Chapter 251

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"It's been a while, old man."

Amon, his hair colour different than usual, sat down on the floor in front of the man wearing a red mask, sipping tea.

"I am surprised you recognise me," Amon said. "I thought I would have to show you some proof since my mask is missing."

Hitetsu, the swordsmith of Wano, shook his head.

"Your blue hair and large wings are proof enough along with your lightning powers. I could just tell." Hitsteu said, sitting on his knees with his hands resting on his thighs. "May I know why you came here this time, Mr Fool?"

Amon smiled softly. He wondered if Hitetsu would act the same if he learned what happened to Ace in Marineford. But luckily Wano was a country disconnected from the rest of the world.

Chuckling internally, he slipped his hand inside his pockets. "Before that, I think you'd like this more." He took out a dial and tossed it at the older man.

He caught it and blinked. "This is…?"

"Press the button on the top of the conch."

Hitetsu did so as immediately a hologram of Otama came jumping out of the dial.

"O-otama?! W-what happened!? How did you get stuck in this small object?!"

Otama sounded confused first before her eyes widened at Hitetsu's voice and a smile appeared on her face.

"Grandpa!! It's really you!!" Otama's hologram sounded out. "I was thinking what this 'gift' brother Amon gave me, but to think I will be able to talk to you again!"

Hitetsu's worry slowly started to fade as he gave Amon a confused look.

Amon pointed at the dial. "She is not confined inside. It's like a Transporter Snail, but much more advanced."

Hitetsu slowly nodded at this and turned to the small palm-sized hologram hovering above the dial.

"So, Otama… how have you been?"

With that, Amon sat lazily inside Hitetsu's room while focusing most of his attention on other clones of his.

A clone in a certain Marine Base.

—★—

When Gion returned back to her base, she lumped deep into her chair as a heavy sigh left her.

Gion has always wanted to be promoted into the rank of Admiral, but in recent years that feeling had slowly started to die out.

More so, she could never be as useful as either Kizaru or Sakazuki since she didn't have a Devil Fruit like theirs.

Considering that, in such a time where the marines' biggest enemy had the most powerful devil fruit in the world, she wouldn't even last as long as Kizaru who had seemingly died in less than a second.

Though she knew the Marines had a logia prepared for her… she didn't have much hope.

In fact, she had tried to recruit some strong people unaffiliated with either the Emperors or Marines who could potentially become an admiral themselves.

One of them was Issho. A blind swordsman with the Gravity-Gravity fruit. He used to run a dojo on an island under her base.

But he was killed.

Nobody knew how he died, and people couldn't even guess since Issho wasn't really a person who had enemies.

Some guessed it to be the Sky Emperor since he keeps hunting strong Devil Fruits, but Issho died the same day Skypiea was attacked. Amon couldn't have killed Issho in such a time, obviously.

Gion didn't know the man on a personal level, but knowing that such a kind man was killed by an anonymous person irked and saddened her.

She was about to sigh again, but before the breath could completely leave her, a knock fell in the room.

"Come in, Ariana." She said in a tired voice as she closed her eyes.

"Ma'am." A girl with bright blonde hair walked in, it was her assistant. "We have got a new recruit… and he is really strong."

Gion opened her eyes at this. "Oh? How strong, exactly?"

"He… beat me. He struggled a bit, but he won in the end." Gion watched the girl's blonde hair messy and her marine dress dusty. "I am not sure what to do with him."

Gion stood up at this, her tiredness hidden behind a mask. Ariana was a Rear Admiral. If someone new could beat Ariana, then he would be a good soldier in such dire times.

"Lead me."

She was quickly led out of her office to a window on the second floor where the new recruitment ground was visible. This ground was available in all Marine bases currently, for everyone to try and get admission into the Marines.

There she saw the man… no, the kid, who was huffing while standing above a pile of grunting soldiers.

"That's him, ma'am."

At her assistant's words, her eyes moved across the kid's face.

He looked to be… 15? Around that age. He had white hair stuck back like strands of metal and red.. crimson eyes.

An alarm rang out in Gion's mind as she almost mistook the kid for Amon, the Sky Emperor. But she immediately shook her head, unable to find the Oni horns, slick black hair, or that overall dangerous air around him. The red-eyes weren't anything exclusive to him, after all. And besides…

"You said he has a devil fruit?"

"Yes." Ariana softly answered her as they stood on the second floor, looking down on the training ground below. "It's the… Gravity-Gravity fruit."

Gion's eyes widened.

"He said he found it on the shore of his home island a week ago."

At her assistant's words, her brows furrowed as she squinted at the young boy who was burning with passion.

"Check his background, asap."

—★—

'Not that they'd find anything.'

Amon, back in Hitetsu's room, thought with a chuckle.

That white-haired kid was one of his Lightning Clones. His clones could use his other Devil Fruits as well so it was a perfect alibi to get into the Marine Base to control the next Admiral.

Killing Issho wasn’t hard, just slicing his throat at lightning speed when he was sleeping. Just like that, he had another fundamental force of the universe.

So he needed to train that, along with his other fruits. 

Using his lightning clones was the best answer for that. With that young version of him there, he would be able to do pirate hunting in a fun way than his usual one-shotting.

But he had other jobs to do there too. He had a month to get closer to Gion enough to have an internal influence on the Marines via her.

'Anyway.'

It was a pain managing so many clones at the same time, but when you could think at the speed of 100,000 km/s, it wasn't hard to get used to. So Amon focused on the scene in front of him again. 

"Sniff… Otama, I will talk to you later. I missed you a lot. But your nice older brother is surely here for something important."

Hitetsu finally cut the call while Otama also shared some tears from the other side and turned to Amon again.

"You don't look to be in a hurry, but I am sorry if I took too much time."

Amon waved it off. "Nah, it's not even been 15 minutes."

Amon was deliberately delaying. There was no need for him to be there. The Sins should fight themselves and not depend on his presence too much. 

By now, all the normal soldiers of Kaido were defeated by the Sins. Only Kaido and the Three Calamity remained… or two, as Reo had finally pulled down his mask as well.

By the time the Sins defeat the two Calamities, Amon will be there.

'So 4 minutes…'

"Well, I am not in that much of a hurry," Amon said. "But I’d still prefer if this was done fast.”

Hitetsu nodded as Amon continued. 

“Ame no Habakiri, one of Shogan Oden’s twin blades.” 

Hitetsu’s eyes widened. 

“I want it.”

Oden's twin swords are famous in Wano, but nobody knew their locations except a very few rare individuals. One was Enma, that was with Kumorasaki, aka Kozuki Hiyori, and the other sword was at Hitetsu's hold. In canon, he would give it to Momonosuke after the kid returned from the past. But this time, Raki needed it more than that brat.

Hitetsu fell into silence. He would have rejected the offer outright and even made a fuss if the person demanding it was someone else. But it was Amon, Mr Fool… Hitetsu had already handed him Nidai Kitetsu before, so this shouldn’t be that big of a problem, but…

When Oden died, he had taken this sword as a keepsake for when Momonosuke returned. What would he say to the young boy if he gave out the sword now…?

“...” Hitetsu sighed as he watched Amon’s patient expression. “What would you need this for exactly?”

Hitetsu finally asked. He remembered one crucial thing, Amon was on the hold of Otama. Hitetsu doubted Amon would be threatening him with Otama, but the way Amon let him converse with the little girl right before the negotiation… It seemed a bit sketchy.

"First of all, I am not taking it, I am just borrowing it." Then Amon smiled a blood unsettling grin. “As for your question… Let's just say I am here to free Wano from Kaido and Orochi.”

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