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The small boat drifted steadily across the calm waters, rocking gently as the wind carried them farther and farther from the village.
Benn Beckman glanced at the map spread across his lap, then asked casually:
"Shanks. Where are we heading now?"
Shanks grinned. "We're heading to the East Blue. An island named Gecko Islands."
Sterling, mouth completely stuffed mumbled something that sounded like:
"We're heading to the East Blue?"
Shanks and Benn turned toward him with identical expressions.
The expression one makes when staring at a full-grown pig devouring feed.
Shanks pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sterlingā¦ we've barely left the village and you're already eating half our supplies. I'm a big eater too, but you take it to a whole other level."
Sterling, still unintelligible through the food, said:
"What? I get hungry when I'm excited."
A vein popped on Shanks' forehead.
Benn chuckled under his breath. "Shanks, are we going to find that guy?"
Shanks nodded. "Yeah."
Sterling swallowed finally and said, "Don't leave me out of the loop. Who are we going to find?"
Shanks said, "A man named Yassop. He's a sniper from Syrup Village."
Sterling blinked. "A sniper? Is he good?"
Shanks crossed his arms proudly. "Rumor says he once claimed he could shoot an ant's antenna from a hundred feet away without harming the rest of it."
Sterling slammed the floor. "Impossible!"
Shanks burst out laughing.
Benn shrugged. "Sure, it sounds unbelievable, but we have reason to think it's true. And it won't hurt to find out, right?"
Sterling sighed. "I guess."
And immediately went back to eating.
Shanks groaned. "Okay then! Full sail ahead! Let's go!"
Sterling gave a lazy fist pump. "Yeah."
Shanks stared at him and Benn. "ā¦You two are so boring."
---
Night fell.
Shanks and Benn were fast asleep on the boat.
Sterling sat alone at the bow, the moonlight reflecting off the waves. He was meant to keep watch, but with nothing threatening on the horizon, his mind had plenty of room to wander.
And it wandered to the one thing still digging into him:
Leaving his mother behind.
It wasn't logical fear.
It was Oda fear.
Eiichiro Oda, the final villain of mothers in One Piece. A man who gained a suspicious amount of joy from eliminating moms left and right. If the universe of this world followed the original story's logic, then leaving Kushina alone in the village felt like rolling the dice with fate.
And Sterling did not want to roll dice with the man who killed more mothers than Marineford killed pirates.
But it was too late now.
All he could do was get stronger.
And get strong enough to make sure nothing touched her.
He exhaled slowly, letting his thoughts drift to BellƩ-mer and the promise he made her.
A gift to make her strongerā¦
By that, he meant a Devil Fruit.
He mentally listed the fruits whose locations he knew, provided the timeline hadn't changed.
Three fruits.
Two of them logias.
One unclassified.
The unclassified fruit was in Elbaph. If canon held true, Loki had not eaten it yet, and Harold was probably already a slave of the World Government. But that fruit was out of the question. Sterling had no delusions. Beating Loki right now was impossible, and the other Giants would crush him before he reached the throne room.
Which left the two logias.
The first one being the Goro Goro no Mi, Enel's Lightning Fruit which was currently somewhere in Skypiea.
And the second being the Mera Mera no Mi, which Ace found in a shipwreck near a deserted island after leaving Goa.
If Sterling narrowed the search, he might actually find it. Of course this one was just as hard to obtain just like the fruit in Elbaph.
But for himself?
He had no interest in eating a Devil Fruit.
He had Conqueror's Haki. And unless the fruit was the Nika Fruit, there was absolutely no point in giving up his ability to swim. Logias were powerful, sure, but if someone had a speck of Armoment Haki, then his Devil Fruit lost its main talking point.
Sterling also didn't like the idea of a random ass Marine throwing a Seastone at him and actually managing to beat him. That was ridiculous.
But nothing surpassed Conqueror's when perfected.
At least according to Kaido's philosophy which stated Haki surpassed all.
Stillā¦
Giving BellƩ-mer a Devil Fruit came with a dangerous risk:
Butterfly effect.
If she ate the Goro Goro no Mi, she would jump to Rear Admiral, or even Vice Admiral level in record time. Especially since she currently even had Observation Haki.
That meant she would be kept in Marineford as a future high-ranking officer.
Which meant she wouldn't be stationed at the Conomi Islands.
Which meant she wouldn't rescue Nami and Nojiko who were victims of the war neat Conomi Islands.
Which meant the two sisters would likely die.
Which meant Luffy would never get the best navigator in the world.
Meaning a single fruit could flip the entire future upside down.
Sterling rubbed his forehead.
This, this exact reason was why he didn't want to interfere with canon any more than necessary.
One wrong move, one poorly thought-out decision, could derail everything. But Sterling knew that would be impossible for him. He couldn't just let bad things happen just so canon says canon.
But that hesitation wasn't going away anytime soon.
He sighed again, staring out at the horizon.