Chapter 150: Bounties and Danger?

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After resting for a bit, the duo woke up and went to the bathroom to wash themselves. Robin went in first, but Hashirama invaded her privacy and made a mess of the place. 

She didn't hate it though.

After cleaning up together and putting on new clothes, the two of them ventured out to find the rest of the crew. Since it was evening already, they must be looking for them.

"I am going to tell Vivi," Robin admitted as they walked together side by side. She was looking at the ground, not daring to meet his eyes. "I loved what we did, but I can't cheat behind that girl's back. I… don't know what to do if she slaps me and tells me to stay away from you, I'll most likely do as told, so… don't hate me if I reject indulging in it, alright?"

"Sure, go ahead," he agreed. He found it rather respectable that she could say such words even after he used his new pleasure Jutsu that he hasn’t named.

"I know this would anger you but- wait, huh?" As if surprised by his agreement, she snapped her head to look at him. "Did you just agree?"

"Well, yeah," Hashirama pulled her closer to him by her waist. She blushed but didn't push him away, even when people watched them with lust and envy. "You are thinking too much about it. You'll know when you tell her, she's not that serious about this. And it's you of all girls, she likes you. A lot. You saved her country, for all it's worth."

The Alabasta Royal family was extremely grateful to Robin, that's why they didn't sell her off even when Crocodile threatened them with Tsuru's presence. Plus, over the last few months, Robin had taken care of the crew and Vivi herself like a guardian angel, they were close.

"I'm more worried about Mikita," he said with a sly smile. "Imagine how much she'll tease you about this."

Robin let out a groan and looked at him with a hesitant smile. "This is weird. I don't hate it though."

"Yeah, I guess," Hashirama replied with a squeeze of her waist. 

They talked about some lighter topics as they walked for a few more minutes. He used his Observation Haki to sense Tsunade, it was the easiest to sense her thanks to her chakra, and even Marianne who was beside her all the time. The two of them headed in that direction, finding the girls walking over them too while gossiping amongst themselves.

They all had a paper in their hands, their eyes holding different emotions as they were reading it.

'Huh… Could those be bounty posters?' Excitedly, Hashirama hastened the pace.

"Hey girls!" Hashirama went over to them with a wave of his hand. "How was the day out?"

"It was good," Mikita replied, raising an eyebrow at them. "What's up with the new set of clothes?"

Robin cursed the damned girl for noticing the most suspicious things. The two groups met, pausing in front of each other, as the others also looked at the two of them in confusion when they failed to answer right away.

"It's…" Robin decided to be the adult of the two of them and explain. She closed her eyes, letting out a sigh, and reopened them to look at Vivi. "I slept with him. He didn't seduce me, he isn't to blame, I threw myself on him. And we had… sex. I'm sorry."

A heavy silence fell on the group. Even a few bystanders heard it and looked at the gathering with curious glances.

Vivi stayed silent too, and she didn't show any emotion visibly. Hashirama got worried at that, was his prediction false? Would she actually end up getting mad?

"I see," Vivi reached out her hands and… hugged her. "I don't believe he didn't seduce you, I'm pretty sure he tricked you, but I'll accept your apology. I'm not mad, it's just a little sudden but… I don't mind if it's you. More than some random women, I much prefer you to be in this. Welcome to the…" she paused and looked at Hashirama. "What are we calling this? Harem? Family? Clan?"

"Up to you," Hashirama said with a smile, giving her a green flag as she grinned.

"Clan, then. I don't like the word harem." She said, pulling back from the hug and smiling at Robin. "You're my sister-wife now! Or hmm sister girlfriend? Nah, sounds odd."

"This is outrageous," Mikita let out a long breath. "The difference in treatment is surreal. I didn't receive this treatment when I first got caught."

"Because it's you, you thief," Vivi glared at her, making the older girl scoff. 

"Whatever suits you, princess. Childish." Mikita replied.

"Alright girls, don't fight," Tsunade cleared her throat. 

Hashirama had noticed a pang of emotion in her face a moment earlier when he gave Vivi the green flag to choose the name of the harem; perhaps she knew that would have been her job if she hadn't messed up so badly. Whatever the case, she had hidden it by now and calmed down the girls.

"Since you have accepted her there is no need to fight on some useless matter," she said, and to properly distract them, she raised the poster in her hand. "Instead, let's check out the poster. Since the Captain is here, he should see it. Hashirama, check this out."

Apparently, the posters had been out for a day now. Since they were traveling, they missed it. But today they finally got their hands on it. That's why more than expected people were recognizing them, now that they were gathered together they were drawing quite some eyes.

Hashirama took the poster from Tsunade's hands, with expectations running through his nerves, as he looked at the number.

The poster had changed. Unlike the one where he had a sword in his hand, this one was when he had let out his burst of Conqueror's Haki against Tsunade. His hair was floating upwards, his ponytail gone, and his eyes glinting with a green light. 

Who the hell captured this image when they were in the air when this happened?

All those questions turned into dust when he saw the number. 

|| Hashirama Senju || || 1,100,000,000 B ||

A billion and a hundred…! That was a full billion increase since his last bounty. That was unbelievable.

In the canon timeline, the only time someone got higher than this in one go was when Luffy defeated Kaido, an Emperor of the sea. He got a 1.5 billion boost. Oh, and Crocodile who got nearly 2 billion of growth. Still, this was a legendary jump.

"Is it because I killed Doflamingo, an ex-World Noble?" He wondered out loud. "Or is it because I cut off King's wings and made him flee?"

"I made him flee," Tsunade corrected him, making him scoff arrogantly.

"And what is your bounty, missus?" He asked with a smirk.

"Check it for yourself," she said, throwing her poster at his face. His smirk dropped as he stared dead at the number.

|| Tsunade Senju || || 1,500,000,000 B ||

A billion and five hundred…

"This is… unfair," Hashirama sounded as if he was struck by lightning. "How could they give you more than me, who is the captain?! What if people mistake you for the captain now!"

She shrugged, "Not my problem."

"How did you get this high?" He asked with a glare, though he knew why.

She explained anyway, "Strongest Female Marine? Student of Garp the Hero? The Marine Hero who freed Skypiea from the False God? The woman who ultimately defeated Doflamingo because her brother didn't even have advanced Armament? Ah, and I made King the Wildfire flee, who has a bounty of 1.3 Billion berries. All me." She looked at him with a smug smile. "What is you bounty again? Ah, wait, is it four hundred million lower than me?!"

"...." Hashirama looked at his power again. "This is unfair. Well, at least my picture looks cooler than yours. Look, you are spitting blood."

"Shut up, loser."

"Who lost again?" He taunted as she let out a groan, causing them to get touchy.

The others watched, more comfortably than what they should be when two island busters were getting hand to hand, smiling at the sweet interaction. 'What a sweet pair of siblings,' they thought.

After calming down, Hashirama checked the others' bounties too. He was satisfied with them.

|| Vivi Nefertari || || 300,000,000 B ||

|| Nico Robin || || 290,000,000 B ||

|| Marianne|| || 280,000,000 B ||

|| Mikita || || 280,000,000 B ||

|| Nami || || 200,000,000 B ||

|| Karoo || || 50 Berries ||

“Not bad, not bad, we are all above 200 mills. Except for Karoo, but that’s different. Speaking of, where is she?” Hashirama asked after he finished going through the posters. Nami was the lowest, other than Karoo, but knowing her, she must prefer that.

“She’s drinking apple juice in sadness in a corner, she’s sad at the low bounty even though she did so much in the war,” Vivi replied, finding it hilarious.

Hashirama laughed with her and continued. “Marianne and Mikita are at the same number. I guess the Marines might have found your past, Mikita since they managed to discover Robin’s identity too.”

“Which doesn’t make sense because if they did find that out, I should be worth more than the spoiled princess,” Mikita said with a shrug, though she knew that wasn’t true. Vivi had achieved more than her in the war and defeated Chinjao. She still teased the younger girl anyway. “Must be because she’s from a royal family. She even has the ‘Only Alive’ tag that I only heard in legends. Tsk, tsk.”

Vivi didn’t try to deny the claim, lowering her head in shame. Her family certainly wanted her back, and alive. King Cobra must have pulled some strings to get the “Killed or Alive” part replaced with the current one.

“You should call your parents once,” Hashirama told her. “After our ship returns and we set sail. It’d be unwise to call from a place where we would be staying for a few days.”

“Speaking of, Shira,” Tsunade chimed in. “We should leave tomorrow morning. You can make a temporary ship and we’d set sail. Staying here won’t be a good idea now that our bounties are out. The Government might send people. In fact, the news says that the Big Mom Pirates attacked a ship that was carrying Smoothie in it, and despite Garp himself being in the ship to escort the pirates, they managed to take Smoothie away with some casualties. They might be around the corner.”

That was concerning. Those big shots in the seas just around them? It made sense to leave the place soon, even if it meant too much moving around which was annoying. He gave a nod, “Yeah, I guess. But we should be safe for now though-”

As if fate wanted to mock him, all of his senses flared with danger. He wasn’t the only one, all the girls were alerted too. They had the basics down of the two Hakis, but their Observation wasn’t so developed to sense danger from the mere presence from this much distance. Which meant whoever the threat was, it was someone beyond their classes.

They had seen King and were unfazed. Which meant….

“Shit, it’s an Emperor-class,” Hashirama yelled, turning in the direction of the danger. All of his senses were screaming, this was bad, who came? Garp? Sengoku? Or Akainu?!

No, could it be Kaido or Big Mom who were mad at him for messing up with their crews? Maybe Big Mom. Perhaps she had come to claim Smoothie by herself, otherwise why would Garp not be able to stop them?

To his shock, the danger was a man knight riding a white horse through the air. It was a Pegasus, and from the looks of it, it wasn’t a devil fruit. Because five more knights were riding flying horses right behind him.

It was… “The God’s Army!?” Tsunade announced it to everyone.

“Everyone,” the leading man, whom even Hashirama recognized as the Commander of the God’s Army, Garling Figarland, shouted for his men. “Annihilate everyone, but cripple the two Senju rubbles. We shall make a show.”

The world slowed, and Hashirama began to take out his sword from his back. Tsunade curled her fists, while the others also got into a battle stance. Marianne crouched down for some reason, but Hashirama didn’t have a second to spare a glance.

Garling grabbed the hilt of his sword and began to take it out too. Hashirama’s senses were all-time high, in the slow world he sensed the five behind Garling to all be around Doflamingo to King’s level. They were all Yonko Commander Levels. This was bad.

An emperor-level enemy was too much for the crew anyway, but if Hashirama and Tsunade got busy dealing with Garling, the other girls would be annihilated by those other knights.

“Tectonic,” Hashirama screamed out his willpower. “Cleaver!”

Thankfully, due to the intensity of the situation, he somehow managed to call forth real Conqueror’s Coating instead of the discount one. A wave of dark red energy splashed out of his sword, rushing towards the five flying knights as they closed the distance. There was still a hundred-meter gap between them, but the blade aura rushed at a speed beyond anything else that could be dodged.

Then, Garling swung his sword. Two cursed words left his lips.

“Divine Departure.”

Wasn’t that Roger and Shanks’ technique? The much more experienced Conqueror’s Coating user’s attack was concentrated, like a very pressurized beam of water against a tall waterfall. Despite Hashirama’s aura’s weight, the sheer pressure of Garling’s technique cut through it with ease and continued rushing forward.

“Galaxy-”

“No!”

His sister tried to punch the sword aura, but that’d get her killed. Hashirama jumped in front of her and swung again. “Tectonic Clea-!” The sword arc cut through his yell and hit him in the wrists. Both of Hashirama’s hands were severed as they fell with his sword, and Hashirama held back a shriek of pain and waited for his hands to heal.

“A second!” He yelled. It should have healed by the time he finished yelling, however… there was no sign of it regenerating. His cut hands stayed that way. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! It’s Conqueror’s Haki, of course!” It could negate regeneration.

Tsunade looked at him cursing and realized what had happened. Her brother had just lost his hands, forever, while trying to take the hit instead of her.

“You fucking bastard!” Tsunade turned to Garling, who was only meters ahead of them now and yelled. She curled her fist and was about to jump in the air, yelling, “Galaxy-”

The world slowed to Hashirama as he tried to stop her. There was no way she’d survive a slash of Divine Departure when his Tectonic Cleaver couldn’t. This was seriously bad; she’d get herself killed!

In that moment, another knight swung a blade aura towards them. But it wasn’t directed towards Hashirama, but Robin. Hashirama tried to save her, but someone else, someone faster than him, did it first. Karoo the duck came out of nowhere and tackled Robin out of the way, saving her.

But for how long? Hashirama was relieved, but not much. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He might be able to call Sage Mode if a miracle happened, but even during a miracle, at least a few of his girls will die. And Tsunade might just be the start of it.

Dammit.

“Sorry, this doesn’t have a distinct destination, we can end up anywhere, but-! Fuinjutsu!” Someone yelled just as Tsunade jumped, and Hashirama turned to find the red-haired girl doing something on the ground. Her hand had intricate drawings on it before she planted her palm on the ground. “Flying Thunder God!”

Then, chakra erupted out of her, covering the Senju Pirates in a cloak of orange hue, as the world went bright and they vanished from the land of Prodence.

In a single instant, the entire crew was saved.

Except, in return, the light vanished and they found ourselves suffocating in the dark. In the depth of the sea.

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