Chapter 200: Ancient Weapon (4)

——

A few days had passed since Luffy had dreamed of his "Nightmare". Honey Queen had let Amon know about that because of the words he spoke, "Boy Joy."

Under the moonlit night, Honey Queen rested her hands on the railings of the deck while staring at the incoming island with an unimpressed gaze. 

"So that's Whiskey Peak, huh?" She mumbled to herself. Her real Boss had started his journey from this island, so this place must be important to him, right? ...Or maybe not. He didn't seem the type. Or at least she didn't think so.

Recently, the Crew had escaped Smoker after her 'captain' was grabbed by Buggy the Clown and was almost executed. She was almost about to intervene when she sensed a powerful presence around the island, so she stopped. 

'Monkey D. Dragon… how did he suddenly appear on the island?' Honey Queen's Observation Haki was pretty strong, she was taught by Amon himself after all. So there was no way to fool it, so the only conclusion was that Dragon had teleported in that area….

"Sssip…" Honey Queen took a sip from her glass of orange juice and shrugged. "None of my business. Boss would figure it out somehow.”

Honey Queen stretched her arms. "Yawn-...!" And suddenly she sensed something on the sea, just a few meters ahead of her. She had already sensed the thing before but had mistaken that presence as some fish before, but it seems it was… "A human? Really?"

She looked ahead where a blonde head was moving her hands all around the water but unable to swim. "A devil fruit user…? No, they won't be able to move so much in the water. So…" Honey Queen narrowed her eyes. "Why is there a person who can't swim in the Grandline? What the fuck?"

She looked back at the empty deck behind her and shook her head. It was nighttime, everyone was sleeping. But she can't just bring a person on the ship without the Captain's permission or she might blow her cover. 

Normally she would just ignore this. She has seen a lot of people die, and killed some with her own hands, so ignoring this won't be such a huge deal for her. But her Boss had ordered her something, "If you come into contact with anything strange while with the Straw Hats, grab it. Who knows what type of lucky charm you'd get."

So… She took a deep breath and looked at the cabin of the ship. "Oy, Captain! A huge Boar is running on the water! It looks meaty!"

Immediately a stretchy fist came banging through the door as a sleepy Luffy came into her sight. "Did you say meat?!"

«—★—»

'This can't be happening.' Sengoku clenched his fist as he listened to the Dendenmushi kept on the table.

"I- I am really sorry, sir. I should have been careful. I- if not for me getting lost in the talk with my wife, then things would have been—"

"Enough!" Sengoku slammed the table. "Enough of that! How it happened is not important, not anymore. I want my daughter back, that’s all. You have 3 days, I want to hear her voice by then. If not…" His voice darkened. "I won't be calm."

Kacha!

He cut the call and slumped his back. A weak voice left his lips, "...Hopefully, nothing bad would happen."

Alice. His precious daughter has supposedly been kidnapped. She is only 15 years old and doesn't even have any friends… Heck, she can't even swim, she is that careless. She wanted to meet him since it's been 3 years since their last meeting, so he sent a Rear Admiral to fetch the girl from west blue. Yet, midway on the road when they stopped near one of Whisky Peak’s islands, the girl was kidnapped by some nobody pirates while the said Rear Admiral was busy quarrelling with his wife on a Dendenmushi. 

That's where the problem lies. "I should have sent a Vice Admiral at least…" he should have, but he didn't. And now, his precious daughter has been lost.

At least the kidnappers most likely didn't know her identity… no, the girl would probably brag that her father is the Fleet Admiral so that she can escape, she is careless after all. Dammit. If only he wasn't shackled by the Government, then he himself would have gone to fetch his daughter.

"Sigh… I now know why Garp always has a grumpy face. Worrying about his grandson must be tiring." Sengoku said as he leaned back on his chair. Only then did he realise his back was soaked in sweat. "Fuuu…"

«—★—»

Meanwhile, Amon was clueless as to what was going on. He was still underground in Alabasta, fixing the Ancient Weapon.

It's been 7 days since he started working here, so he was pretty close to fixing the damn thing entirely. Normally fixing this thing would have taken at least 4 years even for him, so he divided the work first. Two years ago, he made plans using the blueprints on what needs to be fixed. Secondly, the scientists fixed the interior of the machine, the wires, the lights, the power supply, and things that can be done without Amon. Those took most of the time, so he was already at the final stage.

Now, according to the blueprints, Amon has to make the destroyed parts of the machine using Amon Metal and then put the parts in the perfect place. The latter was easy, but the former needed him to exert great energy that made even him sweat.

'At first, I wanted to mass produce this thing for each of my Generals and then wreak havoc around the world. But at this rate it is going, that would be highly unlikely.' Amon thought. If he really wanted to do that, he would need an actual supply of the metal that the Poneglyphs are made of, not this rip-off.

'Now that I think about it, the easiest part of it all was getting my hands on the damn Blueprints.' Amon lamented while pushing a metallic plate on a broken part of the machine. 'Brainwashing Franky was the easiest thing because even if I failed and he died, I would have just needed to change his brain with a computer and be done with it.'

Now that he thought about it, Franky dying wouldn't even have been a problem. Maybe in this timeline Iceberg would have joined them instead? Either way, the point was to groom Luffy. As much as Amon had confidence in himself, there might be some bullshit that even he can't outcome, at least not currently. What if Imu had some fruit like Invincible-Invincible fruit that lets him become invincible with only one type of Haki being able to hurt him and it's Joyboy’s (Luffy's) Haki?

Sounds like bullshit, but Amon was paranoid. As much as this world was real, it's still based on an anime world. Anything can happen. 

Amon had already decided what he would do. After the War of the Best, he would take at most 1 month to defeat all the Emperors, as long as there is no change in the plans. Oden's diary said Imu would only be freed when someone finds the One Piece, but what if the thing that's keeping him locked in Mariejois breaks down before that? Amon has already proved Shyarly's predictions aren't absolute, so what guaranteed the previous Mermaid Princess' predictions to be absolute?

He always had that feeling of being watched but that wasn't that apparent before he left for the moon.  On the moon, he felt safe, he felt he was out of everyone's view. So what made him feel the opposite on the Earth? He didn't need to use his genius mind to guess the reason. 

Imu was watching. Always. Even when he had sex… that idiot even observed him when he was shitting, though not always. Amon sometimes wanted to El Thor the whole Mariejois but decided against it every time. What if that broke the barrier he was sealed in? That would be a stupid way to die.

Yes, Amon was confident that Imu would be able to kill him. Haki was bullshit, a weakened Rayleigh could match Kizaru. Yeah, Kizaru wasn’t really light speed, but Imu was also not Rayleigh. The only information on Imu that Amon has is that he is more than 800 years old, so in that case, Imu can even be 10 millennia old, no? Anything is possible, and when someone brings time into these possibilities, things tend to become bullshit.

To even guess how strong Imu might be, he would have to compare him with end game Luffy: Amon had once said Rubber isn’t OP, but Gomu Gomu no Mi is not just rubber. It’s DBZ level bullshit. 

By the time Amon had died in his previous life, One Piece was finished, but unfortunately, he had already stopped reading the Manga after his father's death. Yet, from the leaks on the internet here and there, he knew Luffy's Gear-5th could even stretch the concept of "Will", thus reaching a simply impossible level of Haki… unfortunately he didn't know more than that. So if Luffy has such powers, what stops the main antagonist from having something more broken? 

In that case, wouldn’t it be better to let Luffy, the man fated to battle Imu, to do his job? That’s why Amon has kept Luffy alive to begin with. 

Suddenly, "Argh! Fuck, this is why I don't like being alone," Amon said out loud as he began pushing the metal bar with more force. "I can't stop thinking about useless things!"

While the scientists didn’t even spare him a glance, seemingly used to it by now, Amon thinned his lips. "But… I want to finish this baby before the War of the Best. The world shall see what true destruction is, hehe." He grinned and punched the sheet of metal hard as a 'click' sound resounded. "Done!"

**

**

**

Author’s Note: I’ve been writing a lot of bullshit based on theories lately. But it’s given since the ending is approaching soon.

P.S; The number 200 in the title of the chapter brought more grief than joy, the journey is gonna end before it hits another hundred.