the bathroom above.

Dinner was still ongoing when they made it back to the deck, though he could feel a few of the crew and their guests had relocated to another part of the ship, where Kuma had been painfully still for as long as Borsalino had had his observation haki up. Jimbei raised an eyebrow in his direction as he started to make his way there and noticed he wasn’t being followed, but Borsalino felt nothing but slight nausea at the idea of food at the moment.

“I’ll join you soon,” he assured the fishman.

He heaved a sigh as the door closed behind Jimbei, the glimpse of light and cacophony inside hidden almost as soon as it was revealed.

The night had fully fallen now, stars peppering the sky with their shine. Borsalino went to sit on the railing on one side of the ship and leaned his arms on his thighs, and stayed there in mindless contemplation of the waves below.

He only moved when he was alerted someone was walking close. He tilted his head towards the newcomer and recognized the shape of Black Leg, now back into the suit Borsalino knew he favored instead of the fun outfit he had been wearing on Egghead. Gone were the boots, too, but these would prove useless in any other areas anyway.

“Here,” the man said as he pushed something forward.

Borsalino blinked as he realized it was a plate filled with food.

“You’ll need to show up during meal times in the future or Luffy will eat it all. Don’t expect any kind of leftovers on this ship,” Black Leg warned, pushing the plate even closer as Borsalino failed to react.
“Thank you?” he finally replied, grabbing the plate offered. “Why go out of your way to keep me some..?”

Black Leg produced a cigarette and a lighter from his pockets and lit the stick up, leaning his back against the railing and getting a first puff before he simply answered:

“No one goes hungry on my ship.”

He fell silent after that, staying close by as he smoked. Borsalino brought his attention to the plate and the food filling it: a piece of meat coated with a thick sauce, along with some rice and colorful vegetables cut in small chunks. It smelled good and his stomach grumbled in response, so he grabbed the fork that had been placed on top and picked a piece at random with the intent to keep his body happy even though he did not care much for what he was eating.

He was not expecting strong flavors to fill his mouth the moment he started chewing, the plate now gaining his full focus.

Black Leg exhaled at his side, straightening himself up from where he had been leaning against the railing.

“Bring that back in once you’re done,” he nodded towards the plate. “Someone else is waiting for you, too.”

He was gone before Borsalino could swallow his current mouthful, leaving him confused as to whom that referred to. He shrugged it off, he would know when he got there. For now he hummed under his breath and wolfed down the plate; the Navy had no reason to be ashamed when it came to meals, boasting quite some talent in that department, but there was a familiarity in the taste of the dishes after many decades of eating the same recipes. That familiarity was nowhere to be found in the food he had been offered, the textures and flavors fresh and new.

It was almost too soon when he grabbed the last bit off his plate. He would definitely have to show up to meals if that was the quality that awaited him…

His food now finished, Borsalino swung his legs back in the ship and made his way to the upper deck where the kitchen was located. The room was cut in half, one side hosting the kitchen itself while the other boasted a table big enough for the crew to partake in meals together. Black Leg was washing dishes.

“Thank you for the meal,” Borsalino said as he approached.
“Just leave that there,” the other nodded to the stack of still dirty plates awaiting cleanup.

Borsalino did just that and turned on his heels after it was clear the pirate was focused on his task. What an odd crew, he thought, and almost stepped on someone as he made his way through the space.

“Ohh,” he backed off just in time to avoid the small creature.
“Ki-Kizaru,” Tony Tony Chopper stammered at first before steeling himself. “You fought Luffy, right?”
“Yes..?”
“Then, come with me!”

Borsalino watched him take a few steps towards the back of the room. His reaction was seemingly too slow for the other, who suddenly turned into a bigger version of himself and retraced his steps in half the time to grab Borsalino’s arm, before tugging him along with more strength than the admiral had been expecting.

He let himself be brought to an adjoining room that revealed itself to be the infirmary of the ship, small in size and boasting only a single bed but with books and medicine lining up the shelves along the walls.

“Sit here,” Tony Tony Chopper pointed towards the bed as he shrunk down and jumped onto the chair next to the desk, grabbing some tools before facing him again.

Borsalino remembered now: long thought to only be the pet of the crew, it had recently come to light that the zoan was their doctor.

“Where are you hurt?” he asked, stethoscope around his neck.
“Isn’t this counter-productive..?” Borsalino asked instead. “Surely healing an enemy your captain fought isn’t the smartest move…”
“I take care of everyone on this ship,” the doctor put his hands on his hips, his voice firm with a belief far beyond Borsalino’s comprehension. “It doesn’t matter who you are.”

First Black Leg, now this. Borsalino had known the Straw Hats were different, but he had never truly grasped what it meant; he was starting to now, as he sat down in an infirmary with an enemy’s doctor fretting over him while his stomach was full of food even a Celestial Dragon would not spit out.

“So? Where are you hurt?” Tony Tony Chopper asked again. “Maybe some pain somewhere? Or something that feels weird?”

Borsalino blinked at him. He crossed his fingers as he leaned on his thighs and decided there was no reason to keep his current state a secret; the Straw Hats had clearly shown they weren’t interested in fighting him.

“Light headedness,” he started with a blank voice. “Mild migraine. Sore arms, most likely bruised. A few cracked ribs.”

A broken heart, he did not say out loud. Pity medicine couldn’t quite do anything for that one.

“Really?” the doctor gaped at him. He wiped a stray tear from the corner of one eye as Borsalino nodded: “You’re the best patient I have ever had! No one ever knows what they are suffering from around here.”
“Is that so..?”

One learned quickly in the Navy that truthful, to the point symptoms were to the benefits of all. Doctors had an uncanny good instinct to sniff out liars, who would then be subjected to a series of tests that went far beyond their actual predicament as their word clearly couldn’t be trusted and there might be something still hidden. Rare were the repeat offenders. It was less trouble to simply go with the flow, not that Borsalino was a familiar face in the hospital wing outside of his regular checkups thanks to both his devil fruit and his fighting style.

“I’ve got some medicines for headaches here,” Tony Tony Chopper went to grab a few things off his shelves, placing them on the desk and giving Borsalino a side look. “Could I…check your ribs? Just to confirm they aren’t broken!”

Mhm, not a good liar, Borsalino thought as the other painfully failed to keep an earnest expression on his face. He had gotten enough cracked ribs and broken ribs during his time as a marine to know how one felt versus the other to have half a mind to argue back, but the day had been long enough and he would rather just wrap this up. Whatever goal the doctor actually hoped to achieve had little chance to be nefarious anyway.

He unbuttoned his jacket first, then loosened up his tie and slid it off his neck, placing the fabric to the side before finally opening his shirt.

The Straw Hats’ doctor had an exclamation of surprise and leaned forwards with a frown on his face, eyes raking up and down what was exposed of his body.

“You look healthy,” he accused, taking Borsalino aback.
“Thank you..?”
“I mean, you did eat all of Sanji’s food… But it seemed like you were going to skip dinner and you felt way too light when I brought you here!”
“Ohh,” he blinked in understanding. “That’s just my fruit. I always keep myself light on my feet…”
“Really? Isn’t that draining?”
“Does it drain you to stay in one form over another?”
“I guess not,” Tony Tony Chopper tapped his chin. “Logia are fascinating… So you can control your weight at will?”
“If I want to… I could stand on you and you would barely feel a thing.”
“Crazy..!”

Borsalino started to button his shirt back up. The doctor did not stop him, dropping any pretense of wanting to check his ribs.

“I think zoan are pretty interesting, too…” Borsalino hummed. “All these animal instincts… Speaking of which, what are you? Some kind of raccoon dog..?”
“I am a reindeer!” Tony Tony Chopper immediately snapped.
“Ahh, so you are… That explains the antlers.”

He had thought they were simply part of the hat, but apparently not.

“Is that your human-beast form?” he asked, finding himself curious about the creature. “Odd for a reindeer fruit, isn’t it..?”
“No, I am a reindeer,” the doctor corrected. “I ate the Human-Human fruit.”
“The Human-Human fruit,” Borsalino repeated with a pleasantly surprised gasp. “The basic one, no model?”

His question received a nod for answer.

“I always wondered if it truly existed… It would be completely useless for a human. Lucky you, eh?”
“So there are more fruits like mine? With models?”
“There sure are… Sengoku’s power is one, the previous Fleet Admiral. Oh, and your captain, I guess…”
“Luffy?” the reindeer frowned. “Luffy has the Gum-Gum fruit.”

They looked at each other in silence for a beat.

“Right?” the doctor pressed.
“Ah…”
“He does not?!”
“I thought you were already aware,” Borsalino shrugged. Sakazuki wasn’t going to like that. “What with his latest form…”
“Luffy is a zoan?! I need to tell him!”

Tony Tony Chopper jumped down his chair and hurried to the door, only freezing with his hand on it.

“Ah, but it’s late… I’ll tell him tomorrow,” he muttered to himself. “Oh! Franky said he will make you a bed tomorrow, too,” he added towards Borsalino. “You can sleep here tonight.”
“That’s nice of you,” Borsalino thanked him, triggering the doctor to rub the back of his neck and shake his other hand in his direction.
“I’m not nice, dumbass!”

He watched the creature sway on his feet for a few seconds with a grin on his face and decided not to question it. Then the doctor in him took over again and he went back to the desk to grab the medicines he had previously pulled out, opening one to get its content.

“Here,” he gave Borsalino one pill. “That should help with your migraine. Keep away from bright lights, too. If it’s still giving you trouble when you wake up tomorrow morning you can take one of these,” he pointed to the other box he left on the desk.

He put the first container back on the shelf and cleaned up a few other things in his workspace before announcing he was going to bed and that Borsalino should do the same, taking his leave from the infirmary and closing the door softly behind him.

The silence was a welcome change after the highly energetic end to their conversation. Borsalino wasted no time in turning the light off and plunging the room into darkness, removing his glasses and massaging his temples. He removed both his marine coat and his jacket and draped them across the back of the doctor’s chair before lying back on the bed and closing his eyes.

A cursory look at the ship through his observation haki told him that about half the crew was still active, the rest bundled up in the sleeping quarters. Two of the members were clearly keeping a lookout; he was glad to see that at least the Straw Hats were traditional in their navigation…even if they were wildcards in about almost everything else.

The influx of information was not helping the pounding in his head, so he dropped his focus and gave sleep a go instead.

While a light sleeper, he usually did not have much trouble making the most of the time allowed for his rest, but this time around sleep eluded him like smoke between his fingers. Vegapunk’s face kept flashing behind his eyes, his voice cutting, saddened, frustrated. His pleas had fallen on deaf ears on Egghead and were haunting him now, the sealed fate of his friend leaving a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

In the dark of the night he couldn’t help but throw the blame around, even though he knew deep down there was really only one person responsible. It did nothing to appease the burst of anger at the scientist for dipping his toes into the forbidden water that was the Void Century, when he had been working with the Navy, with the World Government, when he had already been caught making dubious deals in the past and still thought he could hide it all. Then there was the matter of York, of Vegapunk’s own blindness towards his personified greed, when a genius such as him should have seen that coming.

It wasn’t fair, of course.

The anger left him as quickly as it came, like it always did. It left only resignation behind, an emptiness as wide as the darkness surrounding him. 

Sleep came in fitful bursts as he kept tossing and turning.

He gave up after what felt like an eternity, thinking some fresh air would do him good, pushing his admiral coat to the side and slipping out of the small bed. The infirmary had a second door which he expected to open directly to the outside from what he had seen of the ship, and was indeed greeted by the cool night air when he turned the knob. The night was silent, the sea only a soft background noise as they moved through peaceful waters, and Borsalino leaned his hands on the railing to enjoy the breeze and peer at the stars shining overhead.

“Having trouble sleeping?” a woman’s voice rang behind him.

He turned towards its origin, easily locating Nico Robin on the upper deck above the infirmary and kitchen area. She was looking at him with a neutral expression, though the corners of her lips tugged upwards as they made eye contact.

“Your eyes glow in the dark,” she remarked. “Like a cat.”

Borsalino instinctively brought one hand up to adjust his glasses only to grasp at nothing; he had removed the shades to sleep and had not thought to grab them on his way out.

“So I have been told,” he acknowledged the woman up top.

He had made many people jump in fright across the years, especially other marine recruits sharing the same space as him; his fruit made him much more sensitive to light in all of its forms and he had no problem moving around at night from the soft glow of the moon or the stars. Pitch black darkness proved no issue either, as he would simply bring his power out and provide his own light when required.

The sunglasses had been a gift from Sakazuki. They kept his eyes dark enough not to surprise other people with a sudden flash with only a minimal loss of light from his side.

“Do Marines sleep well after a Buster Call?”

Her eyes were as dark as the night surrounding them, maybe darker even still. The subject wasn’t a surprise, considering who she was and what she had been through. Borsalino supposed she probably did not sleep well until long after her island had been burned to the ground.

“Most do.”

Kuzan had not. Ohara had been the rock that made him trip and he never quite recovered from his fall, his drive and his beliefs cracked under the weight of the World Government’s expectations. He and Sakazuki had barely tolerated each other before that and never saw eye to eye on any subject after, leaving Borsalino to fill the space between their disgust and hatred.

He left Nico Robin to her silent vigil, her eyes following him as he walked round the corner, but as he expected she stayed put to keep her attention on the back of the ship for any trouble coming from the waters.

Her shift partner was the renowned Soul King, up front at the bow with the helm. Borsalino watched him shake his head and tap his foot in an unknown rhythm, the hum of a song being worked on carried over by the wind. Many in the Navy had been distraught over his return to piracy after his two very successful years as a popstar, enough to sway the team in charge of printing bounties to make his wanted poster like another one of his concerts. Of all the rookies and their crew Borsalino had seen on Sabaody he was certainly the most peculiar creature, right before what he now knew was a reindeer having eaten the Human-Human fruit. The other pirate crews had been so painfully boring apart from their captains… Maybe Borsalino would grab an autograph before leaving the Straw Hats. He could already picture people’s confusion if he framed it on his desk or on the wall of his office…

Soul King soon stopped his humming and started sipping on a cup of tea. Borsalino took it as his cue to head back to bed, only to discover that the door leading to the kitchen was not properly closed as he walked past. Curious, he nudged it open and slipped inside in silence.

Soft grunts of exertion greeted him inside, coming from the kitchen half of the room. He approached, light on his feet, and couldn’t help his smile as the shadowy figure soon revealed itself to be none other than Bonney in her adult form, swearing under her breath as she fought with the lock on the huge fridge at the back of the room.

“Gnn..! Stupid..! Lock..! Let’s see if you like it if I do this -”
“Night snack?” Borsalino called out.

Bonney whipped around with the terrified look of someone caught red-handed, her hand already in motion even before a single noise could escape her. Announcing his presence before getting this close would have been a good idea to avoid triggering her fight or flight response, when between the two there was only one right answer for a fiery personality such as the girl, but he had not expected to get such a strong reaction out of her.

Her punch did not have much strength behind it, not when she was in a safe space on an ally’s ship, but it did not have to: Borsalino realized too late that it was coated in her powers, when he had not bothered to shift to light. Her knuckles touched his leg and the effect was immediate, a wave of energy coursing through his body in a way he had never experienced before, and then with an exhale pushed out of his lungs he suddenly found himself looking up at her when he had very much not been beforehand.

“Was that really necessary..?” he complained as his clothes pooled around him, his sleeves now way too long for the shortness of his arms and stopping him from trying to adjust how his shirt fell around his shoulders.

He squinted his eyes as Bonney suddenly brandished a flashlight, the glow illuminating the kitchen.

“Kizaru?!” she was clutching her front like her heart was threatening to come out of her chest. “What - What are you doing here! Wait, I thought you weren’t supposed to talk to me!”
“I am explicitly forbidden to go down where you’re residing, but they never said anything if you were to come up,” Borsalino clarified.
“That’s cheating and you know it!”

He shrugged.

“So… Stealing from your friends..?”
“I wasn’t stealing! I just wanted to see if -” she cut herself in the middle of her sentence, curling on herself before adding quietly: “I just wanted to see if there were leftovers, in case Daddy wakes up.”
“Oh…”

Something heavy sank into his stomach. It only worsened as Bonney’s eyes flashed in the dark, as she leaned forwards to tower over him the same way he had been doing to her mere moments ago, making him feel small and trapped.

“Why did you try to kill him?” she asked, anger and grief fighting fiercely to take over one another in her tone. “Why did you try to kill me?” she added as he stayed silent. “I thought… I thought you liked us.”
“I do,” he tried to say.

He wasn’t sure the words actually made it out, not when there was suddenly a lump in his throat, not when shame stole his voice. He did like them, stupidly so maybe when he had known his role in the situation, the guard dog overseeing an imbalanced deal and expected to run back to its master at the slightest hint of deception. He had long since learned how to keep private matters and professional missions separate, in his mind and in his heart, but it meant nothing when his body was back to his childhood and lacked the proper walls and locks to make it work.

“Did these six months mean nothing to you?”
“Of course, they did!” he rushed out.

Too quickly, maybe, as Bonney only frowned. He cursed her power; it slowly dawned on him it wasn’t a mere physical transformation but that it was his past self given flesh, and while he had all his current memories it was getting clear that any quirks he had at that age would resurface.

“Of course, they did,” he repeated slowly, taking his time with each word.

He had most likely been brought back to the time when he had first eaten his fruit, when he had no idea what kind of power he had just gotten his hand on. It had taken him time to understand people did not experience the world at the same speed he could, that if left unchecked his words blurred together in a mess of noises others had no chance to make sense of. It had been a constant effort to slow his speech down until it became a second nature, and by the time Sakazuki pointed out he spoke in a lazy way it had been too late to undo years of habit. Not that he had minded: he rather preferred to force people to pay attention to him instead of getting shunned, giving himself time to gather his thoughts while giving an impression of confidence to those around him. He had found power in it, to command attention, to taunt enemies, to break tensions when things got too serious.

It was a chore to remember how to enunciate the syllables now, after so many years of barely giving it a thought. At least it worked, Bonney’s frown clearing as she understood him this time around.

“Then why?” she pressed.

He had no answer for her but the prickling in his eyes and emotions too strong to be contained in this small body of his.

He realized he had dropped his gaze down when Bonney’s palm wrapped around one of his shoulders and he snapped his eyes back up to her face, the expression there unreadable in his state. More power coursed through her palm and down the whole length of his body, though he did not grow any smaller than he already was.

“What… What did you do?” he asked as she let him go, a satisfied smile now on her lips.
“I loaded you up with as much power as I could! It’s gonna take some time for you to age back to your old self.”
“What?” he exclaimed in confusion as she side-stepped him and headed out of the kitchen.

He almost tripped on his discarded clothing in his haste to follow her, grabbing the bottom of his shirt to help him move around.

“Bonney!” he called out, and maybe there was a plea in her name.
“I hate Kizaru,” she told him quietly with her hand on the door knob. The rest of his complaints died in his mouth. “But… I liked Borsalino, then.”

The door closed after her and bathed the room in darkness now that her flashlight was gone.

Borsalino’s chest was hurting anew, more painfully than it had before. He blinked and blinked but the dark stayed suffocating, his eyes only catching as much light as a normal human, if maybe slightly more, but nowhere near what he had grown used to. He felt around to make his way back to the kitchen and grab the rest of his clothing before slowly walking along the walls to get back to the infirmary, finding the door knob there after a few tries. Getting himself on the bed seemed like an insurmountable task so he tugged his marine coat down and curled in its center, wrapping the fabric around himself and closing his eyes.

You’re a sad man, Kizaru, Vegapunk had said.

He was tempted to agree.

Chapter Text

Borsalino woke up to sounds in the adjacent room.

He had always been a light sleeper, even more so in his childhood when he had to keep an ear out to ensure his safety. He had lived in a broken-down shack on the outskirts of a town that had enough trouble keeping itself alive to care for one more orphan wandering its streets. Bandits and pirates alike often stopped by in search of a dry place to spend the night, sometimes even days at a time, forcing him to hide outside and come back once they were gone.

What little of the sky he could see from the window of the door opening to the outside told him the sun was rising, warm hues erasing the dark of the night.

It was most likely Black Leg preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Borsalino did not know much about the man but he had been kind enough the previous evening, so he felt fine showing up in his current…state.

He had hoped Bonney’s powers would have run their course during the night, but it became obvious soon enough that they had not when he sat in a sea of white cloth that dwarfed him to an absurd degree. From what he remembered most officers afflicted by an age change had returned to normal after a few hours, a few days at most for some cases, but she had been clear that she had made sure it would be as slow as possible for him. Was it days they were talking about? Weeks? He would have to clarify this with her.

For now, he took the time to roll the sleeves of his shirt as much as possible, though the ends still dropped lower than his hands when he stood up. He wasn’t tall enough to fit the length of the shirt, even as some sort of dress, so he managed to grab his tie and used it as a belt to make sure he would not trip over the fabric as he walked around. The result felt terrible and probably looked even worse, so it was with a deep sigh that he made his way to the kitchen to plead his case to the cook.

Black Leg was humming to himself as Borsalino crossed the dining room and turned the corner of the counter to the kitchen, head in the fridge as he took out ingredients. He did not react as Borsalino stopped at the start of the area, and not for the first time Borsalino wondered if none of the Straw Hats ever kept their observation haki activated on their ship.

“Mr Vinsmoke,” he called out, careful with the way he spoke to be intelligible.

The pirate turned on his heels with a disgusted expression on his face.

“Do not call me tha-” Black Leg hotly said before stopping abruptly, his disgust morphing into pure confusion as his eyes dropped down and landed on Borsalino. “Where did you come from?”
“From the door..?”
“I meant - ! Wait a second…”

Black Leg crossed the distance between them in a few steps and crouched down.

“Kizaru?” he exclaimed after examining his face for a few seconds, eyes suddenly going wide.
“Ohh, you could tell?” Borsalino waved at him with his too long sleeve.
“You’ve got the same eyes. That smug grin, too,” the cook listed. “What happened to you?”
“Bonney,” Borsalino shrugged as the other came to the same conclusion even before he said the name.

He gasped as a hand shot out and grabbed him by the arm.

“What did you do to her?!” Black Leg growled.
“Nothing! I just saw her last night. She wanted some food.” Borsalino smacked his free hand on the pirate’s face and tried to push himself free. When he got no results he had no qualms about trying again with both his feet against the other’s chest. “Let me go..!”

Black Leg finally released his grip and Borsalino went skidding to the ground with his next tug. He landed on his back with a huff and sat back up while massassing his head, glaring at the pirate who had closed his eyes in concentration.

“Seems like you are not lying,” he said after a beat, opening his eyes again. “She is fine.”
“I just told you so…”
“Why are you still a child?”
“...She did not want to revert it.”
“Really? That’s tough. But if that’s what Bonney wants, I guess you’re stuck for a while!” Black Leg laughed. “It isn’t so bad, actually,” he added after a beat. “You certainly look less threatening that way.”

Borsalino sighed and pushed himself up.

“By any chance… Is there any…kid sized clothing laying around the ship?”

Black Leg eyed him critically.

“Yeah, I suppose that wouldn’t do,” he muttered to himself, before adding in a normal tone: “Chopper should be about your current size, I can let him know once he is up.”

Borsalino perked up at the news. He had not thought about the doctor...but it definitely sounded like his best bet. He thanked the pirate and turned on his heels, only to be stopped by the other’s voice before he left the kitchen.

“Hungry?” Black Leg asked him. “I can whip something up for you before I get started with breakfast. On one condition,” he added as Borsalino looked back in interest, “never call me by that name ever again.”
“Isn’t it your surname?”
“Never was. I disowned that family a long time ago.”

Borsalino hummed. The concept of family was not one he had ever been familiar with; he could barely remember his own parents as more than vague, shadowy silhouettes.

He left the kitchen as the pirate started to look into the fridge anew and eyed one of the chairs at the dining table. It had been a long time since he needed to climb something to reach what he wanted, his adult height giving him a natural advantage and his fruit opening up even more options to move around. He was no longer tall right now and he dared not use his powers so soon, unable to trust himself not to blow a hole in the ship; he had not discovered he could travel at light speed until his early teens and it had still taken him a few years to get the proper hang of it. Luckily, his younger self had been quite proficient at climbing anything and everything and the muscle memory kicked in without any trouble as he grabbed on the chair, scaling it in a few swift motions even hindered as he was by his current clothing.

He knelt on the seat and watched from afar as Black Leg got busy in the kitchen. It bored him quickly enough, a restless energy coursing through his veins, so he shifted his position on the chair and started swinging his legs back and forth while waiting for his meal before his brain caught up and he forced himself to stay still. He closed his eyes and tried to see how terrible his haki now was to pass the time; he knew the steps by heart, knew the feeling of the energy both of himself and of others, but this time around it was his body that could not keep up with his mind.

Going through the motions and reaching out towards Black Leg made his head spin more violently than he had been expecting and he barely got a reading on the pirate before he found himself clutching his chest, out of breath as cold shivers raced down his back.

Wonderful, he thought as he slumped against the back of the chair. It had been a long time since he felt weak and vulnerable, and he had not missed it.

His darkening thoughts were immediately forgotten as a plate was placed in front of him, three rice balls the size of his hand neatly aligned on the porcelain. The sight of the dish made his heart squeeze as Sentomaru was brought to the forefront of his mind, yet at the same time the familiarity of the shapes gave him an odd sense of peace.

Borsalino dug into the food as Black Leg took a seat opposite him, sitting sideways but keeping an eye on him.

“Good?” the cook smiled in a way that said he knew the answer.
“Next time you get a raise on your bounty,” Borsalino raised his head to look at the other, “I’ll make sure the name on your poster is updated.”

Black Leg blinked at him, surprise written all over his face.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he chuckled. “Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”

Borsalino was finishing his third rice ball when the door to the room opened, Black Leg whistling in the background as the pirate cooked breakfast for his crew. He froze mid bite as Nico Robin and Cat Burglar's eyes fell on him, the weight of their combined gazes heavy on his small frame.

“What..?”
“Oh, Nami-san, Robin-chan!” Black Leg greeted from the kitchen. “Breakfast is almost ready, I’ll be there in a sec!”

Borsalino swallowed the rest of his food as the two women sat down, one curious and the other cautious, their confusion slightly tempered by the fact their crewmate was acting normally.

“Sanji!” Cat Burglar exclaimed, Black Leg whirling around as he heard his name. “Why is there a child here?!”
“Ah! You see…”
“It’s the Admiral, isn’t it?” Nico Robin smiled at the other woman, who sputtered in response.
“Kizaru?!” she said in disbelief, before leaning across the table and scrutinizing his face long enough to make him squirm. “Actually, I kind of see it. What happened to you?”
“Bonney…” he simply said.

Their gazes sharpened.

“You did not do anything to her, did you?” Cat Burglar asked in a threatening tone.
“No…”

He wondered how many times he was going to repeat the same things that day. He was already getting tired of this conversation.

She made a noise at the back of her throat but leaned back in her chair, seemingly taking his word for it. He sighed and pushed his empty plate away from him.

“Kind of cute, isn’t he?” Nico Robin suddenly commented, taking him aback and making warmth gather in his cheeks.
“Uh?” the other pirate glanced at him again. “I guess..?”

His hands moved instinctively, going up the sides of his head to grab onto his hat and bring it down to hide himself. He only remembered he was very much not wearing a hat when his fingers curled on nothing, but it was too late to abort the motion and he stayed frozen in the air for a beat before Cat Burglar burst out laughing.

“You’re right,” she nudged her crewmate. “He is cute!”

This time around, Borsalino hid his face in his hands.

A knock against the infirmary’s door made Borsalino perk up from where he was lying on the bed.

“Kizaru?” Tony Tony Chopper’s voice came from outside.
“I’m in here,” he confirmed as he sat up.

The reindeer slipped inside with a bundle of clothes in his hands, his eyes growing wide as he closed the door and had a proper look at Borsalino.

“You’re small!” he gasped. “I mean, Sanji told me you would be a child, but I thought you would be bigger since you’re pretty tall as an adult.”

Borsalino scratched his head. It was a fair assumption and yet he had been a pretty standard height until his early adult years, when he and Sakazuki had suddenly grown until they towered over everyone else. Not that they had paid much attention to it until they enrolled into the Navy, keeping mostly to themselves and not seeing the difference when they were both hit by the same growth spurt.

“Here, they should fit you,” Tony Tony Chopper offered the clothes he was holding.

Borsalino took it gratefully, unfolding the bundle to reveal a tank top and a pair of shorts similar to what the pirate was currently wearing. He wasted no time trying them on as the doctor turned to his desk and grabbed a notebook to scribble away some notes.

“How is your headache?” the reindeer asked as his pen scratched the paper.

Borsalino paused from where he was trying to keep the shorts secured around his hips, the size slightly too big for him. Now that the doctor was bringing it up he realized he felt perfectly fine: gone was the headache, as were the dull aches in the rest of his body, even his ribs had not protested his repeated climbing on furniture so far.

“I don’t have one anymore,” he answered. “It must be part of Bonney’s powers…”

It made sense, if he was truly back to his past self. So far everything lined up to confirm that hypothesis, from his lack of control over both his haki and his fruit to this unexpected recovery.

He wondered if the injuries he got along the years would show up as he aged back.

Now fully dressed, with his tie still fulfilling the role of a makeshift belt for now, he followed Tony Tony Chopper outside where the sun was already shining bright onto the deck of the Straw Hats’ ship. Most of the crew was hanging there: Nico Robin and Cat Burglar were sitting at a table with a book for the former and a newspaper for the latter in hand, Pirate Hunter cleaning one of his swords on one side of the deck with Soul King at his side, Jimbei and God Usopp looking with concern at their captain.

Straw Hat was the most peculiar sight, face down on the grass in a limp position, blabbering unintelligible words that were barely audible.

“Come on, Luffy,” God Usopp crouched down to pat his captain’s back. “It isn’t so bad, is it? It’s still a cool power!”

Borsalino turned to the doctor at his side with a questioning face, getting a grimace in response.

“I told Luffy about what you said yesterday, about his fruit,” the reindeer explained. “The others knew already, Vegapunk told them the Gum-Gum fruit did not exist.” Then, in a whisper: “He is having an identity crisis..!”

With a defeated noise Straw Hat rolled over and kicked his feet against the ground.

“All my moves are named after the Gum-Gum fruit!” he complained loudly. “What do I look like now?! This can’t be right!”
“Luffy…”
“No, Jimbei! It’s like… It’s like someone suddenly told you you weren’t a fishman at all!”
“No, no”, God Usopp deadpanned with a shake of his hand. “That is not similar at all.”
“It is! Gnnn!”
“Yohohoho,” Soul King joined in. “Look on the bright side of things: at least you got to know before you died!”
“I did not want to know!”
“Sorry, Luffy,” Tony Tony Chopper hung his head low. “I shouldn’t have told you…”
“Nonsense,” Cat Burglar interjected. “We would have brought the subject up at some point anyway! It was only a matter of time.”

Straw Hat’s eyes grew wide as he turned his head towards the reindeer and found Borsalino there too. His arms stretched to grab on his shoulders, the weight of his hands light against his body.

“Kizaruu,” he cried. “Tell me that’s a joke!”
“Ahh, sorry… I am afraid that’s the truth… Didn’t Bonney say anything?”
“Bonney? Why?”
“Because she knows you…”
“Of course she does,” the pirate frowned. “We’re friends!”
“The Admiral is talking about your power, Luffy,” Jimbei cut in gently. “Nika, is that right?”

Borsalino nodded.

“Nika?” Straw Hat repeated. “What’s that?”
“The Sun God,” Borsalino explained. “It’s a mythical zoan.”

The hands dropped from his shoulders at the mention of a zoan fruit, the Emperor’s dropping right back down on the ground in unhappy grunts.

“Ha!” God Usopp suddenly pointed at Borsalino with a confident smile on his face, clearly deciding to ignore the way his captain was flopping on the ground at his feet. “You’re smaller than me now! You better not try anything, you hear, or this time I’ll kick your ass!”
“Come on, Usopp,” Cat Burglar sighed as she turned the page on her newspaper. “He’s a kid.”
“That’s what I am saying!”
“Usopp is right,” Pirate Hunter joined in the conversation, prompting all eyes to turn towards his direction. The man stood up, looking at the shine of his sword before his sharp gaze landed on Borsalino. He approached with slow, measured steps, until he was close enough to point his weapon at him and added in a serious voice: “You sure about this, Luffy? This is the best opportunity to get rid of a strong opponent.”

If the Emperor replied, Borsalino could not hear him. In fact, he barely made out the last sentence from the swordsman, his world suddenly reducing itself to the weapon baring its teeth in front of him, to its pointed tip and the harsh reflection of light on its sharp edge.

Understood, boy?, a voice echoed inside his head.

He could feel the bite of the metal deep into his shoulder, tearing apart skin and flesh, stopping just shy of bone. He was choking on blood and shivering from rain-soaked clothes, his fingers too weak to do anything but cut themselves on the blade until red coated his hand.

You owe us, the man had said, towering over him in a frightening shadow with crazed eyes and rotten breath. You should be glad. You should be thankful.

Do it again.

Talk slowly, boy.

Do it again.

Instincts took over. The light burst from his skin as his heart threatened to jump out of his chest, as he stumbled back on shaky legs and collided with something hard -

His back against the wall with no escape, the pirates cornering him with annoyed faces.

“You sure you wanna keep ‘im, capt’n? Fucking brat ain’t pulling his weight at all.”
“He will.”

There was a hand on his shoulder with a thumb brushing the back of his neck, solid and warm, grounding without feeling suffocating. Borsalino blinked and the scene before his eyes rearranged itself from the dark, bleak hold of a ship long burned to ashes to the bright, soft grass of the Straw Hats’ own vessel.

“Can you hear me now?” Tony Tony Chopper moved into his field of view. Borsalino only then became aware that the doctor was holding one of his hands between his hooves. “Good, take a deep breath and then exhale…slowly…”

Borsalino tried to follow the instructions but his heart still felt like it would fall out of his mouth at any moment. His skin felt clammy.

“What did you do to set him off like that, idiot mosshead?” Black Leg’s voice rang close to him. Borsalino realized the hand on his shoulder belonged to him, and that it was probably the man’s legs he had bumped into previously in his haste to get away from the sword pointed at him.
“Nothing!”
“I know your face is terrible to look at but that seems like an extreme reaction -”
“Why, you - !”

The two men’s bickering faded into the background as Borsalino closed his eyes and followed the doctor’s advice, taking deep breaths to stabilize his thundering heart and shake off the tremors in his limbs. When he felt solid enough again, he put an apologetic smile on his face and pushed down the emotions threatening to spill outside his frame.

“Sorry,” he told the crew as a whole, feeling quite self-conscious with all their gazes fixed on him. “Could you wait until I am a few years older to threaten me with a sword..? It is quite…triggering at the moment…”

His fear of sharp edged weapons had faded once he learned he was not as helpless as he thought, and by his teens he did not blink at them anymore. He had forgotten about this dark, deep fear, this part of his life but a blur of memories with little standing out except for a depressing blue and the scent of rotten, humid wood. How long has it been since he thought about these years, since the fear was fresh enough to keep him in a chokehold and follow him during sleepless nights?

“Why are you afraid of swords?” Straw Hat asked, his own crisis forgotten in favor of blunt curiosity.

Borsalino contemplated his answer. He decided there wasn’t anything worth hiding, not when he had already shown the scars of his past self.

“Pirates,” he simply replied.
“Like us?”
“No,” he frowned. “Real pirates.”
“We’re real pirates!”
“No, you’re not really.”
“Yes, we are!”
“You’re not,” Borsalino repeated, and there must have been something in his tone, deeper, darker than he had wanted, because the Emperor closed his mouth from where he was going to keep arguing. “Real pirates -”

The words rushed too fast and got stuck in his throat, a whirlwind of anger and disgust raging in his head. He shook off the hand on his shoulder and freed his own from the doctor’s grasp before looking at Straw Hat Luffy dead in the eyes.

“Real pirates lie, hurt and kill,” he told him. “They steal and they rape and they burn towns down to ashes. They laugh while doing it and they gloat about it afterwards. They don’t -”

His chest heaved.

“They don’t try to help old men who want to escape,” he finished in a whisper.

In the silence that followed, Borsalino turned on his heels and headed for the stairs leading back to the kitchen, feeling too raw. He kept going until he reached the back of the ship and sat down against the wall there, bringing his knees up his chest and wrapping his arms around them, hiding away from the world.

He had forgotten these feelings, too. He had forgotten he had cared about these things, once upon a time, that he had enrolled in the Navy alongside his friend because it was a cause worth fighting for, before lives became numbers on paper and his presence on a battlefield was tightly controlled by powers with different priorities. The appealing idea of making a change had slowly morphed into a working routine, where his time and energy was more so put towards gauging what was expected of him and making sure he would hit the required result to avoid complaints than trying to push for a cause. Not that he never went out of his way to do things unrelated to his orders, sometimes potentially slightly related, toying with the line as he saw fit in depending on his mood, but these had become the exceptions and were usually more self-serving than out of any goodness of his heart.

Was it shame sneaking its way up to his chest now?

He closed his eyes and hid his face in his lap, shivering in the shadows of a morning sun.

“Oh, here you are!”

Borsalino looked up from where he had been placidly looking at the sea, jumping slightly as Straw Hat’s upper body dropped from the deck above and stretched to get to his level with a bounce. There was a big grin on his face and a fishing rod in one of his hands.

“Wanna fish with us? Sanji says we need food since there are more people on board than usual.”

Borsalino blinked before shrugging. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do, and getting lost in his own thoughts had proven to be exhausting.

“Sure,” he offered a smile in return.

Which was how he found himself sitting on the side railing of the ship in the company of the Emperor, God Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper, holding a fishing rod after getting some rudimentary explanation of how it worked. God Usopp was telling a grand tale that had his two crewmates positively hooked up; it reminded Borsalino of the single story book he used to own as a child and which he poured over so many nights that he grew to know it by heart.

The story was approaching its climax when he felt his rod give a tug, so he turned his full attention onto the sea and tried to make out the shape of the fish that had bitten his bait.

“And then,” God Usopp spread his free arm dramatically, “the monster said -”
“Ohhh,” Borsalino answered in his place as the creature below tugged once again, this time with enough strength that his frail child body was no match.

He flew into the air, hands still firmly attached to the fishing rod, while at its other end a huge fish jumped out of the water with the clear intent of gobbling him up.

“Ah!! Kizaru!” Straw Hat Luffy’s voice rang behind him.

A fist came punching the fish out of the way, but since the bait was still hooked on its mouth it only served to propel Borsalino a bit further out at sea as he followed the creature’s path, prompting more alarm back on the ship. He looked at the rapidly approaching water and wondered if he should try to bounce off it before ultimately deciding against it: shifting his entire being into light had not been a skill he got the hand off so early on in his life and it took him quite a few years to control his trajectory when reflecting off surfaces once he did unlock it. The Straw Hats had shown they wanted him no harm so far, even if some members of the crew would have preferred otherwise…so he could only hope they would not let him drown either.

He crashed hard against the waves, the impact stealing the air from his lungs before the cold waters embraced him. His entire body was soon subjected to the deeply familiar sensation of a weakness he could not shake off, of a lethargy that beckoned him to simply let go. It had been a long time since he was subjected to it to such an extent…but a devil fruit user never truly forgot how the sea felt.

His vision blurred and the next thing he knew he was coughing out water on the grassy deck of the Straw Hats’ ship.

“Really?” Black Leg was wringing water out of his shirt close by, glaring at the trio of would-be fishermen. “Who thought it was a good idea to let the kid fish? You know the size of the things out there. It could even have been a sea king!”
“Sorry…”
“At least we got some food!”
“And you,” Black Leg turned on him once Borsalino was done hacking his lungs out. “Shouldn’t you know your limits in that form?”
“I did not think…it would be that big…”

Black Leg sighed and shook his head.

“Why did you not turn into light?” Straw Hat inquired curiously as Borsalino also tried to get some water out of his own clothes without bothering to remove them.
“I can’t…”
“What? But you’ve got your fruit. You used it before!”
“It wasn’t intentional…”
“Now that you mention it,” Black Leg mused aloud as he put his shirt back on, prompting Borsalino to wrinkle his nose at the idea of willingly having cold, wet fabric against one’s skin, “you did not use it when I grabbed you this morning either.”
“Is it related to your fruit being a logia?” Tony Tony Chopper asked. “I could transform pretty much right away when I ate mine.”
“Yeah, me too!” Straw Hat nodded, before tilting his head in thought and amending: “My punches were pretty bad for a while though… Hey, Robin! What about you?”

The archeologist looked up from her book on the other side of the deck.

“I figured out how to make different parts of my body grow after a few months, but I could do hands from the start. I just had to work on my stamina to increase their numbers.”
“See!” the Emperor grinned at him. “You can use yours too, if you try!”

He wasn’t wrong, Borsalino could probably use it and with better control than he would have at that age. But unlike zoans or Nico Robin’s paramecia, his power had the potential to be lethal with the slightest mistake and he wasn’t keen on gambling on his current mastery of the fruit.

He knew what such an accident could look like, after all.

He had eaten the Glint-Glint fruit by mistake, not even wasting a single bite of it even with its admittedly terrible taste because food had been scarce at that time and he had been lucky enough to get an old box of food on the verge of going bad. He had not realized it had given him powers until a month later, and had then exclusively used them as a substitute for his lamp when he wanted to keep reading at night. Oil was expensive and saving on that front had been a blessing, allowing him to direct his meagre finances to food or more reading materials.

Then he had discovered he could hold the light at his fingertip and release it… At the time he had thought it would be useful when trekking at night, not yet understanding the strength of the powers given to him.

“I am just…being cautious,” he told the Emperor. “I could easily blow a hole in your ship and no one wants that…”

He could easily blow a hole in one of his crewmates, too, but he kept himself from mentioning that. As strong as the Straw Hats were, it was always a struggle to evade an attack no one saw coming…especially when the one causing it had no intention to do any harm in the first place.

The pirates he had killed that one time certainly did not manage it.

Neither did the civilians, which had even less chance of coming out unscathed.

He remembered standing stock still, his clothes sticking uncomfortably to his skin like they did now, the rain pouring on his frozen frame as bodies dropped in front of him and did not get up again. The soft splatter of the drops had been a roaring sound in his ears in the sudden absence of screaming human voices, his light still reflecting in the water as if taunting him for his mistake.

He had still been standing there when the rest of the pirate crew had turned up to check on their friends. The captain had taken one look at the scene and figured out easily enough that a devil fruit had been at play; he had grabbed Borsalino in exchange for the lives lost and had thought he would be able to tame both him and the power in his veins.

He had never put foot on his home island since, and had avoided fighting in the rain at all cost to this day.

“Yeaah,” Straw Hat grimaced. “That wouldn’t be good.”

The conversation about powers was dropped then, the group turning their attention to the big fish floating dead next to the ship with Black Leg announcing he was going to get some knives from the kitchen so they could cut it and eat it for lunch.

“Kizaru,” Cat Burglar motioned for him to come close to the table she was sharing with Nico Robin.

He stood up and obediently approached, only for her to materialize some sort of staff and do some odd motions with it.

“This will dry you up,” she explained as some reddish bubbles floated around him, the air turning warm at their contact.
“What about me, Nami-swan?” Black Leg interrupted in a dejected voice, turning on his heels from where he was going to the kitchen.
“Idiots don’t catch colds,” she sniffed, but sent a few balls his way to his delight.

The bubbles around Borsalino expanded and made contact with his body, the heat they generated taking away the wet feeling of the sea before disappearing.

“Nami!” another voice joined the conversation, oddly childish and unknown to Borsalino. When he looked up it was to see that Cat Burglar’s weapon was spitting out a dark cloud with a face and a tiny hat, which for some reason reminded him of something...  “Do you need me for anything?”
“It’s okay, Zeus, I just needed some heat balls.”
“Oh, alright.”

The cloud went right back inside the staff and she put the weapon away, and that’s when it hit Borsalino:

“Isn’t that one of Big Mom’s powers?” he raised his eyebrows at the pirate, who grinned in return.
“Not anymore! I stole him from her.”

He whistled in admiration. She certainly lived up to her epithet; stealing from an Emperor was no small feat and to get a source of power out of it was an amazing play. Big Mom was a pretty temperamental pirate, one that was more brawn than brain, so it wasn’t too difficult picturing someone outsmarting her…though managing to escape her afterwards was certainly not an easy achievement.

“That’s impressive,” he honestly praised her, and her grin only widened. “Is he the one generating these bubbles you made?”
“Mmh, no, these are Weatheria technology.”
“Weatheria..?”
“A Sky island I spent some time on,” she explained, though she refrained from going into more details.
“Ohh, a sky island,” Borsalino nodded. He did not need to know more anyway, he had just been curious. “How fun…”
“Have you ever been to one, Mr. Admiral?” Nico Robin asked.
“No… They are hard to reach, so the Navy doesn’t bother with them…”

Which was kind of a pity, because from the little retellings he had heard of the places it sounded like a nice trip.

“You’re missing out!” Straw Hat exclaimed from where he was helping with the fish. “We had great fun on one.”
“We almost got fried!” God Usopp smacked him.
“Yeah…” Cat Burglar sighed. “It was quite stressful at times…”
“But you got the Waver out of it,” Nico Robin told her.
“That’s true!”
“What’s a Waver?” Borsalino asked.

Cat Burglar blinked at him before tapping her chin thoughtfully.

“Why tell you,” she finally said with a smile, “when I can show you? It’s been a while since I went for a ride with it!”

She stood up from her chair and walked purposefully towards the center of the deck.

“Jimbei!” she called out to the fishman at the helm. “Can you activate Channel 1?”
“On it,” the former warlord immediately replied back.

Borsalino then watched her open a hidden trap door in the floor before she made a sign for him to follow. He went down the ladder after her and found himself in a peculiar circular room with numbered doors along its wall, a hidden mechanism making them turn until they settled into a specific position. The door with the number 1 painted on it opened to reveal a small water enclosure with some sort of vehicle inside, another door behind it in the process of lifting up and giving directly onto the sea outside.

Borsalino paled as Cat Burglar jumped inside the hull of what he supposed was the Waver he had been told about and confidently grabbed the handles.

“...You do realize I just had a close call with the sea,” he deadpanned as the small boat rocked with the waves.
“There’s nothing to fear,” she grinned back. “I could ride it with my eyes closed!”
“I would rather you did not…”

She offered a hand to help him climb in. He felt way too close to the water surface when he was finally standing inside, wondering whether he was supposed to stay up or sit down.

“You can hold onto me if you need to. Ready? Here we go!”

He had been thinking about not doing so, thank you very much, but came to understand he did not exactly have a choice when the vehicle jumped forward at breakneck speed and the only thing saving him from going overboard was to indeed wrap his arms around the pirate’s leg.

Everything was a blur of blue before they slowed down and Borsalino could look at the scenery without feeling his own legs would betray him. The pirate laughed as she caught a wave and rode it smoothly, Borsalino’s stomach dropping with the motion. He started to get a feel for the rocking of the vehicle and released his hold on Cat Burglar, keeping his hands secured to her but trying to follow the movement of the sea instead of being tossed around by it.

“So, what do you think?” she called out to him over the roar of the water and the propulsion of the boat, like she had not felt his terrified heartbeat against her leg mere seconds ago. “Fun, right?”

They were already quite some way from the main ship. Cat Burglar turned them slightly so they would circle around it and not stray too far, settling into a cruising speed that was surprisingly enjoyable.

“I like it,” he decided as they rode another wave and it still felt electrifying, and she answered with a noise of approval.

As a navy officer he was used to sailing in big battleships that were extremely stable and forgiving even for new recruits, unless a bad storm was brewing, so it was a totally new experience to feel the shape of each wave on a calm sea such as this one. They did one lap around the pirates’ ship in comfortable silence, the wind rushing past as the sun made the sea surface shimmer and sparkle; it felt like a moment out of time, even more so than the rest of this overall odd experience with the Straw Hats.

“I used to hate pirates, you know,” Cat Burglar broke the silence after a while and Borsalino’s attention sharpened back to her instead of wandering amongst the waves and the clouds. “My hometown was attacked by a pirate crew who decided to establish a base on the island and ruled over us by fear. In a way, I still hate that kind of pirates - but I know they are not all like that. I hated the Marines, too,” she added in a lower voice, “even though my mother had been one. The ones stationed around Cocoyasi were too weak to stand up to Arlong and bowed to him instead to get into his good graces.”
“Oh… I am sorry.”
“What for? There are no high-ranking officers in the Blues. If the captains there were lying to their superiors, then there was no way for you to know about it.”
“Maybe…” he conceded, though the bitterness in her voice made it clear what she thought about it. “But I could have killed him instead.”

She slowed the Waver to a stop to turn towards him with bunched eyebrows.

“Arlong?”
“I was the one to arrest him, uh…about ten years ago? It was just after the death of Fisher Tiger… He got sent down to Impel Down and was ultimately freed when Jimbei became a Warlord, which I suppose is when he went to the East Blue…”

He remembered the pirate, if only because he had rarely fought fishmen across the years. Arlong had been pathetically weak otherwise, going down with a single shot, barking way too loud about how humans were disgusting creatures for how disappointing his bite was. Borsalino was not surprised he had decided to go to the weakest Blue to torment innocents as a form of revenge between their two species.

What was surprising was the fact that Cat Burglar had history with Arlong when Jimbei was also on the Straw Hats’ crew, since the fishman had clearly put no stop to his peer’s actions.

“It doesn’t matter,” she finally replied, turning back to focus on driving the Waver again. “In the end, it’s not your fault, nor Jimbei’s. And,” her voice grew lighter once more, “I wouldn’t have met Luffy otherwise! Or any of the others.”

She put an end to the conversation by revving up the boat and launching them at high speeds across the water, Borsalino forgetting about formulating a reply in favor of clinging to her once more in surprise.

In the end he avoided falling into the water a second time but still found himself quite drenched by their antics chasing the waves, Cat Burglar using her weather powers to dry both their clothes when they made it back to the ship. The smell of cooking was strong when they reached the main deck, most of the crew already around to wait for the upcoming lunch; even Bonney was there, looking her actual age, and she put her hands on her hips and pouted at Cat Burglar when they exited the trap door.

“Why does he get to have some fun?” she pointed at him.
“We can go together after lunch,” Cat Burglar smiled at her, prompting the girl to worry her bottom lip instead of immediately agreeing to the offer.
“Go have fun, Bonney,” Iron Man lightly flicked her head. “We’ll take care of your dad! You can tell him all about it afterwards.”

Borsalino wondered what they were trying to do. Vegapunk had managed to sneak in some modifications to the cyborg that had evaded Saint Saturn’s cautious eye already, so maybe there were more hidden features to be revealed that Lilith was aware of. He himself was pretty clueless on the subject; he had made sure not to be around for the heavy technical talks or the actual operations, knowing it would only put Vegapunk on edge.

And the less he knew about it, the less he could relay to the Five Elders when asked about the current status of the project.

Black Leg came out with plates of food and they all dug into their lunch with enthusiasm. It reminded him of his time spent at Egghead, before it all came crashing down, and even Black Leg’s cooking skills did not erase the bittersweet taste in his mouth at the memories.

“Hey, Kizaru,” someone called out to him as lunch came to an end. It was Iron Man Franky, who leaned over him with his massive body. “I whipped you a bed in the storage room this morning, you can go check it out! …Well, you might be swimming in it at the moment since I built it for your adult self, but it should be fine.”
“Ohh, thank you..!”

Tony Tony Chopper and God Usopp accompanied him to have a look, the former because he was curious and the latter because he apparently wanted to keep an eye on Borsalino. The makeshift bed was pretty simple, a hammock safely secured to the ceiling with a pillow and cover neatly placed inside; it was high enough that he couldn’t reach it even when with a jump, as he discovered to his embarrassment while the other two were around. He definitely made a noise of surprise as God Usopp lifted him up without any issue and helped him get in.

“Franky also brought your stuff here,” Tony Tony Chopper let him know, pointing to one side of the room as Borsalino peeked out of the hammock, where his regular clothes were indeed stacked up on a chair. He made a mental note to use the furniture to get in and out the bed until he was tall enough not to need it.

The ship was quiet when they emerged back on the deck.

Borsalino spied Jimbei and Soul King at the helm, Nico Robin was still reading at her table while Straw Hat was sighing enviously close by as he looked out to the sea where Cat Burglar and Bonney were zipping through the waves on the Waver, Pirate Hunter taking a nap at his captain’s side. The rest of the crew was not in sight: he expected Black Leg to be busy in the kitchen and Iron Man to be back with Kuma and Lilith.

Tony Tony Chopper yawned.

“I’m going to take a nap…” he announced before walking right back into the men’s quarters.

God Usopp joined his captain to ohh and ahh at the girls out at sea, so Borsalino approached Nico Robin and the newspaper he had seen Cat Burglar with earlier this morning.

“Do you mind…if I read this?” he pointed at it.

The archeologist looked up from her book, her eyes sliding to the newspaper before focusing back on him.

“Help yourself,” she waved at the available chair at the table.

He climbed on it, standing up on his knees so he could read the paper more easily, and spread it open in front of him on the table. He ignored the front page for now, experiencing a sudden bout of cowardice at what surely awaited him there; he doubted there would be any kind of picture showing Vegapunk’s dead body…but he did not have the courage to face it just yet. Instead he immersed himself in the rest of the stories, reading about the events currently shaking some parts of the world with a pinch of salt: as efficient as Morgans and his reporters were, they had a tendency to shroud the truth or outright lie when it suited them. Still, biased information was better than no information.

He was midway through reading the paper when Cat Burglar and Bonney came back. The younger girl started some kind of game with Straw Hat and God Usopp and they ran around the ship while shrieking as Cat Burglar approached the table. Borsalino suddenly felt conscious he was probably in her seat and moved to give her the place back when she raised a hand to stop his motion.

“You can stay here, I am going to take a bath,” she announced, moving her hand up to her head to try and detangle some of her locks. “I can feel the salt in my hair!”
“You have a bath?” Borsalino perked up. “Can I use it?”
“You want to clean up?” Cat Burglar asked to confirm, and she gasped as he nodded. “Yes! Of course! How often do you want to?”
“..How often can I do it?”
“As often as you like. It uses a system that drains and purifies the sea,” she clarified as he tilted his head, “so water isn’t an issue!”
“Ohh, in that case… Everyday?”
“Everyday?” she repeated in disbelief, before turning to the side and miming catching a tear out of one of her eyes to his growing confusion. “Everyday..!”

Nico Robin chuckled from her side of the table.

“Most of the crew only shower every so often,” she explained. “Sanji is the only man who does it everyday.”
“I have to keep a schedule for Luffy and Zoro or they would keep going without for longer,” Cat Burglar sighed. “Sure, they take dips in the ocean, but it’s not exactly the same.”

Borsalino made a face. It was definitely not the same.

“Well, you’re welcome to use it any time you like,” the pirate continued. “It doesn’t lock but there is a sign you can turn on the door to signify it’s occupied. The boys might be rowdy but they are mindful of everyone’s privacy.”

It was a relief to know he would be able to keep up a regular hygiene as he travelled with the Straw Hats; marine battleships were outfitted with a similar system to use the ocean as the main source of water thanks to Vegapunk’s redesign a few decades ago, but he had not expected to find that kind of technology on a pirate ship. He supposed he had rarely been in a position where he would pay attention to such elements anyway, and after what he had seen of the Emperor’s vessel nothing should surprise him much…the ship was known for even flying away, after all.

The afternoon sun weighed heavily on the back of his neck as he kept reading through the newspaper, and after a while the words started to blur together in a mess of inky black as his eyelids dropped.

When he next blinked his eyes open he was greeted with wooden planks above his head instead of the open sky. He sat up with sleepy motions and rubbed his eyes before taking into his surroundings: he was in one of the lower bunk beds in the men’s quarters, the light filtering through the windows telling him that the day was nearing its end.

A snore made him jump out of his skin and he turned back to discover that he had been using Straw Hat as a pillow, the pirate still deep in sleep with an open mouth and half his limbs sticking out of the bed. He decided not to dwell on it: he had absolutely no recollection of ending up in the room anyway.

He jumped down and stretched his arms before making his way to the door. The deck was empty when he strolled out, and as he had gauged the sun was starting to set on the horizon. He watched it for a while before heading to the helm in the hope of finding Jimbei; the fishman was indeed still at the wheel, though he was currently sitting down and reading a small book, giving the sea the occasional glance to confirm its state.

“Oh, Kizaru,” he greeted as Borsalino approached. “Is Luffy still asleep?”
“Mhm,” he nodded, wondering how he could ask why the Emperor had been sleeping in the same bed as him.

Jimbei sensed his confusion, because he elaborated further:

“He offered to put you to bed, but he has a tendency to black out without warning. He is always getting into others’ space, too,” he added with a chuckle. “Never stays in his own bed, that one. As for you, I guess your body just needed the rest. You might want to wash up now, I am afraid some of the newspapers found a way to your face.”

Borsalino immediately touched his cheeks and watched with horror as his fingers came out slightly stained. He reddened as Jimbei laughed heartily.

“Actually… I wanted to ask you about that,” Borsalino told him once he had his embarrassment under control. “Can you show me the way to the bath?”

The former warlord stroked his chin.

“Would you mind me accompanying you? I don’t feel comfortable letting you go there on your own in your current state, especially since you are a devil fruit user.”
“Sure,” he shrugged.

He had shared enough baths and showers in his lifetime not to be bothered by Jimbei’s cautiousness. Still, he was starting to think that he could not grow quickly enough; the Straw Hats’ friendly, almost babying behaviour towards him was definitely getting weirder by the hour and while he did feel quite powerless in his child form, he was not used to such careful supervision.

Jimbei pocketed his book and had them make a stop in the kitchen first to let Black Leg and God Usopp know that the wheel was currently unmanned in case anything happened. Then, they climbed the ladder up to the upper deck and made their way to the building at the back; the door opened to reveal a circular room with bookshelves lining the wall in-between the windows and Borsalino gaped in awe at the amount of books stored there.

“We’re going to the bath, Nami,” Jimbei said as he approached another ladder. “Usopp and Sanji will keep an eye on the wheel.”

Borsalino whipped around to see that Cat Burglar was indeed sitting at a desk at the back of the room. She did not even turn back towards them, too busy writing into her book.

“Sure thing, have fun!”

Borsalino followed Jimbei with a slight reluctance; he would have liked to check the kind of books the Straw Hats had on their ship. He resolved to ask Cat Burglar about it later on.

The bathroom was located just above, wide and spacious and with a window giving a great view of the sea. Like the rest of the ship it was practical yet full of personality, cleverly designed, well loved and well maintained.

Borsalino wasted no time in stepping out of his borrowed clothes, grabbing a seat to shower and looking at the products available with interest. Jimbei followed suit, placing aside some towels to dry themselves up once they would be done bathing, before getting a small amount of soap and gesturing for Borsalino to turn around.

“Here, let me remove that stain for you.”

Borsalino leaned slightly forward, not that the fishman needed it, and closed his eyes as Jimbei used his thumb to clean up his cheek.

“Somehow,” the other said as he worked, “I can’t decide if you are too trusting or if you just don’t care if anything actually happened.”

Borsalino blinked his eyes open once the touch left and did not come back.

“Too trusting?”
“You don’t even realize it? We never interacted much when I dropped by Navy Headquarters, but I know this is not how you usually behave.”
“Ah… Bonney’s powers, I suppose.”
“Because she de-aged you?”
“Mhm… It’s difficult to explain. Has she ever used her fruit on you?”
“She has, actually. She also made me a child.”
“Ohh, did she? Do you remember how it felt?”

Jimbei’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. Borsalino swung on his stool to grab some soap and started washing himself this time around.

“Not really, I am afraid,” Jimbei settled on after a while. “It didn’t last long.”
“Ah, well… It’s not that I am not aware of…how I am acting. It just feels - normal. Natural. Like I am really back to my past self.”
“So you were trusting as a child?”
“I guess so! Don’t worry, it won’t last long. I learned quickly enough.”

He was almost done cleaning his body when Jimbei’s hands pressed against his head and started rubbing at his scalp to wash his hair. A surprised giggle fell from his lips; he had half a mind to clamp it down, keenly aware how it was out of character following their previous conversation, but ultimately decided he did not care. He would be back to his old, weighed down self soon enough, he could have fun in the meantime.

Even if it meant having someone supervising his bath time, which proved to be a smart decision by Jimbei when Borsalino did manage to slip under the water halfway through and was fished out coughing and spluttering.

The day came to an end quickly after that, the bath making him drowsy and wishing for a bed. He fought the sleepiness all the way until dinner, of which he did not remember much, and followed Tony Tony Chopper to the men’s quarters once it was done. The doctor had been kind enough to postpone his usual bedtime the day before to give him a check up, and he had decided to make up for the lost hours by retiring early.

It was only when Borsalino closed the hatch lid behind him as he got on the ladder to the storage room that he became aware of one big issue: unlike the men’s quarters, the room below sported no windows and he had no idea where the light switch was. Darkness enveloped him as the hatch closed shut with a soft click and he froze where he was on the ladder, his heart suddenly beating faster as another old, forgotten fear reared its ugly head.

The easiest solution was to use his own powers; in fact, lighting his room at night had been one of the main applications of his fruit for a long time, both for reading after sunset and to keep at bay the monsters he couldn’t help but picture in the dark. He grew out of it after meeting Sakazuki, the other boy a warm presence even back then, solid and strong in a way that had appeased any illogical fear.

There was no Sakazuki now. He was worried he would only succeed in blowing himself up if he was to try and make a light ball now or worse, the Straw Hats’ ship, because while it had never happened in the past he had not known his fruit’s capacity for charging and exploding at that point... These days, it was almost all he ever did with it.

The surrounding darkness had woken him up from his lazy daze anyway, so he decided to backpedal: he quietly pushed the hatch open and sneaked out of the men’s quarters on his tiptoes to avoid bothering Tony Tony Chopper.

The crew was still mostly in the kitchen from what he could see, but he did not expect it to stay that way for long. He climbed the stairs leading to the front of the ship, wanting some privacy as he…trained to make light balls. Innocuous, totally safe light balls.

He crouched by the railing and opened one palm.

The first ball was shy, flickering rapidly out of existence. He put more power into the second one, which floated for a few seconds before disappearing with a bigger flash, spiky in a way that told him it would probably have shocked anyone coming into contact with it. He made a few more and started to get a feel for it, distant muscle memories kicking in as he kept them round and dim, no bigger than his palm.

He had been charging his last one with the intent of it fizzling out in about a minute when a voice startled him.

“What are you doing?”

His concentration broke and he gave it too much power too fast, the sphere brightening as sparks flashed around it; he got a bad feeling and leaned forward to push it out of the ship and into the emptiness of the sea around. A hand came to grab his shirt in a strong, unyielding grip, effectively stopping him from leaning too much in-between the railing’s spindles. He was firmly tugged back and the only thing that prevented him from landing on his butt was that same grip keeping him upright. In the distance, his little ball died with a few rings of light and a flash.

“So?” the voice repeated, and Borsalino craned his neck up to the Straw Hats’ swordsman.
“...Training?”

It might not have been the best choice of words, because the man’s eye immediately narrowed.

“For what? Weren’t you supposed to be in bed?”
“Well… To sleep…”

He could see the gears turn in real time in the pirate’s head.

“Sleep? With a light? Wait - Are you afraid of the dark?”
“Ironic, isn’t it..?”

He was put back on his feet and let go, the other crossing his arms with a frown on his face.

“Why are you training for that?”
“Well, I am just trying to make sure I haven’t forgotten how to do it… So I don’t accidentally create a…laser, I suppose.”
“And that requires you almost flinging yourself overboard?”
“You surprised me,” Borsalino pouted. “I wasn’t going to fall.”

He got a skeptical look in return before Pirate Hunter sighed.

“You’re overthinking it,” the man told him bluntly. “Just make a light like you used to.”

Borsalino blinked. It sounded easy when put like that. He had not yet tried trusting this body with his power, too caught up in his mind and his desire for control, but he supposed he had nothing to lose in giving the pirate's suggestion a go... He opened one hand in front of him, clearing his mind and focusing on how it felt to be a child again, and simply believed in himself. The light shone on his palm, the sparks merging together until they formed a perfectly round sphere; it was an exact replica of the one from his memories and he immediately knew it would do the job required.

“See?” Pirate Hunter nodded at his creation with the ghost of a smirk on his lips, clearly pleased he had been right.

His job done, he turned on his heels and started making his way down the stairs. Borsalino watched him walk away and oddly thought there was something wrong with his silhouette, so he squinted his eyes at the pirate's back to figure out why. He gasped as he realized what was missing and jumped after the other.

“Where are your swords?” he asked, curious about their absence. He knew how swordsmen treated their prized weapons.
“In the lookout tower.”

Which was probably where Pirate Hunter had been before and where he was heading back to now.

“Why?”
“You said you weren’t comfortable around them.”

Borsalino froze on his step. The other wasn’t even looking at him, simply waving a hand as he kept walking.

“Go to bed,” he said as a farewell, jumping on the ropes and starting to climb up the mast in swift motions.

Borsalino watched him disappear inside the structure in barely a few seconds, clutching his small, perfectly inoffensive light to his chest.

“Thank you,” he whispered into the night.

Chapter Text

“Oof,” Borsalino twitched in his sleep as he was elbowed in the gut. “Watch it, Saka…”
“I’m not ‘Saka’, dumbass,” a voice that was decidedly not his friend's replied.

He forced his eyes open with a noise of confusion, shaking off the deep sleep he had been in, and was greeted by Bonney’s appreciative face right next to him.

“Your bed is huge!” she commented in a half-whisper, where even her added presence did not fill up the available surface. “Why is it so big?”
“Because I am going to be big…” he said, pushing himself up towards a sitting position as his brain suddenly caught up with the situation. “Wait, what are you doing here? What time is it?”
“I don’t know, probably like, the middle of the night.”
“What?”
“Shhh,” she put a finger in front of her mouth. “The others are still asleep!”
“Wh- You know what, I don’t actually care,” he let himself drop back down.

The hammock bounced slightly with his motion and drew a giggle out of the girl, who decided to follow suit and lay on her back at his side.

“Why do you have a light?” she asked next.

Surely enough, his little sphere was still hovering above his bed and keeping the darkness at bay. While he did not mind its presence, it did not feel soothing in the way it had the previous evening; he supposed he must have aged enough not to need it anymore.

“It helped me fall asleep.” Then, a thought struck him: “How did you manage to come all the way here if it’s still nighttime?”

Bonney grinned proudly and brandished a small flashlight in her hand, the same one she had been using that first night in the kitchen.

“I’ve got my own light! It’s better than yours.”
“Ohh..? How come?”
“I can turn it off when I’m done with it. Yours is blinding me,” she complained while putting a hand up to protect her eyes.

Borsalino hummed. He pulled on the light, catching it in a fist as it neared close enough, the darkness immediately regaining its territory until he opened his fingers and let loose smaller sparks, their light soft like faraway stars in the night sky. Bonney gasped as they flew up and stayed close to the ceiling, illuminating the room in a dim glow.

“They are like fireflies,” she whispered with awe in her voice. “...Without the insect part.”

She watched the lights in silence for a while and Borsalino felt sleep take hold once more, his eyelids dropping lower with each blink.

“So?” He asked her again, prompting another conversation before he fell victim to the luring appeal of just closing his eyes. “Why are you here..?”
“Just wanted to see how old you were. I’ve never used my powers that long before.”

He couldn’t quite bother to give himself a cursory look but from how he felt, he guessed he was most likely in his teenage years, or close to it.

“You could just revert me back,” he tried his luck.
“Ha, no way! It’s more fun like that. You’re enjoying it, too.”
“Am I..?”
“Aren’t you?” she countered.

Borsalino thought about what should have been: him securing whatever remnants of a fuming Egghead, facing the probable wrath of an Elder infuriated about their loss, then bringing back the fleet to their headquarters and getting pestered for reports. Even with the same heavy heart, he wouldn’t have gotten more than a day of rest before having to assume all his usual responsibilities. After all, there was no space for injuries that were not physical, and he always remained generally unscathed from his missions.

“Maybe it’s a nice change of pace…” he conceded.

They fell silent once more. He was halfway through falling asleep again when Bonney nudged him.

“Can I stay here..?” she asked in a whisper that betrayed her own sleepiness.
“Sure,” he answered in that same tone of voice.

He felt her reaching out to hold onto his arm as his eyes closed and did not open again, blissful darkness welcoming him back.

“Borsalino.”

He sighed as a hand pushed him, rolling over to face the other side.

“Borsalinoo,” the voice repeated, refusing to let him fall back asleep.

It took a few seconds for his sleep-addled brain to match it with a name and a face, and then the memories of the night came back to him. Right, Bonney. Bonney who was way too energetic for a morning, especially after the way she had previously interrupted his night. He groaned as the hand came back and shook him vigorously by the shoulder.

“Bor-sa-li-no-” she kept going, so he flipped over again to glare at her.
“What -”
“I’m hungry!”
“...Can’t you just go to the kitchen by yourself?”
“Ehh it’s no fun that way. You should come too! I’ve heard people move upstairs, so it has to be time for breakfast.”

He sighed once more, though it was in defeat this time. Bonney whooped happily and swung herself off the hammock, Borsalino following at a more sedate pace.

“Aw, man, I can’t believe you’re taller than me already!” she complained as he called back the small lights still floating on the ceiling and made a bigger one for them to see their way out of the room. A snort immediately followed as she looked him up and down before pointing at their respective bodies and announcing with a laugh: “We match!”

Borsalino dropped his gaze down to himself and soon understood what she meant: the clothes he had borrowed from Tony Tony Chopper the day before were starting to look quite ridiculous as he grew up, the shorts barely covering his thighs and the top stopping at his midriff in a mirror of the girl’s outfit. At least they still fit him; he was glad he had always been on the leaner side.

“You might need new ones before the end of the day,” Bonney kept sniggering.
“Why do your clothes change sizes with you, but you couldn’t do the same with mine?” he complained.
“Because it’s my power? Also, it’s really funny that way.”

She made a beeline for the kitchen as soon as they climbed out of the storage room and was already neck deep into food when Borsalino crossed the threshold of the room, her pace matching Straw Hat’s next to her. Lilith was sitting across them, her face taking on a slightly horrified expression as she watched the two pirates devour their plates while God Usopp and Soul King were chatting amongst themselves without paying it any attention, probably more than used to such a spectacle.

Borsalino hesitated at the door as he sighted the satellite. His aborted motion only served to catch her attention and they looked at each other in silence for what felt like forever before she slammed her hands down on the table and stood up. He flinched at the noise while the other two gluttons looked up at her with questions in their eyes.

“I am going back to the lab,” she announced. “Bonney, you can come whenever you want, alright?”

The girl nodded, her mouth too full for an answer. Lilith strode out of the room then, passing him by without acknowledging his presence; Borsalino watched her disappear with a pang in his chest and a growing sadness in his bones.

“Oh, you’re just in time!” God Usopp called out.

Borsalino turned back to the inside of the room to see that he was the one being talked to; the pirate waved for him to come closer and taped the table as a sign to sit down.

“You better hurry up,” he advised. “These two are going to eat the rest of breakfast otherwise! We probably need to fish again today, yesterday’s catch is almost all gone…”

It would have been unbelievable considering the size of the fish that had tried to gobble him up if Borsalino wasn’t aware of how much food both Straw Hat and Bonney required on a daily basis. Even now they were eating their way through piles of dishes big enough to hide them entirely from view.

He did as told and grabbed some of it before it disappeared for good.

“Going for a new style?” Black Leg questioned with a smile on his lips as he sat in one of the free chairs, prompting Borsalino to jump once more. He was starting to miss his observation haki.
“What..?”

The pirate wordlessly nodded towards him and his admittedly small clothes.

“Yohoho,” Soul King chuckled in turn. “I think it suits him.”
“It’s like me!” Bonney interjected in-between bites of food, prompting God Usopp to give Borsalino a more focused lookover.
“You’re right,” he gasped. “You’re like twins! Do you want some suspenders to complete the look? I’ve got some you can borrow -”
“No, thank you…”
“You sure? The girls definitely have some knee high socks, too…”

Black Leg snorted on his right.

“I would rather borrow some of yours,” Borsalino told him.
“Really? How come?”
“You’ve got taste.”

It was more like the pirate wore suits, which was what Borsalino was used to now, but the compliment still did its job: Black Leg was taken aback in pleasant surprise and nodded in agreement.

“Boring,” Bonney commented.
“Suits are nice,” Borsalino argued back.
“No, they are bo-ring!”
“You just need to add a dash of color…”
“Yeah,” she raised her eyebrows. “I heard all about your ‘dashes of color’...”
“What does that mean?”
“Sentomaru always said you were shit at color coordinating. Didn’t Vegapunk refuse you entry because you were a walking rainbow?”
“It only happened once…”

The girl gave him a dubious look.

“You’ve got a yellow suit,” Straw Hat grinned as he gnawed on some meat.
“It matches my alias…”
“It was more colorful before, wasn’t it?” Black Leg mused aloud. “I think I remember a green shirt.”
“Oh, and a pink tie!” God Usopp clapped his hands.
“Wasn’t it red?” Soul King added.
“It was purple…”
“See! Yellow, green and purple!” Bonney listed. “Isn’t that a lot without neutral tones?”
“Well… They had meaning…”

The main color was the obvious one, of course. He had made sure both Sakazuki and Kuzan had followed the same dress code as they were promoted to Admiral rank so they could present an united front, as neither was known for having the most…refined fashion sense. It had still been a losing battle to try and get Sakazuki to drop the standard issued cap and a sleeping mask had soon made an appearance on Kuzan’s forehead.

He had not been oblivious to the tensions stretching between his two fellow admirals, as much as they kept matters professional; he had smoothed things over more times than he could count, from petty squabbles to more intense arguments. Maybe it had been a foolish wish for harmony that had made him choose the green shirt and the purple tie along with the orange sunglasses Sakazuki had gifted him many years ago, mixing the blue and red and yellow together and keeping the results close to himself.

Not that it had mattered, in the end.

He had not even bothered to try and keep the same unity with Fujitora and Ryokugyu, letting the bitterness soak into his clothes and darken their tints. Sure, he liked them well enough, curious about Issho’s different sense of justice and entertained by Aramaki’s short fuse, but they had been strangers. Still were. He kept his own walls up, his smile never reaching his eyes hiding behind dark lenses, and pretended he was fine with this arrangement.

It was what it was, after all.

Issho was probably not fooled, not with his constant use of observation haki, but he was respectful enough not to bring it up. Aramaki disliked him anyway, for a myriad of reasons that started and ended with Sakazuki.

“Where is Cat Burglar?” Borsalino asked as breakfast wrapped up and they helped pile the now empty plates and brought them to the kitchen to be cleaned.
“You mean Nami?” God Usopp frowned. “She is probably in the surveying room.”

He headed there next, finding the pirate hunched over a desk at the back of the room. She did not react to the door opening so he cleared his throat to announce his presence and she whirled around in her chair to look at him. Her eyebrows immediately raised on her forehead and he crossed his arms over his chest, not that it would help anything.

“I know,” he told her in the hopes she would not make further mention of his current outfit. “Black Leg said I can have some of his clothes later.”
“Yes,” she fought back a smile, “that would be for the best. Do you need something?”
“Could I…borrow some books?”
“You like to read?” At his nod, she turned back to her work and waved her hand in the air. “Help yourself. I’m afraid there isn’t a system to distinguish between genres or topics, everyone just puts theirs wherever there is space.”

He beamed, not that she could see, and immediately went to the closest shelf. He wasn’t a picky reader, finding both fiction and academic books fascinating; he used to have a craving to understand how the world worked, both in a physical and a political sense, up until he enrolled into the Navy and got to get a glimpse of reality. Novels had been his go-to since, an escape from everyday duties, though his days spent alongside Vegapunk had rekindled his interest for more scientific texts, the inner workings of machines and the like.

As Cat Burglar had warned him, there wasn’t much logic in the books’ placement. He let his fingers brush along their spines, sometimes pulling one book out to check its title and guess at its content, sometimes climbing on the couch to squint his eyes at the ones on the highest shelf. He took his time going round the room, noting a few interesting reads, but then his attention was caught by a series of volumes that all sported the same look.

When he looked back towards Cat Burglar, it was to see her write in a similar book.

“How much of a line would I be crossing,” he enquired before changing his mind, “if I were to ask if I could read your logs..?”

As expected, the pirate whipped her head around with an incredulous expression on her face.

“Our logs?” she repeated. “Why would you want to read that?”
“You said you went to a sky island… It sounds interesting?”

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, apparently speechless. It made Borsalino more aware of how unusual his request was; it had been born of a simple curiosity, a curiosity that came from a teenager that was certainly not a Navy Admiral yet.

“I don’t know,” she finally replied. “I need to ask Luffy about that one.”

He nodded in understanding and followed her outside, where she immediately called out for her captain. The Emperor showed up almost instantly, grabbing onto the mast with a stretched out arm to pull himself up, his other hand securing his hat to his head.

“What is it, Nami?” he grinned at his crewmate.

Cat Burglar did not answer, instead turning her gaze down at Borsalino. He felt slightly annoyed at being put on the spot, but he supposed he was the one asking for something.

“I would like to…read your logs,” he told Straw Hat, who looked at him blankly in return.
“What’s that?”
“The travel logs, Luffy!” Cat Burglar put her hands on her hips. “You know, where we record our journey?”
“Ooh, we still have those?”
“Of course we do! Robin and I write most of them, but all the others chip in.”
“I did not know that!” the Emperor laughed, to the despair of his crewmate. “Why do you want to read that, ‘zaru?”

Borsalino blinked. He chose not to mention the shortening of his alias.

“It sounds interesting..?”
“No, I mean, why do you want to read it?” the pirate made a face. “We can just tell you!”
“What -”
“USOPPP,” Straw Hat bellowed down the deck.
“Oh, no,” Cat Burglar grimaced. “Well. Have fun with that.”

Borsalino shot her a panicked look, but it was too late: the Emperor had already grabbed onto his hand and was tugging him along as he jumped down. The last thing he saw was her waving at him with a sheepish expression.

He found himself in a circle with Straw Hat himself, God Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper while Black Leg, Pirate Hunter and Nico Robin listened in from the side, sometimes chipping in with a comment or a question as the story began. It spanned the rest of the morning and even during lunchtime, where Bonney was so invested she decided to stay for the retelling of the afternoon.

Borsalino’s only break was when Black Leg brought him some of his clothes to borrow and he immediately went to change, more than happy to leave behind the small shorts that had started to dig into his skin. He had to roll the pants and the sleeves up, not yet as tall as the pirate, and decided to leave the shirt open so it wouldn’t look too big on him.

The story was nice to listen to, at least. He could even begrudgingly admit that God Usopp was a good storyteller when he wasn’t spinning lies bigger than he could afford, but Borsalino had never been the type to keep a very record attention span in meetings and he felt himself almost dozing off a few times here. The main issue was how the pirates couldn’t agree on some small, too small, details of their journey and would derail the retelling for ten minutes at a time before getting back on track. It did not help that by that point the crew had not been as big as it was now, though ‘big’ was probably not the right adjective for how many people the Straw Hats had even in present times, and those that had not been part of the adventure being told sometimes had questions that would also consequently extend the story.

When at dinner time Cat Burglar sat in the seat next to him and asked where the story was at in a whisper as the rest of the crew dug into the food, he knew the exhaustion in his brain was also visible on his face by the way she bit her lip and tried not to laugh.

“You just…entered the Grandline…” he answered with a weary voice. “Soul King spent half an hour crying over…a whale…before deciding to share how he met it with his previous crew.”

There was pity in her eyes now.

“Luffy will have forgotten all about it by tomorrow,” she reassured him. “You can read the logs then.”

How he wished for the silence of a book.

“Be honest with me,” he dared ask as the story started again around them, “how long would it have taken me to get to that point?”
“Even as a slow reader? Probably two hours at most.”

He sighed and resolved himself to a few more hours of putting up with the storytelling. He finally managed to break away to go take a bath, and when he came back the group had moved on to other activities; he kept resolutely silent to avoid anyone noticing his presence and headed directly for the storage room, dead set on falling into bed even if the night was still young.

“Kizaru,” Straw Hat’s voice purred next to his ear, for once serious but not without a hint of excited anticipation. “We’re a hundred times stronger…than we were two years ago.”

Borsalino gasped as the Emperor’s face came into focus right in front of him, his eyes piercing and his grin wide. As if to prove the veracity of his statement his hair turned white, the strands moving wildly like flames, his eyes lightening to a reddish tint as his clothes lost their color in turn, clouds wrapping around his shoulders like a halo plucked from the sky itself.

Then there was a hand on his shoulder pushing him down, his skin burning from where the fingers pressed into his flesh. His back hit the ground and he tried to push himself up, the pirate immediately preventing it by growing in size until he towered over him, using his second hand to effortlessly pin him down by the hips.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Straw Hat grinned down at him, and his voice had the undertones of both a promise and a threat.

Borsalino woke up with a start, heart racing with something wildly different from fear.

He did not need to create a light to know that he had been physically affected by the dream; puberty was in full swing and he had definitely not missed waking up with such a…problem. He thanked whatever gods were out there that Bonney had decided to check on him the night before and not this one, because this would have been an awkward conversation to have.

Like Nika, his mind traitorously suggested, and closing his eyes did nothing to stop the fragments of his dream from flooding his mind once more.

He breathed deeply and purposefully ignored his body’s want. Sure, it would be an easier and quicker solution to deal with it, but he was on a pirate ship and the storage room certainly offered no easy way of cleaning up after himself. And since Straw Hat’s awakened form kept grinning behind his eyelids, there was also no chance he could get off without focusing on these images and he was not going to masturbate to the young pirate. He would never be able to look the Emperor in the eye ever again if he did so; he could already picture the worst if they ever came to clash once more and the pirate used that form, and his body just…reacted.

Reacting was what it was doing right now, the what-if scenario keeping it interested when he really wanted it to settle down. Borsalino rolled his eyes in the dark.

What was he, some kind of horny eighteen year old?

…Actually, now that he thought about it, he probably was. It would certainly explain his current predicament.

Alright, he told himself with another sigh. Let’s think of something boring and utterly unerotic.

Like reports, or meetings. Like Sengoku.

He had barely finished the thought that his mind helpfully remembered the former Fleet Admiral training with cadets on one rare occasion, shirtless and glistening with sweat as Garp decided to join the fray and challenge his friend to a spar -

No, not his body, he chastised himself. His voice!

His professional, no nonsense voice that droned over and over in meetings whose subjects Borsalino usually cared little about. The only downside of his habit of tuning these out was that he couldn’t quite remember a clear tirade long enough to bore him to death now. He opted to go through the list of personnel that had accompanied him to Egghead instead, making mental notes of what he had seen of the vice-admirals especially; it was always good to keep an updated idea of their skills and have a list of potential admirals for the future.

He was very careful about not thinking of the current Fleet Admiral, because he knew how that would go down. Or, more accurately, how nothing would go ‘down’.

His battle was hard-fought but resulted in his victory after way longer than he would have wanted. He couldn’t help but feel slightly wary about going back to sleep afterwards, in case his dream resumed or his youthful brain decided to conjure up another similar one, but it was still the middle of the night and sleep finally claimed him after what felt an eternity of thinking about the most boring things he could imagine.

No bad surprise awaited him when he opened his eyes again a few hours later, so it was with a relieved mindset that he got dressed, Black Leg’s clothes now fitting him perfectly. He kept quiet as he crossed through the men’s quarters on his way to breakfast, light snores coming from one of the bunks betraying at least one was still in use.

Fortunately, there was no Straw Hat in sight when Borsalino entered the dining room. Not that he would avoid the pirate all day, but he felt like he still needed a bit of time to…forget. Cat Burglar, Tony Tony Chopper and Pirate Hunter were sitting at the table, chatting quietly as they ate some food. A glance told Borsalino that Black Leg was still hard at work in the kitchen, either for the upcoming lunch or for the bottomless stomachs that were both his captain and Bonney.

The doctor noticed him approaching first, waving a hoof in greeting. Cat Burglar flicked her eyes up, her gaze lingering on his body.

“It’s odd to see someone else wearing Sanji’s clothes,” she commented as he strategically sat to the side of Pirate Hunter, wanting to avoid the direct line of sight with the pirate’s open coat.
“That bad..?”
“Ha,” Pirate Hunter smiled sharply, “you wear it better than that idiot cook.”

His voice grew louder as he finished his sentence, triggering Black Leg to reply with an insult from the kitchen. An insult that Borsalino would not be able to repeat if asked, because he realized that his strategic placement had its flaws as Pirate Hunter leaned on one arm on the table and slightly turned his body in a welcoming posture, giving Borsalino full view on the side profile of his pectorals.

He choked on the piece of food he had just swallowed and as shameful as that was, at least it had the merit to divert his attention from the swordsman’s body.

When later on he went to drop his dirty plate in the sink, Black Leg was cutting up some vegetables with his sleeves rolled up. Borsalino froze, his eyes zeroing on the exposed forearms long enough for the pirate to turn towards him with a questioning look on his face, at which point he shook himself out of it and walked out of the room at a brisk pace.

The day was going to be very, very long.

Things were starting to be lively outside already, and as Borsalino sighted Straw Hat leaving the men’s quarters with a yawn he turned tail and phased up the top deck to head to safety: the library.

Nico Robin was climbing down the ladder when he stepped inside the room, her hair freshly washed and still not yet dry.

“Nami just went to take a bath,” she let him know. “You’ll have to wait if you want the bathroom.”
“Ohh, that’s alright… I came for the books.”

She nodded, going to the shelves to grab one herself. Borsalino followed suit and went back to where the logs were stored, intent on getting a proper picture of the Straw Hats’ journey this time.

“Not going to ask the crew to keep telling the story of our adventures?” Nico Robin inquired as he pulled what he supposed was the first volume, and he heard her devious smile in her voice even before he glanced back towards her.
“I would rather…not have a repeat of yesterday,” he truthfully replied, earning himself a chuckle.
“Believe it or not, they improved. When we all came back together after two years of being apart and decided to share our stories when we got some downtime… Let’s say it took the better part of a week for everyone to get their turn.”

After two years of being apart, Borsalino filed away in his mind. The Straw Hats had abruptly dropped down from the face of the world ever since his meeting with them in Sabaody, but he had not realized it had been because they were not together anymore. He could still remember Garp religiously checking out the newspaper every day for the slightest mention of his grandson.

“The weather is nice again today,” Nico Robin offhandedly commented as she opened the door and glanced back in his direction, her book held in her other hand like she was going to leave with it.

Borsalino took the hint and followed her outside. She probably preferred to keep an eye on him, or was just protective of her crewmate bathing just above. She had nothing to fear in that regard, not that she could know: he had always been attracted to men, never seeing the appeal in female bodies the way other marines loudly proclaimed. In fact, he would have rather sequestered himself in the library with the two women of the crew until he grew a few years older, if only to be at peace for what was probably going to be a challenging day…

The log, at least, proved as interesting as he expected it to be. The beginning of it wasn’t as detailed as the stories he got to hear the day before, like they had been written at some later date and focused mostly on the main events and the navigation routes. Since he got to learn that Cat Burglar had only officially joined the crew once Arlong had been defeated and her home island freed from his reign of terror, he guessed she had been the one to take on log duty after that. Since the hand writing never changed from what he had seen so far, it seemed plausible.

As much as the words on the pages were entertaining, Borsalino couldn’t help but get distracted every so often as the boys of the crew went about their day on the deck. Straw Hat and God Usopp were back on fishing duty, briefly joined by Iron Man, and why were most pirates running around bare chested. Soul King played some music for a little while before disappearing inside the lookout tower, which in turn made Pirate Hunter hang out on the grass while lifting some weights to get an arm workout. Borsalino could see the sweat beading on his forehead.

He jumped slightly as Cat Burglar suddenly dropped in one of the empty chairs with a sigh, straightening her newspaper.

“News Coo giving you trouble again?” Nico Robin asked.
“They’re still trying to increase their prices. It’s expensive enough as it is! They should be lucky I am even paying.”

Silence fell over the table once more and Borsalino tried to focus on the log in front of him. He wasn’t too successful when his ears kept picking on the sound of soft grunts and other exertion noises whenever the two fishing got a catch.

He was still on the same page when Tony Tony Chopper came to join them, hopping onto the last chair with a drink in his hands. At this rate he was not going to catch up with the part of the Straw Hats’ journey he did not know about in the two hours that Cat Burglar had generously estimated for a slow reader, and he was no slow reader by any means.

He had not realized his wandering mind was obvious for the others until Cat Burglar hit the table with her palm with enough strength to gather the occupants’ attention, and found her looking directly at him with a raised brow.

“Why are you so distracted?” she asked, and there was a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Whatever lie he was trying to come up with died on his tongue as Tony Tony Chopper answered for him and made his brain screech to a halt:

“He is horny.”

Borsalino felt his jaw literally drop on the floor. The doctor grabbed the straw in his drink and took a sip without elaborating any further, unbothered by the three stunned pairs of eyes on him; the two women turned their gazes on Borsalino next and he felt himself heat up, bringing his book up in a vain attempt to conceal his reddening face.

“Are you kidding me?” Cat Burglar exclaimed with disbelief.
“Are you sure, Chopper?” Nico Robin asked with humor in her voice.
“Yes, his pheromones are all over the place.”
“Is that why- is that why you have been glancing at the boys all morning?” Cat Burglar gasped with a sudden understanding. “And here I thought you were trying to gain some sort of, insider information or something, but no, you were - You were ogling them -”

The rest of her sentence dissolved into hysterical laughter and Borsalino only shrunk further in his chair.

“I wasn’t ogling them,” he weakly disputed, but really, he had been.

He was saved from any further conversation on this topic as Black Leg called for him from the door of the dining room; Borsalino wasted no time in jumping out of his chair and joining the pirate to see what he wanted, using it as a perfect excuse to go hide for a while and forget this ever happened.

Black Leg was holding a tray with two colourful drinks similar to the one Tony Tony Chopper was currently enjoying.

“Why are you so red?” the pirate asked as Borsalino got close.
“The sun,” he lied.

It was a feeble attempt since the deck was still mostly in shadow where the table was placed, but Black Leg only frowned and did not push further. Instead he pointed towards the inside of the room with his free hand and said:

“There is a phone call for you. Do let me know when you are done, alright? I’m still in the middle of cooking for lunch.”
“Sure…” Borsalino replied as the pirate was already walking away, confusion washing over him.

A phone call? Who would even be calling, and why?

He closed the door behind him and glanced around the room; his eyes landed on the transponder snail placed next to the couch and he made his way there, sitting down with a sigh as he picked the receiver up.

“Hello?” he said into it.

The snail did not even need to speak for him to figure out who his caller was. It had been looking blankly into nothing, as they usually did when a call was on hold, but immediately took on the facial expression of the person on the other side of the line as Borsalino talked, and the angry frown now gracing its features could only belong to one man and one man only. The snail was even holding the pose of biting into something, even though it had no cigar or the like to clench between its teeth.

“Borsalino,” Sakazuki replied, and the sound of his voice triggered a genuine happiness in his chest.
“Sakazuki,” he greeted back, leaning fully against the couch. “How did you get this number?”
“...Straw Hat Luffy gave it to me.”
“Ohh, did he… That’s nice of him,” Borsalino hummed. With the bad blood between the two men he would not have expected it.
“You sound - good.” A flash of confusion passed on the snail’s face. “Young?”

He chuckled.

“I am young,” he confirmed. “Bonney thought it funny to use her powers on me. I’m probably no more than…twenty years at the moment.”

The snail kept a perfectly good blank expression on, but the silence was telling and Borsalino’s smile only grew more in anticipation; the other man did not disappoint and was clearly thinking about exactly the same events as he did.

“Try to keep yourself under control, yes?” his old friend finally settled on. “I don’t need you to sleep your way through an entire pirate crew.”

Borsalino snorted.

“You wound me,” he gasped theatrically. “I would never…” 
“Right,” Sakazuki huffed a laugh. “My bad. I must be misremembering these memories.”

Borsalino had found an appetite for sexual activities quite early on in his adult life, with a desire for new experiences to boot. Sakazuki had never felt the same fire under his skin, only mildly curious about the ailment Borsalino claimed to be suffering from, but he had been a willing partner in these discoveries even if he never felt the need to initiate anything. There had still been pleasure at the end of the line, and he had confided in Borsalino once that he enjoyed the feeling of power that came with having him squirming under his hands. It had been such a Sakazuki thing to say... Borsalino had gladly played into that dominant side of him when he next asked for some favors.

Then they had enrolled into the Navy and Borsalino had met other likeminded recruits…which had been fun, especially as the years went past and he and Sakazuki started getting assigned to different missions. In fact, Sakazuki probably only knew of so many of his fellow marines’ names as he climbed the ladder because Borsalino kept telling him all about his encounters. The man had never been a social one, even without including sex.

“Did you not even manage to get Kuzan into your bed?” Sakazuki continued. “Even though he was all about female chests.”
“Female chests,” Borsalino parroted with a hint of mockery. “Kuzan loves large breasts, Saka. Big boobs. Humongous bazong-”
“I know,” his friend firmly cut him from continuing his list of synonyms. “I know.”
“You’re right, I did,” he grinned. “What a night.”

It had been back when they had been commodores, Kuzan freshly promoted; his date had stood him up and Borsalino had found his comrade drowning his bad mood in a pub. He had somehow managed to sweet talk the other into giving it a go…the alcohol had probably helped.

Ice had been a fun power to bring into the bedroom, less lethal than the magma Sakazuki would later wield, though it had the annoying drawback of tampering with one’s libido if used too strongly. If anything Kuzan had found it a worthwhile training experience since it required him to use his fruit with such precision, something that never happened when he fooled around with citizen women. Borsalino still had fond memories of that night. Since Kuzan had no issue talking to him afterwards he guessed the other had, if not enjoyed it, at least not outright hated it, even if it had stayed a one time experience.

“I wonder if he's ever slept with another man since,” he wondered aloud.
“I doubt it. You’re one of a kind.”

The words combined with his usual low, rough tone stirred something in the pit of his stomach. Borsalino had never asked Sakazuki about it, as it was not his business and knowing the answer would not change a single thing, but he was quite certain his friend had never bothered with these activities outside of his own nagging.

“If there is one thing I regret about this whole situation,” he closed his eyes, “it’s that…I can’t be at Headquarters with you. Imagine it… Young, small, impressionable me…and big old you…”
“Are you really trying to initiate some phone sex?” Sakazuki huffed.
“Why not… It’s been some time,” Borsalino smiled slyly. “Are you in your office?”
“In my quarters. Don’t,” he added as Borsalino’s smile deepened. “I’m just using my private snail. And you,” he stressed, “are on a pirate ship.”
“Pity…”

He was pretty confident he could have the whole ordeal wrapped up in five minutes at most, with how young and wild he felt.

“I did not call you for this, anyway,” Sakazuki broke through his lustful thoughts.
“Ohh..?”
“I have news.”

His voice was serious enough that Borsalino opened his eyes again and pushed himself up from his sprawling position on the couch, sensing the severity of what would follow.

“There is a new Elder.”
“...A sixth one?” Borsalino asked, knowing fully well the correct answer. The light feelings in his stomach turned to lead.
“No,” Sakazuki confirmed his fears. “Saint Figarland Garling is the new Warrior God of Science and Defense.”

So, Saint Saturn had been replaced after the botched Egghead mission. At the very least, Borsalino was relieved the celestial dragon would not be in any position to belittle his men during his absence.

“I see… On second thoughts,” he added humourlessly, “maybe I don’t regret not being at Headquarters right now…”
“Whatever happens at this upper level has little consequences for us,” Sakazuki frowned. “Admirals are my subordinates.”

Who was he trying to convince, Borsalino wondered. The Red Dog’s leash was so short there was nothing for him to even chew through. The Fleet Admiral’s position had not chalked up to be the powerful, all commanding ability Sengoku had made it seem like, not when above the celestial dragons played a wholly different game than the rest of the world. There were lies upon lies and the knowledge that no change would be accepted if it wasn’t in favor of the highest powers.

Sakazuki had been furious with Fujitora on a few different levels ever since Dressrosa, but Borsalino knew the deepest one was that his old friend was jealous of the freedom Issho had granted himself. More than anything the Fleet Admiral rank was but a figurehead, with days filled with strategy meetings and paperwork when Sakazuki had always been a man of action. 

At his core he still was that little boy wracked with a hatred too intense for his body, with a no-name pirate for a father, with a mother that chose to kill herself instead of birthing a second rape child, with a hometown ruled by the fear of any passing pirate crews. He was still that little boy that had decided to take matters into his own hands, that had grabbed a knife and never put it down, covering his hands in blood until he forgot what his skin looked like without.

“There is something else,” Sakazuki said once it was clear Borsalino would not continue the conversation. “Vice-Admiral Garp has been officially labeled as missing in action.”
“What?” Borsalino straightened up. “What happened?”
“He led a rescue mission with his battleship and a group of SWORD members to get Captain Koby back from the Blackbeard pirates. He was successful…but chose to stay and fight alone to allow his men to depart safely.”
“Is he..?”
“It hasn’t been confirmed so far. The reports mention he was last seen fighting Kuzan.”

It explained why Sakazuki had mentioned the other earlier in their conversation, the man had already been at the back of his head.

Kuzan.

The Navy had only heard tidbits of his activities ever since he left the organization, the biggest shock of all being his apparent joining of the Blackbeard pirates. Borsalino had still held doubts about his true loyalties, even as he was officially recognized as one of the Emperor’s Titanic Captains, but he couldn’t help but waver at the news. Maybe he had been wrong and Kuzan had simply and irredeemably changed during these two years, or whatever he was working towards was worth any sacrifice.

It was ironic. Borsalino had just killed an old friend in the name of a justice he was only a cog of, and here Kuzan was doing the same to his old mentor even though he was supposedly a free man now.

It seemed that no matter the side of the coin, the end result would be the same.

“Let Straw Hat Luffy know, will you?”
“Offering free information to a pirate?” Borsalino gasped in mock shock, turning to humor instead of dwelling on the severity of what he had just learned.
“It’s my repayment for the phone number,” Sakazuki grumbled. “And for not killing you yet, for what it is worth. I know how annoying you are.”
“Harsh,” he chuckled before adding: “I will pass the message.”

Silence fell around them as the conversation came to a stop. Borsalino could feel it was the end of the call and felt slightly saddened by the realization. He kept his mouth shut in a selfish attempt to stretch it a bit longer, but was not surprised when Sakazuki spoke again with a hint of finality to announce that he had to go.

“Will you call back?” the words came out of his mouth, unprompted. The snail’s eyes widened ever so slightly.
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes,” Borsalino softly said into the receiver, for once honest about his true feelings. “I would like you to. This is still all…oddly confusing.”

The moment he forgot for a split second where he was and who he truly was, he kept expecting Sakazuki to show up only to never see him, his past and present selves bleeding into each other like colors mixing into a new tint. But where light grew white and clear, he felt instead like he was turning black like paint on a canvas, heavy and muddy.

“Confusing is what others feel around you,” Sakazuki said in a tone that screamed ‘you reap what you sow’, but there was no bite to his words. “I’ll call back.”

The snail sounded the end of the call and went back to sleep without further ado. Borsalino put the receiver back on top of its shell and sighed in the newfound silence.

Garp.

He thought himself a pretty good judge of character; people would describe him as carefree or plainly oblivious at times, but there was little he missed seeing or hearing in what happened around him. It was exactly how he poked at insecurities and manipulated both allies and enemies alike to get what he wanted, only giving the slightest push and watching it all unfold like a house of cards crumbling into the wind. But now, even with his three encounters with Straw Hat Luffy, he still couldn’t predict how the pirate would react to the news of a family member being in potential danger. Would it be like his brother’s, whom he rushed to save with little regard for his own safety? Or would Garp’s status as a Navy officer, as an enemy, stop him from getting involved?

Borsalino climbed out the room and onto the top deck, thinking about how he would go about sharing that information.

He went to the side overlooking the main deck to pinpoint Black Leg’s location, finding him smoking close to the women’s table in an unsurprising turn of event. He charged some light and made sure to shine it straight onto the pirate’s face, who instinctively turned to avoid it hitting his eyes like it was the sun moving in a bad position for where he currently was. He kept it up and Black Leg frowned as he was bothered for the third time, finally looking around for the source of his trouble and raising his eyebrows as his eyes landed on Borsalino, who simply waved one hand to express that he was done with his phone call and that the room was free. He got a head shake in return and what was probably some grumble about marines lacking manners but he could not care less. He wanted some peace and quiet for the moment to put his thoughts in order, and coming down the main deck where most of the crew was hanging out was not it.

He retreated to the other side of the space, discovering he could even go around the room housing the library to stare at the sea from the back of the ship. He leaned onto the railing there and took a deep breath, only to see his brief peace get shattered by the sudden apparition of Nico Robin on the floor next to him, or more accurately…half of her body.

“That’s…odd,” he commented as she blinked up at him.
“You need to tell Luffy,” she said without any preamble, making his eyes go wide with the implication of her words.
“Ohh, eavesdropping..? How naughty. How much did you hear..?”
“Everything.”
“Everything,” he repeated, before he started glancing nervously between the sea and her. “Everything?” 
“I am glad you did not go through with your sex phone idea,” she confirmed with a straight face to his growing mortification.

He hid his face between his hands.

“Great,” he mumbled between his fingers. “So am I…”

She had the decency to let him stew in his own misery in peace, simply waiting for him to get over it and go back to the important point of the discussion, which he did with a sigh as he dropped his hands back to the railing.

“If you heard…everything…then you know I said I would pass on the message.”
“Good,” she nodded approvingly. “It is no small matter, so I wanted to hear you confirm it.”
“But if you know already, why not tell him yourself..?” he inquired. It would certainly make things easier for himself, which was probably why she was not going to do it.
“It is not my place to tell.”

He hummed. He had been expecting it, but now there was an added pressure on his shoulders: he knew she would be watching like a hawk until he got to talk with her captain.

“One last thing,” she added, the corner of her lips rising in the slightest of smiles. “Are you or are you not going to sleep your way through the crew?”

He heaved a sigh, massaging the back of his neck.

“Fraternizing with enemies is never a good idea.”
“I fear it is already too late to worry about that,” she cryptically replied before disappearing in a whirlwind of petals.

He supposed she was right. The Straw Hats had dropped their guards quite heavily ever since he got turned back into a child, judging him harmless in that state…with good reasons. They were learning more about him like he was learning more about them, vague names and epithets turning into actual people with quirks and personalities, which only spelt trouble for the future.

For them, at least. He knew how to turn down his feelings to a ground breaking zero, as much as it pained him afterwards.

He stayed at the back of the ship until lunch was sounded and enjoyed the noisy chaos of meal times with the pirate crew, taking a break from his thoughts for a little while.

Cat Burglar cornered him as it came to an end, following him outside and backing him up against a wall. One hand slammed next to his head as she leaned in close.

“Two hundred thousand berries,” she spoke in a low but firm voice, “and I get the boys to walk around shirtless for the rest of the day.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Two hundred…thousand berries,” he repeated.
“For each of them,” she clarified, and if anything else he was impressed by her negotiating skills.
“What makes you think I have this kind of money..?”
“I don’t see you dressed up in rags,” she sniffed.
“Touché. But these are…part of the Navy’s expenses.”
“And?”
“I don’t exactly run around with cash on my person…”
“That’s alright,” she smiled sweetly. “You can rob the next Navy outpost we come across blind.”

Borsalino thought about it.

On one hand, it would be terrible for his focus and would most likely be both a blessing and a curse until the day was over; on the other, the chances that Sakazuki would spontaneously combust upon reading the invoice were high and he couldn’t quite pass up on that opportunity.

“One hundred and eighty thousand each…and you get them to spar with each other,” he haggled, noting how her eyes lit up and her smile only turned sharper.
“Two hundred and twenty thousand each and I get them to spar while involving some water.”

They stared each other down in silence for a beat.

“You drive a hard bargain,” he finally conceded, and swore her eyes turned to berry signs for a split second before she got ahold of herself. “Deal.”

She clasped his hand with more strength than her body betrayed before bouncing back towards the kitchen, grabbing God Usopp and Straw Hat by the back of their outfits as they were leaving the room.

“Come back in fifteen, everything will be set up for you!” she called out to him before closing the door behind them.

He hoped someone would be there to witness the apocalypse that was sure to happen in the Fleet Admiral’s office.

For now, he phased back to his previous spot behind the library and enjoyed the soothing sound of the waves, trying very hard not to focus on the noises he could pick on coming from the other side of the ship, lest he ruined his own surprise.

When he resurfaced after the fifteen minutes were over it was to find the crew starting some sort of sumo wrestling tournament amongst themselves, with brackets drawn on a whiteboard and a ring of fabric held by weights delimiting the fighting space on the grass. Cat Burglar and Nico Robin were watching the proceedings with smiles on their faces while both Bonney and Lilith had decided to join in the fun, both fully clad when the men had already ditched their upper layers.

Borsalino slowly made his way to the women’s table, careful not to trip as his eyes kept catching on well defined chests gleaming in the sunlight, and claimed his seat back. Cat Burglar shot him a cocky smile, very pleased by her idea.

“I don’t see water,” he pointed out.
“Oh, you’ll see some alright,” she grinned. “Just wait until one of them loses.”

He hummed with feign disinterest, watching as Pirate Hunter and Black Leg took their spots in the ring.

“Should I be concerned?” Nico Robin raised an eyebrow. “I feel this should count as fraternizing.”
“Oh, don’t ruin my - don’t ruin his fun,” her crewmate waved it off. “It’s totally worth it.”
“How much?”
“Two million two hundred thousand.”
“One million seven hundred sixty thousand,” Borsalino corrected. “Bonney and Lilith are not part of the deal.”
“But Chopper is?” the archaeologist inquired.

The doctor was currently encouraging his crewmates alongside the rest of the people waiting for their turn, in what Borsalino expected was his full human form.

“I can see abs,” he shrugged.
“And Brook?” she continued, clearly amused.
“It is a pretty unique sight, isn’t it..?”

Soul King had followed his friends in removing the top part of his outfit, though he had kept his cravat on, the white of his bones bindingly bright under the sunrays. The unusual view was worth the price being charged and Borsalino made a mental note to do a detailed description of it in his future paperwork.

Nico Robin shook her head and the three of them at the table watched the matches in a silence only broken by the punctual noise of a page being turned. Borsalino did not even pretend to read this time around, his full attention on the merry band trying to figure out who was the best sumo wrestler. Water guns made their appearances, losers getting sprayed by the ones on the sidelines until they were drenched from head to toes, and Borsalino caught Cat Burglar raising an eyebrow in his direction the first time it happened as if to say ‘see, I told you’. He inclined his head in return.

It reminded him of his time as a fresh recruit in the Navy, when people would spar in hand to hand combat all day long to prove their skills and get to know each other, with the harsh sun bearing down on their bodies. Borsalino had been older than most recruits and taller than most, too, even if he had still not reached his full height by that point. He had also been very unapologetically confident and open about his love for men, something that had rubbed most of the male recruits in a wrong way; some had been in denial about themselves, too used to hiding and thinking of it as something shameful, others had been hateful simply because he was different than them. Both sides had turned to verbal insults when it had become clear they could not do anything to him physically, only getting angrier as their words were as intangible to him as their fists.

He had found the first group quite enjoyable to mess with, especially when their sparring always had an edge to it, with darker undertones they refused to acknowledge even as they kept reaching for maximal contact times. He watched them lose their bark at the barest of touches, making sure to linger for just a second too long before slipping between their fingers.

Most of these ended up in his bed, one way or another.

The other half wasn’t as easily swayed, unfortunately. Not that it had mattered when they had only spent a single month together, before the trainers picked the ten percent at the top of the class to fuse with the other two groups of fresh recruits doing the same in a single unit of promising officers. He had regrouped with Sakazuki then, before they were all sent to Marineford to get better teachers with the objective of getting them to have a hang on haki before the end of the year. A few of his…more troublesome teammates had also made the cut, and they had wasted no time sneering and gossiping with the rest of the unit to get more people on their side.

Unfortunately for them, where Borsalino smiled and pretended to be deaf, Sakazuki had sharp ears and sharper teeth. He pummeled half of their group to bloody pulps before their first morning class, sending them all directly to the infirmary, and had absolutely no qualms owning it to their teacher when they were asked about the culprit. It had given him quite the reputation, if the perpetually angry frown on his face had not already been enough to make people give him a wide berth wherever he went. If the name calling continued, it was never in earshot of either of them.

“I am the King of sumo wrestlers!” Straw Hat suddenly exclaimed with a shout and his arms punching the air.

Iron Man was getting ganged up on by God Usopp, Black Leg and Soul King as they seemed very intent on emptying their water guns on him to celebrate him as the latest loser.

“No, you’re not!” Bonney stomped her feet down, still in her adult form. “You haven’t defeated Uncle yet!”

Borsalino watched her point towards him, suddenly straightening up as his mind caught up with her words and all eyes turned in his direction.

“Ohh, no, no,” he waved his hands to dismiss the idea. “I don’t think -”
“You used to fight like this against Sentomaru all the time!” Bonney kept going. “He could never defeat you when you got serious!”

Straw Hat’s eyes took on a challenging glint, the kind that told him he would have no other option but to go through with it.

He sighed and stood up from his chair, ignoring Nico Robin’s pointed look and getting a little bit of solace in the frustration on Cat Burglar’s face, who was probably thinking of all the money she had just lost by not predicting this turn of event.

“Kizaru,” the Emperor greeted him with a grin as he entered the ring, an echo of the dream Borsalino had had the previous night. Shivers ran down his body.
“Straw Hat,” he called back in turn, standing there with his hands in his pockets like it was just another day for him instead of the very bad idea it definitely was. He was already mesmerized by the rise and fall of the pirate’s chest, even as he kept his gaze on the other’s face with as much focus as he could muster.

Bonney stepped close to him, tugging on his shirt. Borsalino leaned towards her as she pushed herself up on her tiptoes and brought her hands around her mouth to share a secret.

“If you win,” she whispered, “I will let you see my dad.”

He turned sharply towards her as she bounced back.

“I know you will throw otherwise!” she stuck her tongue out. “That wouldn’t be fun.”

Borsalino had not intended to…throw the match, per say. He still had his pride and a rank to honor. Though, the fact that his opponent was Straw Hat himself made things less complicated as the Emperor had bested him once already, so it wouldn’t be shameful to add another loss to his tab. He more or less expected his younger body to betray him at some point anyway, which was when he would happily fold.

But now, Bonney had dangled the perfect carrot in front of his face.

He had become acquainted with Kuma during the time it took for Bonney to be healed by Vegapunk; while they had never quite been friends and their relationship had soured afterwards anyway, he had always felt a sliver of guilt over what the man had become since he had been an integral tool to make sure it happened. It would have been easier to live with regrets as the other stayed the perfect weapon he was made to be, but the sight of him fighting to protect his daughter on Egghead had added another crack in the walls of his heart. A weapon with a soul that refused to back down and bow its head.

Between the two of them, Borsalino had proven to be the better puppet.

He wanted to know how the man was now, if whatever Iron Man and Lilith were doing was really going to change anything, if there was any hope of a happy ending for both him and Bonney. Neither Vegapunk or Sentomaru had had theirs, and as for Borsalino…he certainly did not deserve one. If he could atone for one thing, he would like it to be this.

“Rules?” he turned his attention back onto Straw Hat.
“No powers,” the other grinned before dropping to a lower stance.

Borsalino removed his hands from his pockets and mimicked him on the other side of the ring.

“Go!” Bonney shouted from the sidelines.

Borsalino stood strong as Straw Hat immediately collided with him, only giving up the slightest of space as their hands looked for good grips on the other. The pirate wasn’t as physically imposing as Sentomaru but certainly matched him in strength, and to Borsalino’s surprise he was also very steady on his legs when he had expected him to be more of an amateur at the sport. He failed at tripping him as they whirled around, the rest of the crew cheering for their captain to bring him down.

After a while of neither of them getting the upper hand he decided to spice things up a bit; he made the side of his body intangible for a split second, just enough to make Straw Hat flail and lose his balance as his support shifted, using the opening to turn them around and get him close enough to the edge of the ring that his crewmates shouted in worry.

The Emperor gasped in his ear as he struggled to stop his sliding, before Borsalino caught the glimpse of a smile in his peripheral vision.

“So that’s how you want to play it,” Straw Hat had a breathless laugh as they kept pushing at each other.

His grips changed to be just this side of unnatural, cheating right back but keeping it as subtle as Borsalino had. It gave him more leverage and he started pushing Borsalino back before he suddenly changed the script, dropping low and tackling him in the hips. Borsalino tilted forward with a noise of surprise that only intensified as the Emperor kept his hold on him while straightening up, now effectively carrying him over his shoulder. The blood rushed to his head in more ways than one as he suddenly found himself at eye level with the pirate’s behind, fumbling for somewhere to hold that would not be a direct contact with it, and the electrifying sensation prickling his skin only worsened as Straw Hat wrapped his hands around his thighs to keep him still.

Victory shouts exploded around him as the world flipped and he found himself flat on his back outside of the ring, the air neatly pushed out of his lungs. Straw Hat followed suit with a cry, Borsalino somehow managing to bring him down with him and ending up with a laughing pirate in-between his legs.

“Luffy!!”
“You did it, Luffy!”
“What!” Bonney’s voice rang louder than everyone else’s. “He is also out!!”
“He is not, his feet are still in!”
“That doesn’t count-”
“Oh, it sure does!”

The Emperor swiftly pushed himself up, his feet still indeed firmly placed inside the ring. He looked down at Borsalino with a victorious expression on his face, the sun catching at the very edge of his head in a way that made Borsalino’s breath catch in his throat and his pants feel suddenly tighter.

Water rained on him with no warning and he curled on himself with spluttering noises as he discovered that no, the pirates had not emptied out their water guns on Iron Man as he had previously thought…or they had since refilled them. He found himself drenched in only a handful of seconds, his clothes suddenly sticking to his skin uncomfortably, but at least he had a reason for his protective stance that would keep eyes away from his lap.

“You put up a good fight,” Jimbei patted him on the shoulder with a warm laugh as at last they stopped spraying him.

God Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper were doing some kind of victory dance with Straw Hat close by, the others howling at their antics, and the more Borsalino watched them the more their silhouettes blurred to the shapes of old friends he would never get to party with ever again. The sudden realization was a knife digging right into his heart, twisting around to carve it out and leave his chest with nothing but a gaping hole. The happy atmosphere surrounding him was becoming too much, reminding Borsalino of a time spent in a bubble where the health of a young girl was the only thing that mattered.

A bubble that had long since burst.

“I need a bath,” he blurted out as he scrambled to push himself up to his feet.

He was deaf to the rest of the world as he turned to light, phasing up to the upper deck and rushing towards the building at the back, the sound of his own heart beating loudly in his ears like the drums of a rhythm forever burned into his memory.

Chapter Text

Borsalino sighed as he shut the bathroom door behind him, letting his head drop against it as he closed his eyes and tried to get himself under control.

It took him a while to feel solid enough, pushing himself away from the door to get to work once the afterimages of dancing silhouettes faded behind his eyelids. He removed his wet clothes and wrung the fabric to get most of the water out before leaving them to dry out on the side, though he doubted they would do so in the time it took him to bathe…but that would be a problem for his later self.

For now he got some hot water going to erase the cold feeling on his skin, hoping that warming up the exterior of his body would also translate to its insides...and to his heart. His motions were mechanical as he decided to wash his hair, bending his head under the spray and feeling the drops run alongside his face. It did not take him long to do so, with how short the strands were, leaving him with no other choice but to turn his focus on the rest of his body and the…problem that still persisted.

Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to give in just this once, he thought as his hands slid on his thighs and desire kept building up despite himself. Maybe it would satiate his flesh and give him his usual focus back for the rest of the day. He would be older by the next morning, no longer a slave to the electricity that refused to dim and fizzle out in his veins, his control over his mind and his body only growing as the years passed.

This was his best opportunity, with the bathroom all to himself…

He weighed both sides for a while as the water kept running, scrubbing the rest of his body as he thought it over. Then he closed his eyes with a sigh, his mind made up. Surely there would be no harm in it…

He just needed to pick out a good visual to picture behind his closed eyelids, preferably not one who grinned at him and whose eyes looked for a challenge. Straw Hat was unfortunately the freshest thing on his mind, but no matter: he focused on Sakazuki’s low voice from their earlier chat, picturing his annoyed expression, the way his sharp eyes would rake over his body. He would be bigger, Borsalino decided, trying to guess at the height difference they would currently have. His shirt would be tightly stretched across his chest, his arms crossed as Borsalino gave him a pleading look; he would get a sneer in return as Sakazuki looked down at his predicament.

Really, Borsalino? he would say. This again? You’re insatiable.

His gloved hand would reach out, big enough to cover all of him at once. Borsalino mimicked his motion, exhaling slowly as he finally wrapped his fingers around himself, sparks lighting up his spine. The single touch was enough to bring him to full hardness and he couldn’t help but chuckle internally at the burden of youth, always in a hurry… As predicted, he wouldn’t last long.

The Sakazuki in his mind scoffed at that, too, like Borsalino’s uncontrolled impatience was unbecoming of him. Still, he would give him a squeeze…just on the borderline of rough, drawing a whimper out his mouth. He would -

“Uncle?” a young voice came from the next room.

His fantasy burst into a million pieces, blood rushing in his ears as reality solidified once again around him; Borsalino removed his hand like he had been burned as Bonney knocked impatiently on the door.

“Uncle!” she repeated. “Can I come in?”

Horror washed over him at her crazy request and he found himself at a loss for words for a handful of seconds before he got a grip.

“No,” he stressed out, “you certainly can not!”
“Ehh,” she pouted through the door. “Why not?”

Why n-

He cut the water so they could hear each other without shouting, running a weary hand over his face.

“You’ve been a pirate for almost three years now,” he sighed. “Surely you know why.”
“Because you’ve got a dick and I don’t?”

He was reaching new levels of distress he had not thought possible. Words failed him once more as he went through all stages of grief before defeated acceptance washed over him.

“Yes, that is part of it…”
“Well, that’s dumb!”

She felt silent for a while. Borsalino welcomed the lull in the unexpected and frankly exhausting conversation, and a tiny part of him hoped she would accept his answer and simply leave. He was hyper aware that she was still behind the door for the moment even without proper observation haki, what with his whole body sprung up as it was.

“I just want to talk to you,” Bonney finally continued in a softer tone. “I don’t want to scream through the door…”

Borsalino bit back a sigh.

“You are still fully dressed, yes?” he asked her, already regretting his decision.
“Of course!”
“Alright. Give me - give me a minute.”

She had a small noise of complaint, but there would be no bargaining with this one: he changed the temperature to be as low as it could be on the shower head and turned the water on. He clenched his teeth at the contact of the icy water on his skin but made sure to rinse himself until what remained of his erection was dealt with. Fortunately for him it was a quick endeavor: it had already wilted at the unexpected surprise that had been Bonney’s voice and the cold water finished it off without much trouble. Whatever frustration he felt at not being able to see it through had nothing on the pure dread flashing at the back of his mind at the mere idea she had been this close to witness it.

He cut the water, teeth chattering as he grabbed the towel he had brought with him. He tied it around his hips before submerging himself in the lovely, warm, bath, feeling most of his worries fade away as the familiar lethargy of the water washed over him.

“Alright,” he let Bonney know once he was properly settled into the water. “You can come in now.”

The girl wasted no time doing so, the door slamming behind her as she jumped into the room with all the unbound energy of a twelve year old.

“Thanks, Uncle!”
“Sit here,” he pointed to the ground next to the bath, behind where he was seated.
“I’m not gonna have a peek,” she sniffed even as she followed his instruction. He could see her leaning her back against the bathtub from the corner of his eye. “I don’t care about this stuff.”
“I do.”

She heaved a dramatic sigh as he turned his head back towards the windows, looking at the fluffy white clouds moving in the sky, keeping his mind clear lest it decided to go back to previous activities.

She had claimed she wanted to talk to him, but first there was something he found he would like answered… 

“Why…are you calling me this?” he asked her.
“Uncle? Because that’s what Sentomaru calls you. Right?”
“Right,” he parroted. “He does. He did…”

Would he still? He wasn’t so sure. The nickname had been an odd one, grating even at the beginning: Borsalino had been in his early thirties when he had met the young boy for the first time and he had found himself slightly insulted by what he thought had an older connotation. Sentomaru had not seen any issue with it and had refused to call him anything else, a battle Borsalino had lost when faced with big, round, innocent eyes. It had grown on him quickly enough after that.

He had never thought the word would ever turn bitter, and yet.

“He saved me, you know,” Bonney added after a beat. “After you kicked me so hard I was going to hit the barrier. So much for not wanting to hurt me, by the way!”
“Ah…”

He had nothing to say for his defense there. He had wanted her out of the way, as quickly and as far away as possible. A part of him had banked on the barrier and the drop down to be enough to knock her out for the rest of the fight so she wouldn’t have to be part of it. It had been a rough plan, yes, but Bonney was strong. Anything less would not have yielded the same potential results.

“Gosh, I still hate you. I should hate you. I do! I think.” She let out a frustrated cry, hitting the ground next to her. “You make me so angry. But when you’re like this, I feel like you care.”
“I do…”
“Then why did you do it?”

There was anguish in her voice. Questions over questions, the pure righteousness of a child that wanted no part in the power plays of the world and decided what was right and wrong by following her heart.

Why, she asked. Why did he kill Vegapunk? Why did he try to kill her? Why did he try to kill her father?

Why, why, why.

He stayed silent. His answer was the same; it had not been enough before and would not be enough now either.

“You can’t even answer me,” she broke the silence in a quiet, disappointed voice. Somehow it hurt more than the rest.
“...I don’t have the answer you want,” he told her, honest about it.

He had long since accepted his role in all of this. Why? Because it had been asked of him, an order printed in black ink on a white paper. Whatever he thought of it did not matter. Whatever he felt about it did not matter. A tool could not be burdened with something as petty as a conscience.

Luckily for him, his powers made him weightless and unshackled from such things. If he started to crack, he could just turn to light and forget.

“Will you keep chasing us?” Bonney asked next, and he gave it some thought.
“My mission is over,” he replied. “You aren’t my target.”

She had never been in the first place, only a byproduct of Saint Saturn’s grudge over people that kept resisting him. Her name was never branded in black ink and thus, he could simply ignore it now that the man himself was gone.

“Right, like that would stop Saint Saturn from ordering you to hunt us down…”
“He won’t,” he promised her.
“How can you be so certain? He already did once.”
“Because he is dead.”

Bonney stood up in a heartbeat, turning over and slamming her hands along the edge of the bath as she leaned to peer into his face. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open.

“What?” she exclaimed.
“He is dead,” he repeated.
“He is -”

She wasn’t able to finish the sentence. Tears started to gather at the corner of her eyes, her lip quivering.

“Really?” she asked for confirmation once more, and she had never more sounded her actual age than at this moment. “You’re telling the truth? He is really dead?”
“Yes, Bonney. He is dead. He won’t hurt you or Kuma anymore.”

When her tears fell it was in heavy drops, running down her cheeks and plummeting straight into the bath with a soft noise. She tried to stench their flow by rubbing her eyes, but without any fabric to absorb the water it was pretty much useless.

Borsalino turned the rest of his body toward her, raising his arms up but freezing before he actually reached her shoulders, unable to bridge that last distance to offer the comfort she so clearly needed. He did not feel like he was allowed to, not after what he had done, not after what he couldn’t do.

In the end he waited for her sobs to subside, leaning on one forearm alongside the tub close to where she was standing.

He had not expected such a violent reaction to the news, though maybe he should have: Saint Saturn had had no qualms about revealing that Bonney’s entire existence had been his doing on Egghead, from her powers to the sickness that had cost her both her mother and her father, playing with their lives like toys.

Celestial dragons were a different brand of danger. The common ones not so much, never smart enough to come up with better insults or better ways of torturing someone, keeping to the same boring old over and over again. The Saints, though, and the ones on their way to obtain that title, these ones were to be handled with more precaution. They were cunning and knew how to wield their status, too clever to be deceived with anything else but well crafted lies with no holes to be poked and prodded lest they unravelled entirely at the first sign of suspicion.

Borsalino did not like them, nor did he like working with them. If they were involved, a mission only had one single outcome: the one they wanted.

It took a few minutes for Bonney to calm down and when her tears dried up and her shoulders stopped shaking, only jolted every so often by a sniff, she smacked the back of his hand with her fingers in an angry gesture. He let it happen, his skin smarting where it was hit.

“I hate that you care,” she hiccuped. “It would be easier if you did not. I wouldn’t be wishing you would protect me instead.”

Her eyes were red and puffy. It tugged at something in his chest.

I’m sorry, he wanted to tell her, like it would be enough. It wasn’t, not when it would be telling her that she was right, that her life and her father’s were not enough to tip the scales in his mind, no matter the screams of his heart. How could they? Vegapunk had not been enough. And now, the weight of his death only added to the ever growing pile of shameful deeds that would mean nothing if he did not see it all through to the end, wherever that path might take him.

He had long since given everything he was to another, a faithful shadow dogging every single step made.

It did not make anything easier, when others came to the realization they were only second place and would only ever be second place.

He should have known better but to form bonds with people when anyone, anything, could become a target of the Navy, of the World Government's ire.

You’re a sad man, Kizaru, Vegapunk’s voice echoed once more in his ears.

“You should go back to Sorbet,” he told Bonney as he fled her heavy gaze and focused back on the clouds outside. “Live a happy life there.”
“Like it wouldn’t be the first place the Navy would check out.”
“Maybe,” he hummed. “Maybe I’ll be the one to go, too. It would be a shame if I couldn’t see anything…”

There was motion behind him, things being dropped on the floor. Then, Bonney pushed his arm away from the ledge to plop herself down on it, submerging her now naked legs into the water.

“It’s a dumb idea,” she let him know, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. “I don’t want to go back there like nothing has happened anyway, like I haven’t seen anything of the world. I want to be with my dad but…I also want to fight. I think… I’m gonna join the Revolutionary Army.”

Of course. Like her dad, like Vegapunk. The scientist had never openly joined the group but his ideals had been similar enough, though his funds had come from another source; Borsalino knew he had had regular contact with Dragon to exchange information.

“You’re young,” he commented. “Shouldn’t you enjoy your childhood first..?”
“Too late for that,” she shrugged, swinging her legs in the water. “Spending time with Dad is all I need. We can protect innocents together…”
“Mhm.”
“Don’t give me that! I might not be able to beat you, but I’m still plenty strong.”
“That you are,” he agreed.

Rare were the children that had such a high bounty on their heads at her age, and when it did happen it was more likely they posed a threat that was not necessarily based on physical power. Bonney, though, boasted both dangerous connections and dangerous strength.

“You think my dad will get better?” Bonney said in a quiet voice after a few minutes of silence. Borsalino blinked his eyes open from where they had closed in the soothing warmth of the bath.
“Lilith is looking into it, isn’t she..? Don’t you trust her?”
“I do! It’s just… It’s been a few days already, but he is still in the same state. He hasn’t moved ever since we left Egghead…”

Kuma’s entire existence was a miracle, between Vegapunk’s modifications and Saint Saturn meddling. Both men had been left speechless at the cyborg’s appearance on the island, which meant that whatever Kuma was now was something different, unplanned for, unpredictable.

Borsalino had not yet decided if it was a blessing or a curse. Bonney was stuck hoping, because there was nothing else she could do that would not break her in the process.

“Lilith will figure it out,” he decided to reassure her. If anything, he could bank on Vegapunk’s satellite to do the impossible. “That Straw Hat pirate seems pretty skillful, too...”

He had not yet found the time to start a conversation with him, but Iron Man had shown to be in possession of a similar laser tech than the Pacifistas used. Borsalino couldn’t help but be curious at how this happened; the light had sung to him like the cyborgs’ lasers, an echo of something that had once been him.

“Franky’s great! He was making new parts to fix Dad’s head. It’s just… I don’t like it, you know. Seeing him open like this…”

It was her father after all. No one liked seeing someone they cared about with their innards revealed to the world, whether flesh or machinery.

“Think you could help?”

Borsalino frowned.

“What do you want me to do?” he genuinely asked. “I am not a scientist.”
“Yeah, but you spent time with Vegapunk. You know stuff. You were always in the lab with him when you were not training with Sentomaru…”
“Lilith is Vegapunk,” he pointed out. “She…‘knows stuff’.”
“It’s just…different. You know?”

He did. She was Vegapunk but at the same time she was not. Each satellite had still had their own personality, their own goals, even though they all came from the same person. These memories from before their creation did not mean much to them.

“I lost that sumo match, anyway,” he reminded her with a sigh.
“But you actually took it seriously! That’s enough for me.”
“Lucky me…”
“Think I could beat you right now?” she mused aloud, kicking her feet in the water.

He hummed in thought.

“Maybe… How is your haki?”
“Ehh, I’ve got like, the basics. I was able to use it super easily when I was in my Nika form!”
“In your - what?”
“My Nika form. Didn’t you see it? I punched Luffy really hard and we flung the weird bird monster far away!”

He certainly did not. When did this happen? It must have been after he attacked Vegapunk for the last time.

“None of this makes any sense…”
“You just had to be there,” she laughed. “I should train with that form… One attack was all it took to tire me out.”

Even Straw Hat couldn’t stay in that state for long, from what Borsalino had seen in their fight. It was a pretty recent power he had unlocked so it wasn’t a surprise the drawbacks were still severe, and in the right conditions he had shown to be able to use it multiple times as long as he got to replenish his energy in between. Once the Emperor mastered it he would be unstoppable.

If Bonney could replicate it… The Five Elders would probably not let her rest easily. There would be no peaceful life to return back to for her unlike he had been hoping… Maybe the Revolutionaries were the better choice.

He pushed himself up, keeping one hand on his towel to make sure it was still secure even in its heavier, soaked state.

“Oh, are you done?” Bonney commented as she watched him try to wring it as best he could to get water out without removing it, before stepping out of the bath.
“Yes, I am done. Would you mind leaving the room now..?”

She swung her legs around and stood up, shaking them a bit before she bent to grab her discarded shoes and started heading for the door. She stopped just shy of reaching it, turning back with a thoughtful expression on her face, then morphed into her adult form and retraced her steps back to hit Borsalino’s stomach with a light punch lacking any real strength.

“See?” she grinned as he raised his eyebrows. “My haki is fine!”

Her face soon fell as Borsalino let his fruit take over his body and her fist disappeared inside of him, light shining around the contact point.

“Ah! No way,” she groaned, pulling her hand back and trying again with the same result. “Wait, I got this…”

He looked at her with an amused smile that did nothing but enrage her. The third time was the charm as she closed her eyes and focused before reaching out, her fingers making contact with his skin at last as haki repelled his light.

“Ah ha!” she grinned in victory. “See that?!”
“Good job,” he nodded, voice sarcastic enough that she half-heartedly glared at him in annoyance. “You need to work on that.”
“Ugh, I swear I could do it without any problem as Nika…”
“Haki is a mental skill, you simply fully believed in yourself when you took on that form.”
“You taught Sentomaru how to use it, right? Could you teach me, too?”
“I could give you some pointers… But for now..?” he gestured at the door.
“Yes, I’m out!”

She slid out of the room, catching the door before it fully closed behind her and grinning at him again:

“Thanks Uncle! Let’s train together tomorrow!”

The outside was quiet when Borsalino left the building housing the library and the bathroom. 

Nico Robin, Cat Burglar and God Usopp were up on the top deck, bent over one of the flower beds with tools and a bag of dirt next to them. They glanced up as he approached before going back to their previous activity, save for the archeologist whose gaze lingered on him.

I know, he inclined his head.

She made a show of looking towards the front of the ship before her eyes flicked to him again, then went back to caring for the plants.

Borsalino couldn’t see the Emperor when he squinted in that direction, so he gave his observation haki a go: he could feel the three closest to him almost immediately, then discovered that the swordsman was taking a nap on the main deck. Any further was out of his comfort range for now, but by pushing it slightly he could make out two more signatures towards the front. One he expected was Jimbei at the helm, the other most likely Straw Hat…further up still?

There was nothing but the figurehead there.

Borsalino gauged the distance and the time it would take him to reach it. He disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on the figurehead, finding the Emperor sprawled out on it with his arms under his head. The pirate opened his eyes curiously at the sudden increase in brightness, immediately beaming up at him as he realized who it was.

“‘zaru,” he grinned as he sat up, crossing his legs instead. “What is it?”
“I need to tell you something…”
“Oh, are you joining my crew?”
“No,” Borsalino frowned. “Why would I join your crew?”
“Because you’re a monkey, just like me!”

He had nothing to argue against that.

The rest of the crew probably would, though, and he would not blame them in the slightest for it. Their current ceasefire was only temporary after all, and whatever some of them might begin to like about him was but a lie given form by Bonney’s powers, something as intangible as his light powers and almost as quick to disappear. By the time his admiral coat fit on his shoulders again there would be nothing left for them to like.

“I need to tell you…something else,” he said, prompting Straw Hat to plop back down in his previous position in disappointment.
“Sure,” the pirate shrugged. “What is it?”

A free spirit, unbothered by most things. As wild and energetic as the wind itself.

“Kizaru?” Straw Hat repeated when he stayed silent for too long, oddly cautious about which words to use, which things to say. In the end, he decided to be straightforward.
“Vice-Admiral Garp has been officially declared as missing in action.”

The other frowned at him, pushing himself to a sitting position once more. His expression told Borsalino he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, that the words had meaning he did not trust himself to have right.

“What?” he breathed out. “What does that mean..?”
“That he is either dead or was captured by the enemy,” Borsalino replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Gramps can’t be dead,” Straw Hat immediately snapped back. “He is too strong.”
“I would be tempted to agree…but he fought against the Blackbeard pirates. Alone…”
“Blackbeard..!”

The other Emperor’s name was heavy on Straw Hat’s tongue, his eyes darkening in a similar way as when he heard Sakazuki’s voice just a handful of days ago. He probably had a similar grudge towards both of them, each responsible for his brother’s death in a different way.

“What happened?” he asked for clarification, no more mirth in his tone.
“Garp went to rescue one of his protégés who had been captured by Blackbeard on Amazon Lily,” Borsalino started, only to be immediately interrupted by the pirate.
“Koby? Wait, what happened on Amazon Lily?”
“Haven’t you heard..? Warlords are no more.”
“Yeah, I know. And?”
“And, without that title, the World Government sees them as too big a threat. Battleships were dispatched to arrest each of them when the news was made official… It also means that other pirates were free to go against them without fearing any retaliation from the Navy.”
“But Hancock is fine, right? And all the others?”

Hancock, the pirate said. There had been reports of the Pirate Empress’...wild actions during the Paramount War that had hinted at a relationship between her and Straw Hat, but Borsalino had never thought these theories to be true until now. The former warlord was notorious for her hate of men in all shapes and forms… He wondered what made her change her mind for this one. 

“Why does it matter to you..?”
“They are my friends!”
“Mhm… The marines have reported Silvers Rayleigh breaking the fight. The island is under his protection, for now at least…”

Straw Hat heaved a relieved sigh.

“Blackbeard captured Captain Koby and brought him to his base…then Garp showed up to rescue him,” Borsalino finished his explanation. “Navy officers aren’t allowed to start hostilities with Emperors…but Garp has never asked for permission before doing what he wants.”
“You attacked me,” Straw Hat frowned at him.
“It fell under the scope of my mission… You also attacked me first,” Borsalino reminded him.
“You were going to shoot a beam!”
“At the robot, yes…”
“That’s the same.”

It was, but it wasn’t. Borsalino was very well versed in semantics and the room specific wording gave him to maneuver as he wished.

“Where is Blackbeard now?” Straw Hat asked after a beat, his gaze stuck on the horizon.
“Would you go here if I told you? It might be too late...”
“It isn’t.”
“You will, then.”
“Of course,” the pirate nodded. “Blackbeard is on my list of people to beat, after all!”
“You have a list?”
“Yeah, I’m going to take down all Emperors.”

Borsalino hummed. The Emperors were considered one of the three powers that kept the balance of the world, and removing them from the equation would only destabilize it further now that the Warlords were disbanded. There would be nothing left but the Navy and the World Government hiding in its shadow. For now, the Navy still nominated new Emperors as previous ones fell, and if Straw Hat was set on being the only one to reign over the seas he would be doing the marines’ job in their place. Borsalino refrained from mentioning it; anything that could make his life easier was welcomed.

“You can’t fight Blackbeard even if you join my crew,” the pirate let him know with a serious face.
“I am not joining your crew… Why would I even want to fight Blackbeard?”
“Because you’re light and he is darkness,” Straw Hat stated like it was obvious.

Borsalino laughed.

He wasn’t wrong, that train of thoughts had sparked many debates amongst Navy officers ever since Blackbeard had showcased his powers at Marineford during the war. Even the Celestial Dragons had entertained the idea, when they were usually rarely bothered to keep an eye on what was happening below them. They all thought the answer was obvious, that having him on their side was a blessing.

Sengoku had dragged him into a meeting before he was officially retired from his title as Fleet Admiral, emphasizing on the positive outlook it meant for the troops and for the nobles and how it had to be kept that way. They had talked at length about potential strategies if Borsalino ever did cross paths with Blackbeard, while knowing fully well the best would be to avoid it for as long as possible.

Light could as easily be devoured by the darkness as it could prevail over it.

‘Darkness’ was kind of misleading, too, since Blackbeard’s powers nullified other devil fruits; his light would be as useless as any other element.

Maybe it would trigger a different reaction… But there was no way to know until a fight actually happened, and by that time the Navy had more to lose than to gain.

“Can you believe it’s one of the reasons I cannot resign from the marines?” he shared with Straw Hat, finding it funny. “Many people think the same…”
“Well, they’re right, aren’t they?”
“Maybe… Maybe not…” he shrugged. “Either way, you do not have to worry. I have no intention of going against him unless my hand is forced…”

Straw Hat made a noise of satisfaction before falling silent.

Borsalino thought the conversation over as it stayed that way for a while, enjoying the song of the sea and the wind before he decided to leave. He was turning on his heels when he spotted the pirate hunching over himself in a curled up position, and paused instead of bursting into light.

“Gramps is strong, right..?” Straw Hat quietly asked, looking at him for reassurance, the worry finally showing through the cracks of his confidence.

Borsalino turned back towards him.

“Yes,” he replied. “He might be a Vice-Admiral in rank, but he has always been as powerful as an Admiral.” The pirate was still hugging his knees, so he added: “I could never beat him in a spar.”

Granted, those occasions had been few and far in between, the last one dating back to just before his official promotion to admiral rank. Still, he hoped it could help the Emperor gauge where his grandfather’s strength was at, since he had gotten a taste of Borsalino’s own power.

Of course, Garp only grew older with each passing year…and he had been mainly facing Kuzan that day. Neither his heart nor his body would have been at full power during that encounter, but Borsalino kept this information to himself.

“I beat you at sumo,” the Emperor commented.
“Yes…against this self,” Borsalino gestured at his body. “Congratulations. I am not even a Navy officer yet.”
“You’re not? When did you join?”
“At twenty-six.”
“Ehh,” Straw Hat poked his chin. “We should spar when you are older, then. I’ll still beat you!”
“Maybe you will.”

They retreated to the inside of the ship as dinner was served. Nico Robin had an expression on her face not unlike one would expect from a parent satisfied with their offspring’s actions, one that slightly rubbed Borsalino the wrong way. He might be many things, but he always kept his word.

The meal happened without issue, at least. He was still quite enticed by most of the pirate crew but it wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been at the start of the day, his interest staying at the back of his mind instead of taking up all the space until there was none left for another thought.

When dinner was over, he joined Straw Hat and Cat Burglar up in the library, standing around the table in the middle of the room as the navigator spread a map on its surface. He told them what he knew about Pirate Island, Blackbeard’s base of operation; its general location on one part of the sea the Straw Hats had not yet sailed in, the kind of welcoming committee to expect if they ever made landfall there, the dangers lying in both reaching it and starting a fight with the other Emperor.

He left the two pirates mulling over this new information, Cat Burglar frowning at the map like it could reveal the quickest and safest path straight to the island, and hoped that if they decided to go through with it, it would be once he was long gone from their ship.

Borsalino was halfway putting up on Black Leg’s pants the next morning when he realized they refused to go past his thighs. He blinked the rest of the sleep away and gave his body a once-over: it did not feel any different to him, but now that he was paying attention to his surroundings they did seem smaller than before...

He stepped out of the pants and folded them to give them back to their rightful owner later on, going to grab his suit from where he had left it in the corner of the room instead. It was slightly big on him still, prompting him to wonder when the hell he had stopped growing; muscle density had some part to play, of course, but not when it was about pants’ length. He rolled over the fabric at the ends a few times, unsurprised at having to do the same for his shirt; at least his belt had just enough holes to make sure his pants would stay on his hips. He decided to keep the top of his shirt unbuttoned and left the rest of his attire out, not feeling going back to a full formal look just yet. His sunglasses were also just slightly too big, so he put them back down again in fear of breaking them if they fell off his head.

He found Black Leg on the top deck above the kitchen, smoking in the early hours of the morning as he kept an eye on the sea behind the ship. The pirate turned his head as Borsalino flashed close to him, exhaling in the air.

“Thank you…for letting me borrow your clothes,” Borsalino let him know as he placed the bundle on the barrier between them.
“You’re welcome,” Black Leg replied as he took another drag.

The acrid smell was tugging at something in his chest, the slow rousing of a familiar craving.

“Mind if I pinch one off you?” Borsalino nodded towards the cigarette the other was holding between two fingers.
“You smoke?”
“I used to. Stopped when I was promoted to Admiral,” he shared as the pirate produced his pack from a pocket and offered him one.

Black Leg pulled out a lighter next and made the flame flare up. Borsalino leaned in close to lit up the stick secured between his lips, one hand instinctively coming up to cradle the light and help the process along. The smoke swirled in his mouth before he let it out in a slow exhale, his throat burning in a pleasant tingle.

“What made you stop?”
“I suppose… It did not fit the idea I had of the rank.”

Maybe it had been because he had not needed to control his urges anymore, or that his stress levels did not require a constant outlet, something to keep him focused and entertained as he slowly climbed the ranks. Becoming an Admiral had been the end of the line for him, even as he knew that Sakazuki would only keep shooting higher; if nothing else he was still smug about the fact he had snatched that title first between the two of them.

“Do you ever miss it?”

Borsalino thought about it. This situation was different, unprecedented, his younger body trumping his older mind with an unsettling ease. Quitting the bad habit had not been much of an issue for him, focusing his attention elsewhere when the cravings sneaked under his skin until they quieted down for good.

There had only been one exception otherwise.

Borsalino still remembered the worried glances of his officers from that time, the itch in their voices as they tried their best not to cough amongst the heavy smoke that thickened the air in his office on the battleship. He had spent a month living on nothing but dissatisfaction, keeping to the dark in his quarters and only showing up on deck when something required his attention. His men had soon understood that his care was very limited and that asking for his help was akin to a beast suddenly unleashed; he had sunk ships left and right as they had made their rounds in the New World, making sure that the pirates knew he was out there and was not playing. It had given the officers under his command more work, having to fish out the survivors of the destroyed crews so they could be captured and sent to Impel Down, reporting casualties and other destruction alike in their paperworks.

He had not found it in himself to care.

Sengoku had tried to mitigate the situation but Borsalino had been in a dark mood, and the soon-to-be former Fleet Admiral had wisely chosen to drop the subject. He had already asked a lot out of him by sending him away as Sakazuki and Kuzan faced each other on Punk Hazard, with all too reasonable arguments. The Navy could not afford to have all three admirals out of commission for a few weeks, not when pirates were always on the lookout to seize territories and attack both marine bases and protected islands alike if they thought they could get away with it. There had also been a real concern over some of them deciding to band together to get rid of two admirals in one fell swoop as the fight between magma and ice kept raging and the secret of their battle ultimately escaped into the world.

All vice-admirals had been dispatched in key locations, of course, almost half of them standing guard around Punk Hazard. Sengoku had still looked him in the eye and ordered him to leave his friends to their idiotic, foolish, ridiculous brawl.

Borsalino was rarely angry. If he was, it was never for long, the emotions swelling in his chest like air filling his lungs, full one second and empty the next one. Sometimes they stretched to a day or two before his mood settled back down to a smooth, calm surface, the frustration and displeasure sinking deep into the forgotten parts of his mind.

That time, though, the anger had rotted him from within like a fire; he had felt it lick his insides and slowly consume everything, charring his organs until there was nothing left but broken remains in a pile of soot. So he had given it life, finding solace in the physical recreation of his feelings through the lazy smoke swirling in the darkness of his office, with the lit end of the cigarette his only source of light.

The heavy smell had followed his every step, wrapping around his frame in a comforting embrace, tinting the lens of his glasses to a darker, almost opaque color, soaking into the black print of the ‘justice’ branding his back amongst the pristine white of his coat.

Then, Sakazuki had won.

Borsalino had been recalled from the New World and kindly offered to take some time off. He had thrown his ongoing pack of cigarettes overboard as they had docked and had not looked back.

Not even as Kuzan left in the dead of the night.

The new Fleet Admiral was instated and ironically enough, it was Sakazuki who picked up a smoking habit soon into his new job. Borsalino suspected that the newfound weight of his responsibilities and the sudden impossibility of letting his frustrations out on pirates had been the catalyst. The cigar was a nice look; Borsalino had soon grown to enjoy the heavier smell of its smoke, sometimes getting a taste almost directly from the source.

“Usually not,” he replied to Black Leg.

The pirate’s gaze was heavy on him, maybe seeing more than what was said. They continued smoking in silence until their sticks ran out; Black Leg disappeared in the ladder leading to the kitchen as Borsalino thought about his options, finally deciding to enjoy the rest of the Straw Hats’ logs from the library. The couch there was comfortable and without anyone else around he was able to get through the first book and half of the second one before Cat Burglar showed up to work at her desk.

Alabasta had been an interesting part of their journey, bringing clarity to some reports and rumors he had vaguely been aware of. He had known Smoker had thrown a fit at headquarters following the announcement of his involvement in Crocodile’s fall from grace, something about getting the accomplishment of someone else…but he had not been been close enough to the marine to know more, nor had he been curious enough to try and get it from Kuzan.

The sky island had been next, proving to be as interesting as Borsalino had hoped. He still couldn’t wrap his head about the fact that the pirate crew had encountered another logia user there while still basically defenseless against that type of fruit, only prevailing because Straw Hat was rubber. 

“I am amazed you made it this far,” he told Cat Burglar as he finished reading through that part of their adventure.

The fights only had a succinct description, the logs more focused on the technical side like the properties of the clouds and the ‘dials’ the inhabitants used, but it still gave Borsalino a good understanding of the power level they were talking about there. Some logias were easier to deal with than others, when their elements were tangible like sand or ice, but intangible ones like electricity usually meant an immediate loss for any opponent unable to use haki.

He would know, being light himself.

“Luck was on our side,” the pirate grinned. “I do remember thinking it was all over a few times… But everything worked out in the end!”

Their next stop had been Long Ring Long Land; Borsalino greatly enjoyed the various drawings of the fauna with extremely long necks and wondered how exaggerated these were. He was halfway through the summary of the pirate crew’s…Davy Back Fight…when the door swung open.

“Nami-swan,” Black Leg announced in a singsong tone, one tray with a drink and a snack held high above his head. “Here is a treat!”
“Thank you,” Car Burglar smiled at her crewmate, making some place on her desk for him to put the tray down.

Black Leg devolved into a string of compliments as he wiggled on the spot, so Borsalino moved his focus back onto the log to keep learning about odd pirate customs. The name of the game sounded vaguely familiar and he thought he might have heard it in passing in the Navy… Still, it sounded like something wholly unnecessary; he knew pirates had their own code of honor but trading crewmembers? Giving up their flags? Who in their right mind would accept such rules… Even the marines did not mess with pirates’ flags, it was one of the first things they learned about: their significance was, for their crew, as important as the Navy’s own flag…maybe even the World Government itself. Striking it down was a declaration of war, and there was no need to put oil onto a fire when one was already in the midst of battle.

“Ah!” Black Leg suddenly exclaimed. “So that’s where you were!”

Borsalino flicked his eyes up to see the pirate point his finger in his direction before crossing his arms in annoyance.

“I told you, you need to show up during meal time to get something. Otherwise, it’s gone!”
“Ohh…” Borsalino blinked at him. Was it so late? There was no clock in the surveying room, and the overcast sky outside did not help either. “The log is very interesting… I am afraid I did not see the time pass…”
“Well, this better not happen again. See if I care.”

The pirate headed for the door and closed it more forcefully than strictly required on his way out.

“Was he angry..?” Borsalino asked Cat Burglar after a beat.
“Sanji doesn’t like people skipping meals,” she nodded. “Especially if it’s intentional…”

It felt like prodding, a question waiting behind her words.

“It’s not,” he replied as he turned a page. Sure, now that it was brought up to his attention he did feel slightly hungry, but nothing that couldn’t wait a few more hours.

Cat Burglar hummed before focusing back on her own work. Silence fell once more on the library, only every so often broken by the soft clinking of a fork against a plate.

A few other people went by; God Usopp and Jimbei climbing up to the bathroom, Nico Robin coming to check something in a book and spending some time hunched over the desk with her crewmate, pointing at some things the other had been working on.

Borsalino did not bat an eye the next time the door opened, too engrossed in the stark retelling of Enies Lobby’s fall; it had never been made quite clear what exactly had happened that day, how a buster call had been triggered and how a whole cipher pol unit had been wiped out. Kuzan had somehow been involved; his name had appeared once already in relation to Nico Robin, hinting at previous encounters between the two.

Ah, well. Kuzan was not part of the Navy anymore, anyway.

He had not been the only one mentioned, too, his own alias and Sakazuki’s were listed under ‘Aokiji’ with a warning: admirals. Someone in the crew must have held some sort of grudge against the ice logia because there was an angry drawing of what Borsalino suspected was supposed to be a bird. A pheasant, even, though it bore little resemblance to its namesake. Someone else had taken to do a dog and a monkey, both cute and goofy, probably to minimize the gravity of their newfound knowledge.

Would the Straw Hats have been aware of who they needed to watch out for if not for Nico Robin? Somehow, Borsalino doubted it.

“Uncle,” a hand suddenly appeared on the top of his book, pushing it down to reveal a head of pink hair.
“Ohh, Bonney,” Borsalino smiled at her. “What is it?”
“You said you would come see Dad today.”
“I did,” he nodded. “...Now?”
“Yes!”
“Alright…”

He closed the book, making a mental note of how far into it he had been before putting it back on the shelf with the rest of the logs. Bonney bounced in front of him as they exited the library, and not for the first time he wondered why she was so insistent about him seeing Kuma.

Maybe she was hoping to trigger a reaction out of her dad through him. It certainly wouldn’t come from a powerful friendship; Borsalino had never known how to feel about the man, half of him admirative of his unwavering selfishness while the other half felt too guilty to thread a bond deeper than simple respect. He doubted Kuma viewed him in that much of a positive light either.

Maybe he would still be registered as a threat, prompting the former warlord to do the impossible again in order to protect his daughter.

“Come, over here,” Bonney guided him through the insides of the back of the ship with ease, working noises soon reaching his ears as they got closer to their goal.

The room they ended up in was lit by a few lamps, the ground barely walkable as many machines took up the space while Kuma himself sat against one of the walls. His hulking form was still as a statue, his upper body laid bare in a complicated work of machinery with wires coming from further inside and attached to the devices around him. Borsalino understood Bonney’s unease over this sight: it showed how much of her father was now artificial, with his skin cut and pulled apart to reveal metal organs and other enhancements.

Iron Man and Lilith were both hard at work in a corner of the room, welding something together with short, precise instructions. The walls close to them were almost entirely covered by papers highlighting the parts of Kuma’s body they needed to repair and other technical formulas Borsalino could make no head nor tail of.

He approached Kuma instead as Bonney went to check on the other two, a morbid curiosity welling inside of him as for the first time ever he was face to face with Vegapunk’s work, with Kuma’s sacrifice, with his own complicity. Even without a scientist's eye he could recognize the broken, failing pieces, jutting like a sore thumb while the rest of the parts fused seamlessly with each other in an intricate pattern of artificial life.

The heart wasn’t visible, protected by plates, but something else caught his attention: a small sphere nestled lower, right in the center of Kuma’s abdomen, partially hidden by other pieces. It pulsated with a weak light, the kind Borsalino was more than familiar with. He had seen how it looked like for the pacifistas, how Vegapunk had managed to get his light powers to self replicate in a small, controlled container, how the particles split to make their way to the cannons placed in their hands and throat, and charged and charged and charged until they turned into the deadly lasers the World Government wanted. The weapons were still too recent to confirm the longevity of such power source, but Vegapunk had been confident they would last for a decade at the very least.

The one inside Kuma’s body was too dim to be working properly.

Borsalino could hear it sing to him in a frequency deaf to anyone else’s ears, the fragment recognizing where it came from. He lit up his fingers and saw it echo his call with a weak pulse; he made contact with the surface of the sphere, surprised to find the texture was unlike anything he could put a word on. Sparks jolted down his spine as his fingers dipped inside, light merging with light, and then the machines scattered around the cyborg started beeping with shrill alarms.

“Hey!” Lilith exclaimed in anger. “What are you doing?!”

Borsalino stepped back, shaking his hand as his fingers reformed. He had no explanation for what he had just done, no matter the satellite’s angry stare or Bonney’s confused one. Lilith was at the machines the next second, huffing as she read whatever they were telling her before her dissatisfied grunts slowly died out.

“Franky,” she called the pirate. “Levels are stable..!”
“What? How?” Iron Man immediately rushed to her side to confirm it for himself. “Wait, this is good..!”

They both turned towards him with thoughtful frowns.

“What did you do?” Lilith asked in a calmer way.

Borsalino scratched his head, feeling slightly unsure under the weight of their combined stare.

“The light seemed too weak…”
“The light? For the lasers?” Iron Man said.
“It’s not all it does,” Lilith mumbled, deep in thought. “It’s a good power source, so it was also hooked up to other vital functions…”
“...which weren’t working properly because the energy levels were too low,” the pirate gasped in understanding. “This would fix our generator problem!”

Bonney slipped between the two as they kept talking with their technical jargon to reach her dad, placing her hands on his arm as she looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

“Dad?” she called out. “Daddy?”

Kuma did not react to her voice, but Borsalino could see how the mechanical parts inside of him had started to light up and move at a regular pace that had not been there before.

“Hey, Kizaru,” Lilith asked for his attention; the animosity she had had for him each time they had met so far was nowhere to be seen. “Could you charge him more?”
“Su-ure,” he easily agreed, something akin to happiness blooming in his chest at the idea that he could be of help here, that there might be a way to fix this whole mess. “What do you need..?”
“Kuma’s body is heavily battered still, so it’s using a lot of energy to keep itself functional. I can’t access the switch without placing him in some sort of stand-by mode, but at the moment he wouldn’t have the energy to start up again. If you can charge him back to full levels I can do it without any risks - even better, if you stay as a secondary power source for him to fall back on in the event of a failure, then -”
“I’ll do it,” he cut her before she delved too deep into her explanations and lost him for good. “Just…point me to the right part.”

He ended up sitting in the open space between Kuma’s legs, cradling a makeshift device Lilith put together from currently unneeded parts of the cyborg’s body that linked him to the component that hosted the light source; Bonney sprawled on the rest of the floor, armed with papers and pens as she decided to stay and keep an eye on the procedures.

The two inventors crowded around the blueprints on the walls to add notes and decide on their next steps. Soon they were back to building whatever it was they were working on and as the room was once again filled with welding and hammering noises Borsalino let his mind wander so they would fade into the background.

He focused on the device between his hands first, mindlessly watching as it gathered the light emitted from his body in its core, compressing it to a small, bright sparkle that would then be pushed up the pipe leading straight to Kuma’s open torso; the whole operation took a handful of seconds, a new spark being created as soon as the previous one was out in the tube. It reminded him of the early days of Vegapunk’s experiment to harness his devil fruit, once the man had been satisfied with all the data he had gotten poking and prodding his body, getting easy, non-invasive samples to analyze and watching him use his powers over and over again. The hardest part had been after that, once the light was out of his body: it never lasted for long, fading into thin air without anything to sustain it, and it was inherently harmless without a proper amplification to transform its properties into a laser.

But Vegapunk wasn’t a genius for nothing; Borsalino still remembered the first time the man had shown him the artificial version of his shooting attack, the laser still unstable and only charring the wall it was directed against, but working.

It had been a few years since his friend had asked him to become a research subject, the project a personal one born from curiosity at first then mandated by the World Government as results were starting to show. It soon grew into duplicating all devil fruit powers, intricately tied with the man’s research on lineage factor and how to extract the ability’s pure essence in molecular form to infuse it into another body. Light was pushed to the side for a while as paramecias and zoans proved less tricky to handle, as other subjects were supplied…some more willing than others.

Vegapunk had had an idea from the start, though, a vision of superhuman robots that would protect the world and lasers were an important piece of the puzzle.

Like most of his friends’ inventions, his ideas were pure; it had always been unfortunate that money came from the hands of those who ranked an invention’s usefulness by its potential to do harm instead.

So when Borsalino had first watched the laser flash, he had thought: how many years until he, too, was deemed less useful than a copy gifted with his own powers? Humans were quirky. They had personalities, they made bonds with others, they were full of weaknesses waiting to be exploited. Robots never tired, never talked back, never doubted themselves.

Borsalino had always been dwarfed by the Pacifista’s shadow the very moment Vegapunk put his mind to replicating his powers. Sure, he had his qualities; a human had its use, versatile, adaptable, and the Glint-Glint fruit’s wide range of applications was still his only while his rank in the Navy made him a feared man across all seas.

And yet, he was as expendable as any other officer. Saint Saturn had made sure to let him know that truth once they had started to work together, the Elder taking an interest in Vegapunk’s endless creativity and pointing him to a path advantageous to the World Government.

Borsalino had always easily followed orders, but there was little room to play with when one was in the presence of a celestial dragon. He only had value as another mindless tool, as a weapon poised above people’s necks to keep them in line, no matter whether they were friends or foes.

No matter if they were a father trying to save their child from an inescapable death, with hope only found in the deepest pit of hell.

A life for a life, as they said.

He remembered being angry at Vegapunk for not being careful enough. He remembered being angry at himself for not anticipating his friend’s absent-mindedness.

He had not been angry at Saint Saturn, who had seen an opportunity and had seized it with a clever, brutal strategy. Borsalino knew the rules of that game, where more often than not he was on the side of those who pulled the strings. It had been the same quiet resignation washing over him as the Elder had revealed he had been responsible for Bonney’s illness all along on Egghead, cold settling in his chest as Vegapunk burned in outrage and Bonney was swallowed by pitch black despair.

“u-cle-”

So he closed his eyes and darkened the lens of his sunglasses, so he let the light take over until no weight could bear on his shoulders or on his mind -

“-nc-le-!”

Fading away.

Chapter Text

Borsalino blinked awake with slow, heavy motions.

He had to make a conscious effort to keep his eyes open, a deep exhaustion making his body feel sluggish and his brain scrambled. His vision cleared to reveal the familiar brown, wooden ceiling of the rooms on the pirate’s ship, illuminated only by a warm light hung on the wall above his head. He realized he was laying down on a bed, the mattress soft below his body; it creaked slightly as he pushed himself up, his arms shaking with an overexertion he couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause of.

“Ah, you’re awake!”

He turned his head towards the voice and was immediately hit by a wave of nausea as his vision swimmed around, unable to keep up with the speed of his motion. He closed his eyes and held his head between his hands to help it pass, jolting slightly as a hand made contact with his thigh.

“Hey,” the voice said softly, and as the fog started to clear out in his head he recognized it as the doctor’s. “Take it easy. Try to avoid quick movements for now, alright?”

The room had stopped spinning when he opened his eyes again, finding Tony Tony Chopper leaning over the bed in his big human form.

“What - What happened..?” Borsalino asked, finding his tongue as heavy as the rest of his body.
“You passed out as you were charging Kuma,” the pirate explained. “Apparently it took more energy than you had in stock! The others thought you were going to burst into light and then -” He mimed an explosion with his hands. “Luckily you just popped solid again.”
“Uh,” Borsalino intelligently replied.

He did not remember any of it. He knew he had been powering up the makeshift device Lilith had made…but then it was all black.

“Could that really happen to a logia..?” the doctor asked, half morbid curiosity and half scientific interest. “Turning into their element and not…coming back?”

You think that when I die, I’ll just turn scatter until there is nothing left? a younger version of him had asked his friend one night after a fight, the feeling of a sword embedding itself right through his heart still heavy on his mind even if it had done nothing but pass through him.
Don’t joke about that, Borsalino, Sakazuki had answered with a short tone of voice, the event like the question worming their way under his skin in a flutter of worries he had not known how to react to.

“Sometimes I dream about it,” he said quietly, the words still heavy enough he could feel them roll on his tongue. “Sakazuki says I’m a fool… But magma’s tangible, you know..? I never got the chance to ask Smoker… Not that close to him…then Kuzan left…and then he moved to G5…”
“Right,” the doctor frowned at him. “Maybe you should try to sleep a bit more, okay?”

The hand on his thigh moved to his shoulder and gave it a slight push. Borsalino did not need any more incentive, his body following the motion and tumbling backwards. His eyelids felt heavy.

“Sure,” he agreed as he struggled to keep his eyes open. “Sounds good…”

The second time he awoke went better.

The deep exhaustion from before was gone, his head much clearer; he was still feeling quite weak but he knew the culprit the moment his stomach growled. Luckily for him a plate with sandwiches awaited him on a chair placed next to the bed, along with a glass of water that he downed immediately.

He was enthusiastically going through the food when the door of the infirmary’s opened from the dining room side, Tony Tony Chopper walking in with a basket of fruits.

“Is that a banana?” Borsalino asked him without a thought as he sighted a yellow curve sticking out from the top.

The pirate jumped in surprise.

“Oh, you’re awake again! How are you feeling?”
“Better. Less tired. Quite hungry still…”
“That’s to be expected,” the pirate nodded as he put the basket down on his desk. “It’s almost dinner time, you’ve been out for most of the day.”

Borsalino felt his eyebrows shoot up.

“That long..?”
“Sanji has been fuming, he’s dead certain that you fainted because you missed breakfast this morning,” Tony Tony Chopper nodded. “...Which is probably part of it. You better not skip another meal or we are going to have a fight on our hands!”
“Ah… I’ll keep that in mind…”
“Is that the one you were talking about?”

The doctor pulled out not one banana but a bunch of four of them, all perfectly yellow and ripe.

“Yes,” he confirmed with barely contained excitement. “Could I have one, please..?”

Tony Tony Chopper handed him all four.

“We’ve got tons of them! We just stopped at an island, it’s pretty small and inhabited but there are a lot of resources, including these fruits. Sanji said they’re pretty nourishing so it’s a good idea for you to eat a few! Are you familiar with them?”
“Mhm,” Borsalino hummed as he peeled one open. “My favorite fruit. I used to eat a lot of them as a child…”

They had not been as freely available once he got into the Navy, even less so as a lower ranked officer on a battleship. Sometimes he could find a few during shore leave, depending on where they were anchored, but they grew to be rare enough in his life that he begged Sakazuki to keep an eye out for any during his own missions. Bringing back the fruits themselves had proven challenging if the ship wasn’t on its return journey to headquarters already, not talking about the fact that Borsalino could be on a mission of his own, so soon enough Sakazuki had taken to look for banana flavored snacks that would not rot and turn to mush in his pockets.

“I had never tried one before today,” the pirate excitedly said. “I come from a winter island where it snows all year long, so we don’t have that kind of exotic fruit.”
“Did you like it?”
“Yes! Sanji said he is going to make drinks and cakes with them.”
“I look forward to it,” Borsalino put the peel on the empty plate as he finished his treat. “What is it..?” he added as the other kept watching him.
“You’re more coherent now, that’s good.”

He grimaced. He couldn’t quite recall the conversation they had when he woke up previously, but ‘conversation’ was probably too strong a word to describe it.

“Do you remember what happened?”
“Devil fruit overload.”
“It has happened before, then?”
“Mhm…not to this extent,” Borsalino clarified. “Intensive use can easily drain my energy, but that is a shared issue with all devil fruit holders. I just…rarely have it up in a prolonged amount of time…this body couldn’t keep up.”

The last time it had made him lose consciousness was actually at the start of Vegapunk’s experiments, something he should have maybe remembered when he offered to help Lilith. Before that he had only come close, having to lie down on the training grounds of Marineford as the sky spinned overhead, pushed to his limits by his instructors to totally master his fruit and slowly increase his stamina. The exhaustion brought by his powers was a different kind than the physical one of honing his body or the mental one of refining his haki, more intense in the moment and yet quicker to fade away.

How old was he now? Mid twenties, late twenties? He would not have gone through any of that gruesome training just yet, leaving him with pretty average endurance…though one that had always lasted longer than his peers’, with how he could minimize movement and amplify his attacks to make them count.

“If you’re aware of that, why were you so careless?”

Borsalino shrugged.

“Hindsight. You can’t expect me to remember every little detail of my life…”

There was a knock on the door as the doctor sighed, Black Leg’s head popping inside the room.

“Hey, Chopper, food is ready,” he let his crewmate know before he noticed Borsalino sitting on the bed. “Ah, you’re up! Food is ready,” he repeated with a firm voice, opening the door fully and holding it that way with an underlying threat.
“Yes, yes…” Borsalino stood up and headed for the dining room, obeying the silent order given. “Oh… Thank you for the sandwiches.”

There was a huff at his back as he departed, Tony Tony Chopper’s voice following in a still audible whisper:

“He is a handful. Almost as bad as Luffy!”

Most of the crew was already sitting at the table, getting generous portions of food on their plates as conversations fused. He sat down next to Bonney, whose attention immediately focused on him instead of what was in front of her.

“Uncle! You’re up! Are you alright?”
“Yes… A bit tired, still. Nothing a good night of sleep won’t fix…”
“You scared me. Don’t do that again, okay?”
“Okay,” he easily agreed as he helped himself to some of the dishes.

He had barely started to eat when an arm wrapped around his shoulders as someone walked behind him, Lilith’s voice ringing too close to his ear for comfort.

“Borsalinoo,” she said in an apologetic tone, “I am so sorry! I forgot you weren’t in top form at the moment… I should have known you would just collapse after a while, you did that when we first started the experiments…”
“...Right,” he acknowledged her as annoyance started to bubble under his skin; he was starting to feel quite tired about the same conversation happening over and over again.

Thankfully Lilith barely paused in her stride and moved to sit across him at the table, immediately grabbing a plate and getting some food before the biggest stomachs would wolf it all down.

“At least we got all the energy we need thanks to you,” she continued while picking the dishes she wanted. “We just need to wrap up the machine that will allow me to communicate with Kuma’s data and I can access the switch!”
“You keep mentioning that…‘switch’,” Borsalino hummed. “What exactly is this..?”
“Probably my best invention!” she bragged, not like every new invention took up the spot as the best one. “It allows someone to switch between personalities! Kind of like a light switch, you have two states that exist on a completely different plane and you can choose which one is currently active. In Kuma’s case, one state is his original self, the other the mindless weapon the World Government wanted,” she explained. “...At least it should be.”
“You haven’t tested it before..?”
“Not like I could, with all the other projects the higher ups were breathing down my neck to see completed! Saint Saturn also forbade me from using it on Kuma…so I kinda had to do the best I could without raising his suspicions.”

Borsalino glanced at Bonney, who was picking at some vegetable with her fork and cutting it in small pieces in what was clearly a nervous gesture. She had a slight frown on her face but did not react otherwise, so he suspected she already had this conversation with Lilith.

“...So you’re not sure it’ll actually work.”
“In theory, it will!”
“But in practice…”
“We’ll have to try it, now, don’t we?” she bit on a big piece of meat. “If it fails… Well, it’ll take more time, but both myself and Bonney have all of his memories in our brain, so I could extract a copy and give that data right back to Kuma - experiences are what makes us ourselves, after all! And if that doesn’t work…”
“It’s okay, Lilith,” Bonney smiled up at the satellite in a selfless way so reminiscent of her father. “We’ll try all we can! Dad is still my dad, even if he doesn’t remember me. I’ll tell him all about his life and mine, and we can love each other again!”

Lilith’s eyes watered.

“Bonneyyy,” she bawled. “I’ll swear I’ll make it right!”

Two minutes later she was done with her plate, inhaling the food surprisingly quickly for someone who had not been used to eating barely a few days before, jumping out of her seat and heading straight for the door…no doubt in the direction of the workshop.

Borsalino continued his own meal at a more sedate pace, enjoying the slightly quieter surroundings, though it wouldn’t stay that way for long with the Straw Hats.

“You said you would show me haki today,” Bonney reminded him.
“Ahh, so I did… I am afraid this will need to wait until tomorrow, Bonney.”
“Yeah, I figured as much. You better go to bed early, alright? Then we can train the whole day!”

The dining room started to empty out as dinner came to an end, only the few assigned to cleaning duty getting busy in the kitchen washing and drying all the dishes. Borsalino was debating about eating another one of the bananas the doctor had kindly offered him as a treat when Black Leg placed a pack of cigarettes next to him, putting an end to his internal musing.

“Robin said you did not get promoted to Admiral until your late forties,” the pirate explained, “and since you told me this morning this was when you quit… I have got enough packs to last me until we stop at a town.”
“That is…very generous of you,” Borsalino thanked him.

He pocketed the small box as the pirate went to oversee the two in the kitchen, lest they break something by mistake, before stopping by the infirmary to grab his fruits. He noticed the empty plate that had previously held the sandwiches from when he woke up, so he took the opportunity to bring it to the sink to be added to the pile of dishes still to be cleaned.

“Here,” he let God Usopp know as he placed it on top of the dirty ones still remaining.
“Noo,” the pirate moaned theatrically. “It never ends..! Brook, it’s all over for me… I can feel my there-are-too-many-dishes-to-clean sickness flaring up…”

The musician only laughed at his crewmate’s distress and continued drying up the plate he had in his hands.

“Shall we put them outside?” he suggested. “The rain can do the job for you.”
“Certainly not!” Black Leg shouted from where he was currently holed up in the pantry, his hearing still sharp enough to know when the others were on the brink of doing something disastrous.

Borsalino made the unpleasant discovery that Soul King had not mentioned the weather randomly when he opened the door to the outside; rain was indeed falling in a steady curtain that did not look like it would let up anytime soon. He was in no mood to get wet and since he had forgone his jacket that morning, he did not even have that option as a makeshift umbrella.

He closed the door instead with a sigh and went to sit on the couch. He opened the pack of cigarettes he was freshly given and took a stick out, lighting it with his powers and exhaling the first smoke up towards the ceiling, watching it swirl round and round until it faded away. He stayed like that, with his head resting on the back of the couch and with his free arm stretched across it, taking a puff every so often while contemplating the grain of the wood above him.

“What are you still doing here?” Black Leg asked him as he came round that side of the room. “I thought you left.”
“It’s raining…”
“Surely you can just zip straight to wherever you want to, and opening the door won’t take you that long,” the pirate raised an eyebrow.
“As a matter of fact,” Borsalino petulantly replied, “I cannot.”
“Why not?”
“Do you know what happens when light meets water?”
“It…bounces off?”
“What do you think will happen if I turn into light amongst thousands of water drops?”

Black Leg grimaced.

“Nothing good,” he guessed.
“Nothing good,” Borsalino confirmed as he took another drag of his cigarette.
“Does it mean you’re basically defenseless in the rain?”

He gave the pirate a lopsided smile.

“It means I cannot control myself,” he corrected. “It might make things more difficult for me…but it would make them even worse for you.”

Not that Black Leg was completely wrong. Borsalino would be pretty useless in a group fight with allies if he was not looking to severely injure, if not outright kill, some of his own men. Luckily rain was not a recurring issue he faced during his missions, in the rare cases it did happen the highest ranking officer with him knew to take charge, either to wrap up the fight or to have everyone retreat so Borsalino could finish the job without friendly casualties. Each admiral had their own quirks and the men placed under their command all underwent strategy meetings to know how best to support them…which in most cases than not, meant how best to give them space to use their powers.

Still, he wouldn’t be completely defenceless… His haki would not be impeded by the weather and the irritation he was sure to feel upon being locked out of his own powers would only give more weight to his blows. Sure, it wasn’t as impressive as a kick boosted at light speed…but it would do the job against the vast majority of pirates.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Black Leg finally said before leaving him to his own devices.

Luck was on his side: the rain had let up by the time he finished his smoke, though the sky was still heavily overcast and kept the end of the day in a dark, dreary atmosphere. The deck outside was unsurprisingly empty, the pirates preferring the inside of their ship to avoid the moody weather. There was no need to man the helm either as they were still anchored to the coast of the island Tony Tony Chopper had mentioned, the sea quiet and steady so close to land even as storms seemed to be brewing on the horizon. Borsalino could see the outline of a forest further inside the island, rocky formations stretching into the sky like fingers reaching out in a dying gasp.

He phased straight from the kitchen door to the men’s quarters to avoid stepping on the wet and undoubtedly muddy grass, intent on calling it a day as he fumbled his landing and had to right himself by holding onto the door.

The room was empty; the evening was still young and while Borsalino had not yet gotten a proper mental picture of the crew’s schedule, too busy with his own messy sleeping habits as he jumped through the early stages of his life, it seemed like most of the pirates were night owls. It meant that his surroundings were silent, a peace he was more than happy to take advantage of as he headed below to the storage room and undressed, folding his clothes and putting them away before slipping into bed and calling it a day.

His sleep was once again disturbed by the weight of someone climbing into the hammock with him, making it bounce slightly as they settled down.

“This again, Bonney..?” he sighed sleepily, air being pushed out of his lungs as the culprit decided to sprawl across his middle.

The laugh that reached his ears and which he could feel rumble through his chest was unmistakably not Bonney’s, and his eyes shot open at once.

“I’m not Bonney,” Straw Hat grinned in the dark. “Wow, this is fun!” he exclaimed as Borsalino pushed himself up and made the pirate slide down, the hammock swinging once again with the motion.
“What are you doing here?” Borsalino frowned as he lit himself up to a dim intensity, now properly seeing the pirate spread out across his lap.
“I wanted to see what Franky did! We used to have hammocks on Merry - the beds on Sunny are comfortable but they’re not as bouncy!”

The Emperor illustrated his point by getting the bed to sway around again.

Borsalino heaved another sigh. He had the feeling that falling back asleep wasn’t going to be an option… Thankfully, the lethargy of the evening before had completely vanished from both his body and his mind, leaving him feeling quite rested already even with the rough wake-up call he had just suffered from. He focused his observation haki to get an idea of what was happening on the ship: the rest of the crew was still asleep in their respective quarters with the exception of Jimbei, who sat in the dining room…probably either reading or drinking some tea. Since he was now up, he decided to make the most of it by going to take a bath: he had not had the chance to clean himself the previous day and thought it would be a nice way of getting ready for the one ahead.

He worked his limbs around the pirate stretched across his bed to stand up, making the other giggle as the hammock swung with his motions and bounced him up as Borsalino’s weight finally left it.

“Oh, are you leaving?” the Emperor asked as Borsalino went to gather his clothes.

Since there was barely anyone around so early in the morning he decided not to bother covering himself up; it would only take him a few seconds to reach the bathroom, where he would have to strip down anyway. His current underwear would do the job.

“You woke me up,” Borsalino straightened back up with his bundle. “What were you expecting..?”
“Well, maybe…” Straw Hat’s voice trailed off unexpectedly, and when Borsalino turned back towards him it was to see the pirate’s head poking out of the hammock with a frown on his face. “You’ve got scars on your back,” he said in a confused tone.

Borsalino blinked. He did not know what his back looked like exactly, especially not back in his…thirties, if he guessed the growth from Bonney’s powers right, but it wasn’t a surprise that he would sport a few old injuries there.

“Yes..?”
“Zoro says a scar on the back is a swordsman’s greatest shame.”
“I am not a swordsman,” Borsalino corrected Straw Hat, who rose on his arms so quickly that the hammock almost made him topple over.
“Ehh? But you fight with a sword!”
“It’s an efficient weapon.”

He was not a swordsman in title or in spirit, not like Pirate Hunter, Hawkeye or even Issho were. He held no love for swords, no interest in acquiring one of the Grade blades, and definitely did not feel any sort of swordsman pride of the like. He knew what they meant by it, of course, when they praised one’s unmarred back: it was the rejection of cowardice, of being struck down by an enemy you were trying to flee from.

He thought it a fool’s stance.

Running away meant trying to survive to see another day. Of all the pirates he faced, the ones that ran as they realized they were no match were the smartest…some he even let go free. It was also easy to cut down an enemy from the back in the middle of a fight, either because one was faster and could slip through the other’s guard and the back was an easy target, or because in a group fight they were focused on something else and let themselves wide open.

Sometimes, a scar on the back simply told of an unlucky past. Sometimes, it was a small price to pay to save another’s life.

“Where are you going?” Straw Hat asked curiously as he headed towards the ladder.
“To take a bath.”
“Oh, I’ll come, too!”

He leaned too far out of the hammock and got flipped over this time around, landing on the ground with a muffled cry. Borsalino watched it unfold with a straight face and counted himself lucky that the bundle of youth and clumsiness was not as attractive to his older self anymore, or the shared bath would have been another harrowing experience to go through.

“Ughh,” Straw Hat moaned weakly as they settled in the water and it immediately sapped them of their powers.

Borsalino watched him lean against the edge of the bath bonelessly, tongue lolling out.

“I feel weak…”
“Aren’t you used to it by now..?” he asked the pirate, genuinely curious.

He had never minded the odd sensation of the water’s pull over his body, at least not in controlled spaces such as baths. It felt like giving up control for a while, like leaving his worries and responsibilities at the door and only enjoying the present moment, with a warm cocoon wrapping around him and whispering promises of a peaceful eternity.

The pirate had gotten his first bounty almost three years ago now, and with the mastery he had shown over his fruit Borsalino would wager he had eaten it many years before. It was a long time not to be slightly used to the way the sea rejected them.

“Nooo…”

He smiled, amused by the whole situation. It was rare for him to cross paths with an Emperor, rarer even to trade a few taunts as each side gauged whether escalating it into a fight would be worth the losses that were sure to follow, but these pirates were veterans that had sailed the world for many years and had a grasp of the kind of rules they all had to play by. Straw Hat, though? He had never deigned to learn these rules, even less follow them; he was just the embodiment of a starry eyed child burning with a passion that eclipsed everything else, his mind set on one thing and one thing only. Others flocked to him like moths to a flame, like he was the sun so high up in the sky, hope and warmth and the promise that there will be another day all wrapped up together.

Borsalino could understand that. He had put his own small, burden of a hope onto the pirate’s shoulders as they fought on Egghead, doing his best to make sure the other could keep fighting after his awakened form had taken a toll on his body, praying that maybe…he could indeed save the ones Borsalino did not want to hurt.

“What are you going to do,” he asked Straw Hat, “now that you are aware you are Nika..?”

The Emperor’s head rolled towards him.

“Nothing?” he frowned. “It’s just a fruit.”
“Mhm… Many people look up to him, to you…”
“I don’t care about all the complicated stuff,” he shrugged. “I’m gonna be the King of the pirates! That’s all.”

Many pirates claimed the same thing, especially on this side of the grandline, with power and fame to back them up. Still, no one had actually managed such a feat ever since Roger himself; the World Government had crowned him with such a title to make sure he would be regarded as the most dangerous man on the seas, hated, feared and envied by all.

Borsalino had heard these same words many times. Yet, when Straw Hat said them…he was almost tempted to believe him.

Straw Hat, who had shaken the world many times in his still relatively short active piracy…

It would have been so easy to reach out to the young man and push his head underwater, watching him drown and saving both the world and himself a whole lot of future troubles. Another officer would probably have jumped on the opportunity. Sakazuki definitely would…though he would never have been caught in such a situation in the first place.

But Borsalino cared too little, was too bitter.

“Why do you want that title..?” he asked instead. “Fame..? Power..?”
“None of that,” the pirate grinned. “It’s just because it’ll make me the freest person in the world!”

The words were so unexpected that a laugh spilled out of Borsalino’s lips, unbidden and genuine.

It echoed in the bathroom and sounded almost foreign to his own ears, after years of practiced impassivity.

“I like that,” he told the pirate as it died out.

He closed his eyes, if only to avoid seeing what Straw Hat thought of it, and focused back on the sensation of the scalding water against his skin instead.

Freedom.

“Luffy! Kizaru,” Jimbei called out to them. “Where are you going?”

Borsalino turned back towards the ship where the former warlord was standing, his silhouette barely visible against the brightening of the day.

“We’re gonna go explore!” Straw Hat shouted back with a happy wave of his arm.

Jimbei’s eyes narrowed. Borsalino wondered if it was because he did not trust him with his captain…or if he did not trust his captain with only Borsalino. He was leaning towards the latter: of all the members of the crew Straw Hat himself was the only one who could match him in a fight after all, so it did not matter whether that fight happened around people or not.

The island was small anyway, and supposedly uninhabited if the pirates had done a proper job in their scouting the day before. There was little they would be able to do that could cause an issue.

“Bring some food back,” Jimbei finally replied, giving his silent permission. “Sanji wants to keep the stores full for when we depart.”
“You should come with us, Jimbei!”
“It’s still early, the others are asleep,” the fishman turned him down. “Someone needs to keep an eye on Sunny, just in case.”

Borsalino started walking again as Straw Hat pouted at his crewmate. The pirate soon followed, catching up with him with a few energetic bounces, and together they entered the forest that seemed to be making up most of the island. It had a summer climate, tropical even with the type of plants growing there and the fact they had found banana trees, long leaves covering the space and making it almost impossible to walk through.

“Ouch,” Straw Hat complained as he stumbled on some roots, hopping on one foot and walking straight into a loose vine as he tried to regain his balance, immediately backpedaling at the contact and finally tumbling over. “Ahh!”

Borsalino sighed at the amount of noise the pirate was making with each step. He couldn’t blame him too harshly though, as the dim light of the upcoming sunrise was barely reaching through the thick canopy above their heads and Straw Hat did not have the skill to pick out any ray of light and see as well as during daytime. He made himself glow to avoid any further tripping from his companion, revealing what lay ahead to the other’s normal human eyes.

“Ohh,” the pirate beamed at him from where he was still sprawled on the ground amongst ferns as tall as his shoulders. “That’s so handy!”
“Do try to pay attention to where you are putting your feet, yes..?” Borsalino said. “I would rather avoid a scolding from Jimbei if you come back all scratched up…”

Straw Hat only laughed as he pushed himself up. With Borsalino now providing light he did not trip anymore, but to his dismay the noises did not stop despite that: the pirate first looked for a branch that suited his tastes, using it to clear his path once he found the perfect one, before he started humming a song under his breath that Borsalino did not know nor did he want to know.

He increased his walking speed, easily moving through the forest as the plants simply went through his intangible body. One actual note left Straw Hat’s throat and he flashed a few paces forwards, leaving the pirate to scramble in the dark.

“Hey!” Straw Hat loudly complained. “That’s cheating!”

Borsalino waited for him to catch up, satisfied that the song had been cut short. They were nearing the base of one of the big rock formations he had noticed from the ship, its elongated shape keeping them in shadows as the sky slowly lit up. A few birds were starting to wake up, their calls mixing with the constant chirping of insects, and soon the rest of the island would wide awake.

“The last time I was in a jungle like this,” Straw Hat started as he caught up with him and they started walking again, “it was on the sky island! I got eaten by a snake.”

Borsalino did remember the mention of a snake when going through the logs…

“It must have been pretty big to eat you…”
“Yeah, it was huge! I totally thought I had stumbled upon a cave at first, but then I couldn’t find the exit…”
“How did you escape..?”
“It got knocked out, so we were able to walk through its mouth! I tried its eyes first but it did not work,” Straw Hat laughed in recollection of his adventure.

He continued telling bits of his experience with the snake as they walked aimlessly for a while, before Borsalino finally sighted what he had come there for: the big leaves of a banana tree and the clusters of fruits hanging off it.

“Ooh,” Straw Hat immediately focused on them as Borsalino walked to the plant. “Food! Jimbei said we should bring some back.”
“These ones aren’t ripe yet,” he replied with a hum. “There should be more around…”

There was indeed, the forest opening up into an area almost overgrown with banana trees, all bearing fruits in various states of maturity. The sun was rising, its rays highlighting the top of the trees in a warm orange, yellows and blues stretching into the sky and pushing the darkness back.

Borsalino stopped using his power, the natural light now more than enough to move around safely. He went to sit on a nearby rock with a fruit in hand and enjoyed it as Straw Hat started pulling on some of the clusters to dislodge them, probably intending to bring them back to the ship. One of the stems broke, sending smaller bunches of bananas all over the ground to the pirate’s surprise, and as he crouched to gather them into a pile a swift shadow swiped one of them before making a run for it. 

“Hey!” Straw Hat exclaimed.

Borsalino watched him extend his arm to pursue the thief, grabbing it by the scruff of its neck and bringing his limb back with a snap.

“That’s not for you!” he scolded the small monkey frozen in his hand.

The animal dropped the fruits as its shock faded and tried to free itself, but the pirate was unfazed by its wild wiggling.

“‘zaru!” Straw Hat beamed at him. “Look! It’s just like you!”

He lifted it up in the air as it balled its fists up and tried to punch him, though its reach was too short to actually achieve that. And, sure. It was a monkey, its fur shining a bright gold where it was hit by the sunrays, but Borsalino thought the comparison started and ended there as the animal flailed around with angry squeals.

“I don’t fight with my fists,” he reminded the pirate as he finished his snack.
“Ah? Oh…” Straw Hat blinked at the animal trying its best to do just that, laughing as it kept failing. “This guy reminds me of the monkeys Gramps had me fighting when I was younger! They would punch me, too. One time - ow!”

The monkey had managed to turn around enough to sink its teeth into the pirate’s skin, making him loosen his grip. Its moment of freedom was short lived; Straw Hat balled his own hand into a fist and punched it hard enough that Borsalino could see a bump immediately forming on its head, before the animal scampered with distressed cries into the trees ahead.

“That was rude,” Straw Hat said with a huff, adjusting his hat on his head.

Borsalino refrained from commenting that the monkey had much more in common with the pirate than with himself from his own point of view, between the hunger, the lack of self preservation and the immediate aggression…with the rudeness being the cherry on top.

Straw Hat had barely managed to get all of his stray bananas back into the same spot when the trees started shaking from the heavy, slow walk of an animal much bigger than the monkey he had just scared off. The pirate straightened up and turned to face that part of the forest, a grin stretching his lips as he saw what was coming. A dozen or so monkeys burst from the darkness, hackles raised as they spread around Straw Hat in a half-circle, keeping to a safe distance from the one they perceived as a threat as their leader finally stepped out into the light. It was standing at twice the pirate’s height, its fur a dark brown, its tail whipping in the air, and on its shoulder was the small monkey from before.

“Can’t fight your own battles?” the Emperor taunted.

The large monkey howled in response. It charged straight for the pirate, who did not even bother to drop into a fighting stance; Borsalino felt the hairs on his arms rise up as the air crackled with the unmistakable power of conqueror’s haki, and then the animal was skidding and coming to a stop just shy of touching its opponent. A beat passed before it sat down in clear submission, the air lightening as Straw Hat patted its arm enthusiastically.

“Yosh, yosh,” he smiled at it. “Good boy!”

It wasn’t a big surprise to see that the Emperor had mastered this ability along with the rest of his haki skills, but his precision was something to behold; Borsalino remembered the wild, uncontrolled burst Straw Hat had let out during the war, strong enough to take down most marines and pirates alike if only for a short amount of time. It wasn’t the case here: he had purposefully directed it at the big monkey, avoiding the smaller ones and Borsalino himself, and had only applied some pressure to showcase his superiority instead of knocking it out.

The rest of the animals immediately dropped their menacing stances as their leader deferred to someone new, coming closer to Straw Hat with curious looks instead.

“Ah!” the pirate struck his fist in his hand as an idea came to him. “You guys are going to help us get this food back to the ship!”

Borsalino watched from afar as he got them to hold the groups of bananas that had fallen from one of the clusters, before giving the leader the other full cluster to carry. A tug on his pants made him drop his gaze to one of the smaller monkeys, which looked back at him with big, round eyes.

“Skipping work, eh..?” he hummed in approval.

The animal climbed his leg in a few swift motions, then up his upper body to reach his shoulder, sniffing at the air and looking at its surroundings. It seemed happy with its new vantage point, sitting down with a soft sigh as its tail curled around Borsalino’s neck.

He brought one hand up to lightly pet its head, and together they observed the proceedings below in silence.

“SANJI!” Straw Hat bellowed as they finally left the dense foliage of the forest to arrive on the open coast where the ship was anchored. “SANJI! WE GOT FOOD!”

His shout attracted the pirates on the deck, Soul King, Tony Tony Chopper and Nico Robin all coming to peer curiously at the commotion. The doctor gasped in awe as he saw the monkeys, waving at the group as Soul King laughed in his very unique way before Black Leg came barrelling through, the door to the dining room flying open as he made his exit. The pirate approached with a suspicious look that was well founded, his face dropping as he saw what his captain had brought him.

“That’s way too much, Luffy!” he shouted back. “What do you want me to do with all these fruits?!”
“Whatever you want,” Straw Hat grinned, prompting the other to sigh.
“Just…leave half to the monkeys, alright?”
“Ehh, but I also want them to come…”
“The monkeys?!” Black Leg exclaimed, almost dropping his cigarette in shock.
“No, Luffy,” Jimbei said in a calm voice as he approached the side of the ship, “the monkeys stay.”

He gave Borsalino a look that meant ‘this is what I feared would happen’ and ‘couldn’t you have stopped him?’. Borsalino answered with a lazy smile as Straw Hat was making noises of disappointment at the cruel refusal.

“Can we at least keep that one?” the pirate pushed his luck, pointing straight at Borsalino.

He blinked at the offending finger.

“I already told you,” he raised an eyebrow towards the Emperor. “I am not joining your crew…”
“Not you, him!”
“It’s a girl,” Borsalino corrected him as the monkey still perched on his shoulders moved from his right side to his left, its tail curling in the air.
“Can we keep her, Jimbei?” Straw Hat took it in stride.
“No, Luffy.”
“Aw…”

In the end they loaded the two intact clusters of bananas on the ship and left the broken one to the monkeys. Jimbei called for the ship’s departure as Straw Hat waved goodbye to the animals staying on the island, jumping up and down as on the shore the monkeys did the exact same, their howls piercing the sky.

“I missed monkeys?!” Bonney despaired as they were eating breakfast some time later. “Why did you not come get me?!”
“It was only for a short moment,” Soul King tried to comfort her.

The girl still pouted for a beat, but the massive banana bread Black Leg had cooked soon took all of her attention.

Borsalino had already eaten two bananas so far that morning and was not feeling especially hungry, but he still took a slice if only to stop Black Leg from giving him the stink eye; the pirate had not forgotten him skipping breakfast the day before and his following bout of fainting…even though they had been mostly unrelated. The cake was good, at least.

Bonney immediately flocked to him as they were done with their meal, ready for the promised lesson in haki; they settled around the mast on the deck, Borsalino sitting down on the bench as Bonney dropped crossed legged in the grass, a very serious expression on her face.

“How is your observation?” he asked her.
“We’re not doing armament?”
“You showed me you could do it…if only sporadically. So, observation?”
“I know how it works…in theory?” her voice lilted up at the end and he raised an eyebrow.
“Are you asking me..?”

Her grimace was enough to confirm she had mainly focused on the attacking potential of haki. He launched into a simple explanation of what observation was for, its uses in and out of a fight, its potential applications when she would start to get a grasp on it.

“Wait, you can see into the future?” she gasped.
“With enough training, yes… Armament is powerful, but in the long run observation will give you more options to turn things in your favor.”

It was way too early to mention these advanced techniques, but as he expected Bonney’s interest grew exponentially when hearing about what she would be able to achieve after some training. He ran her through basic instructions next; after sailing the New World like she had for a few years it was more than likely she had already been using observation haki at times, even though she might not have done so consciously. Since sensing others was the most basic application of the power, he asked her to close her eyes and focus on what was happening on the ship to point out where each pirate was.

“Sanji is…in the kitchen,” she said after a few minutes of silence and heavy frowning.
“Are you just guessing because that’s where he usually is…or are you sure about it..?”
“I’m - urgh…”
“Mhm.”
“I swear he is there,” she held her index fingers to the sides of her head like it would help her concentrate. “But maybe like… Not the kitchen itself…”
“Ohh..?”
“In the room next to it. The pantry! He is in the pantry!” she exclaimed, looking up at him with bated breath.
“He is indeed,” Borsalino confirmed. “You do know the basics…”
“I told you I did! Okay, next… Let’s see…”

She closed her eyes once more, taking a deep breath and concentrating again.

“There’s someone on the top deck…”

There was indeed; Tony Tony Chopper was currently going through the plants in the flower beds, cutting some leaves for what Borsalino expected was medicinal purposes.

“It feels a bit different…”

Any living things could be picked up on by observation haki, but auras had a different feeling to them depending on whether it was a human…or an animal. Other races sometimes blended the two together, like fishmen and minks, but the ‘human’ aura was still at their core. Tony Tony Chopper was the opposite: a core of animal with a hint of human, his devil fruit altering his DNA without rewriting him entirely.

“Is that Chopper?” Bonney asked.
“Is it..?”
“Yes! He feels small and…reindeer-like. Because he is one.”
“Mhm, you’re right.”
“Yes!” she punched her fist high in the air. “Phew, why do I feel tired already? We’ve barely done anything.”
“It’s like using a new muscle… With enough training, sensing others will come to you as easy as breathing.”

He had her stop focusing on observation once she figured out where Pirate Hunter was, switching to small armament exercises to avoid overloading one part of her mind. She took it as seriously, punching the air with grunts of exertion that reminded him of when he first started to teach Sentomaru, the boy eager and tireless as Borsalino fumbled around his explanations. It had been his first taste at teaching someone else, and while the beginning had certainly been rough it had come easily enough to him, once he stopped parroting what the navy instructors had told him and went with his own experience and feelings. Even after Sentomaru had grown old enough not to need his supervision anymore he had liked to go around the fresh batch of recruits at headquarters, getting involved when some trained on their own after lessons. He had almost dropped it once he was promoted to Admiral, fearing it was maybe unbecoming of his new rank to do so when other Vice-Admirals liked to get some promising officers under their wings…but then Sengoku had made a passing comment in an informal chat once that all but approved of it if he wished to keep it up.

It had not made him as likeable as Kuzan would later be, people still eyeing him with suspicion and uncertainty whenever he showed up, but it had made them trust him. Every once in a while a stronger soul would even seek him out if he was seen strolling around, asking for advice while knowing they would not be turned down if they managed to push the words out.

Sakazuki thought it a waste of time. He wasn’t completely wrong: most of these officers would never reach a rank higher than Captain, but strengthening their troops as a whole could only help when the world grew wilder with each passing year. Borsalino found it easier to work with people when there was a bond already there, no matter how small, a foundation to build on that would allow his men to be confident in their skills and in his strategies. Enemies weren’t the only thing that sometimes needed to be manipulated in order to achieve the wanted results.

He sensed an attack coming his way and simply turned his leg to light before it could connect, Bonney gasping in confusion as her fist went through him instead of making contact.

“What?” she exclaimed. “I had armament on! What did you do?”
“I split myself before you touched me… Now, that was a bit rude…”
“You weren’t listening to me!”
“Sorry, sorry,” he placated her. “What do you say to a spar, mhm..?”

She brightened at the offer, a grin immediately splitting her face as she took a few steps back to get into a fighting stance and used her powers to morph into her adult form.

“Bring it on!”

“Uggh,” Bonney weakly groaned from her sprawled position in the grass. “I’m dead… Haki training is too exhausting…”

Clapping resounded around the deck as Borsalino sat back against the mast, fishing his pack of cigarettes from his pocket; they had gathered a bit of a crowd with their hand to hand sparring, some of the pirates stopping their own activities to watch with curious eyes. Nico Robin and Cat Burglar had set up the outside table again since the weather was sunny so far, their respective books forgotten for a while as Tony Tony Chopper and God Usopp cheered Bonney on. 

“You think I could learn it, too?” the doctor looked at his friends. “It sounds like it could be pretty useful!”

Borsalino paused from where he was going to lit up his cigarette, head snapping to the pirates.

“Looks pretty draining,” Cat Burglar was commenting. “I’m not sure I would be fit for it…”
“You don’t know haki?” he asked in an incredulous voice, prompting them to turn their attention to him.
“...No?”
“It’s a fighter thing, isn’t it?” God Usopp shrugged. “Like, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji use it -”
“Jimbei, too,” Nico Robin added.
“- but we don’t.”

They did not know haki. More than half of the Straw Hat pirates did not know haki. They were an Emperor’s crew with a total bounty of almost nine billion berries and they did not know haki.

“Hey, it’s not that big of a deal, right?” God Usopp laughed it off, though he was starting to show some unease at Borsalino’s continued silence.

Not that big of a deal, he said to the logia user.

It explained why Straw Hat had been the only one to truly fight him on Egghead, why none of the crew had tried anything against him when he had been holding that very same crewmate up in the air as he looked around for Vegapunk and made a show of asking them of the scientist’s whereabouts in the hopes of being stalled even a minute longer.

If they had known haki, then -

Then maybe he would not be there, then maybe Egghead would not be lying in ruins, then maybe Vegapunk -

Vegapunk.

Vegapunk.

There was an unfamiliar fire licking at the base of his spine, anger worming its way under his skin. It soured his mood and flattened his usual easygoing smile; he crushed the unlit cigarette between his fingers and stood up so quickly some of the pirates flinched back.

“Uncle..?” Bonney questioned in an uncertain voice.
“Take a break, Bonney. I’ll be back.”

He headed straight for the kitchen, his stride purposeful. There was no one when he entered the room, Black Leg still in the pantry; Borsalino went there to find him making an inventory of the ingredients they had left, humming to himself as he scratched some numbers down. 

“Black Leg.”
“Oh, Kizaru,” the pirate’s eyes flicked up to acknowledge him and went back down to the list in his hands, before he frowned and looked up again. “Everything alright?”

No.

“Mind getting your captain, Pirate Hunter and Jimbei for me?”
“Sure… But why? Hey!” he called out after him as Borsalino turned on his heels and left the room.

The pirate followed him after a beat, still trying to get his attention and have an answer, but Borsalino ignored him in favor of walking round to the dining area and sitting backwards on the bench along the counter. He stretched his legs and crossed them at the ankle before fishing his pack of cigarettes from his pocket once again as Black Leg finally went to fulfill his request, understanding he would not get anything out of him until then.

He lit up the stick with a flick of his finger, breathing it in for a second of blissful silence where he could close his eyes and forget where he was or why the turmoil inside of him mattered.

Then the door opened again and he gazed dispassionately at the pirates coming in.

“Hey, don’t push me -”
“You’re too slow, you damn mosshead -”
“‘zaru!” Straw Hat exclaimed. “What is this about?”

He exhaled the smoke in front of him, watching it swirl and fade into nothingness. The pirates stood in an awkward silence as he did so, and it was only when the last curl died out that he finally replied:

“Sit down.”

It wasn’t an order, if only because he had no right to do so and thus his words would not be taken as such, but they held the same weight; Jimbei recognized it and was the first to move, grabbing a seat at the head of the dining table and waiting for an explanation. The others followed suit, exchanging looks of confusion as they did so, Straw Hat claiming the seat in the middle of the table while the other two sat at his side, Black Leg on the left, Pirate Hunter on the right.

“Do you know the difference between you four and the rest of the crew outside?” Borsalino asked them, getting another puff as noises of confusion answered him.
“The difference?” Pirate Hunter frowned.
“They - uh, they’re… I don’t know,” Straw Hat crossed his arms and tried to think.
“Oh, I know!” Black Leg exclaimed. “Their bounties are not up to one billion yet.”
“Sanji, you’re right!”
“It is part of it,” Borsalino conceded.
“Part of it…”

These three weren’t the smartest on the crew outside of battle ingenuity. They started throwing out adjectives that were immediately shot down by the others, pointing out that this person was and this person wasn’t, until Jimbei finally put them all out of their misery: 

“It is related to haki, isn’t it?” he said. “You’ve been training with Bonney this morning.”
“Haki?”
“You can teach haki, ‘zaru?” Straw Hat whistled. “That’s cool!”
“The question is: why aren’t you?”
“Teaching?” Black Leg repeated. “Why would we need to?”
“Because the rest of the crew doesn’t know how to use it.”
“It’s okay,” the Emperor shrugged with a smile. “They don’t need to if they don’t want to! Or if they can’t.”

Borsalino locked his jaw and kept the smoke trapped there for a bit too long, feeling it burn the inside of his throat. Straw Hat’s smile wavered as they kept eye contact and for the first time since he was welcome aboard the pirate’s ship he longed for his sunglasses. Maybe he relied too heavily on them when he wanted to hide and keep his feelings secret, but he had never managed to properly tame the light from reflecting what was inside of him, even after all these years with the fruit.

“The Admiral is…annoyed,” Jimbei settled on, “because they can. Observation and armament can be learned by anyone, though some will do so more easily than others.”
“Then what is the issue?”
“The issue is that you have been sailing the New World for a few months by now and half your crew is a liability,” Borsalino stated bluntly. Predictably, the three other pirates started glaring at him, so he pushed further still: “If I were to go out there right now, none of them would be able to stop me from killing them.”
“I would,” Straw Hat replied with a seriousness that finally matched his own.
“That is not the point. If any of them encounter a logia, they will be defenceless.”
“We will protect them,” Black Leg backed up his captain, still missing what Borsalino was trying to say.

He heaved a sigh, uncrossing his legs and planting his feet on the ground to lean his arms on his thighs, and decided on another approach.

“You said you were going after the head of Red Hair and Blackbeard,” he looked at Straw Hat for confirmation. “Red Hair’s crew has ten core members, just like you. None of them are devil fruit users, they are all masters of haki instead - any advanced techniques you can think of they will know and use. On the opposite side, Blackbeard has a core crew of eleven including himself, all of them devil fruit users and haki users. It means that when you clash, each of you will most likely end up going against each of them. Claim to be able to protect your teammates all you want, the reality is that the four of you in this room will stand a chance at surviving and that they won’t with their current skills.”

He burned the butt of his cigarette by crushing it in his lit up palm.

“Take that as you will,” he added as he shook the ashes away and slowly stood up, giving them one last look before he turned away and headed for the door. “I expected better from you.”

He broke into light particles as soon as he stepped outside, teleporting himself up the second mast and landing on its highest platform in a mirror of the first time he had needed to hide alone on the ship, after Sakazuki had so callously decided to step on his already broken heart. It was a similar feeling spreading inside his chest and weighing him down now, something that seemed too big to be contained behind his ribs without spilling over. It was an irrational one, because the Straw Hats’ mastery in haki and the success of his own mission on Egghead were so thinly related, yet he couldn’t help but think of the potential outcomes that could have happened instead.

There was a stretching sound, then the grunt of Straw Hat as he launched himself up the mast to reach the platform Borsalino had claimed as his.

“You’re still not honest,” the Emperor commented as Borsalino ignored his presence. “It’s not really my crew you care about, isn’t it?”

His crew was likeable, easy to mix with, easy to understand. If he looked deeper into it, Borsalino felt like he did care about them, the same way he cared about the men placed under his charge that grew from names on paper to actual living persons. If ordered to kill them now, he thought that he would probably feel some sadness over it, once it would all be said and done and he was left with nothing but his own memories to dwell on.

But it wasn’t what Straw Hat was talking about.

“No,” he admitted.
“What is it, then?”

What was it, gnawing at him from deep inside, begging to be let free in a tantrum that really had no other culprit but himself.

“If you were all stronger,” he finally said, “you would have stopped me.”

Stopped him from hurting Sentomaru. Stopped him from hurting Bonney. Stopped him from destroying what he had helped build, what he had seen being brought to life.

Stopped him from killing a man he had considered to be one of his best friends.

“We can’t change the past,” Straw Hat simply said. Borsalino supposed he knew the madness that came with rewinding a memory over and over again like it could be rewritten. “We can only change ourselves…and what we’ll do, in the future.”

You’re a sad man, Kizaru, Vegapunk whispered in his ear.

Because at the end of the day, the blame lay in one person…and one person only.

Chapter Text

“Uncle! Is the break over?”

Bonney looked up at him upside-down from where she was sitting on the grass as his shadow fell on her form and betrayed his presence. He was still feeling raw around the edges, the disappointment still lurking close by in his chest, but her grin eclipsed it and let him forget it for now.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “If you are not busy..?”

God Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper were sitting across from her and had been listening attentively to what she was saying before he showed up.

“I was telling them what you taught me about haki,” she shook her head. “They want to learn!”
“Ohh…”
“Can you repeat the bit about observation? I don’t think I got it completely right…”
“Su-ure,” he easily agreed.

He went back to the mast to sit down, the three of them following him like ducklings, and went over the basics of observation haki once more.

“Ah! I’ve done that before!” God Usopp exclaimed. “Back in Dressrosa, I could see Luffy and Law from super far away.”
“Their general presences?”
“More like… I could see them,” he drew shapes in the air to drive his point. “I was able to shoot something right in-between them with no problem.”
“That’s an advanced form of sensing,” Borsalino let him know. “Have you used it since..?”
“Not really..?”

That first activation was the hardest, to understand how it felt to use such power. Since the pirate had already experienced it, Borsalino had no doubt he would be able to master the rest of the basics quickly enough with some regular training.

“Sometimes I feel things,” Tony Tony Chopper said next, “like when something bad is happening, even though I’m not around to actually see it. Is that the same?”
“It’s a step towards proper observation. It seems that you have some innate sensitivity,” Borsalino hummed. “It could be related to you being an animal first…”
“I don’t have innate sensitivity, you jerk!” the doctor immediately snapped back while his face showed the opposite emotion. Borsalino frowned as Bonney started to laugh at the pirate’s antics.
“Oh, don’t pay attention to that,” God Usopp waved a dismissive hand. “He doesn’t know how to take compliments.”

They went through armament next, how one could use haki to enhance both their attack power and their guard and how it would allow them to touch the untouchable like himself.

“What if you don’t want to punch, or kick, or any kind of close quarters fighting?” God Usopp asked. “Is that even useful then?”
“Strengthening your defenses is as important as increasing your attack power. Armament can also be used to…imbue objects, usually weapons, to give them the same kind of boost.”
“So I could shoot…haki projectiles?”
“Yes,” Borsalino confirmed.
“Interesting..!”
“Does it only work on physical things?” Cat Burglar pipped up from her table, showing that she had been keeping an ear out to follow their conversation. “What would happen if I were to give some to my weather eggs?”
“I am not familiar with your technique… You will have to figure that out for yourself.”

Once the questions they had were all answered Borsalino had them focus back onto observation, going through the steps of clearing one’s mind and finding the latent power inside to push it out and heighten their senses. With Bonney being more familiar already with it he increased the difficulty for her by splitting himself into a few clones and asking her to pinpoint where they were on the ship, knowing that the fact they all shared the same aura as him would throw her off. Tony Tony Chopper and God Usopp could find the rest of their crew…once they managed to perceive something else than their own imaginations.

The door to the kitchen opened to let Straw Hat, Pirate Hunter and Jimbei out. Borsalino wondered if they had been talking about the glaring lack of haki knowledge in their crew and how to fix it; as much as he enjoyed teaching, his presence on the ship was only temporary and haki required regular, prolonged training for one to master it.

The three of them looked over their little group with curious looks before splitting up; Jimbei headed back to the helm as Pirate Hunter climbed up to the lookout tower. Only Straw Hat remained on the main deck, approaching with sharp eyes that went from each of his teammates to Bonney and to Borsalino.

“What are you guys doing?”
“Training our observation haki!” Bonney replied. “Uncle, there is one of you in the bathroom!”
“There is,” Borsalino confirmed to her delight.
“Ohh,” Straw Hat tilted his head. “I know how to help with that!”

Borsalino watched him disappear in the men’s quarters before he reemerged with a bat in his hands. He raised his eyebrows as the Emperor walked round to God Usopp, who was sweating bullets as he concentrated on his haki.

“Ah, I’m seeing it!” he exclaimed. “I’m seeing you guys! Wait, Luffy, what are y-”

He did not get to finish his sentence before his captain promptly smacked him in the side of the head with the bat and sent him crashing to the ground.

“Luffy?!” Tony Tony Chopper gasped in horror, immediately opening his eyes and dropping his focus.
“You need to dodge, Usopp!” Straw Hat laughed at his crewmate.
“That’s not what we were doing,” the pirate complained as he peeled himself off the grass. “Wait, no, Luffy, no!!”

Borsalino stayed speechless as the Emperor readied his weapon and took aim once again, prompting God Usopp to jump out of the way with absolutely no use of haki. The two pirates kept at it under Tony Tony Chopper’s horrified eyes and Bonney’s laughter until they came close enough to the women’s table for Cat Burglar to smack her captain with a slap strong enough to send him flying.

“Stop this!!” she berated him. “You’re messing with our training!”

Our, Borsalino noted with surprise. He glanced at Nico Robin, who had not been bothered by her captain’s antics in the slightest and had kept the same relaxed position, only now realizing she had her eyes closed and was also following his instructions.

“Who taught you..?” Borsalino asked Straw Hat as the others settled back into their spots and focused anew, the Emperor coming to sit on the grass next to him as he nursed his reddened cheek.
“Old Man Rayleigh!”

Pirates, he thought. Always so barbaric.

“By hitting you..?”
“Well, not only that. But mostly, yeah. I also fought big animals!”
“...Which also hit you, I expect,” Borsalino guessed, amused by the picture of the training Straw Hat went through.
“I hit them back!”

Then again, Straw Hat did seem like the type to need to get physically involved to get a grasp on things. Borsalino had always thrived in mental training and in refining his skills in secure, trusted places, but Sakazuki was the same: rushing head first into fights to understand through fists and blood and only learning through actual experience and the hindsight it gave him.

He suspected that Pirate Hunter was cut from the same cloth, too, but for the rest of the crew’s own sake he hoped Black Leg would have a less…painful approach. Jimbei he trusted to be more level-headed.

“How would you describe using observation haki..?” he asked Straw Hat, not wanting him to feel left out if he wanted to be involved. “It might help them understand it better with a different point of view…”

It did not, if the accentuated frowning on the others’ faces as their captain tried to put words on his feelings and mostly failed was any indication, but it was worth a try.

Coming lunch, both Iron Man and Soul King expressed their own interest in learning the skill as the others shared what they were trying to achieve, and so the rest of the day turned into a group training session with some hide-and-seek with Borsalino’s clones for those that focused on observation and some sparring for the others wanting to achieve armament. Straw Hat volunteered as a sparring partner to gauge if attacks were using haki while Pirate Hunter showed Soul King how imbuing worked.

“That doesn’t hurt a bit!” Straw Hat exclaimed as Tony Tony Chopper landed a punch.
“Wait…” God Usopp paused from where he was also studying the imbued sword. “Does that mean that Nami uses haki when she hits you?”

Cat Burglar looked up from where she had been trying to trigger her observation as Straw Hat crossed his arms with a thoughtful expression.

“You should try slapping Uncle to see,” Bonney excitedly suggested.

The pirate turned her gaze on him, an unsure expression on her face as she probably weighed the pros and cons of following Bonney’s idea.

“It’s not haki,” Borsalino put her out of her misery.

She could have used haki anytime prior to this day, he wouldn’t have been paying enough attention to confirm or deny it, but since she had done it just a few hours before when he had been focusing on the pirates to sense whether or not the power was being used he felt confident it wasn’t it.

“Really? How come it hurts Luffy, then?” Tony Tony Chopper wondered.
“Haki is a manifestation of your willpower… If you truly believe something will happen, then it might just do so…”

Seeing how quickly the Emperor fell in line when Cat Burglar reprimanded him, it did not seem to be that much of a stretch to think that Straw Hat himself expected her hits to hurt, granting her a power that shouldn’t otherwise exist.

“Hey, Kizaru,” Black Leg’s voice suddenly rang out in the open. “Your boss is calling again.”

Borsalino perked up. He left the crew to their organized chaos to join Black Leg at the kitchen’s door, warmth spreading in his chest at the proof of Sakazuki keeping his promise.

“You can stay,” he let the pirate know as he saw him pat his jacket in search of his cigarettes like he needed something to pass the time. “I have no doubt Nico Robin will be eavesdropping again anyway.”

He sent her a glance over his shoulder, getting a smile and a slight nod in return to confirm his suspicions.

“Oh…” Black Leg paused in his tracks. “Alright.”

The pirate went back to the kitchen where something was smelling pretty good already; Borsalino headed the other way, sitting on the couch next to the transponder snail like the very first time he had gotten a call and grabbing the receiver.

“Sakazuki,” he greeted, watching as the snail woke up from its slumber and stretched its face to mimic his friend’s.
“Borsalino,” a gruff voice replied. “I see you aren’t a teenager anymore.”
“All in the past, all in the past,” Borsalino confirmed with a chuckle. “You will be glad to learn that no…incident has happened.”
“Good.”
“So-o, what did you call for this time..?”
“For nothing. You asked me to, remember?”

He did.

“Thank you,” he let his friend know, his smile softening.
“I just had some free time,” the other justified, embarrassment tinting his tone. Like there was ever some actual free time as a Fleet Admiral.
“Of course.”

There was a slight pause. In any other situation Borsalino would ask about his day and how things were going, but since he knew he was being monitored he decided to steer away from potential Navy information.

“You’ll never guess what I discovered today,” Borsalino said instead. “We have an Emperor’s crew with barely any haki users.”

He heard a huff coming from the kitchen, confirming that Black Leg was also listening in.

“Borsalino.”

Borsalino’s eyes flicked back to the snail, whose face was frowning even more so than usual.

“Tell me you haven’t been teaching the Straw Hats haki.”
“Well… It’s not like you can actually learn it in just a few hours…”
“They are your enemies!” Sakazuki barked. “It’s even worse than sleeping with them!”

Something crashed in the kitchen, like a pan or a pot being dropped on the floor.

Oops, Borsalino thought. He had been purposefully vague about this topic at the start of their conversation to avoid inflicting that knowledge on Black Leg, but the damage had now been done.

He hoped none of the dinner had suffered from it.

“You’re being dramatic,” he dismissed his friend’s words. “It would have happened at some point anyway…”
“But you’ve hastened it. Don’t complain about having to work harder when it comes biting you back in the ass.”

Ah, true… He had not thought about it from that angle.

“Straw Hat wants to defeat the other Emperors,” he argued back. “It might just work out in our favor…”

A tired huff answered him.

“...Have you let him know?” Sakazuki asked next.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“No news from that side?”
“No. Captain Koby said he was being held hostage to be used as a bargaining chip, so there is a likely chance they’ll do the same for Garp.”
“Any idea what they might want..?”
“Who knows. Both Koby and Garp are regarded as heroes by the populace so it might be something directly involved with the World Government for them to capture these two specifically.”

There weren’t too many options. People usually negotiated with the government to gain a noble status or a sovereign.

“How scary…”
“Sengoku threw a fit,” Sakazuki continued, and Borsalino could hear the sizzling of his cigar against the ashtray. “He wanted to go there himself. I had to order him to step down.”
“Well, they have always been close… Did it work?”
“Tsuru stepped in to remind him he is still a Navy officer and that we can’t attack Emperors indiscriminately without proper permission.”

Borsalino could only sympathize with the man. He would do the same in his place; he was only bound by the rules that Sakazuki had chained himself with, obediently playing the game as was expected of him for as long as his oldest friend wished it, but the moment Sakazuki was out of that golden cage there would be no need for him to follow them any longer.

He did not ask if the reverse was true. He knew the answer already.

“You reckon I could beat Blackbeard..?” he mused aloud, thinking back on his conversation with Straw Hat from that day.
“We talked about this already,” Sakazuki’s voice was strained.
“Mhm… Maybe, awakened…”
“No. You know why it’s a bad idea.”
“Well… Enies Lobby kinda benefitted from it, didn’t it..?”
“Right,” Sakazuki deadpanned. “The same Enies Lobby that has me find new willing souls to replace burned out officers every month. Sleep deprivation is an actual form of torture, you know.”
“Willing souls…” Borsalino repeated. “I thought we sent offenders over there.”
“That’s what I said.”

They had tried to compensate for the never ending daylight, of course, but human bodies weren’t quite so adaptable that they could go from middle of the day type of light to artificial darkness inside their quarters and fall asleep without trouble.

Borsalino might be able to reverse it…but he might also make it worse. It had not been an option when Enies Lobby had been such an important stronghold for the marines, along with Impel Down and Marineford, but now that the headquarters had moved, maybe…

These side effects were pretty troublesome. It had been the same for Punk Hazard, turned to an island of both ice and magma during Sakazuki and Kuzan’s fiercesome contest of strength, absolutely unrecognizable from the place Borsalino had been familiar with preceding the accidental explosion of Vegapunk’s lab. He had barely believed his eyes when he had gone to see the aftermath of the admirals’ fallout for himself…at least the island had been closed down for good even before that.

“How long will you still be away?” Sakazuki asked him next.
“Mhm… It’s been what…five days? I’m about thirty at the moment, I think… So probably five more days before I’m back to normal.”
“You had basically mastered your fruit by that time. You could already come back if you wanted to,” Sakazuki pointed out.
“And cut short my vacation..? No, I don’t think so…”

The snail sighed.

“Suit yourself. I’ll call back in a few days, then.”

Borsalino toyed with the idea of wrapping the call by saying ‘Love you’ to both fluster Sakazuki, who never knew how to respond to that, and traumatize Black Leg just a little bit further... In the end he decided against it, unwilling to compromise the upcoming dinner.

The snail clicked with the end of the call and went back to sleep; Borsalino set the receiver back on its shell and stood up, stretching his back as he did so.

He went round the kitchen, knowing fully well that Black Leg was still flustered by the information he had overheard, and leaned against the counter.

“Everything alright?” he asked in feigned concern. “There was a big crash…”

The pirate barely glanced at him, his side profile already bright red from what Borsalino could see.

“No, everything is good!” he assured in a slightly higher tone than normal. “I was just washing a pot and, you know, water is wet!”
“Wet, uh…” Borsalino repeated with a sharp smile as Black Leg clearly regretted his choice of words the moment they left his mouth, shutting it close so quickly he could hear the pirate’s teeth clack against each other.

It would be so easy to drag the man a step further down, to joke that water wasn’t the only thing that was wet or something of the like…but Borsalino still had a few days to spend around the ship and he wasn’t keen on discovering whether the other could hold a grudge. Black Leg had also been very accommodating so far, sharing more than what was strictly necessary, so it wouldn’t be fair to let his mean streak get the best of him here...especially as he had gotten his share of entertainment from it already.

“It certainly is,” he nodded in agreement before turning on his heels. “Be careful not to slip.”

The pirates were still training outside, though it had dissolved into sparring only for the male crew members, two pairs going at it while the others watched. Borsalino could not sense any haki being used…but it would come in due time.

Straw Hat perked up as he saw him approach.

“Any news?” he asked, his smile falling as Borsalino shook his head. “I see…”
“You’re sure you don’t want us to try and head there already, Luffy?” Iron Man asked his captain. “We just need to find a map or a landmark to help us figure out where exactly we are… If we use the Coup de Burst we can cover up more ground.”

Borsalino left them to their discussion about their potential next target, unconcerned by the outcome that would fall out of it. He focused back on Bonney instead, who was sitting in the grass close to Nico Robin’s chair with her eyes closed in concentration as she kept training her observation haki. He walked to her with silent steps and bent down to flick her nose in a test to see what she was currently sensing, and smiled appreciatively as she dodged his hand with a frown. Her eyes flew open in indignation.

“What was that for, Uncle!”
“I just wanted to see if you could feel me,” he hummed. “Good job.”

She beamed at his praise, puffing her chest with an innocent kind of pride.

“Can you make clones again?” she asked him. “I’ll find them all this time!”
“Su-ure,” he straightened up, raising an eyebrow at her. “Want to make it a bet..?”
“You’re on!” she grinned wolfishly. “If I win, you have to give me half of your dessert tonight!”

“Ah, sorry, I’m finishing something,” Black Leg said as Borsalino brought back the dirty dishes as dinner came to an end. “Put them on the counter for now, I’ll get to cleaning them later.”

The Straw Hats had a schedule of sorts to rotate between people for cleaning duties from what Borsalino had seen, from washing dishes and laundry to general upkeep of the ship’s shared areas. Since Black Leg was in charge of cooking he had not thought he still participated in the rest of the tasks.

“I can do it,” he offered as he piled them next to the sink.
“Oh. Do you know how to?”

He turned back to the pirate.

“Do I know how to wash a plate..?”
“Well, you’re an Admiral,” Black Leg defended himself with slightly reddened cheeks. “I don’t expect you’re in charge of that on your warships.”
“I wasn’t born an Admiral,” Borsalino gave an amused smile as he turned back to the sink to get some water and soap going.

He hummed to himself as he got into a rhythm, piling the clean plates on the other side of the sink to be dried and put away later. He was adding another one on top when Jimbei reached out for it, a cloth held in his other hand.

“Let me help you,” the fishman grabbed it and started drying it without waiting for a reply.
“Ohh, thanks…”

His help was welcome, Borsalino only truly understood the vast amount of dishes needed to hold the food the pirates required as he was washing each of them one by one. An outsider would confidently guess that the crew had three times as many members than they actually did if they judged it by the number of plates.

“You are a better teacher than I would have thought,” Jimbei said after a while of working in comfortable silence. “Do you help out at Navy headquarters?”
“Not as much these days…” Borsalino replied. “Will you oversee the training after I am gone..? Straw Hat is a terrible teacher.”
“He certainly is,” Jimbei laughed, loud and warm. “He might be as bad a student, too! Words don’t mean much to him.”
“Mhm… I fear Pirate Hunter is cut from the same cloth.”
“Definitely… While Sanji is too specific.”
“Hey!” the pirate in question exclaimed from behind them. “What does that mean?”
“Isn’t your observation haki perfect only when it comes to women?” Jimbei raised an eyebrow at his crewmate.
“Of course it is. I don’t need to be ‘feeling’ men,” the other sniffed, turning back to his preparation.

Jimbei shook his head and kept drying the dishes.

Black Leg was an oddity; Borsalino could still picture him breaking apart one of his lasers with a kick like it was a logical, expected feat, chalking it to the power of love of all things instead of the miracle it was. The Vinsmoke family was known to be full of enhanced, super humans elevated to even greater heights through scientific knowledge and Black Leg, as much as he had made his dislike of them clear, shared the same blood.

The night had fallen when Borsalino was done with his cleaning and finally stepped outside, the sky shimmering with stars without a single cloud in sight. He craned his neck up to trace them with his eyes, trying to figure out if he could recognize some of the constellations from this part of the world.

He was contemplating phasing up to his usual mast to get a bit closer for some proper stargazing when Bonney collided with the back of his leg and dug her fingers into the fabric of his pants. His gaze dropped to her in a silent question.

“Franky and Lilith said they would be able to link Dad to the memory machine tomorrow,” she quietly said.
“Isn’t that good news..?”
“Yes,” she nodded before biting her bottom lip. “I just… Now that it’s happening, I feel scared. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight…”

Borsalino hummed. Her worry was warranted…it was all unprecedented. Even if she had claimed that a failure wouldn’t be the end of the world, that she would find other options to make sure her father would be able to live, hope was a heavy burden when it was on the brink of becoming true…or breaking apart.

“Have you ever seen fireworks..?” he asked her instead, making the anxiety in her eyes swirl and fade away in favor of simple confusion.
“Not really?”
“Come, then.”

He guided them down on the deck, sitting in the grass in a cross-legged position and gesturing for her to come do the same. Bonney settled between his legs, leaning back against him as he wrapped one hand around her middle in a comforting embrace; her eyes followed his other hand as he raised it up in the air, light gathering at the tip of his index finger before he let it go and it flew above their heads, exploding in a shower of sparks that fizzled against the darkness of the sky.

She gasped quietly as he repeated the move, changing its size and its colors, getting the light to divide into red and blue and green, merging and splitting in a constant dance.

“It’s so pretty,” she breathed out in awe, straightening her arms out with cupped hands as he made the latest sparks fall down like snow, the spheres bouncing against them and the grass before blinking out of existence. “Can you do a rabbit?”
“One rabbit, coming right up…” 

She giggled as he did just that, the light coalescing into the animal’s shape for a few seconds.

“Do a cat next!”

They went back and forth with Bonney requesting more animals at first and then weirder things like pizza, skull and swords, before she finally went back to a bear, and while Borsalino made it round and cute he knew it wasn’t the one she was currently thinking of.

“Can you do…”

Her voice caught in her throat. He felt her fingers hold onto his hand.

“Can you do Nika..?” she asked in a whisper.

The breaker of chains, bringer of joy, savior of all.

Supreme enemy of the World Government.

Borsalino gathered the light at his finger, letting the white and gold bleed the colors of the rainbow, so that when he let it free the silhouette of the Sun God was haloed by copies of itself dancing to the hopeful rhythm Borsalino had never managed to forget.

There were exclamations behind them, some of the pirates having gathered to enjoy the show, and their laughs rang out as they saw a picture so similar to their captain’s own antics burst into the sky.

Borsalino kept his eyes on the shining light, his creation shadowing even the stars’ greatness. 

“Thank you,” Bonney said in a small voice as it finally faded away.

When something wet hit the back of his hand he simply birthed more sparks, keeping it up until her eyes dried, and then longer still until he felt her slump against him as she slowly succumbed to the sweet call of sleep.

Borsalino’s slumber was undisturbed that night.

It was early when he woke up, most of the crew still dozing peacefully when he stretched his senses across the ship; Cat Burglar was at the helm while Soul King kept an eye on the back of the vessel from the first floor deck, the last pair to keep watch for the night. Black Leg was also up, already in the kitchen to prepare for the day ahead.

The sun was peeking from the horizon when Borsalino stepped outside. He watched it from afar for a beat before the wind brought music notes to his ears, the source of it easily found in the person of Soul King: the pirate was playing a violin, walking and twirling around the upper deck, leaning towards the sun like he was performing for it.

The music was nice and the sunrise a view he did not get to enjoy too often these days, so Borsalino phased up to the deck to sit on the railing without a sound, unwilling to disturb Soul King in his tracks. The pirate did not seem to be playing an actual song, the rhythm changing every now and then as his muse took him on another path; he kept at it as the sun left the water, round and fiery red, until the gold and white took over and the pinkish colors of the sky faded in favor of a deep blue. Only then did his bow string the cords of the instrument in one long, final note, before a pleased sigh left him and he dropped his arms down.

Borsalino clapped as the song ended; Soul King jumped like a spooked cat and whirled around to face him with his jaw hanging low.

“Ki-Kizaru!” he exclaimed.
“Ohh, sorry… I did not think it was a private performance...”
“No, no, it was not… You took me by surprise, that is all,” the pirate got his composure back. “If I had known you were there, I would have played a proper song!”
“Mhm… I quite enjoyed this one.”
“Yohohoho! I’m glad to hear it.”

Soul King put the instrument away in its case and as he closed it Borsalino remembered there was something he wanted to ask him.

“Would you mind giving me your autograph..?” he wondered. “Once I get my hands on some paper…”
“Are you a fan, Admiral?” the pirate straightened back up. “Of course! In memory of this time spent together. But for now, it is high time for a cup of tea!”

Borsalino watched him disappear through the ladder. He would have to stop by the kitchen later to see if there were still some bananas left he could grab, but for now he fished his cigarette pack out of his pocket and grabbed one of the sticks.

He wasn’t the only one with a craving for a morning smoke; Black Leg emerged from the ladder with his own cigarette already between his lips, squinting towards the sun before turning around to avoid blinding himself. It was then that he took notice of Borsalino already sitting there, his whole body freezing at once as his eyes went wide. It lasted long enough that Borsalino racked his head to remember what he could have done the previous day to warrant such a reaction, as the pirate had behaved normally that evening as he had helped with cleaning the dinner…

Black Leg shook himself out of it, nodding in greetings and coming to lean against the railing a safe distance from Borsalino, who kept watching him in silence to figure out the puzzle piece he was missing. The other’s gestures weren’t as smooth and natural as usual as he looked for his lighter, and after almost a full minute of patting himself up and down without finding it Borsalino extended an arm and lit up his index finger in an offering. Black Leg’s head snapped to it, then his eyes flicked up to Borsalino’s face as his cheeks were suddenly dusted by an interesting shade of pink.

Ah, Borsalino remembered now. Sakazuki had had a little comment during their phone call… He wasn’t quite sure why it mattered now when the pirate had not mentioned it the evening before, but he felt quite confident it was the cause of this unexpected fluster.

Black Leg still leaned forward to use his offered light to start up his cigarette, but when his eyes flicked back up to Borsalino only to find his gaze already watching him he immediately cut visual contact and shuffled slightly further away.

Borsalino felt the corner of his lips rise up in an amused smile.

“Sakazuki’s comment really did a number on you, uh...?” he said aloud after they both got their first puff, keeping the corner of his eye on the pirate.

Predictably, Black Leg’s head snapped to him once more. There was a conflicted expression on his face, his teeth grinding against each other for a beat before he opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally let out:

“Have - have you..?!”
“Have I..?”
“Slept with the crew!” Black Leg finished with a grimace, his body tense like a spring. “If you’ve done anything to Nami-swan or Robin-chwan I swear..!”

Borsalino blinked at the pirate.

Of all the misunderstandings to happen, he had certainly not expected to be accused of sleeping with women. He laughed in response, surprised and amused by the other’s incorrect assumption; Black Leg’s face went from angry and slightly envious to outraged and confused as he understood it was never on Borsalino’s list and immediately jumped to his crewmates’ defense.

“What are you laughing for?!” he stomped closer angrily, his free hand balling into a fist. “They are beautiful women! Anyone would sell their souls for a single second in their company!”
“They are beautiful indeed,” Borsalino agreed as his laughter died down. “Women are just not…quite my taste.”

He took another hit of his cigarette as Black Leg first froze in confusion, eyebrows drawing together as the words did not quite make sense yet, then their meaning hit him and his eyes went round like his worldview had just drastically changed.

“Oh,” the pirate finally let out. He turned away from Borsalino and smoked in silence for a while, before he squinted his eyes at him and asked with an uncertain voice: “Well… Have you..?”
“Have I slept with a man from the crew?” Borsalino helpfully finished the sentence for him, enjoying how the other’s shoulders raised up with each word in clear mortification. “No, I haven’t… You don’t have to be so worried. My worst years were as a young adult and I have passed that stage already…”
“Good. Good,” Black Leg mumbled under his breath.

Borsalino’s lips curled up. He angled his body towards the pirate, leaning on his free hand on top of the railing and tilting his head forward as he exhaled slowly, watching as the tendrils of smoke stretched into Black Leg’s personal space and the pirate’s eyes flicked to him with a look benefiting a prey that knew it was on the brink of getting eaten whole. It was a new day and Borsalino was feeling playful, so he added:

“Unless…someone is interested…”

The reaction was immediate: Black Leg’s face turned a bright shade of red as his mouth dropped open in shock, his cigarette falling to the ground without a single attempt to catch it. Borsalino kept smoking his as the pirate made a pretty good fish impression for a few seconds, before Black Leg shook himself out of his trance and finally found his voice.

“N-no!” he exclaimed strongly, which did not erase the moment he had just spent thinking about it.
“Pity,” Borsalino simply shrugged, moving back to his previous position to let Black Leg breathe.

He hummed as the pirate shakily retrieved his cigarette from the ground with a frown that did not lessen the embarrassment still dotting his cheeks, and added as afterthought:

“Maybe it’s for the best… Pirate Hunter doesn’t seem the type to share.”
“Mosshead?” the other’s neck snapped to him. “What does he have to do with this conversation?”

Borsalino looked at him. Black Leg returned the look with a blank expression.

“Uh,” Borsalino said.

He knew where that sexual tension between the two crewmates was coming from, now.

“Nothing,” he smiled as he finished his smoke and headed towards the ladder.
“What - what does that mean?!” Black Leg bristled. “Kizaru, wait - Kizaru!”

“You are sure you want to stay here, Bonney? It will take a while,” Franky said to the girl as he hooked up the final cables to Kuma’s body. “Zoro has just sighted an island with a town, you should go have fun with the rest of the crew when we reach it.”

The girl shook her head.

“No,” she refused. “I want to be by his side. I’ll have time to discover new islands with him when he is back.”
“Alright. Kizaru, is everything looking good?”

Borsalino gave the machine Iron Man and Lilith had built for the past few days a final look, the secrets in its functioning hidden from him, the result it promised still feeling so out of reach. He gave the light in its core one last pulse, confident it would keep the device running for as long as was required, be it hours or days.

“Yes… Everything is charged.”
“Okay!” Lilith exclaimed, notepad at the ready. “I will also stay to monitor the situation and operate the machine. Franky, you think you could grab a few things from the town for me? There is this idea I just had…”

Borsalino let the chatter between the two inventors fall into the background as he moved to leave the room, pausing at the stairs to give Bonney one last look. She was sitting on her father’s thigh, holding one of his hands between hers in a hug, her eyes never leaving his face.

For her sake, he hoped it would work out.

The rest of the pirates were preparing their upcoming arrival on an inhabited island, deciding on who would go there and who would keep an eye on the ship, which essential things they needed to buy and which frivolous ones they would like to get their hands on. Cat Burglar was at the center of it, keeping the finances of the crew tight and up to date.

“Do not trust him when he says he will be on his best behavior, Jimbei,” she was warning the other while stretching her captain’s cheek with a pinch of her fingers. “He always brings us trouble!”
“I won’t this time, I promise!” Straw Hat pleaded with her. “I just wanna see the balloons!”
“That’s how trouble starts! Zoro said there was a Navy outpost, we can’t have you running around town and getting recognized!”
“He is an Emperor now,” Jimbei stroked his beard. “If we don’t start anything they might simply leave us alone…”

Borsalino looked out at sea, where the island was now big enough for him to make out the silhouettes of buildings without a spyglass. There were indeed floating shapes in the sky above the houses of all colors and sizes, and a marine symbol painted on a tower built against a cliff on the edge of the town. The ship was going out of its way to avoid heading to the port directly, taking a longer route to anchor at a less populated…and less monitored area.

He couldn’t quite place the name of the island yet, but he remembered that a few smaller navy bases in the New World had recently gotten some budget to increase their scouting and training of new officers following the disbandment of the Warlords as the pirates were all branded as dire threats to hunt down and protect against.

Maybe enough to cover a certain one million seven hundred sixty thousand berries debt he still had to pay back…

He headed to the storage room to prepare for his trip; the tie and the jacket felt oddly constricting after so many days running around in borrowed clothes and then only his shirt, even though they still fit him as perfectly as before. His admiral coat was another weight he had not especially missed, his usual persona wrapping around him as surely as the fabric itself, making him straighten his spine and sharpen his senses instinctively. His sunglasses completed the look, a physical barrier between himself and the world, making sure he could hide as he wanted to turn any situation to his advantage…at least they were a familiar, comforting presence on the bridge of his nose.

His mind was set as he stepped on the deck once more, ignoring the buzzing of the pirates and approaching the side of the ship to get a full view of the nearing island, gazing at the distance between them and estimating both his trajectory and the time required to travel to his destination.

He curled his hands in a circular shape and charged the light between his palms, before letting it spring out in a line heading straight to the marine building.

There was a gasp at his back and then he was moving at high speed, following the path he had just drawn and materializing on top of the tower in barely a few seconds. The town was quiet around the area, noises coming from further out towards the port where most of the markets and shops were probably found. The balloons were attached to the weather wanes on top of each building, bobbing with the wind; Borsalino had thought they might have been put up for some sort of celebration and was rescinding his theory as the town seemed to be having a normal day.

He turned his attention to the marine base below, discovering that some of it was built directly into the cliff, continuing on the side to oversee more of the ocean and potential upcoming threats. Three officers were huddled around the top of one the walls, one woman using a spyglass that was aimed at the Straw Hats’ ship as the vessel started to sail out of their view, another talking into a baby transponder snail…probably to keep their fellow marines on duty up to date with what was happening.

Borsalino let his gaze roam around the base, gauging where the commanding officer’s office was most likely to be. There were some windows hinting at a bigger area carved into the façade of the cliff, so he dropped down from the tower’s roof and turned to light to slip through the glass; he reappeared inside a nice, spacious room, with a wooden desk placed below the usual marine motto and a few chairs to receive guests confirming he had guessed correctly.

There were some exclamations from the outside hinting that someone might have seen him come in, which was a good way to get an idea of the reactivity of the outpost when a sudden threat showed up.

Borsalino went to sit at the desk, checking some of the papers that had been left out in the open; routine reports and a new assignment plan for the personnel… He opened the drawers in search of an invoice form, finding a few in one of them amongst other types of empty documents and some blank envelopes. He grabbed one of the pens with a pleased hum at the tidiness he had seen so far and started filling it out, his smile only growing as he pictured Sakazuki’s angry face when he would read it.

He was almost done with his detailed description of Soul King’s naked body when the door flew open and a group of marines rushed in, their guns at the ready.

“Stop here!” their leader barked out in a strong, confident voice. “You are under arr-”

Borsalino flicked his eyes up as the sentence was cut short. The marine displayed the rank of Commodore and was most likely the commanding officer of the base, and his face had just turned an interesting shade of white.

“Kizaru?!” he blurted out next, before his training took over and he clacked his heels together in a perfect, formal salute. “I mean, Admiral Kizaru, sir!”

The rest of his troops immediately put their guns down and saluted in turn.

“Hello,” Borsalino greeted them as he went back to his form and drew a rough representation of the skeleton in all his glory.

“Is...is that really you, sir?” the officer asked, taken aback by his superior's presence in this part of the sea.

Borsalino couldn't fault him for being cautious. There were some known shapeshifting devil fruits out there...

He phased right in front of the marines, enjoying the way they all startled in unison yet stood their ground without breaking their postures.

“Is it..?” he hummed, tilting his head playfully, the light still shining around him.

He was back at the desk the next second, grabbing the pen anew and going back to his form.

“Forgive my cautiousness,” the commodore bowed at the waist.
“No, no, you were right to confirm this...”
“What are you doing over here, if I might ask, sir? I wasn’t made aware of your visit.”
“Mhm, just a spontaneous trip… It wasn’t planned for, you see.”
“Of course! Actually… You are showing up at the perfect time - I just got notified that the Emperor Straw Hat Luffy and his crew are heading this way… With your permission, I can get my men to push them back,” the officer suggested. “Your help will also be much appreciated!”
“No, that won’t be necessary… Just leave them alone.”
“But, sir..? Aren’t they responsible for Vegapunk’s death? It should be our duty to avenge him.”

They were, in a certain way. They had failed to save him from Saint Saturn. They had failed to save him from Borsalino himself.

“They are,” he easily agreed, opening the drawer he had previously gotten the form from to grab one of the envelopes he had seen there, folding his invoice and placing it neatly inside before adding: “They are also known for being harmless to civilians. Keep an eye on them if you must, but don’t start any hostilities.”
“Sir!”
“Now,” Borsalino hummed as he wrote Sakazuki’s name on the envelope’s front, putting the pen away and standing up from the chair as he was done, “you wouldn’t be in possession of about…two million berries, now, would you..?”
“Two millions..? Well, yes, but -”
“Perfect,” Borsalino cut him, walking around the desk with the letter in his hand. “I’ll be borrowing these… Get this invoice to be sent to headquarters to be refunded as soon as possible, yes..?”

He held the form out; the officer grabbed it gingerly, his eyes widening as he saw who it was addressed to.

“Where is the way to your vault..?” Borsalino asked next, sliding his hands into his pockets in a familiar stance.

The officer snapped to attention once more, nodding at two of his men who saluted and looked at Borsalino with expectant eyes. He followed them out of the room and into the rest of the base, letting himself be guided deeper inside the cliff until they reached rooms without windows, finally arriving at the vault after descending a few flights of stairs. Two marines were on guard duty at the door, snapping to attention in a hurry as they recognized him amongst the group; one went to open the vault as his guides forwarded his request and Borsalino let him know the exact amount required. The guard paused at the threshold and turned back towards him to ask:

“Um… What do you want me to put the money in..? It’s going to be quite a few suitcases…”

Borsalino had not thought about that part.

“If you have got some big ones…” he nodded. “A bag will do fine, too…”

A bag was what the marine finally settled on considering the amount he was asking for; Borsalino thought it was pretty hilarious when he came back out while dragging it behind him, like he was participating in the nicest robbery ever done. Which, in a way…was kind of what Borsalino was doing. He had no doubt Sakazuki would make sure the finance department handled the request properly once he confirmed its veracity, but it wasn’t changing the fact Borsalino was giving that money away to pirates. Maybe he would be banned from ever approaching a navy vault ever again… Not that it mattered to him.

“Thank you,” he smiled at the marine, grabbing the top of the bag and lifting it with ease.

He followed his guides back to the commander’s room, who was clearly waiting for him; the two men saluted and left them alone, closing the doors on their way out as the commodore gestured to the little guest area with the plush armchairs and the coffee table. Borsalino obliged, putting the money aside and getting comfortable in the seat, crossing his legs and folding his hands on his lap.

“May I offer you something to drink?” the officer suggested, and maybe Borsalino should ask him his name…
“Su-ure,” he accepted. He estimated the Straw Hats would have made landfall by now, and he expected the town to keep their attention for most of the day.

Tea and biscuits were soon brought to the room; Borsalino enjoyed them as the other man started making small talk about the area, how the island was going and the increase in piracy they saw across the nearby waters.

“There are a few things I would love to run by you if you have the time, Admiral,” he then asked as they were done with pleasantries. “Your input would be greatly appreciated.”

Borsalino ended up getting talked through a few proposals the commodore had drafted to increase the efficiency of his base and how best to prepare for a few different setups when pirates decided to test their luck on one of the islands under his supervision. The man had a good head, with common but well executed strategies and Borsalino found himself invested in the few scenarios put on the table. He poked at the potential holes and silently judged the officer’s reaction and the way he reworked his plans on the spot to account for them, pleasantly surprised at his diligence in keeping both his troops and the civilians as safe as possible. It should have been an obvious, expected trait to be found in a higher ranked officer, but many men and women put in positions of power with a lot of management involved sometimes still clung to the idea of showing off themselves to get some credit, usually to advance their career even further. Borsalino had never had to work around it as much, kept to warships and sent on the front lines because of his devil fruit power and other fighting aptitudes.

Their chat was interesting enough that the hours flew by and it was already time for lunch; the commodore praised the skills of his cooks and some of the specialties of the town that any visitor absolutely had to try out as they made their way to the cafeteria. It was already packed with marines, the buzzing of conversations dying out slightly as they walked in; it had been a while since Borsalino had had that effect on people, the officers stationed at navy headquarters more than used to seeing vice-admirals and admirals strolling around, at the exception of maybe fresh-faced recruits…

The conversations started again as the commodore brought him to a smaller table a bit further out where two captains were already sitting, seemingly reserved for higher ranking officers. They both saluted sharply, one letting their spoon drop to the floor as they did so; Borsalino returned the greeting with an amicable nod as he let his ears wander the rest of the room.

“That’s Kizaru, right..?!”
“He looks younger than I expected - isn’t he the same age as the Fleet Admiral?”
“Older even, no?”
“What is he doing here?”
“A secret mission, maybe..!”

Lunch was otherwise uneventful; Borsalino entertained the captains’ questions about New Marineford and the commodore’s curiosity about more detailed retelling of some recent missions his name had been attached to. Luckily for him Egghead had been a pretty secret assignment that would not have been known outside of headquarters just yet, so he at least avoided having to say anything about that mess of a job without showing his true colors and what he actually thought of it.

The food certainly lived up to the commodore’s praise…but also made Borsalino realize he had been spoiled by his stay on the Straw Hats’ ship.

Training was ongoing outside in the courtyard as they made their way back to the commander’s office; Borsalino stopped at a window to look at the marines below as they started sparring with each other in groups of three.

“These are fairly new recruits from the town and neighbouring islands,” the commodore came to stop at his side. “There are a few I think would benefit from a transfer to headquarters as they are showing some promising potential.”

He pointed at one side. Borsalino followed his finger and his gaze landed on a young woman that towered over her training partners, with large shoulders and strong arms.

“That’s Nessa, she has eaten the Cat-Cat fruit model tiger,” the man explained. “Which, as you can see…serves her well to boost her strength.”

The recruit was in her human form, devil fruits powers most likely forbidden to be used in these training scenarios, but it mattered little to zoans; she grabbed the two men she was sparring with by the scruff of their shirts and sent them flying like she had just picked kittens instead of fully grown human adults. Borsalino hummed, there was some definite raw power there that would need to be developed and refined.

His eyes swept over the rest of the courtyard, stopping on a different kind of scene. Another woman was standing very still as her partners circled her; one finally made a move and was immediately pushed back with minimal movement, the other followed with their own attack and their speed was used against them to make them fall flat on their back.

“Oh, that’s Rika,” the commodore pointed out as Borsalino hummed once more in interest while the scene played out. “She’s very level-headed and observant. She has been here for long enough that others know her fighting style but no one is as patient as she is, so she keeps defeating them with the same tricks.”

A smart fighter. Tsuru would love getting her hands on her.

He watched them for a while more before they went on their way. The commodore kept the conversation going about his new recruits as they arrived there, pulling out the profiles of the few he had intended to push forwards; Borsalino scanned the papers and committed their names and skills to his mind, approving the other’s choices and giving him the names of a few trainers at headquarters he should send word to.

“Will you be staying the night?” the man asked him as he refilled their cups with fresh tea. “I can have something set up for you.”
“No,” Borsalino refused. “In fact… I should probably be on my way…”

His eyes flicked to the clock on the wall; it was later than he had anticipated.

“It was an honor having you around,” the commodore jumped to his feet as Borsalino stood up. “I will have a guard show you to the entrance -”
“That won’t be necessary,” Borsalino replied as he grabbed the bag of money he had previously left in the room before going up to one of the windows. “Do send these profiles to the trainers, mhm..?”
“Yes, Sir! Thank you for your help. Good luck with your - mission.”

With his mission, uh.

Borsalino gave him a lazy wave of the hand before he turned to light and headed to a roof in sight outside, briefly materializing to adjust his next trajectory and fly above the town. He stopped at the top of a cliff that gave him an overview of the city below but also the side of the island where the Straw Hats had seemed to go to anchor their ship, looking around in search of the vessel. There was nothing but nature, rocks and trees and a hidden beach where a group of kids were playing in the water; Borsalino flickered along the coast for a bit before he had to come to a conclusion: the pirates were gone.

“Ohh,” he said softly to himself. “That’s annoying…”

He warped up this time around, getting enough height to see the entirety of the island and the seas stretching from all directions. There was nothing but blue from where they had come from, which wasn’t surprising as the pirates only went forwards, but it seemed like luck had not completely abandoned him: the black dot of a ship was sailing away in the opposite direction.

He watched it for a minute, gauging its speed and estimating the distance before he charged up his power, aimed at his target, and let himself phase into light particles.

He flashed above a familiar deck covered by grass, the two flags displaying the crew’s jolly rogers proudly waving in the wind at the top of the masts.

“Come on, Luffy,” Jimbei’s voice carried over to him. “You knew this would happen.”
“Just leave him be, Jimbei,” God Usopp advised the other as Straw Hat answered with unintelligible noises from where he was sprawled on the grass, eyes shut and an unhappy smile on his face. “He will keep complaining for a while.”

The Emperor opened his eyes in a resigned expression as the two started to walk away, only to see Borsalino floating down; he immediately sprung to a sitting position with a gasp and pointed his finger at him. Borsalino let the bag he was carrying fall on the pirate, hitting him straight in the face and forcing him down again, cutting whatever was going to come out of his mouth short.

His feet touched the deck at last in a soft, silent motion, his coat following a beat later.

“That was rude,” he looked down at Straw Hat, who was pushing the bag away from his face so he could breathe. “You left without me.”
“Kizaru?!” God Usopp cried in surprise as he turned on his heels.
“What are you doing here?” Jimbei added with a shocked expression.
“What do you mean..?”
“This was a Navy base,” the former warlord frowned. “Wasn’t the deal to bring you to one?”
“Oh… Ohh…”

It had been the deal, though Straw Hat had also mentioned giving his approval first. Not that it really mattered, since Borsalino had slipped away without being pursued that morning and the crew had clearly expected him not to return.

“Well, I am not yet back to my actual age, now, am I..?” he smiled at Jimbei. “I wouldn’t want to cut my vacation short...”
“Couldn’t you have warned us, then? You left without a word!”

Borsalino scratched at his head sheepishly. He had not anticipated staying with the marines for so long, after all.

“What’s in the bag?” Straw Hat asked curiously as he finally pushed himself to a sitting position and toyed with the ropes keeping it closed.
“Open it,” Borsalino replied. The pirate did as much as God Usopp bent closer, and their eyes shone when the contents were revealed.
“Money!”

His exclamation immediately summoned Cat Burglar, even though she had not been in the vicinity beforehand; Borsalino suspected that her love for money had become a sort of sixth sense. More of the crew also moved closer in curiosity, eyebrows raising high as Cat Burglar started hugging the stacks of bills.

“One million seven hundred sixty thousand berries,” he let her know. “Consider my debt paid.”
“Yes, of course!”
“Oh,” Black Leg commented in sudden understanding, “this was why you said money wasn’t going to be a problem to grab supplies this time around. You knew this was coming!”
“Why would you even give that much money to an Admiral in the first place?” Pirate Hunter frowned.
“Oh, it wasn’t a loan,” she smiled sweetly at her crewmate, only making him more confused.

Borsalino left them to their discussion and headed to the storage room, dropping his coat on the chair there and removing his top layers until he was back to his more casual appearance. His fingers hesitated on the temples of his sunglasses. In the end, he moved them up to the top of his head, keeping their comforting presence close by without hiding himself away when they weren’t exactly needed.

He stretched his back as he made his way out of the room, a smile blooming on his lips.

He couldn’t wait to hear what Sakazuki would have to say.

Chapter Text

He woke up the moment the intruder stepped into the storage room, his senses sharpening as his observation haki picked on the aura of Bonney.

She dropped down the ladder with a soft grunt, making a beeline for his hammock and getting ready to jump on it.

“Don’t you ever sleep in your own bed..?” he asked her right as she did so.

She gasped in surprise and started to fall back at the sound of his voice; he shot one hand out to grab her arm and secure her inside, creating some soft lights with his other one so she could see what she was doing.

“You’re awake!” she commented as she wiggled against his side to find a comfortable position. “I don’t have a bed, silly. You’re the only one that does, because they are scared of you.”

He wouldn’t say the Straw Hats were scared of him. They were certainly cautious, as they ought to be, and even then they weren’t cautious enough, too quick to be friendly and bring him into their daily lives.

“Where do you sleep, then..?”
“With the girls. It’s just…not the same.”
“Not the same…as bothering me..?”
“As being with someone I know!”
“Mhm…”
“I do know you,” she doubled down as she felt his skepticism. “A bit. Sentomaru told me some!”

Sentomaru had taken a liking to Bonney almost immediately, though he had vehemently denied it the first weeks; Borsalino knew he had seen her as the little sister he never had, doting on her and always making sure he had free time to play with her or tell her stories. He had been the one she had spent the most time with outside of her father and the scientists, but Borsalino supposed that in her six month stay at Egghead during her treatment, the two of them had interacted a few times outside of a group setting…

He had no doubt she would feel like she knew the Straw Hats if she spent that long with them, too.

“You should go look for him before going back to the Navy if you’re that worried about him, you know,” her voice broke him out of his thoughts.
“About..?”
“Sentomaru.”

Ah.

“Don’t say you’re not worried, you’re making that face again!”
“That face..?” he frowned at her.
“Yeah, like…”

The expression she mimicked wasn’t very flattering and felt more constipated than worried.

She was right, of course. He tried not to linger on Sentomaru, even in his mind, because he did not know what he could or should do about the other; he had burned that bridge with the explosion of one of his lasers, charred it black and left it to crumble into dust. He wouldn’t be able to call him either, their baby transponder snails useless so far apart. Sentomaru knew his office number, but he would have no reason to call.

“How is your father?” he asked her, changing the conversation to less muddy waters. The downloading process of his memories had still been ongoing when he had checked on the group the evening before.
“The memories have been transferred,” Bonney said. “Lilith and Franky are taking a break before they get started on reversing the switch that impacted his free will, so they also forced me to go to sleep.”
“Good… You need the rest, too.”
“But we’re so close..!”
“Rushing will only open the door to mistakes,” he placated her. “Sleep, tomorrow will come quicker than you expect.”
“Right,” she breathed out.

Borsalino extinguished the lights. Bonney let her head fall down, tucking herself against his waist; he wrapped his arm around her and made soothing motions with his thumb on her shoulder until her breathing evened out, and only then did he close his own eyes to fall asleep again.

“Hey, Kizaru!” Black Leg shouted from the door of the dining room. “Your boss is calling you again. He sounds kind of on edge.”

Borsalino perked up with a giddy sense of anticipation. It had been quick, much quicker than anticipated: it was the middle of the morning, which meant that his letter had been sent out as soon as he had left the island the previous day and had been marked as some kind of urgent post to make its way onto the Fleet Admiral desk in such a short amount of time.

“Tell him I’m busy,” he said as he leaned back against his chair, smile deepening as he flipped the page of his book.
“...Sure,” Black Leg replied after a beat.

Cat Burglar snorted from her side of the table.

“What’s so important in your book that you are ignoring the Fleet Admiral himself?” she asked.
“If you want to know, the two main characters are on the point of declaring their unyielding love for each other…”
“A scene of the utmost importance,” Nico Robin agreed with a deadpan voice as she flipped through the pages of her own reading material and wrote a few things in her notebook placed next to it.
“Right,” Cat Burglar raised her brows, “and the real reason?”

Borsalino’s smile only grew wider.

“It’s funny.”

Sakazuki called again about an hour later, at which point Borsalino announced he was going to take a bath. The third call happened right as lunch was over and he ignored the transponder snail in favor of going straight for the door; Black Leg’s eyes burned against his back the whole way out.

He was chatting with Jimbei at the helm when the fourth call happened. Black Leg stomped his way to the bow and cut off their discussion about their favourite mystery authors, pointing at Borsalino then straight back to the kitchen.

“You,” he said. “There, now. No,” he snapped as Borsalino smiled and opened his mouth, “I don’t want to hear it. All that ringing is driving me crazy!”
“Alright, alright…”

He had made Sakazuki wait enough anyway.

Borsalino stood up and followed the pirate back to the dining room, where the snail was indeed ringing steadily with no sign of stopping any time soon. Black Leg held the door out for him before saying he was going for a smoke and that the whole thing better be over when he came back; he slammed it closed with enough force that Borsalino heard another one of the pirates yelp in surprise on the deck above.

He went to sit on the couch as usual and tried to school his expression before answering the call at last.

“BORSALINO,” Sakazuki’s voice boomed through the receiver, angry and already spitting.

Nico Robin would have no need to eavesdrop on this conversation, Borsalino thought in amusement. He would wager the whole ship would be privy to it, if his friend was going to keep that volume throughout the entire call.

“Sakazuki,” he greeted back, unabashed and unrepentant. “How are you -”
“How do you think?!” he was immediately cut off. “I received your invoice for one million eight hundred berries -”
“One million seven hundred sixty thousand berries,” Borsalino corrected quietly, enjoying greatly how the snail’s face started to redden in pure fury.
“I know the stupid amount you put down there, Borsalino! What I want you to explain is what the hell is an ‘emotional support non-homoerotic close quarters fight’?!”

Borsalino couldn’t quite curb his chuckle at hearing that sentence coming out of Sakazuki’s mouth. The snail seemed on the verge of imploding on itself.

“Exactly what it sounds like,” he replied. “There was also a certain state of undress and some water guns involved…but the title was getting too long already.”

The choking noises coming from the receiver were music to his ears.

“You paid almost two million berries to get a bunch of naked pirates to wrestle with each other?!”
“Well, isn’t it a small price to pay to curb my, ah, what did you use to call it again..?” Borsalino paused in mock reflection, stretching his friend’s already nonexistent patience even thinner. “Ah, yes… My lustful tendencies…” Then, he corrected: “Half naked, anyway, they are all - Actually, scratch that, they are all adults. They were all older than me at the time, too…”
“Forget the Elders,” Sakazuki barked out. “I’m the one who is going to wring your neck when you come back!”

The snail’s eyes widened in regret as soon as the words were said, but it was too late. Borsalino sobered right up as they cut through him as surely as a sword imbued with haki, their weight piling at the back of his mind in an ever growing worry about his future.

His fingers found the sunglasses on the top of his head and he moved them down to bathe his world in a familiar orange tint.

“Borsalino,” Sakazuki immediately backpedaled with a softer tone, “I did not mean -”
“No, you’re right,” Borsalino cut him off, forcing a smile as he gazed at the wooden ceiling with unfocused eyes. “We know it will happen one way or another. Did you see my little drawing of Soul King?”
“Borsalino…”
“I thought it was funny. The real deal was even better, of course.”

Sakazuki sighed. He knew some battles were not worth fighting.

“This is coming out of your paychecks, alright?” he finally settled on.
“Sure. Of course.”
“Right.”

Their chat stuttered to a stop, the silence awkward in a way it rarely was between them; Borsalino bore it for a few seconds before it became too much.

“I’ll leave you to it, Sakazuki,” he said as lightly as he could make it. “I am sure you are very busy.”
“...Alright.”
“Oh, and, don’t call again. Black Leg is irritated by the ringing.”

Borsalino put the receiver back down on the snail before the other could reply, ending the call in an abrupt way and sighing in the newfound silence falling around him.

Sakazuki had not deserved his irritation for once. The fact that the words had come so easily to him meant that they had been weighing heavily on his mind, that he too had seen their underwhelming success on Egghead and the sudden change of leadership as complicated matters whose consequences they had yet to truly see.

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

Black Leg was leaning against the railing in front of the door when Borsalino finally stepped outside, watching over Straw Hat and Tony Tony Chopper’s antics on the deck as he smoked. His eyes flicked to Borsalino, a hint of judgement swirling in his irises.

“The sumo wrestling, uh,” he commented. “Really?”
“It wasn’t my idea,” Borsalino clarified.
“Maybe, but you enjoyed it.”

He hummed in reply; he had nothing to say about that. Straw Hat’s laugh caught his attention, the Emperor rolling on the grass and clapping his hands at whatever funny thing had just happened.

“Fancy a spar?” Black Leg suddenly proposed. “I wouldn’t mind kicking you a few times to make up for all that annoying ringing today, and… I have a feeling you might need it, too.”

Borsalino gave the idea some thought. Venting his frustrations through fighting was certainly something he partook in, though it usually meant humiliating pirates of a far lower level than he was by using very little restraint. Black Leg would not be as easily overpowered, which could be a nice change of pace…but he wouldn’t be able to let loose with his powers on a ship, even less so on one as small as the Straw Hats’.

“There is not that much space on your deck…”
“Surely that’s enough for a spar,” Black Leg raised his brows. “Take it as a fun rule to stay in a limited area, like our previous wrestling.”
“Mhm… Any other rule you would like to add?”
“We can’t have Sunny be damaged, so don’t use your powers offensively.”
“Defensively is fine..?”
“I need the haki training.”
“Alright, then,” Borsalino smiled.

They moved down the stairs, notifying the others on the grass of what they wanted to do; the complaints about getting pushed out of the area died out as fighting was mentioned and the pirates headed to safety along the dining room or even above on the first deck to watch from the sidelines.

“Alright,” Jimbei announced from the other side of the ship, where he and Pirate Hunter had decided to sit. “Ready? Start!”

Borsalino knew Black Leg heavily favored kicking, just like he did; in fact they had a pretty similar fighting style, standing across each other with relaxed stances and their hands in their respective pants’ pockets, eyeing each other and waiting to see what the other would do instead of immediately rushing in.

Black Leg moved first to get the spar going, quickly covering the distance between them and coming like a whirlwind from the side with a well-placed kick. They traded blows, their legs crossing with each other like swordsmen brandishing their weapons; Borsalino turned to light to dodge one attack and sneak behind his opponent, slamming his foot squarely on the pirate’s back and pushing him away. Black Leg recovered by turning his momentum into a headstand and rotating his legs around, coming right back with a jumping assault; Borsalino blocked the upcoming hit with an arm, pushing it away and spinning on himself to deliver a kick to the pirate’s middle, and since he knew Black Leg was no devil fruit user he did not hold back and sent him flying straight over the sea.

The pirate did not fall into the water, though: he flipped around in mid-air and kicked below him to stop his descent, showcasing a mastery over the moonwalk technique…or a similar one.

Borsalino lost no time in joining him, curious to see how the other would fare in an aerial fight; Black Leg successfully anticipated his move as he reappeared and blocked him with ease, before using the open space as an advantage to zip around and be less predictable. As much as he had brushed off the size of the ship as a negative point, it seemed like Borsalino wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the freedom their new arena gave them: the pirate’s blows became heavier, his haki sharper, his worry about potential damage fading away this far from the boat.

It made their spar fiercer, an aspect Borsalino took pleasure in until he became aware of one major flaw. Black Leg managed to get another hit in, a spinning kick given weight both by his momentum and by the armament haki pushed into it; Borsalino easily blocked it in time but the pressure kept building as the pirate did not hold back, and he suddenly realized he was going to be sent flying.

Which was an extremely bad idea, as from his calculations the ship was currently behind him.

“Ease up,” he told the pirate. “Now.”

They lost their balance as Black Leg released his pressure with a frown, obeying the request as he picked on Borsalino’s serious tone.

“That was a good one,” Borsalino commended him. “You would have pushed me back.”
“And..?” the pirate replied, still confused. “We would have fished you out if you had fallen into the water…”
“I was more concerned about…potentially exploding your ship.”
“What?”
“All logias have their quirks,” Borsalino shrugged. “I can’t help but turn into light when I am not in control of my motions. The issue is…when I make contact with something, I usually…blow up.”

He made a gesture with his hands to mimic an explosion.

“If you had landed on Sunny, you would have turned into a bomb,” Black Leg repeated blankly.
“Precisely… So let’s avoid that, mhm..?”

The horror on the pirate’s face told him that yes, it would be avoided at all costs.

They kept sparring for a while, going round the ship but mostly keeping to the sky. There was no clear winner when they decided to stop on a mutual agreement, both their moods freed from their previous irritations.

“Me next!” Straw Hat exclaimed as they landed back on the ship. “Me next!”
“You?” Cat Burglar eyed him in disbelief. “Do you even know how to spar?”
“It’s just a fight, right?”
“Yup,” she shook her head. “That’s what I thought. You’re going to go overboard and destroy something, I can feel it.”
“I won’t! ‘zaru?”

Borsalino grabbed a cigarette from his pack and put the box away, lighting it as he glanced at the Emperor.

“You do need to work on your stamina for your awakened form…”
“What - It’s not that bad, is it! I held you off!” Straw Hat frowned. “I just need some food and I’m ready to go again.”
“No, Kizaru is right,” Black Leg mused aloud as he joined them up on the stairs. “It was pretty close on Egghead, you almost got captured… You were begging for food and no one could bring you any.”

Borsalino turned away from the group and inhaled some smoke, watching the sky as a few birds flew overhead.

“You managed to give me some in the end, so it was all good,” the Emperor was audibly grinning.
“It wasn’t us… We couldn’t move because of that Elder.”
“What do you mean, Sanji?” Cat Burglar asked after a confused silence. “Someone had to have done it!”
“One of the Vegapunks?” God Usopp suggested.
“No, Atlas was stuck with us,” Black Leg replied. “It couldn’t have been her, and the rest of you were elsewhere…”
“What are you saying?” Pirate Hunter cut in with a snort. “That the marines gave Luffy food?”

There was another moment of silence before Borsalino felt the combined weight of their stares moving to him as one.

“...Kizaru?” Black Leg prompted.

He slowly exhaled, the smoke filling his vision for a beat before it cleared out. It was the perfect occasion to rehearse the story he had already settled on for the inevitable question coming from either Sakazuki or the Five Elders…or maybe even both.

“I was recovering from a fist in my head,” he said, keeping it matter-of-fact and adding just a little bit of vexation in his tone, enough to make them think he had not been happy about the situation without laying it on too strongly.

“Maybe one of the machines that made the food malfunctioned?” Tony Tony Chopper offered next.
“I was pretty close to one,” Straw Hat agreed.
“Well, either way,” Black Leg continued, “it’s not a good state to be in. But if you need that much food every time you go over your limit I won’t be able to support you on the ship, our stocks can only last for so long without adding that on top.”

Straw Hat blew a raspberry in disappointment.

Borsalino relaxed slightly as they bought his excuse. He tuned out the rest of their conversation as he continued his smoke, his mind wandering over to Kuma below; Bonney, Lilith and Iron Man had not shown their faces since the morning, deeply occupied by the last rework needed to make Kuma human again…at least, mentally speaking. There would be no reverting the physical changes Vegapunk had done on his body. Would he even keep aging..?

He burned the end of his cigarette off and turned away from the ocean view, blinking as he found a few of the pirates still looking at him.

“...Yes?”
“Zoro wants to fight you!” Straw Hat grinned.
“Spar, Luffy,” Cat Burglar rolled her eyes.
“Luffy said you fought with a sword,” Pirate Hunter confirmed. “It’s been a while since I have fought another swordsman.”
“I am not a swordsman,” Borsalino sighed. The pirate frowned.
“But you fight with a sword?”
“Yes…”
“Then that’s all I need.” 

It seemed like he would not let go of his idea, which should not have come as a surprise…swordsmen were pretty insistent. They liked measuring their strength against their peers more than any other type of fighters, from Borsalino’s own experience.

He nodded in final agreement and they took spots on opposite sides of the deck.

“Ama no Murakumo,” Borsalino softly said.

His fingers wrapped around the handle of his sword, the light solidifying under his touch in a frozen spark for the guard; the blade was next, created by the slide of his palm until it reached the desired length, and then he pointed it down towards the grass as he waited for the pirate to make the first move.

Pirate Hunter wasted no time in doing just that, charging him with one of his swords at the ready.

“Aren’t you supposed to be specialized in three sword style..?” Borsalino asked him as they exchanged a few blows.
“I mix it up,” the pirate answered with another attack. “I don’t use all three for every opponent.”
“Mhm… I feel like I should be insulted…”

He used his second hand to control his aim with better precision as they clashed again, forcing Pirate Hunter to disengage lest he got cut. Between his height and the length of his blade he had a clear advantage in regards to reach, which the pirate had clearly been testing to gauge his proficiency with the weapon…probably since he claimed not to be a swordsman. The other drew the second of his katanas and off they went again.

The limited space of the deck forced them to mainly close quarters, Pirate Hunter having no options to take to the sky like Black Leg had; Borsalino knew from various navy reports that the pirate had quite a panel of sophisticated techniques, at both close and long range, unfortunately all too powerful to be unleashed on the ship. He felt a pang of disappointment at not being able to experience them, feeling curious about where the pirate’s strength truly lay at; they had not crossed paths on Egghead and their previous interaction on Sabaody had…left something to be desired.

He was only getting a small taste now, as Pirate Hunter navigated the length of his light sword and tried to find holes in his guard.

It still proved to be an enjoyable moment.

The spar ended with the tip of his sword brushing the pirate’s throat, outsmarting him in the end by leaving some purposeful openings in his defenses, small enough to feel like actual mistakes and not outright bait, and pouncing as the other stumbled upon the trap.

Pirate Hunter yielded in good faith, his eye trained on his sword with a sharp focus and a growing hunger.

“If we ever fight seriously,” he said as Borsalino let his weapon disappear, “I will cut through your blade.”
“Through light? You are welcome to try…”

No one had ever managed such a feat, his construct solid enough to block even the sharpest edges of any kind of weapons. It did not chip nor crack, so to cut it would mean getting a slice in a single attack. Not that it would be much of an issue for Borsalino; since the sword was born from his powers he could simply regenerate it, unlike the death sentence a broken weapon meant in a battlefield. Of course, he would be in trouble for that single attack getting through the blade and coming right for him…something to think about.

“IT WORKED!” someone suddenly shouted.

They all turned towards the source of the voice, only to find Lilith leaning heavily against the wall of the main building.

“It worked,” she repeated, exhaustion audible in her tone. “Kuma is back!”

There was a beat of silence before the words made sense and the pirates erupted in a cacophony of both happy and disbelieving exclamations, questions firing from left and right as they crowded around her. Then they were all running to the back of the ship to see it for themselves, Lilith jumping after them while screaming they wouldn’t all fit at once.

Borsalino watched them disappear around the corner with mixed feelings; he had thought a positive result would have made him happy and yet…he did not actually know how to feel now that it had truly been a success. Maybe he could not believe it just yet, not until he saw it with his own eyes, not until Bonney smiled like the child she was supposed to be.

“You are not going, Kizaru?”

He startled as Jimbei stopped at his side, the fishman also looking towards the back of the ship without showing any inclination to follow the rest of his crew.

“Later,” he vaguely said. “What about you..?”
“Someone still needs to keep an eye out there,” the former warlord replied. “I do not have the same relationship with Kuma as they do.”
“Mhm…”

Things would change, now.

“Thank you for saving Luffy,” Jimbei then said out of the blue. Borsalino glanced at him with some confusion.
“I’m sorry..?”
“The food, on Egghead,” the fishman clarified. “It was you.”

Borsalino locked his smile in place. It wasn’t a question.

“What makes you think that..? I was -”
“Recovering from an attack, yes,” the other gave him a knowing look. “Which would not have taken you as long as the others have accepted it to be. It’s an easy answer if you go through a process of elimination: most of the crew wasn’t anywhere near Luffy, the ones who were could not move, Saint Saturn and the other marines on the island would have had no reason to help their enemy. Who else could have done it without being seen, anyway?”

Borsalino sighed. It unfortunately did make sense; he took solace in the fact that it was only possible because the pirate had a lot of information that the few marines that had seen the scene would not be in possession of, thus removing the risk of him being the only possible guess.

“So I did not fool you,” he pushed his sunglasses up his head to rub along the bridge of his nose.
“You convinced the rest of them, and they have some sharp instincts even without haki. You just had a few tells for an old soul like me,” Jimbei laughed heartily, clapping him across the shoulder blades. “Dont worry, though. I will respect your choice for keeping it a secret, even if I don’t understand why.”
“Untold secrets have no chance to make it out into the world,” Borsalino simply said.

He would have to do a better job back at headquarters. It probably wouldn’t prove to be an issue once he was back to his actual age anyway: while he had always had an easy time lying he had only truly sharpened his impassive mask during his stunt as an admiral, where the stakes were much higher and the other players as proficient as he was in the art of deception.

Jimbei turned on his heels to get back to the helm now that he had said what he wanted. Borsalino was left alone on the deck, musing about what to do; in the end he phased up to the upper deck and went to the library, going through the shelves for a third time since he arrived on the ship before deciding on a book.

He had barely finished the first chapter when the door opened to let Cat Burglar in, and if he listened carefully he could make out the echo of other voices outside.

“That was quick,” he commented as she strolled to her desk.
“Bonney kicked us out, she said we were too noisy and that Kuma needed to rest. They deserve to catch up with each other, too,” the pirate replied. “We’ll be able to chat more tomorrow!”
“It really worked, then..?”

She paused from where she was gathering some papers to turn towards him.

“You do realize you could have seen that for yourself if you had come with, right?”
“My face isn’t exactly the best welcome for Kuma,” he shrugged. “I’ll see him later…”

Maybe. If he found the courage to do so.

“...Sure,” Cat Burglar said, like she also felt that was likely not to happen. “Anyway, while you are here, I wanted to get your input on this.”

She moved to the table in the middle of the room, spreading the sheets across its surface. Borsalino’s eyes flicked to the number of the page he was on before he closed his book and stood up, approaching the table with some curiosity. Maps awaited him there, sea charts to be more exact, with the one in the center being a bigger overview of the part of the world they were currently in while the few around were zoomed around various islands.

“I picked these up at our last stop,” Cat Burglar tapped one of the maps, which did indeed represent an island whose shape felt familiar; Borsalino had seen it from above, after all. “After studying them, I’m confident that there are sea currents close by we could use to get to that Pirate Island, even without the log pose directing us to it.”

Her finger slid to the center map, stopping on the general area that Borsalino had previously told her housed Blackbeard’s base of operations. He hummed; so this was what it was about.

“You’re right that these currents all go in that direction,” he confirmed her hunch,“but it isn’t so simple. One does lead to the Pirate Island…but it doesn’t exactly stop there. You would need to find a way to get out of it…”
“That’s alright,” she flashed him a smile. “Sunny is very manoeuvrable.”
“Mhm… Well, manoeuvrable or not, you will find yourself in quite a tricky situation if you end up on the second current instead…which takes a sudden plunge to the depths of the sea. Jimbei might like it, but the rest of you won’t. As for the third current… I don’t actually know where it goes.”

She sighed in frustration.

“Quite the gamble, then,” she frowned at her maps. “If I had some more data, I am sure I could figure out which one to take…”

Borsalino went back to his previous seat on the couch as she grabbed one of the papers and squinted at it like she could decipher a hidden meaning behind the lines.

“How do marines even sail around?” she asked aloud after a while. “Aren’t the log poses too unreliable for specific routes?”
“If you go forward it’s not really an issue… We have eternal poses for most locations anyway, they are handed out to ships when a mission is assigned. For general patrolling between a set of islands, they just follow internal maps and keep in touch through radio.”
“You’ve got your own maps?” she glanced at him with interest. “Maybe I should steal a few of these…”

Borsalino doubted she would have the opportunity to do so easily; as an Emperor’s crew the Straw Hats were now monitored by the Navy, so if a ship sighted them it would simply leave the area while updating headquarters on the pirates’ whereabouts.

Cat Burglar moved to her desk with the maps, arming herself with some pen and ink and starting to scribble on a fresh sheet of paper. Borsalino focused back on his book, flipping the pages until he found where he had previously left off, and immersed himself in the fantasy world being described.

They enjoyed a companionable silence until Black Leg came knocking on the door, letting them know that he had made sandwiches for dinner. He immediately offered Cat Burglar to bring her some as he realized she was working on something, slightly pouting as she declined, putting her pen down and stretching her arms as she stood up. Borsalino received a look that meant that the offer was not extended to him, which did not come at a shock; he still stayed put to finish the two pages left in his chapter before he followed them out.

With the meal so easy to grab and eat anywhere most of the crew was enjoying the last stretch of the day outside, which Borsalino supposed was exactly Black Leg’s intention…as it meant someone could, potentially, get a few sandwiches and immediately return to their father still in recovery at the back of the ship.

Lilith and Iron Man were the highlight of the meal for the other pirates: they kept dozing on and off and dropping out of the conversation, their energy levels so low they were barely managing to eat. Tony Tony Chopper went full doctor mode once they had both swallowed a few sandwiches, directing them to their beds and making clear they better not show up again any time soon. Borsalino thought there was no need for the threat with the way they sluggishly walked to their respective quarters; he expected they would fall asleep the moment their heads touched a pillow.

He moved back to the library once he was done with his food, picking his book again and settling in for an evening of reading.

The story was captivating enough that he did not see the time pass, devouring the pages until he finally turned the last one and focused back on the real world; there was a quietness to the ship that was only befitting of the atmosphere found in the middle of the night. He was proven right as he walked out of the room to find an empty deck, sensing across the ship with his observation haki to find God Usopp at the helm and Pirate Hunter up in the lookout tower, the rest of the crew sleeping in their respective quarters.

Borsalino headed towards the back of the ship, getting through closed doors as light particles to avoid making any noise, slipping through the cracks and reforming in a heartbeat in the space beyond. He kept himself light on his feet as he walked down the stairs that lead to the room that had housed Kuma since the Straw Hats’ departure from Egghead, pausing on the last step as he gazed at the scene in front of him.

The machines that had been used to fix the cyborg’s body had been pushed to the side, some of them still shining with some light that kept the darkness from fully blackening the room. Kuma was no longer sitting against the wall and still as a statue; he was lying down the floor on his back with Bonney curled up on his chest, his hands wrapped around her like a makeshift cover.

They both had their mouths wide open in sleep and warmth flooded his chest at the natural, so very human expression on Kuma’s face.

A light chuckle fell from his lips as Kuma heaved a deep sigh, followed barely a second later by Bonney doing the exact same, before he froze as the former warlord’s head dropped in his direction with a soft grunt.

He did not stay to see if the man was waking up, splitting into thousands of light particles instead and vanishing from the room in a heartbeat.

Borsalino was one of the last to be up the following morning.

Iron Man was still snoring away as he walked through the men’s quarters and he expected Lilith to be doing the same in the women’s room, the two of them recovering from their few all-nighters.

The deck was empty when he stepped outside, muffled noises coming from the dining room; he sensed that the rest of the crew was gathered there, as was Bonney…and Kuma.

He hummed softly to himself before teleporting to the upper deck, deciding to take advantage of the bathroom being currently free. He took his time to lounge about in the water, not in any rush to get back out there and…potentially interact with the former warlord. Cat Burglar was once again working at her desk when he passed by the library once he was done, muttering to herself as she flipped through her papers and not reacting to the noises of him going down the ladder. He let her to her own devices and grabbed a book from one of the shelves in expectation of needing something to pass the time on his own that day, before he closed the door quietly behind him and thought about his next destination.

From the exclamations he could hear on the wind some of the pirates had moved to the outside, including Bonney, and since wherever Bonney was Kuma was sure to follow he dropped down one floor and headed to the kitchen by going through the infirmary. Tony Tony Chopper glanced up from where he was currently grinding some medicine, a confused expression on his face as Borsalino held a lazy hand up in greetings and went straight for the other door.

The dining room was empty, as was the kitchen. Breakfast seemed to be over, not that it mattered much to him: he had already set his sights on something. He found the bananas they had gotten from the wild island in the pantry, the stock still quite high; he grabbed two of the fruits, one to eat now and one to keep for a later snack…he had a feeling he might end up skipping the other meals, too.

Since Bonney and Kuma were out on the deck Borsalino left the building through the infirmary once again, the doctor shaking his head as he saw him walk by a second time. He leaned on the railing as he peeled his banana, watching the sea as he ate, thinking about where to spend the rest of his time…preferably out of sight. His gaze dropped to the lower level, which he had barely frequented so far, only passing through to get to the scientists’ working area; he easily phased down and slipped inside the main room there with its couches and its aquarium. Colourful fish were swimming in the water, scattering skittishly when he moved around; he sat down in the middle of the couch, right behind the mast, hiding from the door and potential visitors.

He opened the book he had grabbed from the library, a murder mystery whose author he was not familiar with but which Jimbei had praised in an earlier conversation. It was set in Fishman Island and was written by one of its inhabitants, which was probably why Borsalino had never heard of them so far: few things were exported from the bottom of the sea. Or, maybe, few things managed to hold up to humans’...standards…enough for them to also be successful on the ground.

The book was good, the plot still shrouded in mystery even as the chapters went by, the novelty of the setting keeping him on his toes because of his lack of familiarity with how living under the sea was like.

He was brought back to reality as the door to the room opened, freezing where he sat for a beat before he reached out with his observation haki and relaxed; it was only God Usopp, walking straight to the side and out of sight, most likely heading to his own workshop further down the ship. Borsalino went back to his reading, and was only bothered by that same pirate some time later.

“Hey,” God Usopp said, pausing in the middle of the room when he sighted him sitting on the couch. “It’s about time for lunch.”
“Ohh, of course…”

The pirate took his acknowledgement as a positive answer, nodding and going on his way, even though Borsalino had absolutely no intent to follow. Like the fish, God Usopp had been growing more skittish with each passing day, probably unnerved by Borsalino’s slow return to the enemy he loathed instead of a younger, less threatening self.

He still stood up and closed his book, keeping one finger between the pages to mark where he was at; since the pirate had seen him there was a good chance he would mention that was where he was holed up, and since he did not want any further interaction he simply walked outside and weighed his options.

In the end he decided to head to his favourite high spot, phasing up the second mast and sitting cross-legged against it, flipping his book open to get right back to reading. The sky was quite cloudy and he hoped the weather would behave itself…

He had just finished another chapter when his stomach started to growl; he fished out the banana he had put in his pocket earlier that morning for this exact reason and munched on it as the mystery’s puzzle pieces started to fit together in captivating reveals. He knew when the crew finished its meal, the pirates spilling back outside in various activities, talking and laughing with each other. Borsalino was used to tuning chatter out when he read; Navy headquarters was never a quiet place, always buzzing with officers running left and right, with missions to be handed, reports to give and other joyous meetings that required his presence…at least physically.

The wind soon picked up anyway, muffling the pirates’ voices in an ever stronger roar. At least the rain held out until Borsalino was finished with his reading, small drops falling right as he closed the book as if on cue; he still looked up at the sky with an annoyed expression, forced to relocate somewhere else on the ship lest he got drenched.

He peeked down to see what the pirates were doing. Bonney was holding the door to the dining room for Straw Hat, which seemed to be the last one to take refuge inside; Jimbei was still out at the helm, not bothered by the upcoming rain…maybe even welcoming it.

Borsalino dropped down the mast, slowing his descent just before touching the deck to have a quiet landing, before he headed towards the back of the ship and its library with the intent of putting his book back…and maybe grabbing another to last him the rest of the day.

What he was not intending was to find himself in a one on one situation with the last person he had wanted to see that day, and yet.

He was closing the door when the voice rang behind him, making him freeze where he was.

“Hello, Kizaru,” Kuma said. His voice was back to his soft, human tone, shaking off the rigidity with which his mindless robot self had talked with.

Somehow, hearing him talk normally after so long of not doing so only made the guilt in his chest intensify.

Borsalino took another second to compose himself before he turned towards the inside of the room. There was no one there but Kuma, who was sitting in the middle of the couch in the left area; a deep exhaustion was readable on his features, neither his body nor his mind still quite recovered from what he had been through, but his eyes were clear and piercing, no longer hidden behind smoked lens.

“Kuma,” he greeted in return, a caution in his tone audible even to his own ears. He tried a smile but wasn’t sure of its success. “I see Bonney was a bait…”

He had taken for granted that Kuma had to be in the dining room if Bonney was there, that she would not let him out of her sight so soon.

“It was her idea,” the man in front of him confirmed his suspicions. “She was confident you would not be as cautious as to check with haki if you saw her go in one room, as you could simply avoid that specific place.”

A mistake on his part, a great read on hers. In five, ten years, she would definitely be a force to be reckoned with; the Revolutionary Army would get a boost in both tactical and physical power if she ever went through with her goal of joining them.

“Please,” Kuma said next, opening his arms to gesture at the couch.

Borsalino toyed with the idea of simply walking out. It was cowardly, yes, but it wasn’t like he had any pride left to protect anyway. But what, then? Kuma would certainly take the hint, but Bonney would not let it slide. It wasn’t like he could truly hide on the ship if people really wanted to find him. And, worst of all, it was raining; he could see the drops spattering on the windows, selling both his powers away...and his fate.

He went to mirror Kuma’s position, sitting on the opposite couch. By pure coincidence the former warlord had actually settled on the part of the room Borsalino usually shunned, and getting to sit in a familiar spot brought him some small welcomed comfort to handle what was coming next.

“I am told you helped get me back to normal,” Kuma started once he had sat down.
“I hope you’re not thinking about thanking me,” Borsalino interjected, sighing as the other’s dejected face told him he was definitely going to do just that.

Oh, Kuma. Always too generous, always too kind.

“My involvement in your…recovery…is nothing next to the part I played in getting you in that mess in the first place.”
“You were forced to make sure the deal went ahead,” Kuma still argued. “Saint Saturn is the one who made the decision. What you chose to do, in the end, is bring me back.”

He was playing with the words. On any other occasion, Borsalino would have probably been amused and even proud of it…but he was never quite as lenient when it was about himself. Picking his job over anything else was a choice, a heavy, painful choice, but a choice nonetheless.

Vegapunk had made that clear. Straw Hat Luffy had made that clear. Bonney had made that clear.

Kuma was still the same man that had wholeheartedly agreed to a death sentence if it meant his daughter could be saved, driven by hope and gratitude even amongst pitch black despair.

“Did you know..? When you saved them all two years ago, back on Saboady,” Borsalino asked him instead to redirect the conversation, “that Straw Hat Luffy was Sun God Nika..?”
“I did not have a definite proof, but… I believed in him.”
“Mhm… You’re lucky that Silvers Rayleigh showed up when he did, then, or I would have snuffed out that light right there and then…”
“Oh, I was already watching by that point. I would have jumped in if I had not noticed him coming to help them,” Kuma explained with a smile. “It would have been pretty awkward to explain to Sengoku why I sent one of his admirals away, though…”
“More awkward than having to justify why you saved pirates..?”

Sengoku had not been happy with that development at all. Granted, his anger and annoyance had been pretty evenly split between Kuma and Borsalino himself; he had gotten chewed for lacking reactivity when the stakes were that high, the World Nobles breathing down the Fleet Admiral’s neck…but at least bringing the former Pirate King’s right hand man up had given him enough of an excuse to walk away without much consequences.

“Would it even work on me..?” he wondered aloud, thinking about Kuma’s powers. “If you were to repel me. I could just shift into light and negate the pressure…”
“Ah… That is a possibility.”

It would have been pretty useless then, giving him the time to maybe send one or two Straw Hats away before Borsalino would be right back…

“One thing I still can’t understand is why you are here,” Kuma said next. “Honestly, when I saw you last night, I really thought you were some sort of hallucination from my brain.”

Borsalino grimaced. So he had been seen…

“I did not intend to wake you up,” he replied apologetically. “Was it the light..?”
“No, it was just because I sensed another presence in the room. I’m still…hyper-aware of everyone at the moment. Though…you especially, I suppose, since we share the same power. Like there is still a link…”

Borsalino hummed. He knew the feeling, the echo of their lights resonating with each other. He had just gave more of himself to recharge Kuma to the fullest, too, so that light was as much his as the former warlord's for now, not yet fully acclimated to the cyborg's body.

“I am familiar with how you operate,” Kuma kept going. “You’re never sent out for a single mission and you always head off with a few ships so you can take advantage of your speed and bounce off them to navigate to different locations. So why would you stay here on this pirate ship?”

Kuma’s information was correct, though he was missing the fact that Egghead had been an exception: the whole fleet had been focused on one single target and was originally planned to stay at the island for a few days at least to properly secure all of Vegapunk’s lab and inventions.

“Bonney,” he simply said.
“Bonney? You stayed here…for her?”
“Not exactly,” he corrected. “It’s not as obvious now so you probably haven’t realized…but if you had woken up a week before, you would have understood why I did not reach out to any marine ships. I expect to be back to my original age by tomorrow evening…and then, I’ll leave.”
“She used her powers on you..?” Kuma gasped, his expression becoming slightly horrified as Borsalino nodded in confirmation.
“Fun times…”

Silence fell between them, awkward and heavy.

“So… Vegapunk is really dead..?”
“Yes.”

Not that Borsalino had seen his mangled, lifeless body, but he had seen enough.

“What are you going to do, now?”
“...Go back to the marines..?”
“No, I meant - I’m still the World Government property, aren’t I?”
“Ohh… I suppose you are.”
“So?” Kuma prompted.
“So..?”
“So, what are you going to do about it?” the man pressed, confusion and frustration both swirling in his tone.

His hands were gripping his knees, the rest of his body tense as he awaited Borsalino’s response; with Bonney all healed up and his own sense of self now recovered, it wasn’t a surprise Kuma would fight to keep their freedom and secure their happiness. He had to know the odds were in his favor anyway, with the Straw Hats so deeply involved in their story, that it would only be foolish for Borsalino to decide to hunt any of them down.

“Nothing… I’m on leave.”
“...And after your leave is over?”
“I wouldn’t know where you are,” Borsalino shrugged. “It’s hard to chase a man across the whole New World when you don’t have a lead…”
“I see.”

Kuma stood up then, something unreadable in his expression.

“Thank you,” he started, prompting Borsalino to narrow his eyes at him, “for having this chat with me.”
“Sure…”

He had probably been aware of how close Borsalino had come to simply turning tail when he had seen him in the room.

“And,” Kuma added, stubborn to the end, “for helping me.”

Borsalino heaved a sigh as he closed his eyes. He listened to Kuma’s slow, heavy walk as the man left the library, the door falling shut behind him with a soft noise before he was left with nothing but the soft splatter of rain drops against the glass.

“Uncle.”

Borsalino blinked his eyes open as a finger nudged him in the cheek. Bonney was standing next to where he was lying on the couch, at the perfect height to bother him without having to shift to a bigger form.

“Food is ready,” she told him once she saw that he was awake and that she had his attention. “You should come!”
“...Already?”

It felt like lunch had finished barely two hours ago. Maybe his nap had ended up being much longer than he anticipated…

“Why are you here..?”
“Sanji said you wouldn’t refuse me,” she grinned. “He’s right, too, you have to come! You haven’t eaten all day.”

He had. Two bananas. Nowhere enough to sustain what his body required…but he couldn’t quite picture himself eating anything else at the moment, nor participating in a group meal.

He redirected his gaze to the ceiling.

“I don’t feel like it, Bonney…” he finally replied.
“Like eating?” she gasped in horror. “Should I call Chopper instead?!”

He huffed a laugh. With her appetite, it wasn’t a surprise that the thought of someone else not matching the same level of enthusiasm for food was an instant concern in her mind. She wasn’t exactly wrong, but he did not need the doctor fretting over him.

“I don’t feel like…going down there,” he focused on the second issue instead. “With them.”
“Oh.”
“Go have fun, Bonney.”

She stayed silent for a beat.

In the end she followed his suggestion and walked out of the library with quiet steps, going back to the rest of the crew and leaving him alone to stew in his own apathy in peace. He focused on the feeling of her presence navigating the ship until he confirmed she joined the others in the dining room, and closed his eyes once more.

It felt like no time had passed when the sound of something hitting the door shook him off his current doze, immediately followed by a shout:

“Uncle!”

Borsalino sat up with a frown as outside Bonney clearly kicked the door again.

“Uncle!” she called out loudly. “Come open the door! My hands are full!”

Fearing for the worst, he still went to let her in and immediately regretted it: he could barely see her behind the multiple plates she was carrying, the food stacked so high up it hid her face and most of her upper body even as she was in her adult form. She swiftly made her way inside, careful not to bump the plates in the doorway or drop anything as she strode up to the table in the middle of the room and placed everything down, before she turned towards him with a proud grin on her face.

“I do not…eat that much,” Borsalino commented, too stunned by her action to think of anything else.
“Yeah, half of it is for me!” she answered like it should have been obvious from the start.

She dropped down in one of the chairs and dug in with appetite, tapping the table to get Borsalino to join her.

“What about Kuma..?”
“He’s in good company with the Straw Hats! Franky and Lilith are going to run some tests on him to confirm everything is working fine once they’re done with dinner.”
“No, I meant…” He sighed. “Don’t you want to spend time with him?”

Bonney paused from where she was going to bite down a piece of meat.

“Of course I want to spend time with him! It’s just… He’s back for good, now. I’ll be able to spend every day with him, and get to sail the sea with him, and do everything I’ve ever wanted to be able to do with him!” She beamed at him as she opened her arms wide, and for the first time since she had been that sickly child coming into Vegapunk’s care her smile was full of childlike happiness and innocence. “But you… You’re leaving soon, aren’t you? I’ve got that gut feeling. You look old, now, too.”
“I’m not that old…”
“To me, you are! So… It might be our last evening together. Somehow, it feels…weird. I can’t leave you alone - I owe it to Vegapunk and Sentomaru, who were stupid enough to be friends with you.”

His chest felt tight. The words were enough to stir something deep inside of him, something that could not quite banish the sting of the thoughts of his old friends and the frayed bonds he was left with…but could bring him a soft, temporary relief through a kindness offered in good faith.

He quirked a smile, if only to make sure his face wouldn’t be doing anything else.

“Does that mean you’re stupid, too..?” he asked her. She had latched onto him during this past week or so and he doubted she would still claim to hate him, now.
“Maybe,” she stuck her tongue out. “Come now, sit! I can’t eat it all by myself!”
“Su-ure, you can’t,” Borsalino raised his brows as he finally unfroze his feet from the floor and took a seat at long last.
“Try this first,” she pushed one of the plates towards him. “It’s from this afternoon’s catch!”

He complied, grabbing some of the cutlery she had brought and getting a piece of the dish. Like anything Black Leg cooked that he had tasted it was flavourful in an elegant, surprising way, simple spices bringing out the best of the fish. They did a tour of everything that Bonney had brought, commenting what they liked best, trying to figure out what some of the dishes were. The more he ate the more he felt hungry, his body catching up with its need now that his mind was on the same page.

“Pizza is still the best food in the whole world,” Bonney said with her mouth still full as she weighed on her favourite dish on the table.
“I am quite partial to ramen, myself…”
“Eh, ramen? That’s so annoying to eat, though!”
“You just need chopsticks…”
“Yeah, I can’t use my hands! Finger foods are superior.”

They debated on the pros and cons of their favourite foods as they ate their way through Black Leg’s cooking, Bonney subtly matching his pace even though he knew she could keep up with the likes of Straw Hat. Her whole posture relaxed as he reached the amount of food he usually took at meal times, a satisfied glint in her eyes as her goal was successfully completed.

Borsalino did not comment on it. If anything else, he felt that maybe…maybe he was even grateful.

“DAD!” Bonney wailed at the top of her lungs as Borsalino toed the door of the surveying room open and walked out with her held securely on his shoulder, the stack of now empty plates and dishes balanced on his other hand. “DADDY!!”

Her screams made Kuma come running with a panicked expression on his face. He wasn’t the only one, most of the pirates also appearing on the deck with various levels of concern in their eyes.

“Here, I think this is yours,” Borsalino let the former warlord know as he angled his upper body down to drop the girl in her father’s arms, who caught her in confusion.
“Er… Yes?”
“Dad! Get him! We can’t let him go!” she whirled on her father with a commending tone.
“Um… Why..?”
“I was this close to having him spill everything out about his relationship with Akainu! You’re not getting away with it, Uncle!”
“Akainu?” Kuma repeated, completely out of the loop.
“With ‘Akainu’..?” Borsalino hummed. “Strictly professional.”

With Sakazuki, though…

“You’re a liar and you know it!”
“Bonney, why is that important?” Kuma tried to appease his daughter, who had jumped out of his hands to point an angry finger at Borsalino.
“Because I don’t approve! I met the guy and he’s - he’s big and he’s scary. That’s not a good fit for you!”

Borsalino simply looked at her with his usual composed, slightly mocking smile in place, amused as she only grew more frustrated over his lack of clarity.

“Well, some people would say that Kizaru is also big and scary looking, so if they are together - or, uh, if they want to be..?” Kuma’s eyes started flicking up and down from Bonney to Borsalino to Bonney again, not quite sure about the kind of words to use there as Borsalino did not react any further. “I think they would be a good fit.”

Bonney made a face at her father’s response.

“He’s not scary to me,” she huffed. “I’ve seen him naked.”

Shocked gasps echoed all around them. Kuma’s eyes went so round they threatened to pop out of his skull; Borsalino immediately straightened up from his relaxed slouch as he was subjected to the former warlord’s deathly glare, bringing his free hand up in a defensive posture.

“Partial nakedness,” he heavily stressed. “A towel was involved. And I was about - twenty.”
“Yeah, he threw a fit about that,” Bonney shrugged to her dad. “Like, who cares?”
“I care,” Kuma told her in a serious tone, though his face only showed relief.
“Ehh, it’s fine, I’m not six anymore!”
“You’re only twelve,” he answered with all the patience only a father could muster. “It’s still too early for you to get into this, Age-Age fruit or not.”
“Aw, man…”

The crisis averted, Borsalino made his way to the ladder and down to the dining room to drop off the plates. Black Leg had followed him inside when he turned back, lighting a cigarette up now that it was clear Bonney wasn’t in any life threatening situation and the smell of the smoke, comforting in its familiarity but no longer tempting, made Borsalino realize that he had no more need for the vice; he fished his pack out of his pocket and slid it over the counter to the pirate.

“Thank you for sharing these with me,” he let the other know.
“You don’t want to keep them?”
“I don’t need to anymore.”
“Hey,” the other stopped him as he was opening the door to the deck, “next time you decide to skip meals, take more than two bananas from the pantry.”
“...Duly noted.”

Soul King was entertaining some of the crew outside with a concert, the thrum of his electric guitar echoing in the night. Kuma and Bonney were amongst the group, clapping in rhythm with the beat; the music was nice and the evening still young, so Borsalino sat on the railing to listen to it while keeping his distance with the pirates.

When the last note echoed in the air and the silence was filled with yawns as the group broke off to either retire for the night or go do something else, Borsalino dropped down from his perch and headed towards his own room.

“Ah, Kizaru,” Soul King waved at him as he walked by. “I have your autograph.”

The words piqued his interest. He watched in slight bemusement as the musician popped his own head open to grab a rolled up paper from inside his skull, closing it right back as he offered the item. Borsalino grabbed it with a growing curiosity and unrolled it to see what kind of comment Soul King had put, only to bark out a laugh at the unexpected content of the paper.

“Usopp helped make it,” the pirate let him know, “Nami also had some pointers. It’s one of a kind.”

Of that, Borsalino had no doubt.

“Thank you,” he smiled at the pirate. “It’ll certainly spice up my desk at work.”
“Yohohoho! A perfect spot indeed.”

He could already picture the chaos it would bring.

Going back, he thought now, wouldn’t be so bad.

Chapter Text

His heart was set when he woke up the next day.

He dressed fully this time around, the tie sliding around his neck and the jacket wrapping around his waist, his trusty pair of sunglasses finding their spot on the bridge of his nose. He brushed his fingers on the high collar of his marine coat before deciding against it; he would not be leaving the ship until the end of the day, so there was little point in unsettling the pirates in the meantime.

It was sunny when he walked outside.

He headed to the kitchen first, serving himself some tea before sitting at the head of the table where Black Leg, Nico Robin and Jimbei were having breakfast. A newspaper had been left on the table, he found that it was from the previous day as he opened it but decided to read it nonetheless; he had not really kept up with the events in the world during his time with the Straw Hats and any information would be better than none.

He sipped on his tea and munched on some toast as he read through it, cataloguing the stories in the back of mind and noting a few that would require some deeper look into. The repercussions of Big Mom’s fall were still noticeable in the paper, pirates and marines fighting for dominion over some of her territories as the remains of her crew solidified their stronghold on Whole Cake Island itself; they were still struggling to land back on their feet after her blistering defeat at the hands of Eustass Kid and Trafalgar Law, failing to keep the whole archipelago under their control. Kaido’s impact was less visible since he had holed himself up in Wano, which was a closed off country anyway.

Unseating an Emperor always had such ripple effects on the whole world…

It had been the same with Whitebeard’s fall, though the late pirate’s crew had managed to keep a good handle on their territories up until they decided to go to war with Blackbeard. Borsalino had a feeling things weren’t about to settle down anytime soon either, since Straw Hat had told him his goal was to defeat all other Emperors on his way to become the Pirate King.

Maybe he should test out the waters with the pirate and put a few baits in to get him to target Buggy the Clown first… The new Cross Guild syndicate had proven to be a thorn in the side of the Navy as they decided to fight fire with fire and put up bounties on marines, making their officers’ work in the field unpredictable in certain areas. Straw Hat had had a previous run in with all three of the former warlords, too; with the current strength of his crew, maybe it’ll be an easy enough fight…especially if the rest of the pirates added haki to their arsenal.

Breakfast was long since over when he was done with the newspaper, the dining room empty except for him.

He moved to the couch and grabbed the receiver from the transponder snail, inputting a number he knew by heart and leaning back as the dial tone cut through the silence. The call connected after a few rings.

“Sakazuki,” a gruff voice answered.
“Ohh, good, I was worried you would be in another one of these dreadful meetings…”
“Borsalino,” Sakazuki huffed. “I see you are back to normal.”
“Mhm, almost there. Do you know where the Straw Hats currently are..?”
“I know the general area, there was a sighting yesterday.”
“Good,” Borsalino smiled. “Send a few ships that way this afternoon, will you..? I’ll catch a ride tonight.”
“Done with your leave, then?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I have no doubts I’ll be heartbroken again in a few hours… But you know how it is. I’ll get it under wraps by the time I’m back to headquarters.”
“I know you will.”

It was the same song and dance. Lock it down, throw the key away. Lock it down, throw the key away.

The pirates weren’t as noisy that day. Or maybe… Maybe Borsalino was simply unbothered, his body still on their ship but his mind already gone elsewhere. He could feel the weight of their eyes on his back as he walked around the deck, as he stood still watching the sea and phased up to the first floor to admire the flower beds. They were all quite attuned to each other’s emotions and that attention had bled onto him the more time he spent at their side; they could probably feel the change in his behaviour and the bubble around him as surely as they saw his choice of outfit for the day, the layers back on the admiral persona, hiding whatever might still be lurking below.

He still followed their schedule, joining them for their lunch, though he barely listened to the conversations and certainly did not make any attempts to participate in any of them.

“Right, Uncle?” Bonney’s voice pierced through the constant fog that had settled around his brain.
“Mhm..? Sorry, Bonney. You were saying..?”

She blinked at him, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. Kuma’s hand squeezed her shoulder.

“Oh… No, nothing.”

He hummed, and promptly went back to his methodical, mechanical eating.

There was an ache spreading in his chest as the afternoon rolled on, though one he knew had no physical roots. It felt like the crumbling dust of Marineford, like the aftermath of ice and magma, like friends making deals that would change the course of their lives forever. It felt like the shrill voice of York and the heavy weight of Saint Saturn’s eyes, like blood dripping on the ground as he solidified light into a sword and thrust it for the very last time, knowing his goal would be met at long last.

“That’s my seat, you know.”

Borsalino blinked as he was brought back to reality, tearing his eyes from the sea stretching to infinity in front of him to look at Straw Hat, who had just joined him on the figurehead.

He hummed for all response as his attention slid back to the blue of the sky and the blue of the water, the pirate sitting down next to where he was standing.

“You should join my crew,” the Emperor offered once more, stubborn to the end.
“Because I am a monkey..?”
“Because you were having fun and now you’re not anymore.”
“People change as they age.”
“Well, that’s boring!”

Maybe it was. Maybe Straw Hat would not allow time to smooth his edges until he no longer resembled that wild, fiery youth he had been, the years only adding to his crazy sense of freedom and his contempt for the rules in a path so very similar to the one Garp had walked.

“Your crewmates… They are all supporting your dream, aren’t they..?”
“Yeah!”
“Is it so weird to think it’s the same for me..?”

The pirate was already looking at him when he glanced down, a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Uh,” he said. “Really? Wait… Akainu?”
“Maybe,” he stayed evasive, even though the answer must have seemed obvious with the knowledge the Straw Hats pirates now had on him.
“But what about you?”
“What about me..?”
“What’s your dream? My friends all have their own, and we’ll achieve each of them together.”

His dream, uh.

It had the shape of a boy pinning him down to the ground with a knife to his throat, with a bite of steel that never came and turned into a warm hand pulling him up instead, a hand he had kept reaching for continuously along the years and that had never refused him.

He settled his gaze back on the horizon, a smile tugging the corner of his lips up.

“What makes you think it hasn’t already been achieved..?”

The pirate fell quiet, stopping his line of questioning.

They stayed in companionable silence on top of the figurehead, watching the sun drop lower and lower in the sky until it burned a bright orange and set aflame the rest of the scenery, dipping into the sea until the reds morphed to darker blues as the night finally took over.

By then Bonney’s powers had run their course; the headache he had first woken up with amongst the Straw Hats was back in full force, each one of his breaths was accompanied by a spark of pain thanks to his cracked ribs, and the hole in his chest was once again threatening to swallow him whole. It felt even worse that second time around, after the light, fun times he had spent with the pirates, with Vegapunk's death an immovable certainty and the looming storm of the Elders’ disappointment.

The fight on Egghead was replaying in his head when Straw Hat finally moved, putting a stop to this dwelling; the pirate jumped back inside the ship with a shout aimed at Black Leg, enquiring about the status of their dinner amongst complaints of his unbearable hunger.

Borsalino opted to stay out for a little bit longer, trying to banish the guilt and regret threatening to overwhelm him for now: he would have enough time to deal with these emotions once he was back on a navy ship.

He waited until the darkness had properly settled overhead and then, he made his move.

He flew off the ship in a straight line, going up, up, up until he deemed he was high enough to be as visible as possible. He let his powers take over, the light bleeding out of him in its purest, brightest form, coalescing in one single spark that was as tall and wide as the pirate ship below him; he gave one, two pulses that stretched across the night sky and overshadowed the stars, before the light shimmered and faded away like fireworks fizzling out.

He dropped right back down the ship, where the pirates were peeking out of the dining room with their hands held up protectively around their eyes and confused expressions on their faces.

“What was that?” God Usopp asked while clutching his chest. “It almost gave me a heart attack!”
“You’ll soon see,” Borsalino replied in a cryptic way, heading towards the men’s quarters and the room that lay below.

There, he grabbed the last item that belonged to him on the pirate’s ship, unfolding it from its place on the chair; the admiral’s coat was a familiar weight upon his shoulders, a comforting flutter behind him as he walked, a physical proof of his decision to go back to his normal life.

Kuma was sitting on the stairs leading to the dining room when he reappeared on the deck, immediately taking note of the coat on his back.

“So, you are really leaving,” he softly said.

Even if his voice had not carried much, his comment still made Straw Hat and Bonney burst from the inside of the dining room, each with a plate of food they were still eating even as they frowned at Borsalino. The others followed at a more sedate pace as their captain swallowed the rest of his plate in a single mouthful and pointed his fork at him.

“You can’t leave! I haven’t said it’s okay yet!”
“Come on, Luffy,” Jimbei tried to reason with the Emperor. “You can’t keep him there against his will.”
“How are you even going to leave?” Bonney exclaimed. “There is nothing there!”

There was nothing there…just yet.

“Bonney,” he said to her. “If you ever cross paths with Sentomaru… Tell him -”

The words got stuck in his throat, refusing to be let out. What could he even say? An apology would not rewrite the past, saving Vegapunk and giving Sentomaru his life back.

“I’ll tell him that you’re an idiot,” Bonney finished for him.

Borsalino bowed his head.

“That will do…”

He caught a flash at the corner of his vision, coming from far out at sea; he adjusted his position slightly so that his lenses would catch the light from the kitchen, hiding the way his eyes went to confirm what he had just seen.

They had been faster than he had expected.

He jumped on one of the ship’s side railings, pivoting on the wood on the tip of his toes as his coat flared around him. 

“This is goodbye,” he told the pirates as they followed his motion and walked closer out on the deck.

Straw Hat frowned. He opened his mouth to say something in return but was beaten to it by Pirate Hunter, whose voice cut through the night from the speakers mounted on the lookout tower.

“Guys! I can see a ship on the horizon, and it’s coming right for us,” he warned the rest of the crew.
“What?”
“Where?!”

Exclamations rang on the deck as they tried to pinpoint the potential upcoming threat.

“From the East,” Pirate Hunter added. “It’s flashing lights - I think it’s a Navy ship?”
“That’s my ride,” Borsalino confirmed as Straw Hat whirled towards him. “Don’t worry… They will turn back as soon as I am on board.”

There was frustration in the Emperor’s eyes, like he wasn’t happy he wasn’t the one in charge, forced to go along with Borsalino’s own whims and the timing he had decided on.

Borsalino smiled.

“If we are lucky… We will never meet again.”
“Kizaru!”

The last thing he saw as he split into thousands of light particles was a rubber hand extending towards him, too slow to prevent him from shifting; he slipped through the outstretched fingers and launched himself in a calculated trajectory towards the battleship that still remained a dot on the horizon, and as he coalesced back above a Navy owned vessel…his time with the pirates was put to an end.

Sakazuki was reading through the documents for his upcoming meeting when a flash made him glance up.

Relief softened the harsh line of his shoulders as his eyes fell on the form of Borsalino, the last sparks of light dancing around his body before his office settled back into its current dark, moody lighting. The sky had been overcast since that morning and the clouds had only kept growing darker as the day progressed, but he had not yet bothered to turn on any of the lamps.

“Welcome back, Kizaru.”

His greeting received no reply, the other leaning against the door; even in the darkness Sakazuki could spot no smile on his face, and his eyes were out of reach altogether between the lack of luminosity and the ever-present sunglasses on the admiral’s nose.

He picked his cigar between his fingers and exhaled the smoke one last time, grinding it down on the ashtray to put it out before he grabbed the receiver on his transponder snail and started a call.

“Tell Vice-Admiral Yamakaji I am pushing our meeting back to -” His eyes flicked to the clock on his walls, “- half past.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer at the end of the line dutifully replied before the call was cut off.

There was the sound of a lock being pushed into place.

He barely had the time to stand up from his chair that he had a handful of light in his face; fingers holding tightly onto the back of his suit as Borsalino solidified once more between his arms, as he leaned forwards to hide his head in the crook of his neck. Sakazuki wrapped one arm around the other’s back in response, sliding it below the admiral’s coat to feel the warmth of Borsalino’s body as his other hand curled at the base of his neck, digging into the short, curly hair.

He made his temperature rise ever so slightly, knowing the effect it had on Borsalino; as predicted the other melted even further against him, gradually letting go until Sakazuki supported most of his weight.

He felt the other’s heartbeat against his chest and it made him tighten his embrace. He had not been particularly happy when the Egghead mission had finally made its way onto his desk only to learn that he had no say in which admiral would be assigned to it, fully aware of what it meant for his friend. The Five Elders had been inflexible, their arguments too sound to find a weakness to exploit; it had not helped that Borsalino had simply accepted his fate like he was one of the Pacifistas they no longer had under their control.

There was a soft hiss in his ear as he released his pressure, prompting him to frown at the other as they separated.

“You’re injured?”
“Ah… Just some cracked ribs. They’ll heal quickly enough,” Borsalino dismissed his worry.

Sakazuki could almost see it like it was truly happening in the real world, how the fissures over the other’s soul were resorbing. The light fluttered and hid from sight once again as Borsalino’s hands slipped back into the pockets of his pants and his lips stretched in his usual smile, the mask falling back into place like it had never shown what lay below.

Good luck, he had told Straw Hat. He doubted the boy had managed to do in ten days what he had never succeeded to achieve in almost fifty years.

Borsalino had always been as flitting as his powers; intangible, impossible to pin down, blinding one second and gone the next, living on a different plane and never letting others adjust to his speed.

He was doing the same now, walking away from him like nothing had happened. Sakazuki sat back on his chair and shuffled some of his papers around; he could still hear the angry, spiteful words that had been thrown his way as he had badly navigated the call with the other admiral after Egghead, and he was not buying this calm behaviour.

“Go home,” he ordered him. “Get some rest. I better not see you anytime before tomorrow morning.”

Borsalino paused at the door, hand already outstretched to unlock it. He tilted his head back towards Sakazuki.

“Tomorrow morning..?” he repeated, the drawl stretching his words once more. “What about this evening..?”

Sakazuki huffed. He should have seen that coming. Yet the coyly tone only seemed like another mask to peel off, another hidden layer wrapped around the truth, the simple fact that Borsalino did not want to be alone and was asking for comfort; like the calls done on a pirate ship, like an embrace he could still feel the embers of across his own skin.

“Be there at nine,” he simply said, grabbing his cigar anew. “I have some tiresome meetings in the early morning that unfortunately deserve my full attention. I don’t want to sleep too late.”

Borsalino smiled, and this time it felt genuine. The lock was undone with a soft click.

“When don’t you ever..?”

“Admiral Kizaru, sir!”

Borsalino flicked his eyes up at the marine that had just burst into his office with a few manila folders under his arm. The officer saluted in a crisp, energetic form before walking closer to his desk as Borsalino’s eyes dropped back down to the paper he was currently reading.

“Here are the documents you have reques- er…”

The marine’s voice faded into non-existence before he even finished his sentence properly, the aforementioned documents staying in his hands instead of being placed on top of the desk. Borsalino glanced up once more to figure out the issue and felt the corners of his lips curl up in delight as he understood what exactly was happening.

“Yes..?” he said, prompting the marine’s wandering gaze to snap right back to him.

The man straightened in his spot as embarrassment tinted his cheeks a light pink.

“Here are the documents you - you,” he tried again, but couldn’t help losing his train of thoughts a second time as his gaze flicked back and forth between Borsalino and the object of his bewilderment.

“I..?”
“Here are the documents you requested! Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with!” the officer rushed it all out in one go, closing his eyes to avoid the disturbance.
“You’re free to go. Just,” Borsalino stopped him as he took one big step back, “maybe leave the documents first, mhm..?”

If the marine had been slightly pink beforehand, he was as red as a tomato now. He placed his folders on the desk, bowed in distress, and promptly left the office.

Borsalino chuckled, sliding the documents closer to him to briefly inspect their contents and confirm it was all he needed; he pushed them to the side for the moment and let his gaze move to the culprit for the marine’s behaviour…Soul King’s very special autograph.

He had made sure to frame it, keeping it on his desk in a tactical position: outwards enough to grab the attention of someone standing in front of him, but with a rotation focused mainly on Borsalino to make it seem like an oversight instead of an ostensible bait…which it was, of course. It meant that his guests would catch a glance without quite being able to figure out what they had just seen, forcing them to dare another look if only to confirm they weren’t hallucinating.

The novelty would soon fade, of course. Borsalino gave it a week at most before the whole of Marineford knew what exactly the frame was containing, and by then the surprise wouldn’t be strong enough to make seasoned officers trip and fumble through their words.

Until then, he could expect some lovely reactions.

He tore his eyes from the autograph, where below a mundane ‘To Kizaru, my biggest fan’, Soul King had been masterfully depicted in a drawing as he lied on his side, completely naked save for a strategically placed top hat, a feathered boa around his neck and a pair of pink glasses securely placed on his empty orbits. The musician’s signature completed the artwork, along with a small doodle he expected was from God Usopp to show his involvement in the final product.

Borsalino went back to his reading, a smirk still firmly in place on his face as he replayed his first victim’s reaction, and for once in his time as an admiral he hoped that more people would come bother him that day.