Chapter 34

Grandline, Paradise, Drum island

Approximately an hour after Azul had sunken into his meditative trance, he opened his eyes and with a clear purpose in mind walked out of the study, and then the castle, igniting he flames at his feet and with a mighty jump ascended into the air, running downwards from the mountains top, right towards the village.

Soon afterwards he arrived in the village and was greeted by a big man, wearing a green fullbody armor, with metallic covers for his arms and fur around his neck to cover from the cold. The man took one look at Azul and promptly bowed his head before speaking.

"Thank you for all your help. Unfortunately we still have to look out for our former kings return, since we received intel that his ship was spotted near the islands cost so we won't be able to assist you, should you need our help with anything, as decorum would normally dictate, since you helped us so much. Ahhh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am called Dalton and am supervising this island for the time being."

"You do not need to worry about your king returning since he has taken on his last journey which he will not return from. If I were you I would think more about the future and the regency this island will need if it wants to return to their future glory..." Azul spoke, walking past Dolton who was a little gobsmacked at the young mans words, while patting him on the shoulder in a reasuring way.

Walking up to a nearby villager Azul spoke the reason why he came down from the mountain in the first place. "Excuse me, do you by chance possess a transpondersnail around here somewhere?"

"Yes, we do. Follow me. I will show you the way." The older male villager spoke, turning around while gesturing Azul to follow him, which he did with a thankful smile.

After a few minutes of walking they arrived at one of the only still standing homes, which they entered. The inside was warm and eluminated by a nearby fire, plunging the decore of the home into a warm light.

Azul having spotted the transpondersnail walked over to it, while nodding towards the man who turned back around and exited the building, leaving Azul alone. Picking up the mic from its shell, Azul pulled out the parchments with the contact details from Wapols study and typed in the number for the emergency line, leading directly to Enies Lobby, the island of eternal day and home to the Cipher Pol agents serving under Spandam.

'Let's see if this will work...' Azul thought with a smile on his face, waiting until the other end picked up...

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Grandline, Paradise, Enies Lobby

Director Spandam had always been a powerhungry man. So much so that he shoved every other seemingly important d.e.s.i.r.es of his being to the back of his mind. This unfortunately had the concequences that his mental faculties were the sharpest tools in the shed and more than one time he had barely kept his position due to massively f.u.c.k.i.n.g up once or twice in the past. Luckily for him, the fleetadmiral Sengoku was more or less used to having to handle incompetent fools and so the repercussions of his mess ups didn't bring such dire demotions with it, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the point of view.

Said director was about to take another nap in his highchair, from which he could overlook the whole island of Enies Lobby, bored out of his mind when out of nowhere his transpondersnail rung. That shouldn't be much of a problem normally but he had just sent the one person normally responsible and familiar with the protocol to lunch, which meant he had to take the call personally.

'Mehh, how hard can that be, right?' Spandam thought with a nervous tick in his gait as he walked over to the snail, before picking up the snails mic and answering in his usual used reply, making sure the other end understood to whom they were talking to exactly.

"This is director Spandam, supervisor of ther cipher pol and Enies Lobby, speaking. Who am I talking to?" Spandam spoke into the mic he was clutching in his gloved hands in nervousness.

"This is the personal line belonging to king Wapol. We request imidiate assistance. This is an emergency call. I repeat. This is an emergency call. Request imidiate back up. Our current location is a two days travel away from the kingdom of Alabasta. We are being chased by a group of pirates too strong for us to handle ourselves. Receiving response to emergency protocol, as followed by the dictated standards, in 3,2,1..." after having heard the mans words Spandam began to sweat profusely, despite not being the most intelligent one on the grandline, that this was some serious shit right there. What should he do? Just answer as if he knew what he was talking about? Well, sounded not much different from what he had always done in the past.

'If you don't know what to do just bluff. Believe in what you are saying and the other person will believe it as well. Alright lets do this Spandam, you can do this...'

"Emergency protocol has been received, according to the dictated standards, and is being processed. Please hold...",

'Whom should I send exactly? I can't send my CP-agents since they are too far away and would need weeks to reach them. Damn it! Come on Spandam, think! Who else do I have control over. A few marine sh.i.p.s... could be a start but may not be enough and this is a matter I certainly don't want to f.u.c.k up. Sengoku! He will know what to do hehehe'

Dialing the number of the fleetadmiral on his private transpondersnail, a man with a rough voice from to much screaming picked up the line.

"Yes? Who is this?"

"Fleetadmiral Sengoku? This is Spandam speaking. I just received an emergency call from king Wapol requesting imidiate assistence due to being chased by a group of pirates but my CP-agents are too far away to reach them in time. Do you possibly have any personnel you could send to recover them in my stead?" Spandam said, hoping the fleetadmiral could pull his a.s.s out of this situation, like he had done so often in the past.

"Where are they right now?" asked the fleetadmiral in an annoyed yet urgent voice, no doubt thinking about the extra paperwork he would have to go through in the coming hours after this call.

"They said they are about two days travel away from the kingdom of Alabasta." Spandam replied, patient, something he wasn't very good in.

"Alright, I'll take it from here. Give the caller my snails number so I can tell them the proceedings from here on out. Good job Spandam." Sengoku replied, hanging up the mic immediately afterwards.

"Pfffuuuu, looks like I dodged a bomb there. Now lets finish this and go back to sleep, err work I meant hehehe" Spandam said to the empty room, not realising he hadn't put the responder snails mic on standby for the whole discussion so the other end had heard everything so far.

"This is director Spandam speaking. I will transmit the fleetadmirals number to you. You will call him immediately and take charge from there on out. Spandam out." Spandam spoke into the mic, waiting for the callers response.

A few seconds later, at first only silence came through the mic, but soon afterwards the caller spoke up in acceptance.

"........... Understood. Caller out." And with a click the other end hung up and Spandam now relaxed after this trial of fire, exhausted walked back towards his big chair, clearly having earned himself a nice long nap.

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Grandline, Paradise, Drum island

'Well, this did not go to plan...' thought Azul to himself.

'Why couldn't he just send the CP-agents? But no, he had to be smart and call the fleetadmiral instead. Oh well, that at least tells me that the CP-agents currently are out on a mission on some island a little further away from Alabasta if they can't reach there in two days. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to find them myself. Would make alot of things easier for me. Now, the fleetadmiral...maybe I'll get a nice fight out of this whole story? Hope I'll get lucky this time around....' And with those hopeful thoughts Azul dialed the fleetadmirals personal line, looking forward to what would result from the idea he had come up with in the spur of a moment.

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Grandline, Paradise, Marine headquaters

"This is fleetadmiral Sengoku speaking. Who am I speaking with?"

"This is a subordinate of his majesty king Wapol of Drum island speaking. We await your directions fleetadmiral." a man with a calm voice spoke through the mic, slightly surprising Sengoku, since they had reported being chased but pushed the thought to the back of his head in order to focus on his on the spot put together plan.

"Understood. Due to the Cipher Pol agents not being in reach to come to your assistence in time I will be contacting the shichibukai Sir Crocodile, in order to come to your help. You will travel to the kingdom of Alabasta and sail down the Sandora river until you reach the coast near rainbase. Sir Crocodile will take you into his care from there and deliver you to a soon arriving marine ship in order to bring you to safety. Do you copy?"

The man on the other end replied: "Copy that fleetadmiral, though it may take us more time than we had expected due to having been hit by a lull in the wind. I wouldn't be surprised if it took us one or two days more than at first anticipated. Do you copy?"

Sengoku frowned but wasn't much surprised. They were on the grandline after all. He just had to tell Crocodile to regularly check the river each day to make sure not to miss them.

"Copy that. Fleetadmiral out." Sengoku said and hung up, already seeing the annoying conversation with Crocodile coming on the horizon. Sometimes he just hated his position....

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Grandline, Paradise, Drum island

'Well, at least I've gotten a shichibukai out of all of this... I guess it's time to hit the seas once again if I want to make it to Alabasta in time.' And with that Azul stood up, walked out the door and disappeared in the billowing snow, walking towards his tiny ship to finally get the fight he had been yearning for. Hopefully this sir Crocodile wouldn't disappoint him....