Chapter 67 - 67: Time to change... 'cause time change.

On the port of Foosha, after days and days of laughter, the time of parting had come for the brothers once again but, in contrast to before there weren't any tears in Luffy's eyes just a sad face while Ace like always wore a stern but calm expression.

They arrived an hour in advance and kept talking and laughing, waiting for the ship to be ready to departed and after an hour the ship was ready to go as a marine shouted out.

"Time to go...!"

Zaz and the others were the first to say their goodbyes to everyone with the last one being Edam who first turned toward Dadan & co.

"Well see you all next time..." He smiled and made a farewell gesture as he then turned to Ace and Luffy.

"Well here we are again huh..." Edam said with an awkward smile as he faced the both of them whose faces changed to an unsightly one as the sound of departure sounded out.

"Haha... don't make these faces guys, this is only a goodbye, what's the deal, aren't we kind of used now ?"

Edam laughed softly and took a step forward and hugged them both tightly.

"Ace, take care of him and don't forget to pratice what I've taught you...oh and you know what ? You should learn how to be more polite too..." Edam laughed softly at him but weirdly enough Ace didn't retorted back as Edam then lowered his head to look at Luffy on the left and smiled gently.

"Hehe hey you... are you crying...?" Edam smiled faintly as he looked at him.

"N-...Of course not I've became really strong !" Luffy said with his eyes becoming a bit redder.

"Heh... so you're not a crybaby anymore tough guy ?" Edam said again with amusement in his voice.

"...No !" Luffy said again with affirmation in his voice.

"You're sure though...?"

"...Yes...!" Luffy said with a lot of determination and yet with an equal lot of stuttering in his voice.

"Hehe... that's my little bro right there, not a random crybaby at all." Edam asked him as he happily rubbed his head in a gentle way.

"Hmm!" Luffy nodded with tears in his eyes at this point.

At that Edam smiled and ruffled his hair. "Good !" he said as he took Luffy's straw hat that was hanging on his back and looked at it with a thoughtful look on his face for a moment.

He then began to played with it for a few seconds before slowly placing it on his head but quickly shake his head with an awkward "...Nope..." sounding out of his mouth.

Crouching down to put it back on Luffy's head, he then said.

"Hehe, Yup it definitely suit you better, I've maybe never told you before but you look really cool with this hat... how badass you are haha..." Edam had a wide smile on his face.

"Hmm ! Big bro you will see one day I will become a great pirate !" Luffy nodded and tightly clenched his fists together.

"I'm sure you will..." Edam in response looked at this little brother of his while patting and ruffling his head with a laugh.

And then when he stood up he gave two last pat each on Luffy's head and Ace's shoulders before then making his way to the ship with Zaz, the twins and Stella to stand on the ship's deck to waved their hands.

After a few minutes Edam's elbows were resting on the border of the ship as he watched the port becoming smaller and smaller slowly but surely while Stella and Cyera were in their own rooms to prepare it or so and Kyara was still out there on the deck with Zaz pestering him every now and then.

As for Zaz he too stayed out there as he looked in amazement at the new landscape that his buddy had "bestow" to this island. Although he had already seen it personaly, it was still however really different to see it from a departing ship, entirely different even.

Above the island what seem to be an eternal celestial ring stood up there at a high distance from the ground refusing to fade away no matter what as if to act as a reminder to humans that there were some boundaries that they could and should never touched...

Anyway, as the ship was going far and far away in a deep silence, something in the sea was moving about as a huge shadow could be seen rapidly moving as it shook the ship for a bit.

"What the...!?" Various marines were surprised at that as they look at warily at the sea.

And sure enough, from the sea a huge monster suddenly emerged out as it looked at the ship threateningly...

"Whoa so this is the coast sea monster from Foosha huh...?" Zaz commented on the beast and was going to asked something to the soldiers who were pointing out their guns to the monster when he noticed something.

On the border of the ship his buddy was still there as the monster's shadow towered over him.

The latter hadn't moved an inch from the border, in fact it seems as if he didn't even noticed the monster yet... He seem to be reflecting at something.

"Edam-nii watch out..." Kyara called out softly with her two hands to around her mouth, even though she didn't seem to worried all that much.

"Hey Edam watch out for that beast...!" Zaz called him out to warned him as he stepped forward.

"Hum ?"

He glanced at the beast and then at the dot-like landscape that was gradually being hidden by the beast's huge figure and then glanced back at it with a frown on his face as his deep black eyes grew freezing cold and flickered to a pale yellow for a moment as he slowly uttered in a cold but quiet voice.

"Get out of my sight would you...?"

And with a voice that seemed to held nothing but a clear disdain for the beast, he spoke out.

His voice was filled with a high amount of authority making what should have been a question turned into a clear and strict order reaching no one but just the monster himself nearly shaking it's soul out, as it's monster-like features turned into a frightened one, trembling like a leaf as it then crawled back into the sea's deep water like a worm, a pitiful one at that...

At this sight, Edam didn't say anything else and just got back to his thoughtful state with a seemingly indifferent expression.

...

"..."

"What...?"

"What was that ? Why did that monster surged out of nowhere just to disappear in the next moment ?"

This scene of course brought a small commotion as the marines spoke about it for a long time.

it was only when the entire island was no longer in his field vision and that the sun was setting down that he finally moved from his spot to returned to his own shared room with Zaz.

...

*And two week later*

They reached Marineford...

After having reached their said destination, they were back to the camp again to studie and train. Leo, Raffe, and company too were back to it and Edam had to say he had missed them a bit, even Raffe's pestering behavior... Hell even Vaughn cold and severe voice kind of missed him.

Meanwhile Stella was gone back to the Monkey's house to clean it or something or maybe it was to search for clues of her past who know...

Anyway...

Also there was another thing that brought a smile to Edam a few days after they came back apart from seeing the turtle brothers and Vaughn.

He actually saw Kuina there !

The same blue-haired girl who had a strange but cool rivalry with the green-haired boy named Zoro and it seems that she had made some friends not much just one or two.

Before Edam left the island, he actually suggested her to become a Marine soldier as it was a perfect place to sharpen her "blade" to aim for this "oh so impossible dream of her's". He did want to suggested that to Zoro too but... well the guy just didn't seemed to have this feeling of being in need of help or something in contrary to Kuina... it really was a vague and incomprehensible feeling to explain for the little monkey.

...After seeing her he had of course gone to greet her to her surprise but another surprise greet him back. Along with her there was a certain girl... and the thing with this girl was that...

She looked exactly, okay maybe not exactly but extremely, from her blue hair to her facial features and up to her her height even, she looked just like Kuina, as if she was her twin or something... but no ! not at all !

Her name was Tashigi and one of the most troubling thing apart from their appearances was that the two of them were fervent sword practictioner. They were also the same age it seems.

Of course Edam first though was that it was fishy of course, was there some ȧduŀtery going on or something ? But that too was a no, the two of them didn't seemed to be related in any "bloody" ways.

The only thing which distinguished the two were their personalities.

Kuina was more boyish and was more confident and proud while Tashigi seemed to be a little bit reserved and she like to read, something that Kuina didn't particularly hate but didn't like to do either.

Anyway this similarity was really disturbing to say the least, but the two of them didn't seemed to pay any attention to it and neither did Edam who decided to become friend with Tashigi.

This was kind of funny to speak with two girls who were similar in everything but their capabilities and personalities because... yeah Kuina was a top notch over Tashigi in term of swordmanship, something that the latter was kind of envious of.

However it was even more to Tashigi's shock when she learned that Kuina was completely overpowered by Edam in their last fight.

And so It was with a quite happy mood that Edam returned to the North regiment.

...

Anyway, new frienships were forged, new things were said, new things happened, new things were learned, new things were created as time quickly flew by and...

*Three years later.*

...

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So, here we are huh...?

It's time to grow huh... tch...

Anyway point out my mistakes. thanks ????