Right now I was in court, one where I had no lawyer, no one on my side. Trini, Sulli, and Isis were busy doing other things, mostly preparing Arthur's funeral.
That's why I was here, chained with sea stone, in front of Whitebeard, my attacker; Marco was my judge, and Celestia was the witness. The crime, having touched Celestia.
Whitebeard: "Tell me, brat, do you plan to take responsibility for the great crime you committed?" he said sternly.
Dante: "Crime, I'm not..."
Whitebeard: "Silence, you're not allowed to speak." I fell silent at the same moment. "And here I was kindly allowing your companions to settle here so I could bury poor Arthur, and this is how you repay me, by sleeping with my daughter."
I went blank. I had asked Whitebeard for these things through Marco; It was while we were traveling on the way here.
Calestia: "I'd like to say something," she said, raising her hand.
Marcos: "Let's see what the victim says."
What victim? I'm the victim here. This is all wrong, because I'm on trial.
Celestia: "The truth is, I'm pregnant." That's when the bombshell fell. I just stared at her with my eyes wide open and my mouth agape, taking in everything that was happening.
She planned it all. There was no way she knew I was pregnant if the first time we had sex was yesterday. I'd never touched her before. Besides, the last time I came here was over a year ago. If I had done anything to her, I would have already had the child right here in front of me.
At that moment, I remembered that she had told me to marry her; now, with all this planned with her and saying this in front of Whitebeard, I was only aiming in one direction.
Celestia looked so innocent, as if she wasn't to blame for what was happening. Marco watched all this with a wry look; he must know it's all her doing, but he just keeps quiet. And the old man's eyes were red, glaring with rage and anger.
And so I was sentenced. The verdict: guilty on all counts. The punishment: taking responsibility for Celestia and marrying her.
I couldn't do anything. This place belonged to the old man; if I refused, I'd be in conflict with him. Trini, Sulli, and Isis wanted to stay here; it was already safe; the Marines and CP0 wouldn't come here. So I couldn't risk them kicking us out. So I have no choice but to take the bullet in the chest for them.
...
In less than a few minutes, the entire island knew I was going to marry Celestia. I imagine Marcos did it so I wouldn't say anything; that way, if I refused, I'd look bad, and so would everyone else.
The wedding was in two months, so during that time I wasn't going to do anything but squeeze it in little by little.
Right now I was on the beach looking at the ocean, while Celestia was next to me, feeding me grapes with her hands. I only opened my mouth mechanically.
Trini: "The lovebirds look so good," she said, approaching me mockingly.
Celestia: "Thank you very much, Trini-nesan," she said with great innocence. Trini also looked at her ironically, since she knew she wasn't very innocent.
Dante: "When they bury him," I said reluctantly.
Trini: "In two days," she said, "it will be in the west of the island; we already paid tribute to him there." I just nodded. "Now, what will you do, Dante, besides get married?" I just looked at her with my ironic gaze.
Dante: "Fix Sulli and Isis," I said firmly.
Trini: "Seriously, but yes."
Dante: "I know we no longer have Arthur's Fruit, but I can't leave them like this, especially Isis in a wheelchair forever. If I have a way to make her walk again, I have to do it."
Trini: "Do you have a way to do it?" she asked me.
Dante: "Yes," I said determinedly.
I have three ways to achieve this. The first is to find Arthur, who no longer has the Fruit, the Devil Fruit of alchemy. The generation code in my inventory was already in use, so I can't summon it again; I'd have to leave this world and return, but there's a risk that I can't return, so the only thing left for me to do is find him, naturally.
The second option is to find someone who can help him. At first, I only think of Vegapunk, but now with what I've done, I don't think he'll help me, simply because I don't think he wants to go against the world government right now.
The last option is the Op Op no mi. Why is it the last option? It's because by now, Law must have acquired the Devil Fruit, and I don't know where it is. In addition to convincing him to help me, I need him to acquire medical knowledge. He's very young right now, so I'd have to wait for him to go supernova before he can help me.
Trini: "So, after this, you'll go look for that help for Isis and Sulli, right?"
Dante: "No," he said, making me look at him strangely. "I have somewhere else I want to go first."
At that moment, I took out the den den mushi I've always had.
Celestia: "Who are you going to call? It won't be another woman, right?" I shuddered as I heard her last words as she stared at me.
Dante: "It's not a man; in fact, it's a bird."
...
Morgans: "It's been a long time since we've seen each other face-to-face, Dante; the last time was when you impregnated Big Mom's daughter."
Dante: "Hmm, how do you know that?" I said, entering the office.
Morgans: "Big Mom made it very clear that she has the grandchildren and that their father was the great hero, along with an alliance with him; her tea parties are very informative."
Dante: "I'd like to go there to see them, but I feel like if I go, I'll end up locked up, chained, and with my soul anchored in place."
I haven't been able to see them. This is something I haven't mentioned, but Galette had twin girls, both of whom were girls; I know this because Pekoms kept telling me all about it. A great cat.
The older one is named Jeanne d'Arc, and the younger one, Olympe. That's the name I told Galette when I was a prisoner there.
(Note: I was going to name the youngest Marie Antoinette, but I already have a character named Marie; to avoid confusion, I replaced her with Olympe, after Olympe de Gouges, a feminist from the French Revolution, in case you were wondering.)
Juana resembles her mother, and Olympe resembles me. Based on what I've seen in photos.
Morgans: "As much as I love socializing, I don't have time for it, and that's not why you made me come here."
Yes, I called him to come as close to the island where we were as possible so I wouldn't have to go too far and they'd think I was running away from my marriage.
Dante: "Here," I said, throwing something at him.
Morgans: "This is it," he said, looking at what I handed him.
Dante: "What's left of Alfonso's camera: the camera was destroyed, but the film inside was salvageable; it was just luck, along with some of the damage."
Morgans: "I see. I'd like to give you something too." He said, tossing me a bounty sign.
I opened it to see what was on it; it was my face. "Dante Manmayer, the Hero," along with a reward that was ridiculous in my opinion. 4,000,000,000 belly.
[Congratulations, you have earned a bounty of 30,000,000 belly or less; its bounty is 100,000 LP.]
[Congratulations, you have earned a bounty of 100,000,000 belly or more; its bounty is 200,000,000 LP.]
[Congratulations, you have earned a bounty of 500,000,000 belly or more; Your reward is 800,000,000 LP.
[Congratulations, you have earned a reward of 1,000,000,000 belly or higher; your reward is 2,000,000,000 LP.]
[Congratulations, you have earned a reward of 2,000,000,000 belly or higher; your reward is 10,000,000,000 LP.]
[Congratulations, you have earned a reward of 3,000,000,000 belly or higher; your reward is 100,000,000,000 LP.]
[Congratulations, you have earned a reward of 4,000,000,000 belly or higher; your reward is 500,000,000,000 LP.]
Fuck it, doing the mental math, with this reward alone I got 613,000,100,000 LP, so right now I have 818,430,290,000 LP. It seemed so much and so little at the same time. Since it still didn't compare to the modest amount of 9,999,000,000,000 LP that Ea cost.
Morgans: "A very high sum, but considering what you did there, it doesn't surprise me: you killed two celestial dragons and eight members of the CP0, you were blamed for the destruction of the kingdom, and when all this got out, incredibly few people believed it."
Dante: "Well, two-thirds of what you just said is true." I moved to point at the scroll. "At that moment, I wasn't myself; I was in a trance, along with other strong emotions that made me make those hasty decisions." "There's a conversation between my father and me; it'll serve to show how world nobles view people." "Unlike only a few people who have had the misfortune of running into one of these, everyone can see the behavior of these self-important people."
Morgans: "What makes you think I'll upload it?"
Dante: "I thought you liked watching the world burn, putting on a big show regardless of the consequences; don't tell me old age is making you a pacifist."
Morgans only responded to my comment.
Morgans: "I know what you want to do, so maybe you'd better tell me what happened that day, in every detail." He said, sitting down with a notebook and pencil, staring at me.
...
In the end, Morgans wrote down everything I said but didn't promise anything. If you're not going to do anything, then why are you writing down my story? It's pointless.
Once all that was done, I went home, or rather, to Celestia's house under reconstruction. I had to sleep with her since she followed me everywhere, like a neutron stuck to a proton.
The weird thing is that I had to be in that room; she had a ton of pictures of me. She didn't mind me seeing all of that, since we're engaged now, and I have to accept everything from her, and I have to stop talking to women.
It was ironic when Trini found out about this. It was like a battle of ideals. It's worth noting that everything Celestia said was nonsense, but within her beliefs, she was always right.
In the end, it was decided that I couldn't take any woman other than Celestia, since she'd be my wife, and it makes no sense for me to do anything to another woman.
The next day was Arthur and Hun's funeral. We made something fairly simple for Hun: a pretty little box. Arthur's problem was making the box and the ceremony, which included Hun digging the big hole, burying him, and covering it up.
That same day, the newspaper arrived, saying several of the things I had said to Morgans, thus finally bringing the great hero Dante to an end. In other words, I was retiring, only I never worked.
It also confirmed that some of the team members were badly injured, without mentioning anything about Trini's pregnancy, and that Arthur died in combat, rendering his reward poster useless.
And so time passed. For two months, I was with Celestia, day and night. We fixed up the house to make it bigger, since, according to her, she wanted us to have 10 children, something I saw in her eyes that she could achieve; I just shuddered.
And her conviction was evident during various moments of the day, when she squeezed my soul whenever she could, no matter the place or time; as long as we were both there and there was a comfortable place, it happened.
For a moment, I wondered if it was a succubus or a Devil Fruit doing something like that. At first, I resisted, since I couldn't do that almost 24/7. But her manipulation was so perfect that I had no choice but to let her do whatever she wanted to me, mostly for my mental health.
One thing I can say is that she took away my depression and made me forget everything bad, but in return, my soul felt like it was leaving my body. If I hadn't exercised resistance long ago, I might no longer be in the world of the living. If I suspected Cesletia was pregnant before, I wouldn't be so sure now. I was just making a list of the amount of child support I had to pay. With this one, I think there are 8. Of which I'm only aware of 5: Gil, Luna, Jeanne, Olympe, and the one who will surely leave Celestia. I just hope it's one.
Finally, the wedding day arrived. It took two months to prepare everything and for some people to arrive. Among them were Whitebeard's pirates, along with some from his alliance. What surprised me was seeing Jinbe at the party.
By this time, he was already a Shichibukai, along with Doflamingo, Crocodile, and Hancock. Gecko and Kuma hadn't joined yet; other people had taken their places, since he wouldn't last long.
There I was on a white stage, standing in front of a large audience. Next to me were Sulli and Marcos, dressed in a tuxedo, just like me. On the other side were the nurses from Whitebeard's crew, who, from what I know, are Celestia's childhood friends.
Trini and Isis weren't there for some reason. Isis was in a wheelchair; she didn't fit in that spot, but she was in the front row, on the groom's side, which was almost empty. There were only her, Trini, and Jinbe, who sat there out of kindness.
Speaking of Trini, she declined to be a bridesmaid for two reasons. She was about a month away from giving birth, so her baby bump was quite prominent. According to her, she prefers sitting to standing, but there was another reason for her decision: she and Celestia had a grudge against each other.
I'd like to say that my appearance wasn't the best. I had large dark circles under my eyes and sunken cheeks. When she told me she was sucking my soul dry, it wasn't a joke. The rest of the things were covered up thanks to Trini and Isis with makeup.
Makeup—I never in my life imagined I'd use that stuff, but it was necessary, since, I reiterate, my physical appearance wasn't the best. I'm just waiting for her to get pregnant so she'll let me sleep one night, but something tells me that won't happen.
At that moment, I saw Celestia appear next to Whitebeard, or as I call him, the old man, or little old man when he's not in front of me.
The height difference was somewhat comical, and Celestia wasn't small, being 1.93 meters tall, 2 centimeters shorter than me.
There I was looking at the woman who will be my wife; I may be half-forced to do this, but that doesn't diminish the respect I have for her, especially for how she thinks. I wouldn't be surprised if she had the highest IQ on this island.
She may be jealous, clingy, and not listen to people, and she may think only of herself, but that doesn't take away from the good things; it just makes Celestia go from being the worst partner in the world to a normal one.
* One week later *
Right now, I am on the beach. I had a bag and some things like clothes and food. I was leaving today; I'd already been here for a long time, and I had things to do. I wanted to stay for the birth of Trini and Sulli's child, but she told me it wasn't necessary to be here, as kind as she was.
There's also the news of Celestia's pregnancy; now with that, I feel more at ease. And with that, I let myself go and do my things. Of course, I had to try to return in nine months; I didn't promise anything, since this was like a mission. If I didn't complete it, I wasn't leaving, simple as that.
As I continued doing my things, I felt someone coming towards me; I turned around to see it was Sulli.
Sulli: "What's up? Do you need a hand?" she said jokingly.
Dante: "If I asked you for a hand, I'd be leaving Trini with a useless husband, with nothing good about him." It's worth noting that Trini and Sulli aren't married, but they treat each other as such.
Sulli: "Don't be so mean; I still have my knowledge."
Dante: "I bet if I ask Celestia to study medicine, she'll be better than you in less than a year."
Sulli: "Please don't do that. Your wife is scary, and something inside me tells me it might happen." "Joking aside, where are you going?"
Dante: "To Wanokuni," I said, bending down to move some things from my bag. "I spoke to the old man before the wedding, and he said I could do the two things I was missing there."
Sulli: "And that would be it?"
Dante: "Perfect my sword fighting style and advance to the next level of Armor Haki."
Sulli: "Why?"
Dante: "I don't know where the Devil Fruit was; anyone can end up with it, so I must have the strength of a top connoisseur, just in case."
Sulli: "I understand," she said simply.
At that moment, I stood up, took out a cigarette, and lit it. Since I arrived here, I've returned to my past habit of smoking.
Dante: "So how have your projects been?"
Sulli: "Somewhat good. There's already a medical center here. Right now, I've started working formally, given my professional level, with one of the chief physicians, just two steps up from being the chief physician there." "Isis has spoken with Celestia about being the supplier of the flowers she'll sell; she already has a place to work; most likely, they'll end up becoming partners."
Dante: "She's been living off the old man's income; she told me she's always tried to distance herself from her father in one way or another. She'd asked me to take her, but since it's dangerous where I'm going and she's pregnant, she can't go."
Sulli: "Congratulations on another one on the list; I hope that ring stops the crazy women from trying to get into your bed, since they'd be with a married man." She said it, but her tone made me think she didn't believe what she was saying, and neither did I. This ring won't stop them, but as long as she doesn't drink alcohol, everything should be fine.
Dante: "And what about Trini?"
Sulli: "She'll raise the baby for a while and then start creating her school."
Dante: "That's great," I said, throwing away my cigarette butt and stamping it out. "Well, I'm ready; I don't know how long it'll take, but the sooner I leave, the better."
He just nodded, we didn't shake hands, and he left. He wasn't worried about what would happen, knowing how strong I was, and he also had a vivre card from me, so it was all good.
With everything ready, I climbed onto the Skíðblaðnir and looked at the horizon, trying to look cool. Even though no one was there, you could say I was practicing.
Dante: "Wano Country, here I come."