"So...That was interesting." Aden said as he sat down at the ship railing, clearly relaxed.
"Why are you so calm!? The marines are following us?" screamed Nami.
"No they're not." Aden said simply.
"What do you m....?" "Guys?" Lucci, ever observant, got the others' attention.
"Take a look at that." he pointed behind them.
The others rushed to see what he saw and once they did, a snapping sound could be heard as their minds had to restart.
The marine ships were indeed trying to follow, but were being kept at bay in the bay, by a vertical wall of swirling wind. This vortex of compressed air was so fast, it was sucking water into itself, and condensing it at the center. This resulted in a temperature to drop and shards of ice to form in the vortex.
The Straw-Hats then turned to look at Aden with mouths wide open and eyes bulging out.
Meanwhile he was sitting there and calmly making himself a cup of tea.
The casual way he was breaking the laws of nature was something they decided to simply accept. They knew what kind of monster Aden was. With the exception of Franky and Lucci, that is.
After getting over their shock, everyone began to pepper Aden with questions. Usopp and Chopper kept asking him to demonstrate his powers, as they found them cool.
It was later in the day, when they all settled down and gave him some space.
That is when he walked up to Nami.
"Yo, Little Thief."
"Aden, you need something?" she turned to him still keeping an eye on the wheel and the Log Pose.
"Yeah." he said, reqching into the left inner pocket of his coat. "I got this letter from Nojiko for you. If you want i can take a message back, but don't get used to this. I'm not a seagull." he finished speaking with a smirk.
"Thank you so much! And just tell her i'm safe. And that i miss her." Nami said excitedly and got a nod of agreement. She then hugged him, so he gave a quick one armed hug back. Sanji damn near ripped his hair out when he saw this.
"So, Aden right?" Franky approached nervously.
"That's me." Aden said near sarcastically turned around to look at him with a grin.
"I was wondering... Are you a part of the crew as well?" Franky asked.
"Well...No, not anymore. I left after seeing the others kept relying on me as the fallback option. Not consciously mind you, but at the back of their mind they kept thinking i would save the day if shit hit the fan. So i left to protect them." Aden explained with a slightly saddened look.
"I see. Yeah that kinda makes sense. So how long are you gonna stick around?" Franky kept talking to Aden, no longer nervous, seeing as the guy was just a guy. A guy with a lot of power, sure. But still a guy. Maybe even a bro.
"A couple days maybe? I left my crew alone on the other border of the Grand Line, so i'll have to go back soon." Aden answered.
Luffy then decided to throw a party in his brother's honor. Suffice it to say they all got drunk.
.
It was a couple days later, spent by telling stories and getting to know the newcomers. Franky got along well with Aden, but Lucci was still a bit distant. Not hostile, just keeping to himself, but no longer giving Aden the cold shoulder, even engaging in a conversation from time to time.
This entire day it was dark even though it was the middle of the day, due to heavy fog they encountered this morning. Franky explained they were in famously haunted waters, which caused Chopper and Usopp to freak out. That was why they were both dressed up in a full ghost-hunting getup, crosses and garlic strapped to their bodies. Nami seemed to hold herself together a bit better, but she still took a cross necklace from Usopp. Just in case according to her words.
The group was mocking and poking fun at each other's expense, but they all knew it was just the nerves. Until Lucci decided to cut the banter off.
"That's enough, you guys! There is no such things as ghosts or ghost ships. It's all just stories to scare childr.....!"
"~Yo ho hooooooo....yo ho ho hoooo
Yo ho ho hooooo.....yo ho ho hooo.....
Gather up all of the crew!...
It's time to ship out Binks's brew.....~"
A creepy song came from the fog, as a huge ship that seemed to barely hold together could be seen going in the opposite direction.
On the deck was a skeleton with an afro, wearing a dark-purple tattered suit, holding a cup and coaster with a purple cane hanging on its forearm.
"S.s.s.s.s.s.ss..ss..SKELETON!!!!" screamed Usopp, Nami and Chopper, as they hid behind Sanji, Aden and Zoro.
"Oh my...Living people...It has been a while..." the skeleton spoke in a detached voice.
"A talking skeleton? That's new." said Aden calmly. He had a slight recollection of this skeleton named Crook or whatever his name was. He could not remember much, besides him being a good guy. So Aden decided he stayed long enough and spoke to the others.
"Well you guys can handle this. I'm gonna return to my crew. See ya... ~ and good luck~"
Aden said with a smile as he dissolved into thin air at the end of his sentence.
"Wait! You can't just leave us like that!" shouted Nami.
"See ya bro." Luffy simply waved goodbye towards the sky.
"AHADEEEEEENNN!" Usopp and Chopper cried for him to come back as they were really terrified.
"Oh dear. He just disappeared. Was that a ghost?" the skeleton asked as he sipped his tea.
"YOU'RE THE GHOST YA MORON!" shouted Zoro and Sanji.
"WHAAAT!?"
.
.
.
As Aden flew above the fog, he noticed an area where the fog seemed thinner, and upon closer inspection, he spotted a huge artificial island.
"Thriller Bark?" Aden said aloud as the thought popped in his head. He knew there was gonna be some issues there for Luffy to settle, but he wasn't sure if he should interfere. He could just sink the island and noone would be the wiser. Grand Line is famous for freak weather accidents, after all. And besides, he did not sense any people besides one in the castle. The shuffling zombies did not count. He did sense a large area that appeared to be a village, but nobody was alive there. Only corpses left behind, and from what he sensed, it has been the case for a while.
Deciding to risk it for the biscuit, he approached the island and began to emit small sparks of electricity. A good wa, to try out his newly found power, he thought.
Absorbing the released sparks, he felt very energized, his whole body buzzing with a static charge.
Gathering wind between his hands and adding a bit of lightning into the mix, he spun around once and threw the elemental sphere at the island below. The moment the sphere left his hands, the spinning winds within were released in a spectacular fashion. The resulting tornado kept pulling in more air, making it grow larger and faster.
It touched down near the edge of the island, and began to carve a path of destruction directly through the middle. Aden even saw some water being pulled up and could already see water filling the gorge left by his tornado attack.
It was a few minutes later, while focusing on keeping the twister going, when the entire island was cut in half. The deep scar already filling with water and flooding the whole island. At that moment he spotted a lot of shadow-like streaks fly away from the island in random direction. About fifteen minutes later the island was no more. A lone shadow was spotted flying in the direction he came from.
"Huh... That was easy. I should name that....hmmmm.. oh. That's it. I will name that one: West:Twisting Thunderstorm " Aden said calmly, but got a bit excited by the new attack's name. He was aware his naming sense could use some work, but hey, all cool attacks need names.
"Now i should really head ba....Wait. what's that?" he spoke to himself, as he spotted a glint from some floating rubble. His curiosity peaked, he flew closer, but still being careful about any unexpected surprises. Even though his passive Observation Haki didn't warn him of any dangers, didn't mean it was safe.
Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a piece of a wooden roof that was quickly filling with water, on top of which was a rotting corpse dressed as a ronin with bandages over it's face. In its hand, it gripped a sword with the sheath at the corpse's hip. The body was posed as if expecting trouble, but dropped before it could do anything.
"A true warrior spirit resided in this corpse..." Aden mused as he carefully and with respect, took the blade and sheath, sheathing the blade and flying off in the direction of his brother's ship that just entered his Observation range.
"I'm telling you the skeleton had no shadow. And then suddenly a shadow flew in through a window and attached itself to him. Suspicious." Usopp was freaking out about Brook, who introduced himself some time ago
"I don't care! He's a skeleton, he's cool, i want him to join the crew." Luffy replied stubbornly.
"But Luffy..."
"Don't waste your breath, he decided already. So just roll with it." Zoro said as he was cleaning his two swords. His third sword was nowhere to be seen.
"If that's not the smartest advice about my brother to give, i don't know what is." said a voice from inside the room, from a corner near the kitchen bar.
"WHAT THE HELL!!?" came a bunch of scared shouts, the skeleton's included.
"Geez. Quiet down will you? Something came up and i returned for a bit. I'm leaving in a minute, just brought a gift for Zoro." Aden said calmly as he stood up and walked towards the two-sworded three-sword style swordsman.
"A gift? For me? Why?" Zoro asked confused
"I noticed you were missing a sword before, and on my way i found one i thought you'd like. It was wielded by a true warrior so it must be good." Aden spoke as he revealed the sheathed blade.
"What? Where did you find it?" Zoro asked.
"I sunk a nearby artificial island. The sword i found afterwards, floating on a piece of debris. Held by the warrior's corpse." Aden explained as if a matter of fact, not realizing the effect his words had on the others.
"S...Sunk it!? THERE WERE PEOPLE LIVING THERE!?" Brook began to freak out, so he got held back by Zoro, as Zoro trusted Aden a bit more, than to believe he would kill innocent people without reason. He knew Aden was ruthless and didn't mind walking over corpses to reach his goal, but cold-blooded murder of innocents was not his style.
"No there wasn't!" Aden shouted back
"What??" Brook was confused.
"I can sense people in a large area, and on the island, there was only one living person. Besides the reanimated corpses, there was noone else alive. I am certain of that." Aden explained calmly, and with a shadow of grief on his face.
"They are all...dead? But how? Why?...." Brook went silent, all of his joy about his shadow returning completely sizzled away.
"I'm sorry, for what it's worth." Aden said, only getting a sad nod of acknowledgment.
"Here you go Zoro. Threat it with care and respect. For the memory of those people." Aden said, handing the sword to Zoro, not waiting for a response.
"Now i really must go. I shall see you all some other time." he said and flew away throught the crack beneath the door.
.
Aden flew for a few hours, occasionaly checking the Vivre card along the way. Right now he was flying over an island covered in lush forests with a single beach on it's southern edge, when he spotted a ship anchored near the beach. The ship had a dragon head at the front, and he could see the Jolly Roger depicting a skull with two crossed swords behind it and a thick red line going through it's left eye.
"Hang on...Is that????!!" Aden said in surprise.
(Another one done. I honestly feel like there is only one or two people reading this. But whatever. At least someone enjoys it. See ya next time)