Chapter 128: The princess is NOT in another castle II

Chapter 128: The princess is NOT in another castle II

 
Right here, right there, next to a normal sized Shirahoshi, stood the princess of Alabasta, Vivi Nefertari. Almost three years ago, she would have run to her friends after not seeing them for so long. Hugged some of them and may have cried a bit. It wasn’t the same Vivi that they were facing now. Rick was already aware of the change but for the rest of the crew this was new. She was more like a queen than anything. Which she was technically since her father was dead. Nami immediately rushed to her sky blue haired friend and gave her one of her deadly hugs that was reciprocated.

“So this is where you were all this time?” Rick asked, moving a few steps forward.
“Yes. When Vice Admiral Garp brought me back from MarineFord, he also led me back to the gathering. I had just finished my speech for the dissolution of the Shichibukai that the Revolution Army attacked. It was chaos. King Neptune was kind enough to hide me with his party when the guards began to look for me. When I learned about my father, he brought me back with him here.” she replied with more of a bitter than a sad tone.
“It wasn’t Sabo!” Luffy quickly defended his brother.
“I know. The R.A. is fighting against the World Government and Tyrants. My father was a benevolent king, people loved him. There is no way the R.A. would have targeted him. Not when other rulers like Wapol were present.”
“Perhaps it would be better to talk about such things tomorrow when everyone is rested?” proposed Neptune.

Luffy agreed because it meant food. Making their way towards the dining room, Rick closed the march a few feet behind Vivi and Nami who were speaking in a low voice. The latter suddenly walked faster as the former slowed down until she stopped completely. He did the same, maintaining a certain distance between them. They didn’t utter a single word for a long minute. Past that, still looking forward and showing him her back, the princess finally spoke.

“Is this her? The daughter you nearly killed a god and kidnapped me for?”
“Yes. However you’re misunderstanding something. I didn’t kidnap you for her. I kidnapped you for you. I could have taken anyone else. I chose you.”
“... She’s pretty.” she replied, ignoring most of his answer and started walking again without adding anything else.
“That’s it?”
“Is there anything else to talk about?”
“...Plenty.”
“None of them are your business.”
“Not true. One of them is.”

Having enough of her attitude he took big strides and put himself on her way.

“I don’t expect an answer. It’s neither the time nor the place. I do expect however to hear and listen about how you’re doing and how you feel.” he announced looking down to meet her eyes.
“Why do you care?”
“...Do not play that card with me Vivi. I always cared. I got out of my hiding place to search for you three years ago, despite knowing that both marines and pirates would be on my ass.”
“And yet you weren’t there.” she said and before he could put in a word continue. “I didn’t expect you to come back to me on the spot. I did hope you would come.”
“And here I am.”
“After a year. You didn’t come for me. You came to go back to the New World.”
“Now that’s not entirely true. First things first, when we separated I went straight from Marine Ford to my destination. I didn’t even see a single newspaper during that time. My daughter didn’t even know who I was or that I was alive, she could have waited a bit more without knowing any better. Secondly, I have been Kaidou’s captive for the first eight months. Third, the moment we learned of what happened when we left Wano two months ago, Luffy decided to put his search of the Once Piece on hold for several reasons which included finding you. We even went to Alabasta hoping you were just hiding there or to get some news about you.”
“...”
“Ask anyone in the crew.” he ended the conversation with and joined the others in the dining room, leaving behind a conflicted Vivi.

~~~~~

“Ouch!” Eri said as she rubbed the spot on her head that her father had just whacked.
“Let that be a lesson. Just because you can feel or perhaps even see it coming doesn’t mean you can escape it. You should not just focus on your swordsmanship and haki training.” he explained.
“I could use armament?”
“No.” he denied, shaking his head. “Even if you’re fast enough to use armament on the point of impact before the said impact you’d be using a precious resource. Why use the limited amount of haki you have when simply dodging because you’re fast enough to do so is better?”

Eri nodded at that and took her stance again, ready for another round of sparring with her father. Not more than that though. She was too tired for more. In another room of the palace, Shirahoshi in a child height form was sitting on Nami’s lap and was getting her hair done. Next to them was Robin, listening attentively to her wife and Vivi talking.

“... how he is, Vivi. If he could have, he would have roamed the whole world to find you.”
“Why couldn’t he?” she replied in a cold tone.
“Wano is not just not part of the World Government. It’s completely isolated from the rest of the world. Kaidou made it even worse for the past twenty years. We never got any news about what was happening out there and we were free, unlike Rick.”
“... He may have said something about being Kaidou’s captive.”
“He was.”
“I find that hard to believe. He’s… him!”
“Yet it’s the truth.” intervened Robin. “Was it not for the skin and the missing afro, you could have mistaken him for Brook. Zoro was the one who found him in a stroke of luck and he refused to tell us how bad he was. Chopper and Reiju just said months of starvation and that was it. And I’m not even talking about Diana trying to turn him mad to possess his body. Less we talk about that the better.”
“You can’t put unreasonable expectations on his shoulders and blame him when he can’t meet them Vivi.” Nami said with finality.

“Wait! Back up please. Who's Diana? Why did she want to possess him?”
“Diana is…  A goddess?” an unsured Robin stated.
“A goddess.” Vivi repeated flatly.
“It’s what she said, though we know her as the sea devil.” the brunette explained.
“... Right.”
“It’s true. It’s complicated.”

~~~~~

“Was it really that bad, your majesty?” inquired Jimbei.
“A celestial dragon tried to capture Shirahoshi as if she was an animal and nobody but princess Vivi and the princesses from Dressrosa intervened. The navy themselves did nothing. Was it not for your vice-captain…” the king replied with a good deal of anger. “I truly want our people to live under the sun, to realize Otohime’s dream but what can I do when even my own daughter is treated like that?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps… No, that wouldn’t be right.”
“Go on, don’t hold out on me, Jimbei.”
“The Revolutionary Army.”
“Them… They didn’t leave a good impression at the reverie, I’m afraid.”
“They’re the only ones openly defying the World Nobles.”
“Not the only ones.”
“... He’s only one man.” noted aloud the former head of guards, understanding who the king was referring too. “Powerful, yes but he can’t take the whole world on his own. Not like he wouldn’t do it if push came to shove but he would fail. Even if you support him it wouldn’t be enough.”
“I guess we won’t find an answer today.” Neptune sighed.
“No but we will soon. The world is changing. The World Government is becoming more aggressive each day that passes because they’re losing control. Either to the pirates or the R.A. . I don’t think it will take long before war happens and I wouldn’t bet on the World Government as a sure thing.”
“Wait and see, then.”
“I believe it’s the best course of action.”

~~~~~

“If it was anyone else I wouldn’t believe it. I still have my doubts, though. I mean… The sea devil?!”
“We know. We believe it because we saw it multiple times with our own eyes.” replied Nami as she put the last touch on the mermaid princess’ new hairdo.
“I need to see that for myself.” Vivi stood up and left the room to find Rick. After asking a pair of patrolling guards, she found the correct room. The first thing she noticed was Eri sitting lazily on the ground while Rick was kneeling beside her putting some ice on her brow. There was blood on his hands.

“Your mother is going to kill me.” he said as he removed the ice and looked at the wound.
“If she learns about it…” replied the redhead.
“If… I like the sound of that. You split and hurt your head against the edge of a table?”
“Hmm.” was her agreement. “During a storm. I wasn’t paying attention, the ground was wet, the boat suddenly rocked...”
“Good. How do you feel? Besides cold?”
“My head doesn’t ring as much anymore but the headache is bad.”
“I’ll bring you to Chopper or Reiju.” he replied and looked at the cut properly now that the blood stopped flowing. “It doesn’t seem to be that deep, maybe stitches won’t be necessary. It will leave a small scar regardless but honestly, you look really cool with it.”
“I don’t want to look cool, dad.”
“You’ll have to be. There are only two options when you’re famous. Either you look cool, like Zoro or Mihawk or you look like a beggar like Rayleigh and red-haired Shanks.”
“There isn’t a middle ground?”
“There is but those people are not remembered.”
“... I guess I’ll be cool then.” She accepted, bringing a smile to Rick’s face.
“Come on, time to have that cut properly checked.” He picked her up and sat her on his shoulders. Turning around to exit the room he saw Vivi, his wifes and Shiroshi looking at him. “Yes?”
“Show me.” ordered the Alabastan princess.
“Show you what?” a confused Rick replied.

“The horns. Diana.”
“No.” was an utmost firm answer. “She’s not a circus animal that you can…”
‘I don’t mind.’
‘...Are you sure?’
‘Yes, now go on, give me control.’

Not fighting her when she began to take over, his body began to change for the usual appearance Diana displayed when she was in control. Horns like a devil and blood red pupils with a circle in the middle.

“What is it you want of me?” inquired Diana with Rick’s voice. Her divine presence, quite diminished in general and barely noticeable in consequences, usually expressed itself by her body’s language more than the devilish feature. However, thanks to Eri it was non-existent. The teenager had gripped the horns with her hands.
“Wow, they’re real.”
“Could you not touch my horns?” chastised Diana as she raised her head to look at the redhead.
“... You’re not my dad.” the young girl understood immediately and let go.
“I am not. Now, I’m not asking a second time, Nefertari Vivi.”
“I… Sorry, I just… wanted to see what Nami and Robin were talking about.”
“Satisfied?” The quick nod she got was all the answer she needed. “Good. Do not bother me again for something so mundane. I’m busy.”

And with that she relinquished control to Rick. Without another word he exited the room.

“That was…”
“Not what you expected?” tried Nami.
“Yes. And every time he got furious he…”
“Got all horny? Hmm.”
“This is… mind blowing. To think gods are real and walking among us.”
“Not gods. Just her if she’s even one to begin with. And she’s not really walking around freely, she needs Rick for that.” Robin corrected.
“I wonder… Why is she going along with her situation? Can’t she take control of his body at will?” inquired Vivi.
“I don’t know. Neither does he. She has her own agenda, of that I’m sure, and staying on the crew is part of it.”

With that said, Robin left the room to find her husband. Taking a page of his book, she bloomed eyes everywhere she could and quickly found him. Instead of running to catch up since he wasn’t very far, she created a clone right next to him.

“How did that happen?” she asked, walking by his side.
“Good question. Eri, how did that happen?”
“...”
“Louder. Nobody heard your mumbling.”
“I got wacked because I was over confident in my abilities.” she replied in a barely whining tone.
“Indeed. You’re lucky it’s me and not grandpa. At best you would have died.”
“Dying is the best I could have gotten?”
“Oh, yeah. He could have hit you not hard enough to kill you but hard enough to make you a vegetable or someone with impaired faculties. Like you could have lost the ability to speak.”
“I can’t believe grandpa is that hard an instructor.”
“I was under ten when he left me on a deserted island to survive. There were beasts three times my size.” he replied flatly. 

She stayed silent at the idea of Garp being a mad teacher for the rest of the walk. It was a very short one, Chopper being in the lunch room with Luffy and Usopp.

“Chopper, do you have a minute? We have an injured.” he said and made Eri float, removing her from his shoulders and putting her down in front of the reindeer who immediately began to work.

“That doesn’t look like it’s very deep. The face is one of the parts of the body with the most numerous and small blood vessels, so the amount of blood is not surprising. Often, it’s worse that people believe it at first. Hmm… Yes, it’s not that deep. The blood wouldn’t have stopped flowing otherwise.” he said and opened his bag to take what was needed to treat Eri. He cleaned the wound first, then put a steri-strip on it. “You will have a small scar. Had it been anywhere else but there, it would heal normally but the cut is right on the brow. While the tissues will recover properly, the hair will not grow again at this location.”
“Thank you, Chopper.”

The crew’s doc gave her a smile, put everything back in his bag and went back to take a seat at the table. Soon enough the whole crew joined and had a fun time. Once dessert was over and everyone was leaving to do their own thing, Rick caught up to Luffy.

“What’s the plan?”
“We’re leaving tomorrow.”
“And after that?”
“...I’m not decided yet.”
“You’re not?” Rick replied in shock. Luffy not making a decision on the spot was a first.
“No… But I think we’ll go see Buggy. I don’t want to do the journey we already did, so… I was thinking, we should go kick his ass and from there let the pose guide us.”
“Alright. I’ll warn everyone to prepare for our departure tomorrow. What about Vivi? Are we taking her with us or…”
“No. Her journey is not with us. At least not right now.”
“Noted.”

~~~~~

“What do you want to do? What’s your plan?”

Rick was enjoying a nice tea time with the girls of the crew. Eri was completely worn out after a whole morning and a whole afternoon of training and needed a much needed break. To her despair, he sat her in his lap and didn’t let her go. Robin was of course by his side, amused by her step daughter’s will to get out of her current situation but without the strength to even move a muscle. Reiju, Shirahoshi and Nami were talking about fashion after the afternoon of shopping they did. Baby-5 was serving everyone and participating in the conversation. That only left Vivi who was talking with Rick.

“I don’t know. I’m pretty sure, the world government murdered my father and would not hesitate to do the same to me. I can’t go back home. Not for the foreseeable future.”
“So you will just stay there and do nothing?”
“What choice do I have?!”
“From what I heard from Shishi, you could go to Dressrosa. You could also get into contact with the R.A.,. War is coming, Vivi. You must be ready.”

“I know but what can I do? Neither King Neptune or King Riku will directly help me. Not when the whole Government is the enemy. Not because they may not want to but because they can’t.”
“Can’t help you with that. Though, you always had a knack for rallying the right people that may help you reach your goal, so I’m not that worried.” he replied with a smile.