Chapter 154 - 154: The worst case ever...

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"What? You want to strike a deal with me?" Trafalgar's expression turned completely stunned and confused.

It was really hard to imagine a monster-like existence like Edam wanting to strike a deal with him. Sure, the name of Trafalgar Law was rather notorious nowadays, but, according to some rumors, Edam wasn't the kind to strive for power, glory, wealth, or influence, and so didn't require to have any allies at all. 

"What is it…?" Trafalgar asked carefully. Though he had already and quickly brainstormed it and came up with an answer, he still couldn't help but dread the idea that this monster came for their heads or more like literally pulled them through space to him for their bloody heads.

But, as he had expected, Edam's next words lessened his worries.

"I require your medical skills…" Edam said and then observed Trafagar's expression but didn't notice any surprise whatsoever.

"I see that you're not surprised, so what do you say…?" Edam half-closed his eyes and waited for his answer.

"..." Trafalgar was silent for a while and pondered for a while. "First, I wanna know what you have in for us? What's our payment?"

Edam lifted and opened his hand up in the air, and parted his lips to speak. "...Wealth, Fame, and Power… I can pretty much get you anything that you wish in this world… Millions and billions of treasures, make you the king of a whole nation, or even get you a Destructive Weapon... "

This was true. Edam could truly get any physical things that he wants in this world if he so wishes, so he could do whatever he pleased whenever he pleased… After all, who could stop him?

The World Government? The Marine? The Emperors? It was all useless... (Can't reach the apex, cough…)

It wasn't out of arrogance, but actual facts. By the time he turned fifteen, two fingers were all he needed to turn a whole nation upside down… 

And his current clone could do much worse, but now what about his main body? Throughout the years, he came to realize that this world's planetary laws and its core itself could literally and totally break under the force of his True's body's might. 

People called him a calamity out of fear, but he was truly one...

But, anyway, this simple statement of his...

...did manage to move the hearts of Trafagar's men who got excited for that.

Only Trafalgar bȧrėly reacts to it, seemingly unmoved by this.

"However…" That was when Edam added and continued. "...To be honest with you, I'm pretty sure you already know but...this is not something I would recommend to you…"

"Wealth, fame, and power are better achieved by oneself and not by an external power… If you can't even protect what I'll grant you, what would be the point..." 

"..." Trafalgar didn't interrupt and listened.

"So… A favor…" Edam looked straight into Trafalgar's eyes.

"...? A favor…? Trafalgar was quite intrigued by that.

"Yes, I will owe you one favor… what do you say?" Edam said very seriously.

"What?! A favor?! Are you kid-...!!!" A crew member wanted to riot but his friends immediately pulled him back and covered his mouth.

"You fuċkɨnġ bastard! Do you want to die or what?! If so, go die alone! Don't pull us with you!" One of his comrades exclaimed quietly.

"..." The commotion was totally ignored by Edam and Trafalgar who only eyed each other. 

"What if I can't do anything for him?" He wasn't an idiot, and so had already guessed who his patient would be. "You won't blame us, will you…?"

"..." Edam was silent for a few seconds, but quickly discerned what he meant. "Killing isn't a hobby of mine…" He then added. "I only ask you to do everything in your capabilities, I would be happy if you can get even just a few results out of it…"

"Will our deal still be valid even if I fail?"

"..." Edam stared at him for a few seconds, his gaze intense but calm, as if he was peering into the depth of his soul to see if his intentions were good. 

"Yeah, I will keep my end of the bargain no matter the result, however, let me be clear, I won't lend you my power to kill innocent people…" He would owe a favor, he didn't want his power to serve an evil cause.

"Fine by me… Where is my patient?" A thousand thoughts ran into Trafalgar's mind in an instant, reflecting and thinking about it. But, one thing was sure, this wasn't a bad deal at all.

Edam gave him a gaze as a rift opened up behind him. "Follow me…"

Saying so, he walked into the rift quietly.

"You guys stay here…" Trafalgar said and quickly followed behind Edam. 

"What? Captain, wait!"

"You're just gonna trust him like that? This doesn't resemble you…"

"...If he wanted to hurt us, we wouldn't be here to speak anymore…" Trafalgar said quietly and stepped into the gate.

"..." His crewmates were speechless at that but couldn't refute his words.

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On the other side of the rift…

Trafalgar quietly stepped out of the rift and his gaze couldn't help but glance around, observing his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that the place was a completely closed space and seemed to be the inside of a mountain judging by the walls' appearances. Secondly, the hall they were in was filled with all sorts of strange objects.

But, then, his eyes were naturally drawn toward the biggest thing in here, a sort of enormous chamber. Edam was standing right in front of it.

And inside the chamber, his patient, the fallen pirate, son of Whitebeard, Firefist Ace.

The moment he set his eyes on him, Trafalgar's eyes narrowed as he observed him. "Alive…?"

"No…" Trafalgar then said. "We can bȧrėly say that he's alive at this point… Let me have a closer look…"

Edam shot him a glance and waved his hand slightly. The chamber that was standing straight up then floated and was laid down like a bed. But even like this, the chamber was still too large and too high for Trafalgar to see anything from down there so…

Edam once again waved his hand around as a large amount of dots of lights gathered around the chamber. The dots of light solidified and formed some stairs in the said chamber.

"That's a convenient trick…" Trafalgar said and walked up the stairs. Arriving up there, he looked and saw Ace. His body seemed to float in the chamber as if he was submerged in water except that it wasn't the case. 

"What is this machine?" Trafalgar asked as he dipped his hand in this strange liquid-like energy. He noticed that his hand felt warm and relaxed at the simple touch of this energy.

"A chamber made to heal and rejuvenate at high speed. Alas, it can't regrow limbs or organs…"

As he listened, Trafalgar's expression changed and his eyes widened a bit as he heard the machine's capabilities.

"I see… that's why I found this guy's body to be strange… With all those vital organs missing, his death should already be certain, and yet… his body's most important functionalities are still operating… wavering between life and death..."

"..." Trafalgar examined Ace's body for a couple of minutes before glancing at Edam.

"This is the worst case I ever had until now, you're asking me to bring back a dead person..."

"...Yeah..."

"I will need all my equipment and some of my guys to ȧssist me…"

Edam didn't say anything and just waved his hand, opening a spatial rift once again.

"I will let this rift open for you at all times, it is directly related to where your submarine is located… I will let you work in peace then..." Edam said as he stretched his hand and a small round black object a meter from him flew into his hand. 

He closed his eyes for a few seconds as some runes slowly and magically formed on the orb. Opening his eyes, he spoke. "Here catch…"

He casually threw the object at Trafalgar who caught it easily.

"If you need something, just hold onto the orb and speak to it, I will hear you…" 

Trafalgar looked at the object with a thoughtful expression before simply nodding.

"Alright, then…" Edam turned around to walk away but then paused mid-way.

"Oh, and just in case, tell your men that stealing the objects in here is useless, I can locate them…" With this line said, he truly left the place.

"..." Trafalgar gave a small glance before turning toward the rift. 

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On the outside, a huge commotion echoed.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Various explosions resounded throughout a small part of the island's border as if an animal had gone crazy and as devastating everything.

However, one detail made it so that the "beast" that was rampaging was actually a young man, and that was his screams. 

"No! It's false! Disappear!"

"Disappear!"

"It's not real!"

"This is a dream!!!!"

Painful screams, containing anger and an overwhelming amount of sadness as if he had lost a part of himself. No, not even losing a limb could hurt this young man so much… 

He kept banging his head since he woke up as once in a while, he would get some terrible flashbacks from the war he took part in a few hours ago, flashbacks showing his brother taking a fatal strike destined for him.

And that's the reason why he was banging his head on every rock and tree he could find, hoping that he would wake up from this nightmare or that he would erase them through one of the most effective he had learned to deal with problems, hitting, punching, breaking… Alas, this problem wasn't something violence could solve.

Tack… Tack… Tack… 

The sounds of footsteps rang out, Jinbei appeared quietly behind Luffy, drawing the attention of the latter, who certainly due to his bad condition seemed to give him a bad look, though it was clearly not the case.

"..." Jinbei observed him in silence for a minute before speaking. "The war had ended… Ace is-..."

"Stop! Don't say it! Don't say that word!" Luffy screamed at the top of his lungs, refusing to hear anymore. "I… I pinched my cheeks so hard it started to bleed… If this was a dream, I would have woken up…"

His body was covered in bandages and he was nearly crawling on the ground, looking very pitiful as he stuttered. "It's not a dream is it…?"

Tears and snot started to spill out as he began to cry...

"Ace died… didn't he…?" Luffy then cried his heart out.

Meanwhile, Jinbei looked at him with a complicated expression, not knowing what to say for a while. "That's right, Ace died…"

At this reply, Luffy shivered and was gonna burst into tears again but he heard the sound of footsteps again. 

Lifting his crying and snot-filled face, as he met with the newcomer, he stopped tearing for a second and uttered. "Edam-nii…?"

He even rubbed his eyes thinking he saw something wrong. However, as he saw that his eyes were functioning clearly, tears once again started to fill his eyes. 

"I… I couldn't save Ace…" His voice was filled with guilt and self-blame. "He died because of me…!"

"Luffy…" Edam uttered as he watched and walked in Luffy's direction. Arriving in front of him, he grabbed the back of his head and pulled him toward his ċhėst, and spoke with a sad, painful, and somewhat trembling voice.

"Idiot… he sacrificed because he loved you. He protected you with all his might… You, our little brother…" 

Edam said as tears also filled his eyes but didn't fall over. Luffy on the other hand, erupted in tears as he cried like never before, with his tears going all over Edam's clothes.

However, Edam couldn't care less and only stood there for him till he finished.

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A good half an hour later…

"Now, calm down…" Edam said and looked exasperatedly as Luffy sat down cross-legged in front of him trying not to cry anymore but failing in doing so, and with teardrops still flowing down despite him.

"Sigh…" Looking at him, he did want to cry with him, but he had already shed nearly all his tears and didn't feel like crying anymore.

As for telling Luffy about Trafalgar currently trying to do something about Ace, Edam didn't feel like doing so, giving him hope which in the end could be totally false.

And so, he let him cry to his heart content for half an hour again before talking to him.

"Okay, Luffy, stop crying now… oh, right, tell me where are your companions, and why are you alone?" Edam tried to change the subject and was also curious as to why he was without his crew. 

"Sniff?" Hearing this, Luffy forcefully stop his tears from falling as this was a very important subject for him too. "I… I don't know where they are… we were at Sabaody Archipelagoes when this bastard of a bear-guy sent me flying to another island. I've been separated from them for weeks I think…"

To this, Edam raised eyebrows feeling something amiss, and began to ask multiple questions to which Luffy answered.

Edam heard all of his brother's journey. He was stunned to hear that Luffy was actually sent flying on Amazon lily where he met with Sonia and Mary who after hearing his family name decided to help him.

After that, a lot of complicated things happened. Luffy miraculously arrived at Impel Down in which he wreaked havoc and freed a lot of prisoners who helped him to go save Ace before his execution, however, Ace was already taken out in advance.

And by another miraculous event, Luffy and his prisoner's companions who were on a Marine ship found themselves falling from the sky right on top of Marineford.

Truth be told, Edam found it hard to believe that someone could be so unlucky, but, Luffy never knew how to lie since his most tender age and he was currently not in the mood to lie and also would never lie for something like that too so, there was no need to doubt him.

Though, there were several doubts in his mind such as why would a Warlord of the seas would simply send him and his companions flying away.

However, just as he was deep in thoughts, his senses pick up on a human presence approaching and reaching the island.

"...?" Edam turned his head in a direction and spoke. "Rayleigh is here…"

"What, the old Rayleigh? What is he doing here?" Luffy asked curiously.

"That's what I would like to know…" Edam stood up and walked in the direction he picked up Rayleigh's aura.

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(A/N: Sorry for the recent late release. I have no excuses, just that I'm currently more in a Reader Mode than Author Mode… voila????)