A Joke
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One Piece: Desperate
🕑 Added 2021-09-24 00:07:39 +0000 UTCChapter 106: Metamorphosis
***
Marine Base G-5, was a place in the New World where the worst of the worst amongst Marines go. Only people like Smoker and Vergo were able to keep these kinds of rowdy people in check.
Of course, today was a special day as the base would be transferred from Vergo's command to Admiral Max's. The transaction would have normally been done silently, but since the new leader was an Admiral. Everyone except some guards lined up in the courtyard of the base.
***
-Max POV-
*POOF!!*
I kicked off the air, creating a miniature storm behind me as I was in my Awakened form.
Having left my ship behind, I decided to get to the G-5 base as soon as I could. That place had the scum of the Marines in there. It was a clear downward spiral and the Five Elders weren't even trying to hide their actions from me anymore.
I wonder if Sharlia will survive the onslaught? She was smart, but not overly cautious. She doesn't understand betrayal. Sooner or later, a knife will find its way on her back. A lion thinks of himself as the king of the jungle. But it wasn't the strongest animal there, even a simple snake with a strong venom can kill it if it catches the beast off guard.
But if I was around and Sharlia made the right moves, she could survive.
I finally caught sight of the G-5 base and while it wasn't big or special. It will be my headquarters for a while. So I had to get used to it.
The first thing I did was release my Conqueror's Haki. The sky rumbled, the ground shook and the air around me crackled. Turning back to my human form, I landed back on the ground.
BOOOM!!
A small crater was made around me as I didn’t bother trying to soften the landing. Everyone looked at me fearfully. Even Smoker and Vergo had beads of sweat roll down their forehead. Tashigi seemed nervous and her breaths were labored. I didn't want anyone to pass out so I had controlled my Haki to hit weaker people with less of an intensity.
"Hello everyone~" I greeted them cheerfully. "I am glad that you are all here. This makes things simpler. Now, I am your new boss, so we will change some things around here. First and foremost, we will start attacking the nearby island known as Hand Island."
Hand Island was a place that used to be under Whitebeard's control. Now it had become anarchy with him dead, there was no order or anything in there.
The Five Elders wanted me to go to the New World and keep quiet while they sneakily try to weaken/destroy my kingdoms or cut the influence I have on them.
Well, the joke was on them, this... had been what I wanted all along. Now I can start my conquest in the New World too. Something like them trying to move me away had been inevitable, as long as I was an Admiral they couldn't move me to any of the Blue Seas.
Plus with the shortage of Admirals even if they wanted they won’t be able to do it. After all, they weren’t all-mighty and if they acted with bad leadership they would be booted out. People were already enraged with the World Nobles, just look at how they treated Doflamingo and his family.
The world doesn't need a reason to revolt, just give them the power and a strong leader… like… let’s say an admiral is sent in one of the Blues and is fed up with the World Government. Yeah, it was a bad idea to send me anywhere.
At least in the New World, I would have competition and obstacles, so from their point of view, this was the best choice. Now if I was in their shoes, what would I do next? They can’t kill me directly and assassination won’t work. They learned that when Aokiji died. Now they might try and make Gion go against me by telling her that Aokiji was really killed by me, but that wouldn’t lead anywhere.
Why would she be able to do something when the World Government couldn’t? She would see that and decide to not do anything. No one wanted to die for nothing, plus at least I don’t support slavers so that would make me better in her eyes.
Now there was only one move left that they could make and that was… poison. They will try to poison me. Probably the poison will come from some spy that I haven’t noticed or be input from some airborne method that I won’t notice.
Unlike the Five Elders who don’t put themselves in anyone’s shoes, after all, why would someone so powerful want to be in a struggling everyday person’s shoes? Anyway, growing in power and wealth has blinded them in one eye. I have been poor, weak, powerful, and rich. I can put myself in their shoes and guess what they want.
Once you know what someone wants, then their actions are predictable. I have never been remarkable, and even when reborn I wasn’t born special. There were another million people like me out there. But there were so many people like me that I understood them, I knew what would make them tick, what would make them angry, what would make them love… and I knew exactly how to act and manipulate them.
People were so manipulative subconsciously, they didn't even know they were doing it.
Seeing that none of the G-5 Marines hadn’t moved I raised a questioning brow. “What are you waiting for? Go and get the ships ready.”
Releasing another burst of Conqueror’s Haki brought them to their senses and they went to do their jobs and get ready. Maybe I was too harsh on the first burst of Conqueror’s Haki?
Lately, my Conqueror’s Haki has been growing exponentially, I am not sure of the reason. Maybe because I am exerting my ambition and getting closer to it? Who knows, Haki had always been a very abstract power that had weird strange… Now that I think about it, it must be because I fought some monsters during the Marineford War.
**
On Wano a light blue serpentine dragon without eyes, in its place were only scars. But as it flew, its body moved calmly. This was the Yonko Kaido, while he had lost his sight… the man had gained something even more important.
Now he no longer saw Oden’s death when he slept and envied the man even in his dreams. Instead, he had gained an ambition that he had long since forgotten. Kaido no longer wanted a legendary death. He landed on top of his castle and turned into his human form.
His Observation Haki spread around like a tidal wave, in an instant he sensed the presence of everyone in a big chunk of Wano. Suddenly, he also started sensing something else.
“I am hungry.”
“I hate Orochi.”
“I… am starving…”
The emotions of the people in Wano suddenly hit him like a tsunami. It made even the unbreakable Kaido stumble a bit. “W -What was that?” he asked confusingly.
It wasn’t just the happiness that was in the capital of Wano that hit him. But the overwhelming despair of everyone else. It felt like a hungry beast and Kaido didn’t like feeling so much pain. It was distracting and annoying.
_____
A/N: Max knows how it feels to not be special, how to be the random schmuck on the side of the road. He dreamed of being in someone else’s shoes, anyone else’s... so with that, he became able to enter people’s minds (metaphorically, not for real) and predict what they would most likely do next.
P.S: This was explained in case I might not decide to give a background chapter to Max’s
backstory. He was a normal guy put in a desperate situation, that’s all there is to him initially.
Though we can’t say he isn’t special now.
