A New Path - Chapter 195

Father, before you go!” Bradley walked over with steady steps. Amell turned to him with a smile, “Yes?” He said and waited for his son to speak.

“Welcome back! It is good to see you again, Father!” Bradley bowed in a show of respect he would not give any other person in this universe.

“You as well. You have fulfilled your duties better than I could have ever hoped. I am immensely proud of what you have accomplished.” Amell offered his hand and Bradley took it and shook it with pride.

“Thank you, Father. I will continue to fight in the name of The Gotei!”

“I would expect nothing less from you.” Amell took a second to appreciate this moment and then started walking towards the window. Robin had already gone ahead of him.

Upon the roof of the opposite building, Luffy and his crew stood looking at the massive building where just minutes before, a great massacre had taken place. How blissfully unaware these kids were, or else most of them might have emptied their stomachs from the brutality of Bradley’s actions.

“Luffy, what if Robin isn’t here anymore. What if they have already taken her somewhere else.” Chopper asked as he stood in his somewhat human-looking transformation. Nami glanced over at Luffy. Her train of thought was similar to Choppers. Most likely the only one not worried about that was Luffy, and that was only because when he does something, he can’t think about anything else. Rescuing Robin was everything present inside his mind and stuff like her inevitable transfer to HQ didn’t enter his mind.

“She’s here! I feel it!” Luffy stood there with dirt and blood all over his body. It had been one long endless fight to get to this point.

The door leading up to this roof opened up behind them and Robin walked out. The crew didn’t notice her arrival as they were too focused on the other building. “Hello? Are you guys okay?” Robin asked the statues that looked a lot like her crew. As her voice travelled out it caught the attention of them all and they turned around in perfect sync.

“ROBIN!” Nami was the first one to react as among the crew, her guilt was the highest for being the one that allowed this kidnapping to take place. She immediately wanted to rush over and hug her friend but Zoro stopped her. “This could be a trick. Why would they let you go?” His tone was cold as he questioned the woman in front of them.

“They didn’t. My grandpa came and beat you to it.” She winked at Zoro, trying to get him to let down his guard.

“Grandpa? Are you telling me your grandpa can just stroll in here just like that? Who is he?” The straw hats stood back and waited as Zoro questioned her. Even Luffy hung back this time, his usual goofy attitude wasn’t present this time.

“Why don’t you ask me that yourself” Zoro drew one of his swords and slashed it backwards as suddenly an immensely powerful present appeared behind him on the same platform he stood on. Amell who was the one that had appeared from thin air stopped Zoro’s sword with his index finger and smiled at the young swordsman.

“Be careful so you don’t hurt yourself with that blade. It is quite sharp.” Amell lowered his hand and watched as everyone except Luffy went completely wide-eyed and tense at the sight of him.

“Eh, who are you, Old man?” Luffy, although very clueless to the world wasn’t an idiot in combat. He, just like Zoro and Sanji noted how stupidly fast this man had to be to appear like that.

“LUFFY! T-T-THAT’S A-AMELL!! A PIRATE EMPEROR!!!” Usopp yelled while his heart was close to leaving his chest. Nami, Chopper was in the same tier of fright as Usopp. Amell was one of the very few individuals who everyone in every sea knew just by his face alone. He was maybe the most famous person in the world, alongside, Bradley and Garp and of course the other emperors.

“An emperor? Him?” Luffy was aware of the emperor titles given to certain pirates, he just didn’t care about it.

“Ace told me a lot about you, Luffy. You’re exactly as he described. Titles don’t impress you, do they?” Amell said as he observed Luffy’s personality in person. As he said, Ace’s description of Luffy was spot-on.

“Ace? You know Ace, Old man?!” Now Luffy seemed to come to life finally. Amell flashed away and appeared over by Robin.

“Yes, I do. He is one of my students.” Amell’s words gave the rest of the crew some much-needed enlightenment.

“I now understand why your brother is so strong, Luffy,” Sanji said as he lit another cig with somewhat shaky hands. His emotions ran from both excitement and fright. Only Zoro and he truly understood the difference between them and this man. They could physically feel themselves weakening when trying to compare themselves to Amell. Luffy knew Amell was strong, but he wasn’t the guy to look into the technical, and especially since Amell obviously wasn’t after them this time.

“a-a-are you going t-to k-k-kill us?” Nami managed to squeeze out, although her voice was quiet as a mouse.

“You can calm that beating heart of yours, Nami. Why would I hurt you?”

“Y-You know my name?!” This freaked her out more than her potentially dying.

“Do you think I wouldn’t look into my granddaughter’s crew. I know everything about all of you. Secrets don’t stay buried for long in front of my eyes.” This arrogant, yet threatening statement made Sanji flinch a little. He had one pretty big secret he would not want the crew to find out about.

“Anyway, I came here to see you, Monkey D Luffy for Shanks spoke highly of you,” Amell said seriously.

“Shanks? You know Shanks?!” Luffy got even more interested now than ever, Any mention of Shanks always got him super excited.

“Of course I know my fellow emperor. He likes you quite a lot, kid. And, you should know how proud he was when he saw your first bounty.”

“Shanks!” Luffy said and touched his hat. “Thanks, old man!” He said and looked up at Amell.

“No problem, kid. Now, come stand by Robin, or else you might die because of what’s to come.” Amell said casually, but Usopp, Chopper and Nami went completely stiff. They, of course, thought he was gonna kill them.

“Hurry!” Amell said once again, and this time Sanji and Zoro helped the three cowards to move.

After they positioned themselves beside Robin, Amell raised his hand and glanced back at the crew. “What’s your goal, kid? Are you aiming for the New World?” He was talking to Luffy.

“I will find the One Piece and become King of the pirates!” Luffy said proudly. He started to like Amell the instant he found out that he knew Shanks.

“Then observe. Getting the One Piece requires mighty strength. The New World is a hundred times tougher than the Grand Line. Maybe even more than that. So, observe this and experience the power of the New World.”

Amell raised his hand higher, and the higher he raised it the more violent the wind around them became. The tiles of the ground they stood upon were uprooted and they felt the entire island starting to shake more and more.

“AAAAH, WHAT IS THAT?!!” Usopp screamed at the top of his lungs and pointed upwards towards the sky. High above them, a tornado was forming. It was massive and you could even see lighting mixed in with it. Amell looked back at the crew with a mischievous smile.

“Hold one, kids!” He brough his hand downwards and the tornado started moving towards them. The fact that the tornado was bigger than the entire island was only one point of concern for the crew. The other one was that a fucking tornado was heading straight for them with no sign of stopping.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU OLD SENILE PSYCHOPATH!?” Nami yelled and before she got her answer she fainted, her mind appeared to have exhausted itself as she just fell down on the ground unconscious. Before the other two cowards could curse him out, Amell increased the speed of this makeshift tornado and it finally struck down on the island. A bright like coming from an unknown source came and blinded the crew, and together with came a massive explosion coupled with everything that would come with an island being literally obliterated off the surface of the world.

The crew couldn’t open their eyes for a couple of minutes, but when they finally could, they almost all lost strength in their legs and fell down on the ground. Of the entirety of Enies Lobby, only the piece they stood on was left, and that piece of ground was floating in the air above where Enies Lobby had stood just minutes before.

“W-WHAT THE HEEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!” Usopp once again spoke for the rest of the crew when he opened his mouth and screamed the first words that made sense to say at a time like this.

“Welcome to the Big Leagues, Straw Hat Luffy!” Amell said with a casual smile on his face.

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End