Space-Space Fruit in One Piece

After the bartender came back with everything Eren had asked for, he first looked at the newspaper. It was mostly uninteresting stuff. The date showed that it was currently January 22nd of the year 1517. There wasn't really anything remarkable happening at the moment that Eren had remembered from his past life.

It was mostly the usual stuff. News about a kingdom being raided, some pirate attacks, and even an article about the Revolutionary Army. Of course, they were portrayed as some evil group that wanted the end of the world or something like that.

Morgans was still heavily influenced by the world government at the time. He was also greedy for money and would probably be rewarded by them as long as he wrote some things in favor of the government.

After putting the newspaper aside, Eren finally picked up the bounty posters. When he looked through them, he recognized many of them from his past life.

["Kaido of the Beasts" - Kaido]

[4,611,100,000]

[Dead or Alive]

["Big Mom" - Charlotte Linlin]

[4,388,000,000]

[Dead or Alive]

["Whitebeard" - Edward Newgate]

[5,046,000,000]

[Dead or Alive]

["Red-Haired Shanks" - Shanks]

[4,048,900,000]

[Dead or Alive].

Obviously, there were the 4 Emperors of the Sea, better known as Yonko. These 4 were the pirates with the highest bounties still active. After them came their crew members, especially their commanders, who mostly had bounties in or around the one billion berry mark as well.

Finally, there were the 7 Warlords of the Sea, each of whom had bounties that were frozen. They would not rise again and were more of a symbol that they were still enemies of the Marines and only temporarily allied with them.

Besides the ones he already knew like Dracule Mihawk, Doflamingo, Jinbe, Moria, Crocodile and Hancock, there was another face Eren had never seen or heard of before.

["Headache" - Paolo Datura]

[198,000,000]

[Dead or Alive]

On the bounty poster was a picture of a man with short blue hair and a middle-aged face. He looked relatively handsome, but what stood out were his menacing eyes. They were completely white with no pupils. The only thing that filled them was a black swirl.

"What do you know about this guy?" Eren asked the bartender as he dropped a few extra berry on the table while holding up the bounty poster.

The man quickly swept the coins off the table and did his best to explain everything he knew.

"He ate the hypno-hypno fruit. It gives him the ability to hypnotize any opponent who looks directly into his face. It's not that strong, though, because people can just avoid looking at him to make the ability completely useless. It's also said that it doesn't really work against strong-willed opponents, causing them only a slight headache, hence his nickname.

"If the articles in the WENP are to be trusted, he currently resides on an island in the first half of Paradise, not too far from Jaya. Its name is Recrui. If you were to acquire an Eternal Pose, the journey would only take a single week."

"Some rumors also say that the Marines are thinking of replacing him, as they have long been unhappy with his performance. He is very violent towards civilians and even mind-controls some women to... you know what. His strength is too weak to overlook those kinds of crimes, so they have been looking for someone else to take over for a long time".

This guy actually sounded like a perfect target. Not only could he possibly help Eren to take his Observation Haki to the next level, but such a scumbag really deserved to die. If the Marines were looking for someone stronger anyway, then Eren was obviously the perfect replacement.

At that moment, Eren's Observation Haki suddenly picked up a man approaching them on the sea. Since Eren had only noticed him because of the movement he caused in space, he was still a few kilometers away. It would probably take another 15 minutes until he arrived.

"Say, do you have an eternal pose for this island? I would like to visit this warlord for some 'business' I have with him." Eren said to the barkeeper with a mysterious grin.

He sighed and produced an hourglass-like device with a glass sphere in the center. Inside the sphere, a single needle hung from the top, pointing to the northeast.

"This will be quite expensive. I would also like to advise you to reconsider if you want to go against him. Even though he is one of the weakest warlords, he is still stronger than your average Joe."

Normally, he would have told them to stay away from Paolo, but after seeing how easily they disposed of the top dogs in Jaya, he thought they might have a chance against him.

Eren just nodded at Enel, who suddenly melted a small piece of gold from his golden staff and threw it towards the guy. Then they took the barrel of beer and the Eternal Pose with the words Recrui on it, before they went to the ship.

As they boarded the ship, all three could see a tall, dark-skinned man approaching. Surprisingly, he was riding his oddly small bike on what appeared to be a trail of ice forming on the surface of the sea below him.

The man himself was probably 3 meters tall, with black curly hair. He also wore a white, buttoned-up, stand-up collar vest over a long-sleeved navy blue shirt and matching pants. On his forehead was a green sleeping mask.

'It looks like they sent Aokiji after us. To be honest, it's the best thing that could have happened to us. Akainu is out of the question because he is too violent to deal with potential recruits.

Kizaru, on the other hand, would have been a problem as he could have followed the Ark Maxim into the air. Though it is not as if we have committed any crimes... yet. It doesn't even make sense to send out an entire Admiral for such a small incident.'

Not wanting to meet Kuzan, Eren immediately told Enel to start the engine and prepared the ship for takeoff. It took only a few seconds until they were flying into the sky. Their course was clear: just follow the eternal pose.

It really is time to get a navigator, though.

* * * * * * * * *

When Aokiji noticed that the most likely culprits behind the call they had received from a citizen of Jaya were about to leave, he wasn't too surprised. Most people like that weren't really interested in meeting the Navy. If they were really interested in joining, they would have done so already.

What did surprise him, however, was when their ship suddenly began to levitate before flying off into the distance. Apart from the Golden Lion Shiki, there weren't really any other pirates known to have the ability to make their ship fly.

'It seems that these newcomers are not so simple. I'd better let Sengoku handle this, otherwise it's just going to be a huge headache.' Aokiji thought, but he didn't contact the fleet admiral yet. First, he wanted to find out how these people had behaved towards the citizens.

Normally, an admiral like him wouldn't be moved to take care of something as simple as the slaughter of a horde of pirates and some potential recruits. To Aokiji's misfortune, however, he had been very close when the call came through, so he would have to take care of this incident.

After looking at the corpses of countless dead pirates and asking around in the city, Aokiji had mostly confirmed his earlier suspicion. The people behind this slaughter weren't pirates themselves and even paid for everything they bought in one of the bars. Of course, it wasn't their own money, but at least they paid.

He also found out that they were heading for Paolo Datura's territory. Now that he had all the information he needed, it was time to report back to Sengoku.

"Puru Puru, Puru Puru."

Aokiji took out his Den-Den-Mushi and called the fleet admiral.

"Catcha"

"Hello Aokiji, how did your mission in Jaya turn out?" The Fleet Admiral answered the call quite quickly and immediately inquired about the situation.

"As expected. Those responsible were not interested in the Marines and fled as soon as they noticed my presence. Though I have to say that they aren't simple." Aokiji reported and ended his statement with a mysterious remark.

"Oh, why do you say that?" Sengoku asked. Even though it was not that common for so many pirates to be taken down so quickly, most people with a bounty of at least 200 million would be able to do so fairly easily.

"First of all, it was reported that one of them used lightning strikes to get rid of the pirates. I can also confirm this, as most of their wounds look like they were caused by high voltage. But even though it sounds like the Goro Goro ni Mi, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, it could just be another devil fruit that grants similar abilities."

At these words, the snake that represented Senkgoku's face began to frown. If the Rumble Rumble Fruit that had been missing for hundreds of years was really reappearing, and if it was in the hands of someone who wasn't sure of his stance, then it would be another source of headaches for the Marines.

"There's another problem. Their ship has the ability to fly and they are currently heading for Recrui Island. The territory of one of the seven warlords."

After Aokiji finished his report, there was silence for a few minutes. Sengoku seemed to think about something.

"Let them go for now. If they can get rid of Paolo, that would be great. He has been an eyesore to me for a long time, staining the image of the Marines. I can't wait to get rid of him. I will also position Kizaru nearby. That way, if anything goes wrong, he can catch them immediately.

Even though you're strong enough to defeat them, your powers aren't really suited for chasing after a flying ship or the user of the Lightning Logia. You can return to Marineford for now, as I have another mission for you."

When he heard the last part of the message, Aokiji's face turned sour. He had really wanted to take some time off, but it didn't seem to be possible. Sengoku had already ended the conversation.

Even though Aokiji knew that he had a mission, he returned to Marineford at a relaxed pace and even took a few naps in between. After all, Sengoku hadn't mentioned how urgent this mission was.

'Working time fraud is still the best,' Aokiji thought as he pulled down his sleeping mask in the middle of the sea.

____________________

Leave some power stones or reviews! But only if you feel like it.

Number of Onions Aokiji dreamed of while sleeping: 12