Breaking Point Chapter 6
Whitebeard Pirates x Teen GN Reader
4.5k words
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Summary: Preparations are being made in Totto Land, meanwhile you begin to plot your revenge.
Warnings: child marriage, mentions of reproduction, reader being lowkey passively suicidal
The dock was lively today. Louise took a drag from her cigarette while she watched various workers load the ship she'd be taking. Dockhands hauled food, weapons, and personal items onto the ship at an efficient pace. That was to be expected. Linlin was an impatient woman who loathed tardiness.
Speed was a crucial element to this mission. Not just because Linlin wanted them to return quickly, but due to the extreme danger everyone on board would be in if the wrong people knew who was to be there for the voyage home.
Sakazuki would leave no survivors if he found out what was going on. Sengoku was holding him back for now, but his temper is too unpredictable for that to truly be a guarantee. Especially with how much he hated losing control of anything.
Louise dropped the burnt down nub from her lips and pulled a new cigarette from her pack, lighting it with a practiced ease, and taking a deep drag. This was doing nothing for her nerves, yet she kept smoking cig after cig in hopes that the next one would finally be enough. She never did get the hang of managing stress.
But, really? Who could possibly relax when they had as much on their plate as she does?
Charlotte Linlin sat perched on her throne, consuming pastries at a rate that implied she feared they would be taken from her if she didn't eat fast enough despite that very much not being true.
She was in a good mood, something that Louise was extremely grateful for.
“Isn’t this wonderful? I just knew this would all work out one day!” Linlin paused her eating long enough to take a swig of tea. Her eyes drift down to Louise, and she grins, “And to think you doubted that we would ever be able to get our hands on your dear (Y/N).”
“How foolish of me. I should have had more faith in you.” Louise forced a smile and idly sipped at her own tea.
Linlin cackled, slapping her free hand on the arm of her throne, “Yes, exactly! You should know better by now after everything we’ve been through. I always know what I’m talking about.”
That was true in a sense. If she was ever wrong about something, she had a way of brute-forcing the situation back into her being right again. Not that Louise would ever vocalize that thought.
“But even I have to admit that this is different from what I had expected.” Louise’s gaze flitted up at that admission. “Because this is even better than what I had hoped for! Not only am I getting the Will of D into my family, but now this marriage will also create an alliance with the Whitebeard pirates!” Linlin’s feet kicked in the air and she squirmed with excitement at the prospect.
“An alliance? From what I gathered during my conversation with him, he’s only holding onto (Y/N) for the time being because they didn’t want to go back, not because he’s assimilated them into his crew.”
“Louise, darling, what did we just say about you having more faith in me?” Linlin discarded her empty cup and leaned forward, propping up her chin on one fist. “You don’t know Edward like I do. He has a talent for drawing in troubled youth and making them one of his own, and from what I’ve heard about your kid, they’re precisely the kind of person he can’t help but adopt. Mark my words, that kid will be calling him ‘Pops’ by the time you get there.”
She seems awfully sure of herself. Louise looks down at her cup and absent-mindedly swirls the tea around. She supposes that there is hardly anything bad about you finally having a good father figure.
But Whitebeard seeing you as his own will most certainly cause problems. He’s going to want what’s best for you, and Louise isn’t delusional enough to think that what Big Mom wants is what is best for you.
“We should get back on topic, though. Since you’ve been such a useful ally, I’ll let you have some say in the matter.” Linlin sits up straighter, eyes sparkling. “Which of my children do you think (Y/N) would suit best? I think Nougat’s around their age. Or perhaps Pudding?”
Linlin’s nose wrinkles, and she retracts her previous statement, “Well, maybe not Pudding. I don’t want a bunch of three-eyed grandchildren running around.”
The topic makes Louise uncomfortable. She knows full well that you are in no state of mind to be getting thrown into a marriage with zero warning. Not to mention far too young to be reproducing. She purses her lips and tries to come up with an excuse, “It’s hard for me to say… While I’ve been able to get updates on (Y/N) through eavesdropping on Marine transmissions, it’s given me very little insight on their personality. Maybe we could wait until after I’ve brought them here? Then we could see first hand who they get along with best.”
“You want me to wait that long?” Linlin leans back in her seat and crosses her arms, openly pouting at the idea. “But I want to have the wedding shortly after your return, not have to wait however long it takes them to make a decision. It’s been so long since the last wedding, I’ve been looking forward to the cake!”
The last wedding was around six or seven years ago now, to Anana’s father. Rest his soul.
Linlin's eyes widen, and she sits up straighter, “I know! Why don’t you take the decuplets with you?”
“W-What? All of them?”
“Yes! There’s ten of them, so your kid is bound to get along with at least one.” Linlin nods to herself, and Louise knows that means she has already made up her mind on the matter. This situation just got a lot more complicated.
What a mess. Louise stares out at the sea, mulling over how best to go about this. As it stands right now, there isn’t a clear or obvious answer. What she wouldn’t give for Rouge to be here to give her advice. Her sister always knew what to do, even in the worst scenarios.
“I thought you said you were quitting.”
“She's said that like a million times. There's no way you're still believing her when she says it.”
Louise turns her head toward the voices making comments on her life choices. Newji and Allmeg respectively were standing nearby, with Allmeg using Newji as an armrest. Their grins only widen when she gives them her attention.
“I don’t recall asking for either of your opinions.” She exhales smoke, then drops the cigarette butt on the ground and steps on it. “I’m going to quit when we get back.”
The two decuplets before her exchange glances, then lean closer to “whisper” amongst themselves.
Newji holds up a hand to shield his lips from view, “I bet a thousand berry she’ll fail after a week.”
Allmeg snorts and shoots back, “I bet five thousand that she won’t even try.”
“Okay, that’s enough you little smartasses!” Louise leveled them with a glare that she knew full well they weren’t going to take seriously. That’s her fault, she supposes. She always has been soft on them.
True to her assumptions, they only laughed in response to her half-assed attempt to scold them. Rather than being able to focus on these two in particular, her attention is divided by the rest of the decuplets making their way onto the docks.
Nutmeg and Akimeg come running up to the pier, eyes locked onto the ship with obvious excitement. Nutmeg looks over to her sister, “I can’t believe we’re finally getting to leave Totto Land, this is going to be so much fun!”
Akimeg nods eagerly, “Just think of all the new things we’re going to get to see on this trip!”
Newichi enters the scene, his hands stuffed in his pockets and a scowl on his face, “How are you two looking forward to this? Are you forgetting that one of us is going to have to get married when we come back?”
The comment makes Nutmeg whip around, visibly irritated, “Of course I remember, I’m not stupid!”
“Yeah! Excuse us for trying to make the most out of this!” Akimeg chimes in, siding with her sister.
Newgo trails in behind his oldest brother and tosses in his own opinion on the matter, “I’m with them, we should just focus on having fun in the meantime. We can worry about that later.”
Fuyumeg inserts herself into the conversation, looking unimpressed, “Besides, I don’t get why you’re the one so bent out of shape over this. It’s not like they’re going to choose you of all people.”
“Hey!” Newichi snaps his head in her direction, face flushed with anger to the point of blending in with red hat, “The hell is that supposed to mean?!”
His outburst does nothing to intimidate Fuyumeg, who just smirks and taunts him further, “What? Do you need me to spell it out? I’m saying that no one is going to choose someone with a shitty attitude like yours.”
In the next instant, there’s a clash of metal as a fight breaks out between Newichi and Fuyumeg. Their scythes collide over and over again while the other decuplets cluster around to cheer their preferred sibling on.
“Oh, great. They’re already fighting. This is going to be a long mission.”
Louise looks up, seeing that Cracker has finally arrived and is now grumbling about the situation.
Linlin had decided to send one of her Sweet Commanders along for support, should you encounter trouble. While Louise wasn’t told the specific reason that Cracker was chosen, she can guess it’s because his devil fruit gives him the fighting power of a small army all on his own. He is by no means an easy opponent… though she isn’t confident that a bunch of biscuit soldiers will do much of anything against Admiral Akainu.
Cracker lowers his head until he’s looking down at Louise, “That kid of yours better not give us any grief after all the trouble we’re going through to go get them.”
“They won’t,” Louise’s tone is sharp, not caring for his words. Cracker raises his brows at her comeback, but he doesn’t press further.
Newichi and Fuyumeg are still fighting with each other when Newshi storms up to the crowd gathered around them, his larger stature allowing him to tower over everyone else.
“That’s enough! This is our first mission away from home, we need to make a good impression!” He pauses, waiting for any form of acknowledgement, only to get none. “Are you listening to me? I said that’s enough!”
Still nothing. Newshi grits his teeth in frustration, then looks over to the only person here that is taller than him, “Harumeg, break them up.”
“On it!” Harumeg smiles as she crouches down, then grabs the two brawling teenagers; one in each fist. She holds them up to Newshi triumphantly, “Got them!”
Newshi levels both of them with a glare, trying his damnedest to establish authority, “We need to be on our best behavior for this, not getting into fights before we’ve even made it onto the ship.”
Newichi isn’t even paying attention, instead being far more preoccupied with trying to pry himself out of his sister’s iron-grip. Fuyumeg, at least, actually responds to him.
“It’s not that big of a deal…” Fuyumeg’s arms are crossed, making her look more annoyed than ashamed. “But, fine. Whatever. I’ll stop.”
“Can’t breathe-” Newichi weakly pushes on Harumeg’s hand, face beginning to look a little blue.
Harumeg gasps and immediately lets him go… from about ten feet in the air. Despite the fact that the rest of his siblings are standing beneath where he’s falling, they all scramble out of the way rather than catching him. He hits the ground with a thud, no doubt knocking out what little air he had left. Harumeg drops down next to her brother, fretting over him.
“Oh, no! Are you okay?! I’m so sorry!”
Cracker lets out a weary sigh and shakes his head. “I don’t understand how you’re able to be around these kids so much. I’m already getting sick of them.”
“It’s not like we’re psyched that you’re coming along either,” Newsan called up to him. “Why couldn’t we have gotten Katakuri to come with us instead? He’s way cooler.”
Unfortunately, Cracker took the bait without a second thought, “Watch your mouth, you damned brat! Katakuri obviously has better things to do than babysit you little shits!”
“But you don’t? That’s pretty embarrassing,” Newsan let out mischievous giggles at his brother’s expense. Cracker was seething, so Louise took that as her cue to step in.
“Cracker, you’re too old to be falling for their little taunts. Just ignore them.”
That earns her a dirty look, but he does begrudgingly back off from the argument, instead choosing to focus on preparing a suit of armor to disguise himself in for the journey ahead. After a few claps, he looks it over only to scowl when he sees that it’s still incomplete.
“I know I made enough…” His muttering is stopped short by the sound of chewing. He snaps his head in the direction of said noise only to spot the green hat clad decuplet casually eating a snapped off piece of biscuit.
“Newshi! What do you think you’re doing?! Stop eating my biscuits! They aren’t meant to be food, and definitely not for free!” Cracker waits for a response, only to get none. “Don’t ignore me when I’m talking to you, Newshi!”
“I’m Newshi!” Newshi yelled from over by the ship where he was helping load some of the larger crates. “You aren’t even trying if you’re confusing one of my brothers for me.”
Cracker stopped and stared at the decuplet before him, trying to deduce which one he was. He gives up and looks over at Louise expectantly. Louise sighs, “That’s Newsan.”
At the mention of his name, Newsan finally looks up from his snack, “Hm? What is it?”
“Don’t act innocent! You knew I was talking to you!”
“No, I didn’t. You were clearly talking to Newshi, not me.” Newsan shrugged, then reached out and attempted to snap off another segment from Cracker’s creation. “Hey, can you make these different flavors?”
Louise watches as the interaction devolves into another fight. This is going to be a really long voyage.
—
Planning a murder required a lot of care and forethought. This wasn’t something you could charge into blindly. Well, you could, but that rarely ends well for the killer. Especially not when the soon-to-be victim has several advantages.
If you’re going to kill Marshall Teach, you’re going to have to be extremely careful. Not only can you not do anything to potentially tip him off to what you’re going to do, but you really need to make certain that none of his crewmates catch wind of your plans. They may be playing nice for now, but you’re sure that will end the second you try to kill one of their own.
One of the most crucial elements to your plan is the element of surprise. Yes, you’re a powerful fighter, but Teach has a significant height and weight advantage. You might have a chance in a direct fight, but you much prefer your odds in a sneak attack where he has no time to react. Speed will also be important, but with that sea stone cuff gone, you have no worries about achieving that.
He’ll also have to be alone for this to work. You can’t risk one of his crewmates being able to come to his aid. They can’t know about this until he’s already breathed his last breath. Granted, you’ll likely be killed the second they find his body, but that’s a problem for later.
It would seem that this element of your plan was going to be the most difficult part. As you sat on the deck of the Moby Dick watching him, you bitterly took note of Teach’s impressive ability to constantly surround himself with other people. This bastard was never alone. Trying to corner him with no one else around was not going to be an easy task. Especially if he started to get suspicious.
“(Y/N).”
Someone calling your name took you out of your homicidal trance. You look up to see Whitebeard looking at you from his captain’s chair. Despite all of the days you’ve spent aboard this ship, you still weren’t used to being in the presence of an Emperor like this. Though admittedly, the fact that he’s usually seated and hooked up to medical equipment made him feel somehow less risky to be near than the other people on board.
You stiffen under his gaze and sit up straight, “Yes, si- Whitebeard?”
His eyes crinkle in amusement at your almost-slipup, but he didn’t call attention to it this time. “You seem bored, child.”
Being called a child irked you somewhat, but you weren’t about to try and boss around the strongest man in the world and tell him what he can and can’t call you. It’s not really a big deal. At least he didn’t appear to be onto your scheme.
“A little, I guess. I’m not used to having so much free time.” Good, he just thought you looked bored, not murderous.
“Idle time is good for you. It isn’t natural to always be working.”
That sentiment was certainly not shared by the Marines, who treated someone taking a break from their duties for any reason as borderline treasonous behavior. Pirate ships, or this one at least, appeared to be significantly more lax. It was weird to have an enemy encouraging you to be mindful of your health.
“Although,” Whitebeard continues, “if you really want something to do, I believe Ace could use a hand manning the bilge pumps over there.”
What? You glance over and see Ace effortlessly operating two different pumps at once. A shocking feat given that it usually took four normal people to spin one. He doesn’t look like he’s having any trouble at all, but it feels wrong -not to mention stupid- to not take an order from Whitebeard.
Besides, if you want to get everyone here to trust you enough to allow you to carry out your plan, you’re going to have to play the part of someone that’s warming up to them. You push yourself up onto your feet and nod at Whitebeard, “I can do that. I needed something to do, anyway.”
The bilge pumps are a ways back on the massive ship. Ace, no doubt, didn’t hear that he had help on the way. His back is to you as he turns the wheels responsible for helping to pump water out of the ship. The pumps are huge, definitely requiring a great deal of strength to turn. If you hadn’t had time to recover from all the sea stone exposure, you doubt that you’d be able to assist him.
Once you’re close enough, you call out to the Division Commander, “Hey.” Ace looks over his shoulder at you, eyes widened slightly in surprise. His shock makes sense, you’re pretty sure this is the first time you’ve initiated contact with him.
“Whitebeard told me to come help you. Let me take over one of those.”
“Help me? I don’t really need help with this.” Ace continues working the pumps, showing no sign of relenting.
“Well, I’m already here, so scoot over.” Without giving him a chance to respond, you move forward and shoulder him away from the pump on the right. He loses his grip on the handle, and you quickly replace his hand with both of yours.
Like you had assumed, this thing was heavy and took a considerable effort to turn. Nothing you couldn’t handle, though. The other marines would always make comments about your unusual strength growing up.
Ace balked initially at you commandeering one of the pumps by force, but seemed to think better or arguing with you and instead focused on working the one you left him with. An awkward silence fell over you two, with only the noise of the pump between you. Normally, you aren’t opposed to bouts of silence, but there was something that had been on your mind regarding Ace.
“So… I don’t suppose you’re the same Ace that Vice Admiral Garp was always complaining about, are you?”
“You know my gramps?” Ace looks over at you, visibly intrigued.
“Yeah, we saw each other here and there. He mostly just used those moments to complain about his family, though.” But he would usually share his rice crackers with you during these exchanges, so you would endure it.
A chuckle escapes Ace, and he shakes his head, “That sounds about right. You should have seen how pissed off he’d get whenever me and Luffy talked about becoming pirates.”
Hearing that name gives you pause, then you feel a warm tide of nostalgia wash over you. “I haven’t seen Luffy in forever. How’s he doing? You two grew up together, right?”
Rather than answering you, your words seem to have caught Ace violently off guard. He lets go of the bilge pump handle, giving it the opportunity to wheel back around and hit his slack jaw dead on. He jerks back from the force of it, but recovers just as quickly.
“You know Luffy?!” He’s pointing at you now and yelling louder than you think is truly necessary even with the pumps going.
His reaction throws you off. Was this good? Bad? You had no idea. You offer a small shrug while taking over his now abandoned pump, not wanting to let it lose its momentum, “I mean, kinda? Garp used to pull me out of training to come play with Luffy back when he was still bringing him around, but we haven’t seen each other since we were little kids.”
“Hang on…” Ace’s eyes narrow, the gears in his brain turning, “You’re that kid Luffy would talk about sometimes! The one with the shitty dad!”
Shitty dad? That’s putting it mildly. Still, you can’t help but find humor in learning how Luffy would refer to Akainu. You huff out a laugh, “Is that how he talked about him? That’s funny.”
“I guess I’m not surprised, though. The only times Luffy ever saw him was after he’d finally tracked me down and came to drag me back to training.” A smile quirked at your lips as you started reminiscing, “Did he ever tell you about the time he threw a bucket of water at Akainu and tried to run away with me?”
Ace blinks, then grins, “He what?”
“I guess he’d gotten sick of all our hangouts being interrupted by my father. That day when Akainu came by to try and take me back, Luffy used the bucket we’d been making sandcastles with to douse him in water to try and weaken him. Before I could even process what he’d just done, he had grabbed my hand and took off down the beach so we could try to get away and keep playing.” You can still see the dumbstruck look on his face. That might have single-handedly been the most disrespectful thing ever done to him.
Okay, there’s no might about it. That was absolutely the most disrespectful thing ever done to him.
You’re pulled out of your thoughts by laughter. Ace is doubled over and cackling. He starts to recover from his laughing fit, “No way! I can’t believe he never told us about that!”
“He didn’t? That’s a shame. It was pretty funny. Even Garp was laughing his ass off.” And also you, though you quickly had to hide it when Akainu finally started to give chase. You did not want him to hear you laughing at him.
As his laughter subsides, he moves to retake his place at the pump next to you, but now his attention is solely on you. “I never would have guessed you two knew each other. I’m gonna have to give him hell next time I see him for keeping those stories secret.”
“Like I said, it’s been a long time.” You’d honestly assumed that he’d forgotten about you by now. A part of you can’t help but feel oddly happy about the fact that Luffy cared enough to tell other people about your time together. You glance over at Ace again, “You never answered my question before. How is he?”
“Oh, right. He’s good. He got a devil fruit, and he’s really made the most of it. You should see him in action with it, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Well, more so than he already was.” His smile widens, and his eyes light up, “He should be setting out on his own soon. Maybe you’ll get to see him again.”
“Yeah, maybe I will.” You wouldn’t be opposed to that, even if he is a pirate. You’ve been around far worse pirates as of late.
Suddenly, a hand settles on your shoulder, and you know it doesn’t belong to Ace since you can see both of his on the lever. A head sporting red hair pops in between you two. Oh. It’s Haruta. An exasperated sigh escapes you at his appearance. He’s definitely about to start saying ridiculous things again. That seems to be his specialty even more than swordfighting is.
“What do you want, Haruta?”
“I was just looking for you so we could spar again, but look at what I found instead!” Haruta wraps each arm around yours and Ace’s necks, forcibly drawing both of you closer. “You two getting along like two peas in a pod! Like family!”
“Ugh! Would you drop that already! We aren’t family!” You stop working the pump to try and pry Haruta’s arm off you.
“But you act and sound just like him!” Haruta spins you around and scrutinizes your face, “You kinda look like him too, honestly.”
“I do not!” You can feel your face heating up from your frustration. You whip your head around to Ace, desperate enough for someone to back you up to resort to even him, “Tell him we’re nothing alike!”
Much to your dismay, Ace looks amused more than anything, though his eyes are lingering on your facial features. For a split second, his smile almost looks like it drops, but it’s back so fast that you’re questioning if you were just seeing things.
“Haruta’s got a point, you are acting a lot like me after I was first brought here.”
“Ace! Don’t side with him!” That damned traitor! And after you were nice and told him a story about his brother!
That’s just what you get for playing nice around a bunch of pirates, you suppose. Mockery, humiliation, and absurd accusations. As if you could be related to someone like him.
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