Chapter 78: Devil Trigger III

“I’m leaving.” announced Mihawk.

“What?” said a Vice-Admiral near him.

“I was summoned to fight in the war against Whitebeard. Whitebeard is gone with Portgas D. Ace and his crew. The war is over, you lost it. There is no need for me to stay here anymore.”

He walked away and passed by Hancock. Her face was devoid of any emotion, but her eyes were full of sadness and pride. She was sad that the man she had loved for so long would be gone soon and proud of the way he chose to go. She remember when he chose to help her, a complete stranger, and put his whole career and life on the line for runaway slave. The comparison was easy. Here he stood, protecting strangers with every ounce of life he had left. It’s so like him, she thought. No one would ever believe that the celf-centered empress felt love for someone else other than herself. She wanted to stay. Wanted to witness his last stand. But she couldn’t. If she did she would be forced to fight him and she couldn’t do that. At least, that’s what she told herself. The truth was, she didn’t have the strength to watch him die.

Looking at him one last time before she averted her eyes and walked back towards her ship where she could go back to her quarters and mourn out of view from anyone.

The only two shichibukai who stayed were Doflamingo who enjoyed the show and Kuma who was now nothing more than a soulless puppet to the World Government.

On the Marines’ side. Sengoku and Garp, still on the execution platform,were watching Akainu and Rick fight as they were joined by Tsuru.

“You should not be here, Tsuru.” said Sengoku.

“Neither should Garp.” she replied. Sengoku was about to retort when Garp spoke up.

“Enough Sengoku. She can’t fight him, just like I can’t, and just like you can’t, don’t begrudge her for it when you’re guilty of the same.”

That shut Sengoku up. Garp was right, he couldn’t do it, and hoped that one of his subordinates would make it quick. As the fight was going though, it was unlikely.

“He’s gotten stronger.” said Tsuru.

“Of course he did. Did you think he would sit on his ass and laze around for ten years?” replied Garp with a frown on his face. If only he knew the truth. What an irony.

“We trained him too well.” said Sengoku.

“To think he would see through your plan, while arriving in the middle of it and then counter it.” replied Garp.

“He completely won the war by himself.” declared Tsuru with a slight hint of pride in her tone.

“HA! That he did. Taking Ace like that, even you didn’t see that one coming!” chided Garp.

“I didn’t. I should have and I didn’t.”

“Getting too old for the job eh?”

“We’re the same age you idiot!” replied Sengoku, angry.

“It’s not about age, it’s about the outlook you have of life!”

“With you doing stupid shit constently, my outlook of life killed itself years ago!”

“What do you mean stupid shit! I..”

“ENOUGH!” yelled Tsuru, slapping the back of the head of their friends.

“Our.... The kid we raised is fighting and doing a good job of it, despite being outclassed.” she added in a calmer tone.

“He really would have made a great Fleet Admiral.” declared Garp.

“His sense of justice is too strong.” retorted Sengoku.

“You’re wrong. Heck, you don’t even believe a single word of what you just said.” said Garp.

“He would have been better than any of us. He would have done what we never could. He would have brought order to changes he would have made.”

“You’re right Tsuru. He would have. Damn you Sakazuki! Damn.. Damn.. me..”

“Sengoku?”

“What do you mean damn you?”

Both Tsuru and Garp were looking at Sengoku questionically. He was gritting his teeth and his hands were close into fists.

“He.. contacted me during the Enies lobby incident.”

“Yes, and he turned down your offer, that’s not a well known secret around here but it is known.” said Garp.

“He had conditions. Two to be exact. One I agree without any problem, the other.. I could not.”

“What were they?” asked Tsuru.

“The first one was to leave Nico Robin alone. From what Rick told me, she’s not interested in the antic weapons. Just the history of the missing century. He argued that the chances of her ever finding it was slim to none. He’s right on this account.”

“Eh! That’s my grandson, protecting his lady. I taught him well!” bragged Garp.

“What are you talking about?” asked Sengoku, looking at Garp like he said something incredulous.

“His lady?” Tsuru’s face was stoic but? inside she was having a bout of jealousy.

“Didn’t Kuzan tell you? He’s dating her.”

“He’s what?!” exclaimed Tsuru. A criminal dating her Rick was not acceptable. If Rick was here and could read minds, he would have said that she spent too much time with Kaza. Or at least he would have thought so, too scared to confront Tsuru openly. That wouldn’t have ended well for him.

Meanwhile Sengoku was rubbing his temples.

“Thank god nobody knows. It would have been a nightmare otherwise.”

“The R.A. would have had a field day if they could have put their hands on them.” said Garp.

“What was the second condition?” asked Tsuru who calmed herself once again and tried to redirect the conversation for her peace of mind.

“He wanted Sakazuki disgraced and on the run for the next ten years.” confessed Sengoku.

“And you didn’t accept?!” yelled Garp.

“I couldn’t! Sakazuki is one of the three Admirals of the marines! Distracting him would put the Navy in a really bad light.”

“He’s batshit insane! That’s what he is!”

“I know! I always knew! And seeing Rick right now, you don’t know how much I regret not agreeing! Especially now that I’m about to retire. With everything that happened, the Gorusei is going to select him as my replacement despite my recommendation for Kuzan.”

Nobody said anything. There was no point, as what was done, was done.

~~~~~

While Sengoku, Garp and Tsuru were having their conversation, Rick was sweating like he never did before. Out of the 23 Vice-admirals that were present for the war, around half went with Aokiji and Kizaru to Impel Down. Of those left, two were not fighting and were sitting on their ass next to Sengoku. That left Rick facing ten of them and the cherry on the top was that Akainu was fighting too. Until now he survived by using his gravity to dodge and to put himself in situations where Akainu’s magma shots were too costly if they hit his allies. Had it been low ranking marines, he would not have hesitated, but fortunately for Rick, they weren’t. That didn’t mean the fight was easy though. Fighting the whole CP-9 was easier in comparison.

He needed to deal with the vice-admirals and fast, his target was akainu after all. The first thing to do for him was to stop being defensive.

Rick propulsed himself high in the air, out of reach for any close quarter attacks even for those marines who had superhuman strength and could jump very high. Once at a good height he unleashed an attack he always wanted to use but was too scared of his destructiveness. Raising one arm above his head he used his gravity. Soon enough a few dozen small meteorites fell down from the sky right onto the battlefield where his enemies were. Between the melted ice’s vapor, the fumes of melted rock and cloud of dust he didn’t see in time the gigantic magma shot sent his way.

He dodged too late and lost his right arm in the process. He screamed loudly, and the shock and the sheer pain made him lose control of his gravity and he fell. In a stroke of luck he crashed into one of the few spaces of ice left intact. As quick as he could he tried to get his bearings back, to ignore the pain and bring himself back up. Thanks to a small breeze, what was making the surroundings hard to see was beginning to clear up. Once everything was gone, Rick could see the results of his meteor shower. None of the vice-Admiral were left standing, some were missing, perhaps were they devil fruit users who fell into the sea. He didn’t know, however, was that Akainu was still standing, seemingly unfacted and unscathed.

“What’s the matter, red bitch? Having some problem with aiming with your old age? Don’t worry, gramps is having this problem too. Maybe it can help you with it.”

“Always so arrogant and disrespectful, even with one foot in the grave.”

“One foot in the grave? A bit presumptuous I’d say.”

“What do you think you can do with one missing arm?”

“This?” said Rick pointing to his missing limb.

“It’s just a flesh wound.”

“...”

“One snap of my fingers and the wound is gone.”

Just as he said, Rick snapped his fingers with his remaining hand, and at the base of the stump a seed appeared and sprouted into an arm. A left arm when the arm he lost was his right.

“Oops! Wrong one!”

The arm quickly disappeared and was replaced by the correct one.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe that work. Why was? “regrow limbs”? not in the description when I bought the fruit? Wait, how durable does that make me? Can I regrow anything other than a limb like an organ? Could I regrow my heart? The brain? No, probably not the brain since I need to think about what to sprout. Regardless, it doesn’t feel like a sprout does usually but more like my actual arm. That’s crazy.”

“You’re going to have to try a little harder than that.” Rick said with a smirk.

That infuriated Akainu beyond reason. Until now, with the presence of the vice-admirals he was holding back, letting them do the work and only attacking when he saw an opening. He was alone now and had his orders.

Akainu started to fight for real, and Rick was once more reminded of the strength and power that an Admiral of the Navy holds. The ex-marine had his stamina nearly depleted, ever since he escaped his cell, he was always on the move. His stunt to stop the war and let the Whitebeard pirates and the New world pirates escape? A tremendous effort. Summoning the meteors cost most of the stamina he had left. He was in dire straits, while Akainu had just lazed around most of time.

Rick began to dodge less effectively to the point that the Admiral got him again. In the waist this time. Without missing a beat, Rick sprouted back the missing part, it did take a few seconds however as he never sprouted such a part of his body before and was not used to it.

Finally he couldn’t fight anymore. Rick fell on his knees exhausted. He was picked up by the throat by Akainu who looked him dead in the eye. Not so tight that he couldn’t talk. This was the moment he was waiting for.

“Seems like I won.” said Rick.

“Still delusional.”

“You kill me now and I will live forever.”

“Nonsense.”

“You think it ends with me? No, quite the contrary, that will be the beginning. People will rise, people will stand up for themselves, for freedom. They will fight for it, now that they know that gods can be hurt. That the celestial dragons are just weak, spoiled, entitled garbage of human waste that can bleed. People are tired to be oppressed, to be slaves despite having no collar around their necks. To be at the mercy of scums that didn’t earn anything in their life, that were just born and inherited their privileges from their ancestors from 800 years ago when they have to work to death everyday to pay for the heavenly tribute. People will rise. People will make a stand."

“Enough. Time for you to burn to ashes. But don’t worry, soon, I’ll send your captain,Nico Robin? and the rest of your whole crew to join you.”

~~~~~

Back to the execution platform, Sengoku, Garp and Tsuru, kept watching the fight. They were not affected by the meteor shower Rick made. All three of them knew why, but didn’t comment on it. No, they were fine just watching in silence. That is until they heard his parting words.

“He’s right. So much so it hurts.” said Garp.

“There is nothing we can do about it now.” commented Tsuru.

“Fortunately the video feed was cut off a while ago. Blurting out the truth of the world and dying.. He may have become a martyr. Put the seed of revolution in the head of people. In one single moment he would have done better than the R.A. did in more than a decade.” stated Sengoku.

Their conversation was cut short when Rick suddenly moved at lightning speed. Water rose obstructing their view, followed by the eerie sound of torn flesh and a loud bang noise. Something had hit the wall just below them. They took a look, curious, and saw Akainu, embedded into the steel plate that was still in place, unconscious and missing an arm.

“What the..” began Garp before being cut off by Tsuru.

“What is that?” she said in disbelief her tone carrying a bit of fear.

“Need glasses? That’s..”

“Garp look.” interrupted Sengoku.

Garp looked up to Sengoku and saw him pointed forward. Following the direction of his friend’s finger he saw a strange sight before him.

“What the heck?!” he exclaimed

“You don’t know anything about that?” asked Sengoku.

“Why would I?!”

“You raised him.”

“Tsuru did too! And so did you!”

“I don’t know what’s happening to him, that’s why I’m asking you!”

“Do you think he was hiding it from us? I’d understand why, black horns, black wings, a gleeful and sadistic smile, he looks like a devil from fairy tales.” said Garp.

“No. Rick may have had the habit of twisting the truth a bit, but he never outright lied or kept secrets from us. Maybe Kuzan knows something?”

“HO!” exclaimed Garp in surprise, recollecting a peculiar event Aokiji shared with him years ago concerning Rick.

“So you do know something! Spill it!” ordered Sengoku.

“I’m not sure it’s related, but remember back when Rick was under Kuzan? There was an incident.”

“The Alabasta mission? You think that’s what happened there?” asked the Fleet Admiral.

“What about the Alabasta mission? I thought Rick rescued the princess and dealt with the kidnappers?” asked Tsuru, clearly out of the loop.

“That’s what the official report says but..” began Garp

“The way he dealt with the kidnappers was never put down on paper.” finished Sengoku.

“What happened?”

“We don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, Kuzan didn’t know so he couldn’t tell us and Rick himself didn’t either.” said Garp.

“What do you mean Rick himself doesn’t know?! He’s the one who did it!”

“According to Kuzan, Rick has no recollection of what happened. He remembered infiltrating the kidnappers' hideout, then seeing what they were doing to the women they kidnapped..”

“So the princess wasn’t the only one?”

“No. They kidnapped women for their own pleasure. What they did to them was so bad that more than ten years laters some of them are still in a catatonic state. Anyway, Rick remembered freeing an unconscious princess and taking her in his arms, then, from what Kuzan told me, he felt anger and rage like he never felt before. Next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of the room. And there was blood everywhere. Up to the ceiling. The kidnappers were just lumps of torn apart flesh.”

“And none of you bothered to tell me?!” exclaimed Tsuru.

“When Kuzan gave his report Rick was already on the run, there was no point.” exclaimed Sengoku.

“Doesn’t matter now! He’s moving!” yelled Garp.

He was right, Rick finally started to move. He was walking slowly towards them, looking at them as if they were prey. Despite being veterans of the navy, they never had felt such dread towards someone. And the feeling was getting stronger the shorter the distance between the two parties became.

“I think we’re in for the fight of our lives.” said Garp in a serious tone.

“More like a fight for our lives.” corrected Sengoku.

Tsuru didn’t say anything, she just raised her rifle, aimed and shot. It was useless, the bullet was repelled at astonishing speed and scratched her cheek, making her bleed a little. Garp lunged forward trying to stop Rick who was now charging towards Tsuru but was sent flying back. Sengoku didn't hesitate and immediately went into his buddha form and barely stopped a fist coming his way.

“Stop playing around you two! We can’t let our guards down!”

~~~~~

When Rick came to, he was backed up to a wall. Darting his eyes around he recognized the house he was in or to be more accurate what was left of it. It was in this house he met for the first time Tsuru and Sengoku, it was in this house he spent so much time when he was off duty. It was this house that at one time he called secretly “home”.

He tried to move but to no avail. He was feeling too weak. Taking a look at his body he saw the damages; familiar wounds, the exact same type he had after the fight against Moria.

“It happened again..” he lamented.

“Again?” said a voice outside.

Looking up he saw Garp standing, holding his stomach and covered in wounds and blood too.

“It’s.. the third time it happened.? Last time was when we were fighting.. Moria. And the first was in Alabasta.. ten years ago.”

“So you knew!” Yelled Sengoku coming to view.

“I only learned of it after Moria.. My crew was there to witness it... Almost took their lives.”

“So you were not aware you grow horns, wings and a sadistic trait until then?” asked Tsuru coming from behind him, entering Sengoku’s house by the hole in the wall.

“Wings? I only had.. Horns last time.”

“So it’s getting worse then.” said Garp.

“It doesn’t matter, Garp. What matters is what this form is and where it comes from.” said Sengoku.

“The.. sea devil..” replied Rick, his breath getting shorter and shorter.

“What?”

“Ask.. Vegapunk.”

“He knows?” asked Sengoku.

“Met.. him.. week.. ago.”

“How?!” asked Sengoku but his question was ignored by an apology.

“Sorry.. Uncle.”

“You need to be specific here.”

“Win.. ning.”

At that moment the wall Rick was back to, broke and he fell forward. Garp who was the closest caught him in his arms by reflex.

“Grand..pa.. Tired.” Rick said in a whisper.

“You can rest now.” the old man replied before laying him down on the floor. As he did so Rick’s hand got caught in the necklace Garp was wearing under his shirt, bringing it out.

“Still.. wear.. ing.. it.”

“Everyday since I put it on. Never took it off.” declared the marine Hero.

“This.. pla.. ce.. Hap..piest..days.. of.. my .. of..my.. my....... ? life.” whispering Rick out of breath.

And like a puppet having his strings cut off, the hand fell taking along the necklace.

That wasn’t the only thing that fell at that moment as rain started pouring despite the sky being bright blue without any clouds in sight.