Chapter 226: Fated One, Settling, and Wedding

Chapter 226: Fated One, Settling, and Wedding

_________ POV Narration_________

The rest of the Emperor's journey was quite uneventful, ending in less than two weeks.

Unfortunately, Enel didn't return to the Sky Archipelago to receive good news, despite the upward trend that had been going on recently.

He came home to news of Kaido not only being alive, but stronger than ever before.

Shanks was the first to notice Kaido's return.

He had gone ahead and visited Wano in order to check on the situation there, and possibly collect the Road Poneglyph in said country.

To his surprise, while he was searching for said Poneglyph and sharing food with the locals, Kaido stumbled upon them.

The Emperor seemed to strike fear into the hearts of everyone present. He reportedly let off such an oppressive atmosphere that the birds in the sky fell to the ground, and those that were weak of heart fainted.

Shanks claimed that such a thing was happening despite Kaido not using Conquror's Haki.

The Red-Haired Pirates and Kaido didn't clash, as the King of Beasts still considered Shanks an ally, but his return and strength were both concerning...

For one, his survival despite Francisco and Whitebeard's account of him being sunken to the depths of the sea and severely injured was a clear sign that fate still had plans for him.

And those plans, at least for Enel, were predictable.

'Is it truly his fate to awaken Nika?! Is it truly unavoidable?'

On one hand, the Sky King was somewhat glad that he no longer had to plan out Nika's awakening by himself, a plan which would've involved a temporary falling out with Luffy and his crew.

But on the other, Enel didn't know if Luffy was truly equipped to handle a powered-up Kaido...

The true answer was no. Luffy hadn't even been equipped to fight Kaido originally, he had essentially lost three times and died once.

Sure, Luffy's awakening process was exactly the same as Enel's, but the Sky King didn't know if Luffy was even prepared to awaken without his first two failures against Kaido, coupled with his training throughout that arc...

He didn't even know if there were any special requirements for Luffy's awakening that were simply never mentioned in the original story.

He had no assurance of what would happen in the future, but that had been the case for a long time.

'It's better if I linger around Wano for a bit, at least try to track the Straw hats and their steps, make sure they're prepared to face off against Kaido...'

It was the most logical solution anyway. Enel had no way of knowing what fate actually had planned out for him, but he knew that he'd at least need Nika to win against IMU.

The 5 Elders, the God's Knights, Kong and Aramaki as well as any other powers they managed to mobilize were going to be dealt with by the Emperor's army, but IMU was far too strong.

Enel needed total assurance that they'd be able to win.

The fact that he was already told his fate was to 'die' was concerning enough, though he was trying to not put too much thought into it.

'Hah... At least I was planning to go to Wano at some point anyway...'

The Emperor ended up just shaking his head and continuing with his current task.

He handled the residence of the Automata over the next few days.

Surprisingly, no one was upset with him bringing in a whole new race of people this time around. This was mainly because they were essentially androids that didn't need any resources besides the occasional lightning strike.

Shiki didn't need a long time to find a spot among the islands for them either.

The Golden Lion and the Sky King worked together to quickly build a small replica of the Moon's Birka, at least mechanically.

The homes were going to be built by the automata themselves, and Shiki also came up with the idea of delegating a lot of the farming tasks to the Automata, which they happily accepted.

They were apparently not used to farming and were extremely happy to learn how to do new things.

The pirates under Shiki got to work teaching them and also brought along plenty of tools.

Enel also asked Gan Fall to look into some mechanics to help with the maintenance of the Automata, as well as helping with a few extra additions to their firepower.

The old God of Skypea still had plenty of capable people in his employ, so he just nodded and got to work, also requesting the help of the revolutionaries, and surprisingly, even Kuma.

Apparently, the former Warlord had been very attentive during Vega Punk's research and knew how to make quite a few weapons from the arsenal of the original Pacifistas.

In the original story, Big Mom had planned to screw over both the Vinsmokes and Sanji. She hated the Strawhat Cook because Luffy was disrespectful to her.

But in this case, it was sounding more and more like Big Mom was playing the matchmaker to increase her forces. She did have a lot of children to marry off after all...

"That's the most believable theory, yes. From what my men have reported, the Straw Hats are already on their way to EggHead Island."

Dragon slowly handed over one of the reports to Enel, and the Emperor looked over it as well before nodding.

It stated that the Straw Hats had already departed from Dressrosa, and were headed for Whole Cake Island as the next stop on their journey.

"Ok, it's good that you're keeping an eye on them... When exactly is the Wedding Reception and the Tea Party?"

Enel handed back the report as he spoke out.

In the background, Garp was seemingly extremely bored, a bubble of snot coming out of his nose as he pretended to sleep and not care about news regarding his grandson.

But Enel knew that he cared. He cared a lot actually.

"The Tea Party and wedding are in three days... She already sent invitations to quite a lot of people in the underworld... You didn't receive one yet." Dragon narrowed his eyes as he spoke that last part.

It was already suspicious that Big Mom had allied herself with Kaido and Shanks(tho Shanks was a spy).

At this point, it was safe to assume that Linlin didn't see Enel as an outright ally.

"I'll go anyway, I need to have a talk with her. I'll also have good reason to visit Oven, and see how that guy's doing..."

"Good. I doubt you'll have much problems getting in. It's also safe to assume Kaido isn't interested in attending, so you won't be clashing with him there at least..."

Dragon slowly rearranged the files on his desk before stacking them into a nice tower and pushing them to the side.

"So, what's the plan for now, Enel?" Dragon asked as he rested his head on his palms.

"Well, for now, I'm going back to sleep... But I'll leave for Big Mom's Tea Party as soon as it starts." Enel nodded and turned to Garp, whose snoot bubble had already popped.

He looked in between Enel and Dragon before yawning and opening his mouth.

"Damn, that was a boring conversation... Enel wanna spar?!"

Enel blinked a few times before narrowing his eyes.

"I would love to... But I don't think I can spar with someone properly anymore. I don't want to accidentally hurt you. Awakening has made me a lot stronger."

The Emperor did like the idea of sparring with Garp, but at the same time, he knew that he'd have to go all out if he wanted to actually stand a chance.

And if he went all out, it would immediately turn into a fight to the death, as his devil fruit powers were now more overwhelming and deadly than ever.

That was the case even if he didn't use his awakened state.

Garp scoffed at the Emperor's refusal, but he didn't refute it.

He knew how destructive Enel's devil fruit was even before awakening, so he could assume that it was not much stronger, especially since it was a God Fruit.

"Fine then, I'll just blow off some steam by fighting Dragon instead!" Garp cracked his knuckles as his son's spine trembled.

Immediately, all of the tiredness in Dragon's eyes disappeared, replaced by fear.

Enel simply left the office, nodding towards the two of them and internally wishing Dragon good luck and a healthy recovery...

'Better get some rest now... I've never crashed a wedding in the past, I hope I'm at least well received in this one...'

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Hope you liked the chapter! Guess who's sick now?!? Yepp, that's right, ya boy's got a bad case of cold.

I always catch a cold around this time of the year, I hoped to avoid it this year though... Anyway, I'll go to sleep now, need the rest

Story Shoutout!(if you have any suggestion for a new shoutout lemme know) :

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