One Piece: Luffy’s Big Brother. - Chapter 127
(A/N: Sorry for the waiting, the thing is I was busy, had a lacking of motivation and… I was doubting… yes, this chapter gave me a headache for a reason or another, I was doubting if this was a good idea or not… but then I thought meh I will just write another chap if it’s bad… Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it…)
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*Amazon lily*
Weeks have passed since Edam decided to destroy the very symbol of invincibility represented by the Red Line.
The entire island was currently in a state of alert. The news fell like a loud and explosive thunder bang because…
The Empress fell unconscious!
At first, it was just her coughing a bit, but even then Edam told her to go see a doctor but she refused and said that it was nothing at all.
And then the next day, she started to vomit, but she threw the fault on her food.
And today as she was just about to go to Edam’s location which was at a floating island training quietly, her eyes went blurry and hazy as she suddenly collapsed to everyone’s surprise and shock.
…
Seeing Hancock falling to the ground, Marie and Sonia’s faces became pale as a white t-shirt.
“Big Sis?! What’s happening?!” They ran like two furious bulls.
“Snake Princess!” The other Kuja’s present was running as fast as they could.
But, before anyone could touch her, Hancock’s pendant glowed a bright blood-red light as a dome of energy instantly formed around her whole being, protecting her from anything harmful to her.
Crack!
In the next instant, a sort of pulsation resonated, and space was instantly torn apart by a hand.
Edam immediately arrived as he hastily took Hancock in his arms and glanced at the girls. “What happened?”
“We, we don’t know, Big Sis was just going to join you when she suddenly collapsed on the ground…!” Sonia explained with a panicking expression.
“…” Edam pondered and looked at Hancock with a tint of worry. Her face was somehow pale and painful it seems. “Alright, calm down, go and call the doctor, this is maybe a disease that I don’t know how to deal with, I will bring her to her room…”
…
He then did as he said and brought her to her room, and waited for the doctor to come.
The doctor rapidly arrived to examine her but even after a whole half an hour, she just couldn’t point out what was wrong with her.
The doctor just never saw such symptoms in her life and it was a first for her.
Gloriosa though had a strange expression on her face. ‘Don’t tell me… but why is she so sick? Expecting shouldn’t be so dangerous, so why?’
The night quickly went down, while Hancock’s state seemed to go from bad to worse as hours passed by, but with no one able to help and no treatments working either.
As for Edam, after the sun went down, he who was the calmest among them all finally started to panic a bit.
Although he heard the doctor’s report he wasn’t listening at all, he would only listen when she would say something useful.
Although the doctor was saying that they should wait and let it be till tomorrow, he felt like this just wasn’t normal.
The fluctuation of her body was way too strange and so, from morning to night, he tried all the methods he could think of but nothing seemed to work at all.
And just when he was surely going to have insomnia tonight, Yamote’s voice reached him.
“May I examine her, Master?”
“Yamote…?”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you come earlier, I forgot to seek you…” Edam exclaimed slightly before sighing. “No, it’s my fault, I apologize, please take a look and tell me some good news alright?”
“Ah! Jesus! Master, I dare not accept your apologies!” Yamote exclaimed with a dreadful expression.
“Who?”
“…? Jesu- ah never mind, let me take a look at my Master’s little Empress…”
Yamote happily flapped his wings to turn around and take a good look at Hancock but at the moment his eyes went on her, his pupils slightly constricted.
“Oh my God…” Yamote mumbled under his breath.
“What? What is it?” Edam with his sharp ears heard him and asked worriedly. “Is she in danger?”
“…” Yamote took another gaze. “…Well, yes she is in danger, and her condition is rather incredible…”
“Yes? And?”
“First of all Master, you have to know that in normal times, you and she should have never, never, never, met in this life…”
“…Yes, but we did, so…?”
Yamote looked at Hancock again as he started to explain.
“There are two reasons as to why little Empress is so sick right now…” He said and continued.
“The first is due to her relationship with you my lord…”
“What…?” Edam exclaimed with some shock and surprise.
“A life is developing in her wȯmb…”
“…What…?” Edam’s brain went blank for a moment. “What did you…”
“Well, you know the expressions right? A bun in the oven, the seed has been planted, you knock her up, anyway what I mean is that… Little Hancock is pregnant!”
Edam’s eyes widened in an instant before exclaiming immediately with a very lively expression.
“Are you sure?! Are you truly sure?!” Edam took Yamote in his hands and shook him.
“Yes, yes, I’m sure, I may not look like it but I have helped multiple unfortunate women to give birth alright?” Yamote said with a lot of pride.
“It’s amazing! It means that I’m a father right?” Edam completely ignored his words and was lively like never before. Although he wasn’t in a hurry to have a baby, hearing this news gave him a boost for morale more than three thousand times.
“Well yes but umm I don’t want to be depressing but, the baby has yet to be born, a lot can happen, like miscarriage-…”
“…” A frowning expression came across Edam’s face as he looked at him.
“I, I mean nothing will happen of course but-… A- anyway…”
“What is the second reason then…?” Edam asked sternly.
“Yes, the second reason is the most serious. Even though you don’t know this, you are unconsciously and naturally releasing two special types of energy known as Creation and Destruction, two of the greatest concepts needed to maintain the balance of existence, second only to the two primordial concepts …”
Yamote said as if he was repeating a lesson and added.
“And little Hancock just happens to have a strong affinity with Destruction… and from what I can see, the energy of Destruction has accumulated and formed a sort of Destruction Core somehow and it is getting stronger and stronger, it’s the first time I see such a thing, this is surely a particularity of her from being born on this Side…”
“And is it dangerous?”
“Extremely… Destruction is a great concept but only when it is under control…” Yamote said and took a worrying look at Hancock.
“And most importantly, little Hancock is still an ordinary mortal being who hasn’t been trained to control neither Godly Ki nor Destruction Ki, her body cannot handle it…”
“And how can I solve this?”
“Hmm, you may have heard of some people speaking of Other Side, Other Shore, Outside or Other Whatever it is?”
“The little Zeno you mean?”
“Little-?” Yamote choked on his breath before shaking his head. “Anyway, I indeed know a certain solution, but we would have to go to the Other Side…”
“Alright, when…?” Edam replied immediately.
“The sooner, the better… Destruction isn’t something to mess around with…”
“…” Having heard that it was his fault that she was lying in the bed kinda killed him internally.
“Wait for a second and why can I handle and even create this Destruction…?”
“…It’s because you and little Empress have two very different constitutions… while she is a mortal, you are…” Yamote replied and then pondered over something before speaking.
“…Master, you are born with a divine consciousness…”
“…” Edam didn’t even react to this sentence for half a minute or so, feeling dull and insensible to this rather unbelievable information.
“…A divine consciousness…?”
“Yes, in other words, you are a natural-born divine being, something rarer than a unicorn yes but due to some special circumstances, you’re not able to draw upon your divine powers yet…”
“Then, that’s the reason I can handle this energy of Destruction?”
“Exactly, however, you still haven’t awoken all your powers, only your Saiyan bloodline heritage has been awakened by now since you can transform at will right…?”
“…How do you know? I haven’t even tried it yet…”
“This is not important for now…”
“Anyway, do we have a limited time…?”
Yamote nodded and added with a solemn expression. “Yes, about nine months but it has a lot of chances to go berserk at any moment. It seems like the core is directly linked to the baby, the child should be the reason this core can exist in the first place, this is unbelievable…”
“Can I… Can’t I just do something to relieve her of her pain, do you have a method…?” Edam looked at Hancock and couldn’t help but feel pain seeing her pale face. He couldn’t support seeing her in this state.
“Hmmm…” The bird pondered. “I do, it’s a magic spell consisting of binding two souls and redirecting about fifty percent of the pain and energy caused by the core to you…”
“Fifty percent? Can’t we go higher than that?”
“Nope…”
“…Okay, do it, please…” Edam quickly replied.
“Well, let me do my work at least, this is a bad idea, before you ascend to godhood, I recommend that you-…”
“Just do it…”
“As you wish…” Yamote shrugged and didn’t even try to persuade him and executed the orders. “Tch, as stubborn as ever, you never listen to my advice, don’t come complaining later on…”
Another hour passed again before Yamote finally finished his spell. “It is done…”
Ting!
The moment the spell was made, Edam felt his heart constricting and his face paled for a split second, as his vision went hazy and his knee met the ground to his astonishment.
He frowned and snorted before quickly returning to normal.
“A-Are you fine, my lord?” Yamote asked, a bit worried.
“I’m fine, this is nothing…” Edam calmly stood up but didn’t show anything outward. As he looked at Hancock’s expression slowly relaxing, he heaved a sigh of relief.
“Uh…” Yamote was surprised by this it seems. “The energy of destruction doesn’t just destroy the physical matter but also destroys the metaphysical things like the essence, the consciousness, and the soul, I doubt that you are just fine…”
“When I say that I’m fine, it means that I can withstand it, don’t worry…”
“Alright then… as the core will grow the pain will grow too, she won’t wake up any time soon, the baby and the core are putting a huge toll on her…”
“…” Edam was silent once more before asking. “Anyway, when can we go?” He was eager to put an end to this.
“I should be able to prepare the gate in three days or so…” Yamote calculated with his fingers or feathers.
“Alright, can you leave me alone for some time?”
“Of course…” Yamote did as he was told and left the room.
…
Edam was sitting on his chair and ċȧrėssing her pale face. ‘Hold on alright? I will heal you for sure…”
His mood currently wavering between, silence, sadness, and anger over himself.
‘It’s my fault…’
Although he knew that this anger wasn’t justified in any way, he couldn’t help but blame himself or more like he just wanted to blame someone and he was perfect for this role.
He always feared that something would happen if he were to stay with her because of their differences in species.
And it did happen in the end, but not because he was a Saiyan and she was a human being, but because of something that he just couldn’t have known and predicted in fact.
‘Energy of Destruction, Gods, I mean true Gods… and now I have to deal with that… Sigh…” He lowered his head with a sigh.
However, even while he was feeling bad about all this… as his gaze fell on her abdomen, all his negative feelings seemed to fade away.
“Hey there, little guy or little girl…?” Edam said with a faint smile as he gently put his hand on her tummy, his expression turning incredibly soft despite feeling very low since morning.
“Don’t worry, I will heal your mom, no matter what happens, no matter what it takes to…”
His eyes lit up with a particularly resolute light.
…
To stabilize the energy of destruction, it needs to be balanced…
And so, for three days, Edam started to forge a huge and magnificent dome-like bed, forged with his own blood and Ki under the advice of Yamote.
The bed was rather huge with enough space for two persons and was made of a golden-crystalline metal with a thin layer of golden energy serving as a cover-like dome. And the mattress was made of some fossilized clouds that Edam took from a celestial island, being extremely smooth to the touch.
The bed was bursting with an incredible and tremendous life force.
Any severely wounded people who were to sleep inside would certainly see their physical and mental wounds healing at top speed.
Edam put all his knowledge, either in Ki manipulation or Magic into practice and certainly built something that could rival an Ancient Weapon in value.
At the end of the day, this fortress-like bed could only be forcefully opened by a power greater than his…
He also created two magic emblems to open the barrier covering it and gave it to Sonia and Marie, the only two people that he would ever entrust Hancock to.
And he lastly ‘upgraded’ the necklace he created for her…
The effort and resources put to defend her were overly exaggerated but he couldn’t care less anymore… the life of his baby and the love of his life were on the line…
…
*Three days later*
They had already explained the vital point of why Hancock was sick and they also told them about her pregnancy. This sent a shock although some of them didn’t know the concept of pregnancy which was very awkward.
“Edam, save Big Sis alright?” Marie and Sonia said.
Edam nodded quietly and spoke with a faint smile. “I will give my life if I have to…”
And there was no joke in his words, he would do everything necessary to save the both of them.
He then bade his farewell to the others before going into Hancock’s room where the latter was lying quietly. Watching her face, it seems as if she could wake up at any moment.
He brushed her hair with his hand and gave a very soft kiss on her lips.
“I’m coming back right away, Princess…”
Looking at Yamote, he nodded. “Alright let’s go…”
“Yes, Master…” Yamote replied and did his magic.
A large gate was opened and a vast expanse of white could be seen in there.
He looked at her reluctantly one last time and entered the gate.
The gate crumbled behind them and space started to accelerate to move forward.
And just like that, the two were gone for a small journey.
…