Chapter 60

Grandline, Paradise, flying lamb

After their hasty retreat from Long Ring Long island and taking care of their wounded, a pleasant calm fell upon the strawhat crew and their passengers. Returning to their daily routines, it was like a vacation after all the action of the last couple of weeks and was welcomed with open arms.

The next day Azul woke up with a giant yawn and took in his surroundings, not sure where he was at first but soon felt the familiar spirits of Robin and the rest of the strawhats, which meant nothing of notice had happened after his battle with Aokiji. The thought about the admiral brought some more questions to Azuls mind, like if said man was still alive...

Standing up from his bed, Azul walked over to the door and exited it, coming upon a relatively small deck where Luffy and Usopp were playing around with some kind of utensils while Robin and Nami were laying on sunchairs with Sanji fussing about them like the moron he sometimes was. Zoro meanwhile was sitting against the railing to one side, snoring deeply asleep.

Azul decided to go look for something to eat though just as he was about to turn around a loud yell of shock smacked him right into the ear, making him stumble a little forwards in surprise at the volume.

"Bloody hell woman, tone it down a little will ya?" Zoro g.r.o.a.n.e.d out while yawning in laziness. Nami, the origin of said shriek though didn't really pay attention to Zoro as she was reading the just delivered newspaper with wide and shocked eyes, not believing what she was seeing...

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Grandline, New World, Moby D.i.c.k

"Oii, old man! Take a look at this!" Marco, the first commander of the Whitebeard-pirates yelled over to his slightly snoring captain and surrogate father that had been reclining on a giant chair, fitting his gigantic body.

With a grunt Whitebeard opened his eyes, still groggy and a little ticked of from having been ripped from his nice dream, before bringing his eyes to rest on his son, who was walking over towards his dad waving the newspapers around as if wanting to swat some annoying fly with it.

Opening the newspaper to what had caused his son such surprise, he got an equal amount of surprise to rise to the forefront of his mind. Out of the newspaper fell a wanted poster on the ground with a slow swaying motion.

Wanted: Dead or alive

'Burning Grimm' - Azul

Bounty: 950.000.000 Berry

"Yesterday morning, a confrontation between the wanted man stated above and admiral Kuzan, alias Aokiji, took place on a small island in Paradise, which resulted in said admiral to be incapacitated and grievously wounded. It is not yet known if he will be able to continue his duties as an admiral due to his injuries and no further statement has been released by the marines headquarters on said issue. As the investigation about the one responsible for this incident took place, further evidence was brought to light that connected 'Burning Grimm' - Azul with the complete destruction of the island of Jaya and the capture and incapacitation of the former shichibukai sir Crocodile. Due to all those incidents and the wanted mans words of the world government being his enemy it is easily understandable why the world government issued such a drastic increase in berry for said mans head. We, of the news-co, can only speculate why the mans bounty did not cross the threshold of 1.000.000.000 Berry, since his might and danger seem to be enough, as he was able to defeat an admiral. We of the news believe the reasons for this to be nothing else but an attempt to not increase the chance of him gaining any follower in Paradise. Although we believe that they failed to stop such an action from happening should he really want to gather a group of followers. Still, it is not known to which faction said wanted man counts himself. Of course we will try to keep updating our readers should any more news about this new threat of the seas arise. Read further on page..."

Whitebeard read out, after which he closed the newspapers, which looked tiny in his gigantic hands, with a blank look on his face, which soon morphed into bellowing laughter, surprising his 'family' a bit.

"GURARARARA! Who would have thought the brat had that in him! GURARARARA!" Whitebeards laughter echoed far and wide, stilling the rest of his crew, while some fell into deep contemplation what that may mean for them since one of their family seemed to be involved with said man...

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Grandline, Paradise, ???

Nearly at the same time that his captain was reading the newspapers, Portgas D. Ace had also opened the newspapers and had promptly spit out the rum he had been drinking previously after seeing the young mans wanted poster, recognising him instantly as the one he had met before arriving in Alabasta, who had pissed him of so nicely.

The picture was rather simple compared to his own where he had created flames behind himself in posing for it, letting a little bit of narcisism shine through. Azuls picture though only showed his upper body while he was standing in a fighting stance with one hand at his front and the other at the height of his c.h.e.s.t, both pointed towards his supposedly opponent, all the while grinning widely, seemingly bathing in the excitement of a lifetime.

'Puuuh! I really need to work on my emotional control a little...' Ace thought to himself, thinking back to the nearly broken out fight against Azul above the sea that he had barely managed to avoid...

Grandline, Paradise, flying lamb

Reading the article about Azul aloud for all to hear, while said man was lounging on the railing with a big piece of meet in his hand, munching on it with a satisfied smile on his face, the rest of the strawhats were either hyped, scared, thinking or yelling for Azul to stand up and fight, which said man waved down with a swatting motion.

Contrary to the strawhats reactions though, which were rather mild in comparison, the various rookie crews began to try and gather more information about their contender, whom they may have to fight in the future should he out himself as one of the pirates, chasing after the throne. After all, the time when all the members of the 'worst generation' would meet before entering the new world was approaching slowly but surely and none wanted to be excluded from the race that was to come...