Chapter 66

Grandline, Paradise, Marine Headquarters

"Report!" Sengoku spoke into the mic of his transpondersnail, waiting for some news from the batallion he had sent to observe and possibly capture Nico Robin in Water 7.

"Yes sir! We followed your orders to the letter but were met by some unfortunate circ.u.mstances which leave me at a loss to be honest with you sir." The marine answered through the mic, confusing the fleet-admiral.

"Unfortunate circ.u.mstances? Ellaborate marine!" Sengoku replied back, hoping for some details, which he normally didn't get many of due to being surrounded by incompetence...

"Sir! We confronted Nico Robin while she was eating in a caffee with someone. Just as we were about to capture the woman due to her not complying with a peaceful surrender that we offered, a young blond man in a black suit jumped in at the scene and reacted rather brutally to the situation, making me believe him to be a member of the strawhat crew and thus intimately related to Nico Robin. He attacked us which ended with a stalemate between us and the man. As we were about to continue the fighting the duo that was eating all the while in the caffee stood up and made to leave the scene, offering the young man called Sanji to join them, which we tried to stop. This is were it gets confusing. Some kind of pressure descended on every marine, me included and knocked us out cold in an instant which I simply do not understand..." The marine captain finished his report, letting silence reign between the two.

"Urgh, not again... you will stand down for now captain. I will send a vize-admiral to capture the strawhats, as it is possible that the young man you faught against was the origin of the altercation, though this needs further evidence to undermine. The vize-admiral will arrive in a few hours by seatrain and you will give any assistance that is required of you. Do you understand marine?!" Sengoku spoke, not in the mood to further deal with another annoyance that had emerged in recent days.

"Yes sir! Understood sir!" The marine replied, after which Sengoku put down the mic to focus once more on his paperwork.

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"I should be back in around an hour. Prepare whatever you need to prepare so we can get off of this island without much hassle." Azul spoke with a giant piece of meet clutched in his hand, speaking to Robin who nodded shortly, while he went to the railing and jumped over it, giddy already to try out his new ship.

He went through the city and bought some more supplies and most importantly picked up his personal transpondersnail, a baby one, which over time would take on his appearance, that he had ordered a few days ago.

"Aren't you a cute one? Gudigudiguuuuu" Azul purred at the tiny snail which gave him a weird look as if asking what the hell was wrong with the man, making Azul laugh at the comical expression the snail was wearing.

Covering the small snail under its shell again, Azul kept on walking through the streets until he arrived at the shipyard after some time, venturing right inside, a spring in his step, making him nearly smack his head on the door, which was quite big already. He hadn't even realized how tall he had gotten. Luckily his growth had kind of stagnated at 4,5 meters so he would have that many issues with doors in the future. Well, maybe a little, but who cares about semantics anyways...

"Yo Iceburg, my ship ready yet?" Azul shouted over to the blue haired major, making said man turn around and nodding after having spotted who the voice belonged to.

"Follow me, I'll show you our work. I think you'll be quite satisfied with the results." Iceburg spoke, waving his hand, motioning Azul to follow after him, as they went down towards the docks which housed alot of sh.i.p.s that were still being constructed by the looks of it.

Behind a giant ship a small ship appeared, dwarfed and hard to be spotted in the tall shadow the big ship created. The small ship had a deep brow mahagony like colour and sharp contures. It had one mast as Azul had wished for. The c.o.c.kpit was rather large by itself, sporting a good six meters in length and 4,5 meters in width, with the steering wheel near the end in the middle.

The rest of the ship had a length of 10 meters, bringing the total length to 16 meters, fitting Azuls body height and mass rather well. The front of the ship was adorned by a beautifully carved galleon figure, depicting a woman with hair that was ruffled to the back of her neck by the wind while she herself was stretching her hand into the horizon, trying to will the waves at her back that surrounded her to rush forwards.

Wondering what he should name his new vessel, Azul submerged himself in thoughts, until he shoved his contemplations to the back of his mind for later and jumped on his ship to inspect the cabin.

The second part of the cabin contained four beds, two on each side while curtains obscured the windows on the side that were installed at the height of the oceans level along with a few closets for clothes and other stuff.

Walking outside with a big-ass grin on his face, Azul walked over to Iceburg, slapping him on the back while laughing, sending the man stumbling nearly into the ocean, waving his arms in order to not fall right into it. After he had recovered his balance, Iceburg turned around to give the young man a good talking to but was hit by a suitcase into the face, accompanied by the young mans words that inside were the rest of the money, just as promised, after which Azul jumped right onto his ship and sailed out of the shipyard, leaving Iceburg to hurriedly count the money, hoping he had not been cheated...

As Azul was standing at the row of his ship he marveled at the smoothness it sailed over the ocean, the wind ruffling and playing with him on his journey out to the sea. How he had missed this...

Soon he arrived at the landingside of the flying lamb but was confused at the silence he found there. Covering the ship with his haki, Azuls pupils narrowed. Everybody was missing. Fastening his ship nearby on the coast, Azul walked over to the flying lamb and jumped on board, checking the deck.

'Marks, dents and scratches... A fight happened here... For f.u.c.ks sake! Can't anything ever be easy on this ocean?' Azul thought to himself in annoyance, jumping over the railing and walking towards the nearby stores and shops to inquire what the f.u.c.k had happened this time...