Chapter 35 – Counting down
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(Emma POV)

A few days after Rune was born everyone was called into the saloon of the ship where Grandad and Grandma had something for each of us. 'I wonder why Bell-mere is here also, I get Nami and Nojiko but I didn't think they'd have something for her as well. Well not that it matters, that just means one more person to compare Dad and I's cooking.'

"Can I have him back now? He needs to eat." Hearing Mom's voice to my right I looked over at her in disappointment while I handed over Rune.

"JAJAJAJA, I'll let you start to feed him once he's a little older but for now your Mother needs to be the one to do that." Smiling at what Mom said I heard Grandma from her other side speak as Mom began to unbutton her shirt.

"I never would have imagined that you would have become such a doting mother one day." Looking down on Rune who was attached to her while happily drinking and then looking up to me Mom's grin changed to one of pride as she started to gloat.

"Of Course I've become a doting parent, how could I not with such amazing children." I was about to gloat myself about having an amazing Mom and little brother but before I had the chance Grandad spoke, drawing everyone's attention.

"Hello everyone, as you probably already know I'm Garrard, Emma, and Runes Grandfather, the lovely lady sitting next to Geina is her Mother and my beautiful wife Sibilla."

Smiling at everyone Grandma waved to them before going back to playing with Rune who Mom shamelessly continued to feed while everyone was looking at her. 'She can't handle a single compliment from Dad without turning red but she can make lewd jokes and breastfeed without a hint of embarrassment, I'll never understand that part of her.'

"We haven't had a chance to meet Emma and the rest of you due to what our job is but we took the next few years off as we plan on making up for that lost time. So starting tomorrow I will be joining in on training you all while Sibilla will help you with scholarly needs or to help you further master your new abilities.".

'New abilities? Only two people will find Haki to be a new ability.' Thinking about what he meant, my unasked question was soon answered.

"I'll start with these first." Saying this Grandad picked up a chest from everything he brought with him and opened it to reveal two devil fruits. At my side, I could hear Mom exclaim in surprise.

"What! Are you sure that's ok?" Patting Mom's shoulder while taking this opportunity to yoink Rune from her Grandma then reassured her while burping him.

"It's ok, Emma will need her crew to be strong and we couldn't think of more fitting fruits than those two." Looking down at her empty arms Mom sighed before buttoning her shirt back up and leaning her head on Grandma's shoulder and just staring down at Rune.

After Mom had successfully drawn everyone's attention with that outburst and then her open shirt kept it, Grandad cleared his throat to get all of our attention again before he spoke. "Sugar, Nami would both of you like a devil fruit power?"

Before either of them could answer though, Bell-mere shot to her feet and blocked Nami from getting up as she asked with worry clear in her tone.

"What ability will she get? Is it worth losing the ability to swim? That's too dangerous for her if she leaves to sail on the water." Laughing at Bell-Mere's concerns, Grandad's answer made her quickly become quiet.

"It's a logia-type devil fruit, it will give her the ability to control and become mercury." Bell-mere looked shocked for a minute but she eventually asked.

"And you plan on just giving something that strong to Nami?" Nodding his head to her in confirmation, she sighed after a while of staring him in the eyes before she told Nami.

"If you eat this then you better make sure to never go near the water unless someone is next to you." Her words caused Nami to look at her arm where it was wrapped around Nojiko before she went to Grandad Pulling her along to accept the fruit.

Sugar, who was sitting alone and ignoring Monet for some reason, also walked up to Grandad and accepted the other fruit before taking a bite. To the side, Monet quickly got on her feet to try and stop Sugar but was too late.

"Shouldn't you be a little worried about what the fruit may do to you?" Glaring at Monet, Sugar quickly looked away from her and didn't even answer her question before thanking Grandad and going back to sitting alone. Leaving an extremely confused Monet to just stand there and stare at her.

Clapping his hands Grandad said. "Good you're up here already you can have your gift next then."

Monet pointed at Sugar and was about to say something to Grandad but not letting her he quickly stuffed a small chest into her hands. "These are a set of hidden blades and sea stone needles, amazing for getting rid of pesky devil fruit users that prove to be a challenge."

Thanking Grandad for the gift Monet quickly went over to Sugar but no matter how she tried to get her attention she was ignored. Standing up, Kuina was about to go over to them but Grandad pointed at her and said. "Good, you're next then."

Holding out his hand in front of himself a sword suddenly appeared in his hands. Unsheathing the blade drew everyone except Monet's attention as the blade just like the handle was a pitch-black color.

"Although your sword is one of the 21 great grade swords, this one is no weaker as it's also one of the 21. I'd call it a little bit stronger since it's a black blade." Kuina was about to say something but before she could, Grandad continued.

"I know you have a sword already but if you face off against someone who uses their brain in the future then they'll quickly realize that the cloaked figure that no one knows the identity too has an oddly similar sword to the swordsman of a pirate crew that coincidentally also has the same number of members there are cloaked figures."

Realizing what he meant Kuina nodded her head silently while accepting the sword from him. Smiling at her he ruffled her hair and then said. "Unlike my useless son-in-law over there I use a sword to fight with so get ready to have a teacher again."

Smiling back to him Kuina then started towards Monet again but this time with a pep in her step. Holding out his hand again another sword appeared. This one is longer than the other one with a dark blue hilt that had small white crosses all over it.

Looking at Law he motioned for him to come up. Handing him the blade he then looked at the one Law was currently using before sighing and then staring at Dad. "Even if he knows nothing about swords I didn't think he would get someone on my Granddaughters' crew a sword that isn't even ranked."

After Law took the blade and drew it we saw that the blade itself was also black but unlike Kuinas this one had a single white line along the spine of the blade. "This is also one of the 21 great grade swords, it used to belong to a doctor swordsman friend of mine so I figured it would be perfect for you. I'm still looking for another one though but once I find it I'll give it to you so you don't run into the same possible problem as Kuina."

Staring at the blade a little longer Law also smiled at his gift as he thanked Grandad before sheathing the blade and sitting back down. Reiju was about to climb back on his lap but Grandad stopped her.

"Since you got up that means your next." Looking at Grandad and then Law's lap, Reiju had clear annoyance on her face at being stopped from sitting down.

'I didn't think she liked that spot so much, I'll have to sit in Robin's lap and see if it's that great.' Looking over at Robin I found her also looking at me, smiling. I pat my lap and then pointed at hers to which she went slightly red while nodding her head.

'Good looks like I have plans for later.' Looking back towards Reiju I found she had already gotten whatever she was given as she walked back to Law while holding a bag in her hands.

Next, Grandad walked up to a box and opened it before pulling out something that looked like a repeater. "Nojiko, sorry we didn't get something for you like your sister's devil fruit but too many people on a ship with a weakness to water just isn't a good thing."

Shaking her head while standing up still locked arm and arm with Nami they both walked up to him and the crate before looking in.

"What are all those green things?" Looking inside the crate where Nojiko pointed, a wide grin appeared on Grandad's face as he said.

"Man-eating plant seeds from a carnivorous island that eats everything that lives on it along with some sea stone bullets." Digging through the seeds and bullets he eventually found something as he pulled out a book.

"This will explain how to raise the plants safely. If you have any questions about it please ask Sibilla, she grows these in her garden." I turned to Grandma in surprise hearing that but she just laughed my surprise off as she kept rocking Rune back and forth.

Looking back at Grandad I found him now staring at Robin while motioning her to come up. Getting curious myself about what he got her I got off the couch and followed behind her.

Opening another crate Grandad pulled out multiple stacks of paper before handing them to Robin. Flipping through the pages, Robin's hand started to move faster and faster before she eventually slammed the papers closed and asked In a shaking voice as she pointed at the crate with a trembling hand.

"Is that crate full of these?" Nodding his head Grandad said.

"Whenever we ran across one we would sketch it onto these papers. Neither of us can read them and I've heard that you can and also that you're searching for them so we figured this would be the best thing to give you."

Setting the papers carefully back into the crate Robin then surprised me by hugging Grandad and whispering something only loud enough for the three of us to hear. "Thank you…Granddad"

Her words surprised me even more than her hugging him but before I could tease her for them Grandad had turned his attention towards me while patting another crate.

"This one's for you my cute little Granddaughter, although you're not allowed to open it until you go back to your room."

'I wonder why I can't open it here?' Perhaps understanding what I was thinking, Grandad started to laugh before he said.

"You can open it here but I'd suggest you wait. It also might be a good idea if Robin is with you when you open it." Nodding to his explanation I decided to use this as an excuse to drag Robin into my room later tonight so that I could share a bed again.

"Thank you, Grandad." Like Robin, I gave him a hug which earned me ahead pat as he started to laugh again. Separating from him I looked around the room before my eyes landed on Dad.

"Want to go cook now? There are many people this time so our match shall be legendary." Wearing a condescending smile Dad replied.

"It won't even be a Match. Just my complete victory."

"You're an old man." Walking up to him I grabbed him by the hand before dragging him to the kitchen.

(Nico Robin POV)

After eating, Emma got off of my lap and I felt a little disappointment well up inside but didn't show it on my face. "Thank you for everything. I can't  thank you enough for what you've given to Nami and Nojiko."

Bell-mere, Nojiko and Nami were about to head back home after saying that, seeing that Grandma had nodded to them while waving their thanks off. Before they could though, Grandad stopped them. "Sorry that we didn't have anything better, we don't know what you like besides tangerines so we got you these seeds. They're from different tangerine varieties from around the world."

Taking the package that he handed over, Bell-mere handed it to Nami before jumping towards Grandad and Grandma giving them both a hug. "I wasn't expecting to get anything, it's already more than I could hope for with what you've given to my girls. Thank you so much, this will make my tangerine orchard different from the others."

'Bell-mere is a lot like Emma and Monet and Reiju...and Geina, how is it that they can all act so brashly without getting the slightest bit embarrassed?'

Thinking this I began walking to my room with the crate in my arms but it suddenly started floating which made me smile as I turned around.

"It looks heavy so let me help you." Standing there was Emma who also had a smile on her face while floating the crate she had gotten behind her. After the short walk back to my door Emma didn't let me enter as she took my crate into her room.

Shaking my head at her actions I laughed a little before also entering her room. Standing next to the crate Emma was looking at me with an expectant smile. "What do you think it is?"

Thinking about all the gifts that were given today I answered. "Something that will help you in the long run probably."

Nodding, she then opened the crate and what we saw inside made my face start to heat up as I backed up a few steps before almost tripping onto my butt, thankfully though Emma had caught me but made me jolt with how she did so.

'Where is her hand right now.' Moving my hand down the side of my thigh I found one of Emma's hands holding one of my cheeks as she massaged it.

Turning even redder at how shameless she was I quickly stopped her hand from massaging my backside any longer. Glaring at Emma I rebuked her.

"If I'm not allowed to touch you like that then you can't touch me like that either." I immediately regretted my words though as I actually wanted Emma to continue to massage me like that but she didn't try to do it anymore and looked apologetic instead.

"I'm sorry, that is extremely unfair of me." I was about to apologize and tell her it's ok if she wants to continue despite the embarrassment I felt just thinking about saying that, but before I could voice my thoughts Emma grabbed my hand and placed it on her where hers was on me before she squeezed my hand effectively making me take a handful of her.

My mind went blank for a second at this until I heard Emma's muffled voice. Snapping out of it and looking at her I found her covering her mouth with her hands while looking at me strangely. Realizing something felt off I looked down to find my hand still groping her while constantly squeezing.

'What?'

"Y...you s...still ah...aren't stopping." Hearing Emma's voice like that I quickly let go and jumped backward from her and towards the door while my face got even hotter. Before I could make my way out of the door though it was suddenly slammed closed and I could hear Emma's playful voice behind me.

"You took advantage of me for so much longer than I did you, we aren't even yet." Before I could say anything in my defense Emma had appeared next to me and picked me up into a princess carry before jumping onto her bed.

Laying down I found her arms wrapped around my waist and her face rubbing against my chest.

'I want to stop her but I also want her to keep going.' Not knowing what I wanted I just decided to give in to her and let her continue.

'Just you wait Emma I'll let you have your fun for now but everything you do to me will come back at you 100 times.' Suddenly though I felt something wet on my neck and as I was about to stop her I realized that It felt really good so I just pretended like I didn't notice it as I closed my eyes.

'I'll have to borrow some of those "books" Emma got for when I'm alone or else I won't be able to contain myself.'

The next day after breakfast we started the new training regime that Grandad had made for us as everything else stayed the same, from waking up to going to sleep except now I would "borrow" some books from Emma without her knowing, making sure not to get any of the pages wet. Just like that six more years had almost passed by with me counting down the days until I could finally get my revenge.

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