Chapter 99 - 99: Fired?

…

In a closed room, a handsome black-haired young man and an afro-haired old man were facing each other with a small tension in the air.

"Spit it out, you did it, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Even an idiot would be able to tell Edam…"

"I already said I don't know what happened there… Grandpa Sen…"

"Every time you call me like that you're lying…"

"...Not true, 90% perhaps but not all the time…"

"You…! Sigh…" Looking at him with an exhausted expression, he sighed in the end. He felt so exhausted, he was harassed a whole week by the five old geezers to find this culprit or to find one somehow in the shortest delay.

"You should rest a bit grandpa Sen, you look quite miserable right now…"

"It's…! It's… your fault…" He did want to yell but felt depleted. He, the mighty fleet-admiral who could strike fear into most pirates and whom even Sea Emperors wouldn't take lightly, was truly exhausted. Dealing with that kid was bad for health.

"Anyway, you will be grounded…" Sengoku said with a very serious expression.

"What?" Edam's eyes opened up with much shock.

'Does that even exist?'

"You will be grounded away for two years exactly…"

"What?! Two years?"

"Indeed…"

"..." Edam was speechless for a moment and added.

"You… you're joking right?" Edam's mouth twitched as he asked.

"Do I look like?" Sengoku said with a dark and grim looking face.

"This… Isn't that a bit exaggerated for just a couple of suspicions? I mean, two years… don't you mean two months…?" 

"No, exactly two years, that's what I've decided after much reflection…" Sengoku crossed his arms.

"But where? I mean you do know that I can fly right? Nothing can restrain me..."

"Of course, that's why anywhere will be fine…"

"Huh?" Edam narrowed his eyes in doubt.

"You will just go away for a couple of years, the longer the better, people have to forget about this incident…" Sengoku said and thought. 'It will be good for my mental health too…'

"It wasn't me though…" Edam's eyes averted to the side.

"Keep lying…"

Sengoku looked at his pill documents with veins pulsing on his forehead. 

'If it wasn't for my fear that Impel Down would be wrecked apart with you inside I would have thrown you in, damn kid, humph!'

…

As for Edam who was out of Sengoku's office, his face was currently beaming with a faint smile as if he was proud of being grounded and stripped of his Marine's right for the next two years and sent away in an unknown place.

He made his way to his Garp's office and opened it as he shouted. 

"Yo, grandpa! grandpa Sen grounded me for two years!"

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I'm being sent away for two years." As he said this, his face cracked another smile.

For anyone, being laid off was a tragic thing for people but not for him.

"Pfff bwahaha, what have you done again?" Garp laughed out and asked as he took another cracker out and ate.

"Well, it's like this…" Edam then recounted everything that happened there. Something that he wouldn't tell openly to anyone apart from Garp and a few others.

Garp laughed throughout the story then stopped after a while.

"Although, we never told him of what happened at Dawn island he's far from being stupid and should have guessed some things."

"Hmm, anyway, cya grandpa, I will go now." 

Thus, he made his way out of Garp's office and returned home.

On the way, he paid a visit to his crewmates and informed them of what would happen from now onward.

The crewmates would be dispersed in other units for the time being.

…

*Three days later, New World*

The island's name was, The 'Five Colored Mountains island' situated somewhere in the New World, and just like how the name implied it, the island had five-colored mountains with each mountain lifeforms following the said mountain's colors.

Another funny thing was that every beast there could generate or control to a certain extent one of five elements depending on their colors. Red for fire, Blue for water, Green for wind, Yellows for the earth, and Purple for thunder.

It was an interesting island, to say the least, and of course, it was a dangerous island. 

What more a dangerous island from the New World, nothing to laugh at and so dangerous that not many pirates or marines from even the New World would want to live there making this island an unhabitated place.

When he reached the place, he explored the environment and was avoided by most of the wildlife and plants.

There were all kinds of life there, firebirds, electric mice, water crocodiles, some sort of mini earth lizard, carnivorous frozen plants...etc. A crazy but interesting island yes...

Although he was avoided by most, there were still some brave beasts who attacked him.

Obviously…

He would made sure to show to all those beasts who's the New Boss around in the future.

But unfortunately for them, they were up against an even more Savage Beast, a descendant of a warrior race and planet-destroying bestial race!

As a fact, Eden had never feared any beasts type race he ever met before even at the tender age of seven. In fact, he had never feared anyone (Apart from Garp of course but that's not the same this is more like a filial fear…) He would only feel threatened by the threat looming above his head but never the true fear that one should feel.

A flaw that was most pointed out by Zephyr. But what could he do? His body and spirit, and even down to his very bloodline just refused to show fear toward anything, only showing a rebellious demeanor to everything.

Such an absence of fear resulted in this sometimes and somewhat reckless behavior of a few days ago with that female Celestial Dragon.

…

After having had a sneak peek and getting familiar with this island's interesting environment, he decided to leave as quickly as he arrived there.

Why would he stay on this no man's land which looked boring at first glance when he could be elsewhere?

And so, with this thought in mind…

He grabbed his Space sword out of nowhere and held it in his hand and pondered over it for a while.

As he closed his eyes in silence, various points seemed to appear in his mind along with different coordination. There were about fifty and some glowing points in his mind, representing every island that he had put a foot on and marked with space powers.

After a while, he pinpoints one location and directly slashes open a portal in the air.

He stepped inside and…

…

*Somewhere on Calm Belt*

"Ah!"

Inside a forest, Edam was violently ejected out of the portal as it closed up brutally behind him.

He rolled on the ground a few times willingly and stopped with a smile on his face as he looked at the sky.

"Haha, sure enough, it's hard but it works!" 

Opening a portal was easy but stabilizing it with such a distance separating the New World from Paradise was complicated.

He didn't know what would happen to him if he were to fail to stabilize the gate while inside and didn't give it many thoughts too.

Standing up, he walked through the dense forest toward a humongous mountain.

The sound of a waterfall was quietly guiding him in the forest like someone calling him back home.

It didn't take long before he stepped out of the forest and arrived at the waterfall. 

The water was extremely pure and flowing abundantly forming a large pool with a rather hot temperature as a faint fog rose in the air slowly seeping in the forest too.

That waterfall was man-made or woman-made since this island didn't bad any me on it.

As he raised his head, he saw a certain scenery that would stay engraved in his memory forever never to be forgotten!

Bathing in the middle of the lake stood what the common people refer to as a fairy, an enchantress, and a goddess even.

It was a pure black-haired young woman. She was very tall and slender with long black hair that extended past her waist reaching under her buŧŧȯċks and sliding past her fair and slender jade-like legs.

Her figure was voluptuous and absolutely perfect in every possible way. She simply had an extremely devilish beauty that could cause the downfall of a kingdom.

Her cold and detached expression was enough to literally turn a man to stone for daring to blaspheme her with their dirty eyes and thoughts.

Although the scene was blurry and difficult to see even with his excellent eyesight, his clear black eyes involuntarily flickered to a pale-yellow color improving his sight a hundred times allowing him to appreciate everything in front of him.

Edam only saw her back, for a couple of seconds at most, but he was certain that even though he never seemed to have a perfect memory, this one would stay there forever.

He felt breathless instantly as he averted his gaze immediately. 

However as he took a step back, he made some noise attracting the attention of the fairy.

"Who's here?" A frosty but somewhat panicking voice rang about as the fairy turned around with her arms covering her ċhėst. 

Faced with this situation, he panicked and thought of running away, after all, he peeped at her, didn't he? Yet, he hesitated a bit and quickly pondered over his options before he took a step forward. 

"It's… it's me…" He delivered himself for his judgment as his throat made a gulping sound and he made his way up to the small lake with a somewhat guilty expression as he looked elsewhere.

Seeing who the intruder was, Hancock's eyes changed as quickly as lightning, turning soft in an instant. Her once cold and Indifferent face disappeared in the blink of an eye, rapidly showing many colors in the depth of her dark-blue eyes.

She immediately hid her body in the water, leaving only her face out as she said hurriedly.

"You… can't you at least state your presence?" She said with a very charming red face.

"Uh, I… sorry…" He wanted to apologize properly face to face as he raised his head to look but the instant he did that…

His heart totally skipped a beat, no two beats, in fact, it might even have stopped working for at least ten beats straight.

She was just in front of him hiding on the water with such a vulnerable and charming pose, looking so frail like the most defenseless creature.

Swish!

With a blank expression, he took a step and without a word silently arrived in front of her as he brought her in his arms, and hugged her soaked and smooth body. 

...

Normally, people have to lose something to realize how much something is precious to them, but he knew at this instant that he wanted to keep her safe, keep her safe from any dangers, even if he had to overturn a kingdom or even the whole world for that!

Hancock's expression, however, was wonderful to watch right now.

'He… he, what is he doing…?'

She knew that Edam was quite bold at times but he had never overstepped his boundaries before although she never put any limits too but anyway…

And maybe because her devil fruit was kind of related to this kind of thing but she had a strange feeling that he didn't have any dirty thoughts at this moment, only longing and care. A very nice feeling yes.

She truly felt curious about it and didn't even think about pushing him away at all, completely forgetting that she was in Eve's disguise right now.

"Are you alright?" She asked gently with a very soft whisper.

"Hmm…"

"When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago…"

"Okay… then can, can you let go? I have to change…" She asked with embarrassment.

"... No..."

"What?" She didn't know if she had to laugh or cry at this instant.

"Won't let go…'

"But…" She wasn't uncomfortable in his embrace, on the contrary even, but being nȧkėd was still quite embarrassing alright...

Edam slowly raised his head and gave a faint smile "I'm joking, however, you have to pay for that…"

With that said, he brought her soft and red face closer and gave a small peck on her lips before separating.

"You…"

He loosened up his hug and turned around as he made his way out of the lake. 

He actually hurriedly go out as he was getting extremely hot and feared that he would do something irreversible but not regrettable at all.

He walked up to a campfire, sat down, and calmed himself down.

He took something from his pocket and quietly looked at it.

It was a completely white rectangular paper with nothing special inscribed on it.

But if one were to look at it carefully, they would see that the seemingly ordinary paper was moving! Even though there was no wind blowing at all.

This paper was a Vivre Card! A unique kind of paper that could indicate the direction of the paper's owner and most of all display the lifeforce of their owner.

Precisely his grandpa Garp's very own Vivre Card. 

One day, Garp showed his Vivre Card to him and explained what it was and he out of interest tore a piece for himself as he found this paper of life interesting.

And just now, he thought about something. A weird idea enlightened him out of nowhere and it was related to this paper of life.

'Lifeforce huh…'

…

After a while, Hancock came out dressed up from top to bottom and followed by Salome her white snake along with a small bird on the snake's head.

Watching her come to him, he sighed and said softly. "What a pity, I knew that I shouldn't have let go so soon...."

"Wha-?" Hancock understood in an instant and blushed.

He shrugged and then said laughingly. "Hehe, anyway, guess what…?"

"Hm? What?"

"Heh, I'm fired…"

"What? Why is that?" She was aware that Edam was perhaps the best seedling possible to have for any military forces. Firing him seemed to be a stupid move there.

"Well, it's technically just a laid off, not truly fired but I never heard of being laid off for two years so I don't care it's the same as being fired for me…" He spoke with a lot of enthusiasts not caring much.

"For two years? What are you going to do then?" Two years sure was a long time and a lot of things could happen during such a long timelapse.

"I don't know, I want to visit some places…"

"Oh…" Her eyes became somewhat dull for an instant.

"So come with me…" Edam's eyes instantly bore into her eyes.

"Yes?" No need to say that she was stunned.

"I said come with me…"

"I want to, but I can't...I still have my responsibilities as the Empress…"

"Don't worry, distance is not a problem with my powers, so what do you say?"

"I, I, okay…" She bit on her lower lips and ultimately accept it.

"Okay, oh then I will teach you something…" His face beamed a colorful complexion at her positive reply.

"What is it?"

"How to fly…!" He smiled at her and stood up as he gave his hand to her.

"Come!"

She took his hand and stood up before realizing that her fingers were already intertwined with his.

And so...

Three and half a year later…

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