Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Mission Details, Sparring and Concerns

_________ POV Narration_________

"So what's the plan exactly? Do we rush in and kill everything while looking for the rescue target?" Shiki said as he lazily lay on a beach chair on the floating island.

They were already steadily making their way towards the Holy Land, no log poses or Vivre cards were needed either.

Shiki was already used to navigating through the skies, he could make his way to just about everywhere using a compass and a world map.

"That sounds more like the type of plan our former captain would've come up with..." Francisco sighed a bit as he lay on a beach chair right beside the Golden Lion.

"I guess you've always been the type to plan things a bit more thoroughly... I've been doing my best, but it was never really my thing..." Shiki scowled a bit as he spoke. A barrel rose up by his side, tilting by itself as sake poured into their cups.

The Golden Lion sighed as he took another sip of his favourite drink. Francisco also drank a bit, not quite worried about getting drunk before a big job.

The two of them were awfully relaxed for people that were about to raid what was essentially the most defended place on the planet.

But they had all the right to be relaxed. They were used to doing such missions, they were used to fighting, and their teamwork was almost impeccable.

Even if quite some time had passed, and Shiki was a bit weaker, the two of them were still Pirate Legends that used to be the conquerors of the seas.

"You really were never much on planning things out..." Francisco could also just sigh as he wondered how Shiki had survived that long as a captain of his own crew.

"Bah! Plans are just for fodder! I usually change them abruptly anyway, gives life some spice." Shiki smiled confidently as he spoke, his 'legs' cutting a bit into the chair he was laying on.

"That's incredibly irresponsible and stupid... I'm glad to say that you've not changed a bit." Francisco nodded a bit as he spoke, making his old friend spit out some of his drink.

"Cough*- You know? I'd have killed just about anyone for saying things like that..." Shiki scowled at the legendary swordsman before him, staring at him fearlessly.

"Heh... Funny, I would've killed just about anyone for throwing such an empty threat my way..." Francisco laughed a bit as he spoke, his gaze turning to Shiki, his eyes borrowing as his calm smile seemed to turn a bit colder than usual.

The air between the two of them seemed to stand still as their gazes met, a strand of red lightning seemed to clash with a purple one, and the world around them slowed down visibly.

Shiki's will seemed to be unflinching, steadfast and strong. Francisco's will seemed to be sharp, pointed and deadly, it was a strange effect, where neither will managed to conquer the other for a few seconds.

The birds fell from the sky, and the clouds parted ways, but the clash ended abruptly as well.

"You're lucky you're my friend!" The two of them said at the same time before looking away.

The two of them laughed out loud after that. "Gihahihahihahi!" "Jihahahaha!" They then continued drinking with silly smiles on their faces, like nothing ever happened.

"We'll do things simply, I'll draw their attention and you can handle the rescue. No reason to overcomplicate things. We'll have to park your island close to the Holy Land though..." Francisco ended up coming up with the plan in the end.

"Of course... I think I know just the parking spot!" Shiki smiled as they continued on with their journey. It would still take them a few days to reach the Red Line, then following along it to reach the Holy Land itself would take another few days.

Alas, Shiki had brought enough food to last them a few years, so they weren't exactly stressed out about the journey.

As the two of them were bickering, Kaido was already leaving the Sky Islands. He had done exactly as Enel had instructed.

He departed on a large raft that he and his people constructed in a rush, floating through the clouds in a rather unsafe manner.

It was only being held up thanks to the flame clouds that Kaido controlled, otherwise it would have collapsed as soon as a few waves hit it.

The fearless Emperor was left somewhat disturbed by Enel's strange demeanour and words.

He had thought of looking for Shiki and trying to kill him but decided that it would be a stupid idea in the end. The island was now seemingly filled with people that could prove to be a threat to him.

The Emperor's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the marines and revolutionaries were also there.

It was an alliance that managed to send some shivers down his long spine...

'As if having Garp and Francisco under him wasn't enough... I guess I can no longer call my 'Beast Pirates' the strongest crew, no matter how many SMILE Fruits I shove into their mouths...'

The Dragon Emperor was left with quite a few things to consider upon leaving the island.

He was a bit annoyed at having lost 2 Tobiroppo, but at the very least the 2 strongest in his crew weren't maimed...

Besides, be it 2 or 200 Tobiroppo, they would never manage to breach the gap between his forces and Enel's by the looks of it.

Shiki's crew was also massive, even if only a shell of its former self. He had a few islands filled to the brim with Grand Line-faring pirates from the old days.

Kaido knew that a force like that alone was annoying enough, but he could deal with it.

The problem was the massive Revolutionary army, and for some reason, the entirety of the supposedly-deceased former marine cadres.

The more Kaido looked at the numerous Sky Islands resting on the clouds, the warier he grew.

'Things are too unbalanced for a proper war right now... One side will crush all the others, I can either try to join it or try to stand up on my own regardless of the danger...'

Alas, Kaido was no longer willing to be anyone else's subordinate.

He had long since grown out of that phase, and not being in charge of a situation was simply no longer something he could stand.

'I need to make an alliance... And fast. Time to call up some old acquaintances...'

The Dragon continued on his way back to Wano, Enel's words still ringing in his mind.

'... Joyboy... Why does he know about that?' Kaido couldn't help but clench his fists at the thought.

Alas, it wasn't like the Lightning Emperor seemed especially chatty. It was unlikely that Kaido would get any answers out of him.

The Dragon Emperor's hand reached for his back, where his large mace would've usually been, only to grasp at nothing.

'... I dropped it somewhere in those clouds...' "SHIT!" The emperor was instantly enraged, scaring the subordinates that sailed on the same raft as him.

They were bound to have a long week...

Enel was a lot calmer though, he was not at all worried about Kaido or his people, and he wasn't exactly worried about Francisco and Shiki either.

After all, he believed IM was unlikely to even get involved when the rescue was happening. Hell, he hadn't gotten involved even when Fisher Tiger had broken into the Holy Land.

Sending Shiki there for transportation was one thing, but Enel was actually also sending him to test the methods that the Elders had prepared for Devil Fruit users.

Shiki himself was a lot stronger than Enel if both were to be caught without their devil fruits, so he was the best choice in that situation.

The Golden Lion was not someone that Enel was accustomed to, he didn't actually remember anything about him from the original story.

But from what he had seen, the legendary pirate was both fearless and willing to face the Government without a moment of hesitation.

'I guess he and Francisco have a lot of history... I wonder how their teamwork is... After so many years, they're bound to have changed a lot in their styles, especially Shiki since he now technically wields 4 blades instead of 2...'

Enel couldn't help but smile when thinking about the number of strange swordsmanship techniques that existed in that world.

Bonney was still quite worried from what Enel could sense, alas, he couldn't exactly blame her.

That worry probably also came from the fact that neither Enel nor Bonney knew how the two old pirate legends planned to approach that mission.

Enel was still confident they'd be just fine though.

'I didn't give them any specifics on how the operation should go, but I think Francisco is reliable enough to think that up by himself, as a First Mate he should at least be that capable...'

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Bonney also seemed to calm down when Enel reminded her that Francisco was not some inexperienced thug.

The Lightning Emperor also had to remind her that Shiki was still a rather intelligent and powerful individual, even if he didn't tend to act the part...

In the end, they agreed that she'd hold her part of the deal only after joining them and being reunited with her nephew.

Enel was fine with that, he didn't care much for his own arm, but he figured he'd have to first bring Sengoku and the Red-Haired Pirates to the Sky Arhipeleago before Bonney was to heal the former Fleet-Admiral.

'Whether or not Shanks and his crew agree to come or even remain here is still debatable, but Sengoku at the very least will be staying here. Garp would likely put him back in the hospital if he tried to leave anyway...'

Enel's day didn't end with just the deal he made with Bonney though. The next thing he did was spar with Wyper again.

The Tribal Warrior was quite shocked to see his friend missing a limb, but he took it in stride.

The more annoying part for him was that now Enel was using his earlobes a lot more when fighting, even turning his earrings into metallic punching gloves and beating him up.

'Earlobe Gattling' as Enel called it. It almost gave Wyper a brain aneurysm.

Still, the greatest shock that came in that day was when Wyper got so annoyed that he actually used Conqueror's Haki on Enel.

The Lightning Emperor was a bit flabbergasted for a few moments, which almost gave Wyper the opportunity to land a hit.

Unfortunately, Enel managed to bat it away with his walking stick, tripping Wyper in the process and slapping him over the head with an earlobe.

Wyper stood there for a few moments, his head buried somewhat deep in the ground as he pondered on how he ended up in that position.

Enel also looked at him for a while, as if in a trance, wondering just how much stuff he managed to miss out on while away from the island.

In the end, he found out that Wyper was now officially Francisco's student when it came to Haki.

Enel's conqueror's haki was still stronger than Wyper's at that point, but it was clear that Wyper was swiftly catching up to him.

'If I stagnate for a few months then he'll certainly surpass me...'

Thankfully, Enel didn't need to stagnate any more thanks to Big Mom. He was free to unleash his will as he pleased.

Before officially starting his training on that, he did meet up with Garp to inform him about the deal with Bonney.

They met up at the newly built underground layer of the Revolutionaries. Garp had moved there 'to keep an eye on his stupid son and make sure he behaves'.

He did make sure to create a schedule for the training regiment of the Sky Guards. The former Vice Admiral Momonga became his right hand and made sure that everyone abided by the harsh training regime.

It was Garp's way of saying he wanted to spend some time with his son, but no one really dared to call him out on that.

"So she's gonna heal you two after she sees her nephew? How old is she again?" The old marine asked as he munched on some biscuits.

"I'd rather not ask her about that again..." Enel said as he sighed and took a sip of Sake, tilting the cup with his earlobe while he twirled his walking stick around his wrist.

"Yeah... Old broads tend to get cranky when talking about that stuff... Tsuru is like that too... Well, I guess that's doable, rescuing her nephew I mean. Now, I think it's time we talk about the people that seem to be drawn to you..."

Garp quickly switched the topic, obviously bringing up his distrust of Francisco and Shiki, who he considered a major threat to the island's safety.

When Enel inquired about why Garp didn't like Francisco anymore, the old marine became a bit annoyed and started grumbling a bit.

"I don't believe a word that comes out of that old snake's mouth.

I could manage him when he was old, but now he is back to being the monster he was, so I think not keeping a constant eye on him is risky. 

He may be loyal to you now, but he is not a good-natured individual... Please remember that when trusting him."

Garp scowled a bit as he tried to remember more about Francisco's notoriety and the many he had murdered to gain the title of the 'Strongest Swordsman'.

"Well... I may have already trusted him with the rescue of Kuma... Well, he and Shiki, to be exact." Enel's smile trembled for a bit, as Garp instantly started choking on the rice cracker he had been eating.

"What the fuck?! You trusted the two bloodthirsty pirates with a rescue mission?!" Garp's tone was higher pitched than usual, some veins appeared on his neck as he glared at Enel, who just whistled a bit and looked to the side.

"Believe it or not, they might just be the best for the job. They won't hesitate to kill whoever gets in their way, marine or not, and Shiki can easily transport them out of there." Enel still stood by his choice, smiling as he did so.

"... I still don't like this... Besides, aren't you basically announcing to the world government that Francisco is back, and as powerful as he used to be?" Garp scowled a bit as he thought more and more about his captain's choice.

"That's also true... I want to make them wary, to make them realize that they aren't fully in control of the situation, or at least raise that possibility in their minds.

They might've suspected that Francisco is with me already, seeing him back in his prime will make them realise that Bonney is also with me.

Shiki also being there is just the cherry on top." Enel smiled a bit as he spoke, not bothering to hide his plans from Garp of all people.

"... An intimidation tactic, huh? I guess that can work. Playing mind games isn't really my thing though, sounds more like something Sengoku would think up...

But doesn't that mean our assault on them will be much more difficult?" Garp stroked his beard a bit, somewhat accepting Enel's plan for a few moments, or at least thinking about it.

"That's the thing. We make them wary now, make them stay up late at night, expecting an attack at any moment... But we aren't going to attack them anytime soon." Enel smiled a bit, tilting his head as his blue eyes looked coldly at a table near him.

"... So it really is just mind games, huh? But don't we already have enough power to take the government down? After Sengoku's healed, at least.

I doubt they'd use an attack like the one at Baltigo in the middle of their Holy Land." Garp's concern was also rather logical, and Enel nodded when hearing him.

'Garp may act like a simpleton at times, but I guess he is far from one... I guess Luffy does take after him in that regard... Well, I'd wish he took more after him...'

"It's good that you're thinking about that, anticipating my worries. But they WILL use that attack in the Holy Land, especially if all of us are gathered there.

The rest of the celestial dragons don't matter as much to the world government. They would gladly sacrifice themselves to get rid of all of their enemies at once.

So unless we can stop it, we might as well not even think about raiding the Holy Land." 

Garp simply sighed in frustration at Enel's explanation. He couldn't quite refute it either.

He wanted to argue that all of them together could likely stop that attack, but he didn't want to risk it either. Enel was the one to have experienced that attack, so Garp decided that he knew best when it came to that.

"Well, this will work to make them a bit more careful. They've already started harming a lot of people. It works especially well since they don't know where we are."

"An unseen threat, huh... Still feels like we could've gone about this a bit better though..." Garp still had his doubts, but he seemed to relent in the end.

It was too late anyway, Shiki and Francisco had already gone off. Enel wasn't going to try and stop them either way.

In the end, the Lightning Emperor managed to somewhat calm Garp down.

"At this point, there are more marines on the island than Pirates, so I doubt you should be that stressed out about Francisco and Shiki.

Although I doubt it will if anything goes wrong I can take care of it." That was how Enel waved away the concerns of the former Marine Hero.

Sure, Garp was still annoyed that the Revolutionaries also had to be there, but at least his son was at the helm of that group, and Sabo also seemed quite reliable.

In the end, the rest of the day was spent with Enel catching up with a few friends. Oven tagging along with him after the Emperor finished his conversation with Garp.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Trying me best to juggle writing, my job, and the exam that I have tomorrow, I ain't gonna lie, I'm tired af :)))
 
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