And so, the clash dragged on for three days,
and Aos's monstrous strength won the entire Whitebeard crew's recognition,
sly and strong, way over spec.
Thankfully, on the fourth day, both sides finally ceased fighting.
Crew from both ships started swapping supplies and treasure chests like street vendors at a market.
The high-intensity battles and Haki lessons left Aos a bit tired; he needed time to let things settle and sink in,
and he wasn't much into the bartering anyway. His own stash was just a Devil Fruit and some Belly and loot from the usual cuts,
so after browsing a while, he traded some treasure for a batch of Seastone from the Whitebeard side—handy for bullets or other uses.
"Buggy, Shanks, are you two planning to keep standing there like statues?"
Aos sat on a fallen trunk behind them, eyeing the pair with hands on hips and smug faces, a bit speechless,
"They're the ones staring at us, Aos!"
"Yeah?"
Across from them, Marco the Phoenix—dropped by a single shot—sat cross-legged, bandaged up, with a stocky, dark-skinned kid beside him swaddled in thick wraps,
Marshall D. Teach.
One of the future Four Emperors, the turncoat-to-be, Blackbeard.
Only, the two of them seemed less fixated on Buggy and Shanks and more on Aos, who was eating.
"Those guys—are they trainee pirates?"
Teach asked, gaze serious as he looked at the three.
"Yeah. They've been on the Roger Pirates for ages."
As one of Whitebeard's early followers, Marco knew the Roger crew fairly well, and he'd known about the three brats for a long time,
but he hadn't expected the black-haired kid to be that strong. It blew past his expectations.
"How… how could a monster like that be just an intern on Roger's crew?!"
Sweat threaded from Teach's brow. The wound on his left shoulder still throbbed; the internal damage hurt far worse than it looked,
while the other two didn't seem strong at all,
how could the gap between them be so huge?
Their first meeting with Aos—and that overwhelming power—had plainly left Teach with a hefty shadow.
While the two of them eyed the trio, the trio were sizing them up right back.
"Hey, Aos, Shanks, you noticed it too, right?"
"Mm."
"That guy hasn't slept at all during the nightly truces the past two days!"
"Why? Is not sleeping impressive?"
"No, I heard he hasn't slept since he was born."
"That's a bona fide monster."
Hearing that, Aos's attention drifted to something else entirely,
namely that Buggy really had stared at Teach for three straight days. The more he thought about it, the creepier it felt.
As for Blackbeard, Aos neither liked nor hated him,
since strictly speaking, Blackbeard's greedy, lecherous, backstabbing ways fit the world's idea of what a pirate is
far more than travelers like Roger and Luffy who just wear the pirate label.
The reason he had singled Teach out with that shot was to test him a bit; after all, scarring an adult Shanks isn't easy,
but from that one bullet's result, today's Blackbeard was still just a kid.
Aos wasn't interested in spooking children for fun.
He only lifted his eyes to the crown of a giant tree, where Roger, Whitebeard, and Oden were conferring—occasionally flaring into an argument,
and Aos even saw space fissures shattered by quakes.
"Looks like the journey really is on a countdown."
He took a slow swig of juice,
and fell into thought.
…
"So Oden has become a member of the Roger Pirates?"
Back at sea, Buggy looked at the samurai on deck, incredulous.
"More or less. You could say we borrowed him from Whitebeard."
Aos didn't react much; if anything, it meant another chance to ask about Ryuo,
and while he felt the Ryuo he'd cribbed wasn't any different from the real thing, asking the source would round it out,
in case there was some special trick he'd missed.
Blade in hand, Aos strolled toward Oden at the center of the banquet.
When he slowly drew it, Oden and the nearby crew jumped, the mood going taut,
but to their surprise, Aos hadn't come to start a fight.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm here to ask about Ryuo."
Whew.
Oden let out a breath. He really didn't want to fight this slippery brat again. Swinging at air and then getting hit was torture,
and Ryuo, as an Armament application, wasn't something he couldn't teach. After all, they'd be crewmates now,
but when he asked about Aos's current grasp of it, he was left a little blank.
Aos simply raised a fist. Layer upon layer of reddish Armament crept over his skin,
and with a distant flick, like flowing water, the bottle in Oden's hand burst apart into glittering shards.
"Is there anything I should improve?"
Aos smiled, none of the terror of battle in him. "I figured it out myself during the last two days of fighting."
At that, Oden opened his mouth, then had no words,
because there wasn't anything left to teach. What Aos had worked out was textbook Ryuo Armament,
and Oden even half-suspected Aos had known it already and was just toying with him,
because really,
can anyone improve that fast?
Is he even human?
In Oden's silence, he just went cold and walked off on Aos,
Seriously? I only used Future Sight to annoy you a few times, and you're this salty about it,
so petty.
He'd annoyed plenty of people with that trick, but only Oden took it this hard. Maybe look inward?
With nothing gained, Aos endured the crew's monster-stares and slipped out of the banquet circle,
maybe being too good really does get you isolated sometimes.
At a loss, he went to find his two best buddies,
and with a sweep of Kenbunshoku, he found them at the stern, still grinding away at training,
though to be honest, their current results weren't much use to him anymore,
what he'd learned from Rayleigh and Roger had spoiled him; swiping Shanks's training with Kenbunshoku no longer did anything for him,
so he might as well rest a bit and train the horizon of his Future Sight, pushing it from three seconds to four. That beat anything.
He hadn't expected that on seeing him, Buggy would just say hi and go back to slacking,
while Shanks perked right up.
He set down his dumbbells, eyes lighting up at the sight of Aos,
then, brimming with fighting spirit, he drew the long sword at his waist,
"Fight me, Aos!!"
Aos: ??