One Piece: The Eldest Brother

…

After having said their goodbyes to the ladies, the crew finally set sail. Having completed their goal, the crew was in a rather relaxed mood throughout the journey.

When it was time for the report, they reported everything which had to be reported and kept the rest to themselves, of course including the details that shouldn't reach the ears of the higher-ups. 

Edam and the crew had it hard, especially Edam who was severely scolded by Sengoku. But no one ever blamed edam for it.

Through the other side of the den-den Mushi could see a man screaming at the top of his lungs, "You damn brat! How many times did we tell you not to hand over the second agreement/contract easily!"

"Hah!? But I never said I handed it easily though…" Edam broke in a cold sweat and averted his eyes from the Den Den Mushi.

"You think I'm dumb!? You're still too wet behind the ears you little monkey…!" 

'What's that even supposed to mean…? Stupid grandpa Buddha, meh...'

Edam jokingly stuck his tongue out in front of the Den Den Mushi, enraging the other party to no end, making the whole crew burst into laughter at the sides. By now the whole crew had gotten used to these antics of Edam though they do enjoy it to their heart's content.

…

"Damn that kid!" Sengoku hanged the den-den Mushi with a pissed off face.

"Bwahahaha…" Garp who was sitting relaxingly on a couch to the side started to laugh out loud with a biscuit still in his hands.

*Pah!*

A stamp flew across the room and hit Garp directly on his forehead but he still kept on laughing as if nothing happened.

"You shut it! All this mess, It's your goddamn fault, you're the one who suggested for him to go on this mission. You are an idiot! What am I gonna say to those geezers?!"

.

"Pfff, who care…? just tell them they had no choice or something…Nyahaha…!"

Sengoku could only look at Garp with a pissed off face but then lifted a brow and asked.

"Hmmm? By the way, why did you call him back? We don't have anything for them, you could have let them sail the sea for some days…" 

"Ah, I just have something to tell the kid about…" Garp pondered on if he should say it or not… but… it didn't seem to be something to say to this buddy of his, this secret was too much… 

"Hmm? And what is it?"

"Heh! just family matters, don't worry, nothing much…"

Sengoku could only narrow his eyes and look at him suspiciously. He could have used his authority to force anyone to spit out the truth but unfortunately, Garp wasn't just anyone, and it was not like he could not trust him...

…

*Back on the ship*

As it would take a whole week to get there, everyone returned to their hobbies, or so it seemed. Everyone seemed to have something they loved to do during their sail, and each was quite peculiar in their ways.

As for Edam, he was again standing at the highest point of their ship sitting with crossed legs, in a meditative position.

His face was currently frowning gloomily, out of anger and frustration.

Because nowadays whenever he would try to channel his Ki he would feel a strange sense of restriction impending over him as if he had some shackles of some sort pinning him down. 

According to [Yggdrasil's foundation arts] one training in ki could step into their soul sea when their mastery over ki was decent enough. 

He decided to jump in his soul sea again today. Soul sea was a very calming place but it also placed too much toll on him mentally, that he would have to hope out no matter how reluctant he was. 

As he entered his soul sea he was transported to a black space with many shining and twinkling stars, it was a beautiful sight indeed. It seemed as if a whole universe was placed in here. Though there was something even more outstanding. 

In the middle of the endless expanse of this universe was what seemed to be a huge and monstrous figure, it was completely black colored, covered by a very thin layer of white smoke and seemed to be a cluster of energy rather than any solid entity. 

He was curled up, sitting with his head within his knees very much like a baby, appearing rather cute at first sight. Though the peculiar thing was he was chained up.

There were many chains of various sizes bound to him. There were mainly two types of chains though, one was pure black with goldish-red inscriptions on them and the other was complete violet chains with some spikes in them. 

The black chains seemed to radiate a holy and demonic energy at the same time while the violet one radiated both a feeling of hatred and love at the same time. It was quite odd for Edam to experience such conflicting feelings at the same time. Though he grew accustomed to them over time.  

But he had to admit it felt so frustrating to have something in your grasp but yet not at the same time. It was like he was there but not there, the feeling of having yet not have was really frustrating and annoying him to no end.

There were several swirls of energy being emitted by his soul, though the most prominent of them all would be violet-red and whitish-blue swirls of energy. The raging violet-black swirl of energy ran rampant and the torrent of energy seemed to be constantly clashing against a very calm whitish-blue swirl of energy as if there was nothing to worry about. But the most peculiar of them all was a small ball of a green swirl of energy which seemed to be moving around, being unaffected by both. It seemed like a rather jolly child would do whatever it wished for.

But the thing was he could never come close to his soul, whenever he tried to he would be pushed back. There was this sort of invisible layer separating him from his soul.

He could only watch it from afar…

Although he never really got to see this actual "limit" after such a long time, it was still really unpleasant to be restricted by these unknown shackles.

Of course, he already tried to get rid of these things "chains" by... scratching, pulling, biting, hitting...etc… but no can do, they were more glue to him than a chewing gum would ever be.

"Arghhhh, @#$%&!!!!" Edam cursed out loud inside the Soul's sea and got out of it as his eyes snapped open and came back into reality.

His face twitched in anger but he rapidly calmed down. But soon the huge fatigue came crashing down, and he felt a little tired.

Since there was nothing he could do and knew of, then there was no point in getting angry, it wouldn't resolve anything at all.

With a thought, he came out of his Soul sea.

Heck, at his thoughts the imaginary face in the clouds even seemed to flush red, or was it just his imagination?

'How can a cloud be so cute, it's nonsensical…'

"Sigh…" Every time he thought about her, he would start to feel strange, he would miss her… during those few days, he would feel awfully empty inside sigh..., he was even quite tempted to go back there right away, right now, even going as far as to ignore his grandpa's very order.

'Was I bewitched by her? Yeah I think I am…'

He never felt braver than now… but well he ultimately decided to listen to his Grandpa.

"Sigh… I'm so filial…" He said ironically and jumped down to go and discussed with the others.

…

And so, time flew by, and they finally reached Marineford.

After having passed the exam for some, they were offered to have a free house in Marineford town to live in. 

Well, becoming pirates would maybe be a better idea, but some had bad memories of pirates. With the Marine doctrine that pirates were bad… that didn't help at all…

Whatever, as for Edam, the next day, when he got in Sengoku's bureau he was punished….

His punishment was to sweep Marineford's training field.

Although Edam tried to defend himself with a casual. "It's not my fault grandpa Sen, I just handed out the wrong paper sigh… the time it took me to realize it, she already signed the paper… how could I take it back right? It would have stained the Navy's long-earned reputation, we were also right on the other party's territory, we would have been doomed if I did so..." He gave his longest speech ever but he was already done for.

"..." Sengoku's face quietly twitched in anger before he burst out.

"...And you still dare to mess with me!!!"

Sengoku's face was burning in anger as his hand-illuminated in a golden light and…

"...?!" With a tingle of his tail, Edam's eyes widened as he rapidly and Instinctively brought his arms up to defend.

Boom!

Edam was sent flying like a broken kite straight outside breaking several walls before crashing on the ground.

"And don't you dare show up in front of me before that damn training field is thoroughly clean you hear me!?" Sengoku yelled loudly from his office.

"Tch, yeah yeah… meanie Buddha !" Edam leisurely stood and patted his T-shirt to get rid of the dust with a pouting expression.

"He could have gone softer...sigh…" When he looked at his forearms, they were a bit red in pain although it was negligible at most. He was quick enough to channel enough Ki in his arms to not get too hurt but it still hurt a bit though.

"Ah right, Edam come to the house when you're finished with your chore!" Garp's voice came out from the same place.

"..."

*In the office*

Sengoku was looking narrowingly at his palm with which he just used to strike Edam.

"..."

His eyes then darted toward Garp and turned serious.

"That kid is really not normal…" The strike he had launched forward could have put to misery several high-level marines but the kid casually blocked that… although he pierced his defense of Ki in the end, but still… that was something to be proud of, knowing that it was Buddha who sent his palm.

"Heh!" Garp only grinned and took a bit of his biscuit. "Crunch, crunch, crunch…!"

Sengoku, who was already pissed off, snorted before taking his Den Den Mushi to call for people to repair the broken walls.

…

*Meanwhile 10 minutes later on the said training field.*

Edam successfully found a broom and began to sweep through the field.

But the field was goddamn long and wide!

It was to be expected though, Marineford was the Navy's headquarter after all, with no less than a hundred thousand soldiers to nurture and train to eventually fight pirates.

People were training and challenging each other to duels and all that while Edam would sweep with a tranquil air by the sides.

He already made sure to wear a hat and a mask to hide from people's sight.

It would be humiliating for him if people knew that he was punished to sweep the field after all. A Marine captain who had to sweep… he would probably become a laughing stock.

'What a waste of time, It's my day off, I could be elsewhere right…' Edam complained in his head.

…

Nothing happened for hours till…

A mysterious group of people made its way on the field and requested to test out a certain number of marines.

That strange group was made of really unique types of people… 

The first guy and leader it seems was a pale man of slim stature with wavy, wild lavender hair in a layered style that is roughly shoulder-length and parted in the middle. He has black markings around his large eyes very much looking like a panda, and his narrow nose is a dark red. He was dressed mostly in leathers-made clothes.

Not the most handsome guy out there yeah, with a smile that makes one want to slap his face…

He was called Spandam or something.

Accompanying him were four other people…

A tall man with big lips, a black beard, and black hair in which his hairstyle resembles the horns of a bull named Blueno.

Then, there was a tall and slim, yet muscular man with arched eyebrows and a close-shaved goatee. He has shoulder-length wavy black hair that is sometimes tied in a ponytail and wore full black clothes. His name wasn't mentioned yet.

On his shoulders was a pigeon.

Following them was a young man, who had big black eyes with 3 eyelashes on top of his eye, and a long nose similar to the Usopp guy that Edam met, only his was rectangular.

Last but not least, there was a slim, pretty woman with blue eyes and glasses. Her strawberry blonde hair was about shoulder length, her name too wasn't mentioned.

The leader was currently discussing with some rather high-level Marines till the vice-admiral Tsuru arrived along with the vice-admiral Gion.

'...?!' When Edam from the corner of his eyes saw Tsuru and Gion arrived, he hurriedly pulled his hat lower. If there was someone who could recognize him despite his disguise, it was only them or his friends.

'Sh*t, why are Grandma and Gion here?' He made sure to properly hide his tail with a towel that he found somewhere, and turned his back on them while cleaning the place but still listening on and peeking from time to time.

…

*Meanwhile*

 "My, my I am honored to be welcomed by the vice-admiral Tsuru herself as well as the vice-admiral Momousagi…" The guy named Spandam saluted with a disgusting smile.

"..." Tsuru didn't deign to respond leaving the guy in an awkward situation. She kept an indifferent expression as she glanced at all of them.

It was only after a while that she opened her mouth to speak. "What does the Cypher poll and even CP9 want from us…?"

At these words, Spandam's disgusting smile widened.

….

/////////////

discord.gg/kt9rAVC