Shamrock really doesn't want his twin is in the world below so soon after recovering him, but he supposes there are worse places to go there than Sabaody Archipelago.
Now, if only the weather were more pleasant. Less rainy.
He wrinkles his nose. Shanks doesn't seem too bothered by the wet, but then he was raised down here. It's really more unfortunate that he seems more comfortable in the light rain than when it was sunny earlier, otherwise Shamrock could have made the excuse of possibly returning better in fairer conditions.
He chances a side look at Shanks, currently tilting his face towards the water, eyes closed.
Perhaps it's also the lack of crowds on the street as well. Less riffraff to run into. Shamrock can say that he too prefers the streets to be quieter like this, even with the cause of such being rain.
So it goes. Until they walk down one street and the calmness suddenly shifts. For there is blood running down the streets, too much blood for the source to be alive. Multiple bodies, scattered about. Stabbed through.
The bodies wear the uniforms of Marines. A clear strike against the law. But more importantly is the identity of their killer looming over them.
A woman in a wide brimmed woven hat and dark cloak, mimicking the children's story of Zaza. He knows the description though he has never met her blade-to-blade himself. Not until his Pacts were properly completed, his father has always said.
"The Rainmaker." His hand goes to his blade, to growling Cerberus, immediately.
A major threat to the Order of the World, only ranked lower than the Revolutionary's leader due to preference of acting alone rather than gathering the masses to a mistaken case like the latter.
A threat whose only goal in her monstrous existence seems to kill any Noble that crosses into the lower world.
Shamrock had pushed for more recovery attempts of his brother after learning of that, from the reports, but had not succeeded. They are truly fortunate that the Rainmaker did not run across him in their time separated.
For her to be in Sabaody, so close to the Heart...is an ill omen.
"Do we-?" Shanks jerks his head towards her.
Shamrock nods. Short. Curt. They can do this.
They can prove themselves by facing her.
(Shamrock can prove that Shanks isn't broken-)
"Hey, back off!" Shanks raises his voice, getting the monster's attention immediately.
Said monster raises her dripping naginata from the corpses at her feet, tilting her head so the beads hanging from hat click together. Sounding not unlike the tapping of the rain all around them.
"Shanks-" Shamrock hisses. Only for his twin to shift a shoulder in a casual dismissal at him.
"It's working, isn't it?"
Unfortunately so.
The Rainmaker moves towards them, slow and paced out, as steady as the rain falling around them.
Shanks draws his blade, levies it at the beast. Shamrock makes to do the same, to attack her first- only for the walk to rush. Hurry. Until-
She walks onto the blade. Not stopping. It goes straight through her, enough to kill her immediately if Haki is activated.
Shanks doesn't, careless fool-!
A hand reaches out. Doesn't touch. Only hovers in the space between them, the Rainmaker and his twin.
"I'm sorry."
Then the woman literally falls apart. Into a current of falling water like the rain from above. Water that washes away into the street like the corpse blood.
The rain slows. Stops. Revealing gray clouds above, but nothing more.
Shanks lowers his blade, blinking. "That was...weird."
For once, Shamrock doesn't correct his twin's use of common vernacular. Because he's not wrong. That was weird.
When Rosinante sees that distinctly shaped and patterned hat, the beads that hang off of it, he knows that he's fucked.
Not only him, but Law too.
Because that's the- "Rainmaker," he hisses. Safely within a Calm bubble, of course, he hasn't lost himself that far.
"What? Like that bounty that Doffy's always glaring at?" Law asks, squinting in the direction that Rosinante has stumbled back from.
"Yes, like that." And he leaves it at that, for whatever reason the kid's come up with for why his brother would despise one lone high-bountied pirate. Would spend resources upon resources trying to cut that one pirate off from the underworld he himself had been taking over, would obsess over knowing which island the Rainmaker had been most recently seen on at all times.
Because saying that it's fear too doesn't make sense unless you know where he and his brother come from. Because everyone knows that the Rainmaker devotes her hunts (and hate) to Celestial Dragons most of all.
Which just makes her relatively recent transition to the North Blue even more confusing. Shouldn't she have headed closer to the Red Line, instead of farther, for more targets?
Rosinante shakes his head. Doesn't matter. What matters is getting away before she notices.
Slowly, they back up. Both of them. Farther and farther, until-
Something, he's not sure what, but something gives them away. Enough that the hatted head twists towards them and just as fast, its owner is up on her feet, naginata in head.
"Who goes there?"
"We're just passing through." He waves his hands frantically, dropping his Calm bubble now they've been fully noticed. Make it more suspicious to keep it up after that.
"Hm." Noncommittal. Rosinante looks her over, for any signs of aggressive or otherwise.
Under the various patched collection of furs, she's wearing a dark blue dress. One heavily stained and mended, but still blue. Like her hat, like the glass beads that almost appear like how rain would, falling down from its edges-
The pieces fit together clumsily in his mind and suddenly he knows what the Rainmaker's appearance reminds him of, along with her name.
"Zaza?" Rosinante blurts out, stupid, stupid of him, that's not a story told to children lower than the Red Line, in saying that, if she knows and she must, dressed like she is-
The briefest of pauses, more of a breath. The shaded face directs itself towards him.
He's dead.
"Ah. So that's what you are."
Rosinante knows that tone, what it means, what it meant as those who had in their voices had hung him and his family up on a burning wall.
Hate.
The naginata should go into his gut, but Law, stupid foolish Law, shouts at the crazy murderous madwoman.
"Don't kill him! I need him!"
The edge of the weapon hovers in the air. "Need him?"
Uh oh. Maybe the wrong choice of words there, Law. Not that he says so, of course. Crazy murderous madwoman, remember?
"Need him," she repeats. "Need someone of his kind."
The butt of the naginata hits against the earth.
"Go on. Tell me why I should not kill this World Noble where he stands."
Yet some small portion of it persists, under the unceasing rain. A rain that has continued to fall for weeks now, days and nights without stopping.
Upon those small fragments, lays a woman. A woman who looks like a drowned rat, covered in mud and filth and blood several times over.
She's laid there, facedown, for days. For all appearances as dead as anyone else who ever made their home on this island. It is only now that she moves, sits upright, wiping the muck off her face.
Clearing her eyes enough to fully take in the ruins surrounding her.
Her mouth works soundlessly for a few minutes.
Until at last, she screams.
"AAAAAAAAAAA."
The rain falls harder.
~
Heavenly Tribute has been going missing in the West Blue recently. Not all of it, but enough of it that it's be noted. Noted and extra ships of Marines have been sent to patrol the area. To keep an eye out for this audacious pirate. A pirate that will be surely personally executed by the Celestial Nobles once caught.
Besides the chanced that this convoy, of everything in the sea, being attacked is fairly low.
At least, that's what Captain Batsu thought before, well, this. Before his men had been forcibly disarmed and he himself made to surrender, least the Heavenly Tribute be lost in attempts to flee.
Common raiders, common pirates, common scum. They're only power is in the numbers, and if not for the storm coming down, the ships would have escaped them already. As it is, the storm is leaving them helpless in the water, helpless as the nameless raiders swarm to make their way onto the Tribute ships.
Only one person stands out among the rest. A slim woman, dressed in a long dark blue dress. A wide brimmed bamboo hat rests on the woman's head. Strings of glass beads hang from that same brim, hiding her face.
"You're the monster leading these raiders?" Impossible, for one woman to be able to keep such filth under control, what power could she have?
"That I am." Still. No physical response to even being called 'monster,' as the woman makes her way over to him.
"There are other ships on the way! If you don't leave now, you won't have the time to get everything off!" Now, Batsu isn't sure if that's the case for certain, but he knows that reinforcements will be quick to come. Especially for the Tribute.
"If that's the case, I'll sink it."
"You'll destroy the entire ship?!" Batsu can't believe it. What's the point of that, pirates are greedy, aren't they attacking for the loot anyway?
The woman's voice is unmoving. Emotionless. "Yes. Better it gone than those of the world above getting their hands on it."
That's- he finds his mouth just gaping. What is wrong with this clearly insane woman?
As she turns, Batsu can spot a flash of brilliant red, in the form of hair, hanging down her back in a heavy tangled braid.
The woman directs an order to a nearby raider, just as emotionless as everything else she's displayed and said so far.
"Kill them all. Leave not one survivor."
The raider grins, all scars and sharp eyes. "As you command."
"Wait, wait, wait-!"
SLUNCH.
A sword enters his chest and Batsu, Commander of the local Marines, is gone.
Wait, Cora-san is a World Noble?! That has to be impossible, Law thinks. No way that clumsy, highly flammable idiot was one of those.
(The type of person to leave Flevance to suffocate in lead.)
He looks over, ready to see the man tell the crazy woman wrong. But he doesn't. No, Cora-san's pale, almost as pale as Law is with lead in his veins.
"Wait, that's true."
A laugh that isn't a laugh at all. "Ah, so you didn't tell him. Wanted to slum out with the rest of us, Noble?"
Even if he did lie, Law already knows Cora-san's a liar! He didn't tell Doffy he could talk or had a Devil Fruit, after all. This is just another lie of his, a big one.
Weird to think about too. Does that mean Doffy- no. Focus.
"I still need him."
"Need him. Need him for what?" Her spear-sword's already starting to tilt in Cora-san's direction again.
The only thing that might make her back off, he thinks, is telling the truth about Amber Lead Syndrome. About how he keeps getting dragged around to hospitals.
But she might kill him. To stop the infection, to stop from catching something that can't be caught anyway.
(Like what happened to everyone else.)
Well, if the Rainmaker kills Cora-san, then Law's dead anyway. Because there's no way the Donquixote Pirates will take him back with their captain's brother dead.
Cora-san's not going to find a cure, he won't, but- he wants to. And that's...something. Something sticky in his gut.
(Probably the lead sticking to his organs.)
"I'm...sick. And he's trying to find me a cure. To help. I need that. I..." Hate this, hate this, "...can't do this on my own."
"What is it that you have that needs such help?"
"..."
"Spit it out." The weapon's moving again, Cora-san's in danger again.
"I have Amber Lead Syndrome," he eventually bites out, looking away, tugging at his hat.
"Ah. Is that the highly contagious disease that's always lethal, only in the North Blue?"
She's not stabbing him?
"...yes."
"That's false, isn't it?" She sounds so confident, in exposing a lie that's tricked so many.
(Why is so easy for her? Why not for-?)
"What- how do you know that?" Law demands.
Fingers flick water towards Cora-san. "A Celestial Dragon would never travel with anyone that would have the slightest chance of doing them harm."
Law bristles. Because that's not true! "I stabbed him!" he snarls. "I'm a danger!"
Beads shift and clink.
"Did you?"
Cora-san nods vigorusly. "Sure did. Nice and deep."
Law whirls on him. "Don't sound proud, I could have killed you!"
"But you didn't!"
"You are such a-"
The Rainmaker interrupts.
"How old are you?"
Cora-san looks confused, but answers readily anyway. Best choice in this situation. "26."
Fingers spasm about her staff-base.
"...get up."
"What?" Cora-san lifts himself gingerly, enough to sit upright.
"I said, get up."
She fiercely makes an upward wave with her free hand, already turning to face away from them. Seemingly disinterested in murdering Cora-san now, for whatever reason that's popped up in her head.
Law doesn't let out a breath. He doesn't. He definitely doesn't cough on it either, with Cora-san fretting over him.
But it looks like they're going to live another day.
This is his first mission for the Throne and Shamrock has taken his chance.
The rest of the Knights are who knows where, in this heavy rain. Distracted by else the criminal has set up, no doubt. But Shamrock has laid eyes on the target.
The target that Father says must die for the honor of their line.
The Rainmaker.
The clothing, the colors, even the rain pelleting down...
A weak hearted soul would be discomforted by the clear allusion to Zaza the Rainmaker is putting on. Shamrock is not one of those.
The Rainmaker speaks and it is with the voice of a human woman. Barely louder than the pattering of the rain surrounding them.
"You're young."
This again. That's all everyone ever wants to talk about how young he is for a Knight. And for the enemy to be getting on it too? Shamrock grits his teeth, almost hard to make them crack. "And trained well enough to perfectly deal with you."
"Surely you have family that misses you. A mother, a sibling. Anyone."
What would a monster like this care for anything of that? When she slaughters entire families of sacred bloodlines. Asking about Shanks as well, who Shamrock still hasn't been able to meet-!
(His mother, who has been dead for years.)
"Dead and none of your business!"
He slices forward with Haki filling his sword.
The Rainmaker lets it hit her. Through her. Because somehow, she has separated her body around the blow as he hits. Water splatters outwards.
A cold hand grabs at his shoulder, pulling him further off balance. Almost knocks Cerberus out of his hand and only staggering away saves his sword from the drop.
She's not using her naginata. Hasn't once.
He narrows his eyes. "Why won't you take me seriously?"
"I do whatever I want, when you're sent to kill me." Her beads click click. "That is what you're here for, correct? Like the rest of the God Knights."
"I will kill you. For the Figarland name."
Something changes in her body language at the words. Stiffens, fingers digging into her side and her weapon hilt. Distraction enough for him to throw Cerberus down and have him go into Zoan form to attack, three heads all snapping at once.
The Rainmaker jerks, clearly surprised. He takes the chance for another hit of Haki, one that actually hits center mass.
Then something hits back. Heavy. Landing him on the ground immediately.
He can't move. Faint growling. Then a thud. The growling stops.
There's a hand touching him. A hand cold as ice resting where the Mark of the Abyss lies, the connection between Knight and the power of the Throne.
Marshall D. Teach turns around from where he sits at the bar. Because that didn't sound like anyone from 2nd Division. Or anyone else from Pops' crew, for that matter.
There's a woman standing there, tangled red hair about her face, as she stares at him.
"Teach, is that really you? Did...you made it."
It's a face that he shouldn't know, or remember. But he doesn't forget anything from that fateful day, from the life Before. He knows who this is, and it's unbelievable.
What comes from his mouth is something a lot younger than he'd like. "Auntie Magnolia?"
Not blood-related to him, no one who shares his blood lives anymore, but she was there. On God Valley. Was friendly. Cared.
(Had her kids, soon before the end came.)
Something in her face lifts. Almost like a smile. "Yes, Magnolia. It's me. Your mother, Er-"
Teach doesn't want to talk about her.
(She's gone.)
"She didn't make it," he interrupts.
"Oh. I'm sorry." The only person who could say an apology for that and mean it, because she was there too on God Valley. Should have died there, but didn't somehow. "And no one else, then? Just you and me?"
He nods. "Just you and me."
Last of God Valley. A moment of silence, as they both remember. Mourn.
Finally, she speaks again. "It's good that you're alive, Teach."
Ah. Isn't that something to hear. He looks away. Looking for something to look at that isn't her face, isn't that sincerity, and finds it. Hanging off her belt. A wide brimmed hat.
That hat by her side...she may not be wearing it, but Teach knows where he's seen it before, that particular pattern. The Rainmaker bounty.
His fingers tap on the bar counter. She's strong. Just what he needs. What he can use.
"...one day, I'm going to start up my own crew. And I want you to join, Magnolia. Rainmaker."
Something cold curls in those eyes, stealing away the familiarity of the past.
"Will you burn that Holy Land down, as a pirate?"
His Dream will definitely do that. "You betcha!"
"Then I will. I will be part of your crew when you're ready, Teach."
They're also terrifying and he would love to never ever ever see them again in his life. Multiple times is too much! Especially when people don't know they exist, most people!
But they're annoying in that they keep showing up when there are things to be doing that are more important. Like treasure hunting! Treasure hunting with Shanks!
But they're not doing that, because stupid Knights are attacking.
Right now, he and Shanks are huddled in the shadow of some trees and big rocks, while the crew fights the Knights back for the umpteenth time. Stupid Shanks keeps trying to peek over their hiding place to see and Buggy keeps having to yank him down.
"You're going to lose your empty head and become even dumber than you are already!" he whisper-shouts.
"But Buggy, there's someone else fighting too!" The redhead protests, trying for another look.
"Another Knight?" Please not another one.
"I don't know- looks-" Shanks tilts a hand and head back forth. "Blue? Very blue? Wet, I guess?"
Buggy just stares at him, blue haired and still damp from the sudden cloudburst from earlier.
"Ah, not like you!"
"Of course not like me, you better not-!"
The argument devolves into a kicking battle, one where they're just kicking the sand at each other, back and forth. It's enough to distract them both from the fighting, until the Captain, grinning and loud, looms over them.
"We're safe now, boys! You want to meet our new friend?"
"New friend?" "New friend?"
The two scurry out, where the crew (that ones around for the fight anyway) are all scattered about the beach, keeping an eye on a bone-thin woman standing in the middle of them all.
She carries a spear, with a long blade on its end. A long blade that's still dripping blood. Buggy gulps and looks away at the rest of her.
As much as Buggy hates to admit, Shanks' description isn't wrong. The woman is very blue and very wet. She's wearing a big big hat with cool glass hanging from it, with water dripping from the edges.
Water is dripping from her everywhere, like she just walked out of the ocean or something. Makes the blue she wears almost black, mostly covered by a large cloak draped around her.
The Captain waves at her. "This is Rain-" "Rainmaker," Rayleigh puts in, "-yeah, Rain, she's really good at fighting those Knights!"
"Are you going to join the crew, are you staying for a party?" Shanks asks, eyes bright, as he shoves his way in front of Buggy for a better look.
"Shanks, stop-" Buggy shoves him back.
"He didn't take you." The woman speaks, and the words are soft and scary. Because what does she mean by that.
Everyone goes quiet at that. The Captain's hand is down on Ace's hilt. Rayleigh's eyes narrow.
"God Valley, he didn't take you."
The woman falls to her knees. Collapses, more like, in a wet mess that Buggy realizes in horror is her actual body becoming like water. Not for long, it become person again, but still!
"Ah!"
"What do you mean by God Valley, Rainmaker?" Rayleigh demands.
"Wait, you're his mom, aren't you?" The Captain's eyebrows go up, eyes widening. "Red, this is your mom!"
"My mom?"
Buggy looks too and peeking out under that glass and hat, sure enough, red hair. Red like Shanks'.
How would Rainmaker Magnolia react to the events of who can grow me a new brother au?
(Hm, that's a thought. @triscribe and @oswaldthatendswald, for an AU crossover.)
When the Red Force surfaces from Fishman Island, the surface is foggy. Unexpected weather.
The perfect weather to ambush people in, Benn thinks. And sure enough, there's that flying of the Knights coming through the foggy sky. A whole pack of them.
Not as quick as when Shamrock ambushed him earlier, to draw his Captain out, but they wouldn't be. They want to make a show of this, Benn'd place berri on it.
Sure enough-
"You really did prove too weak in the end, did you, Shamrock?" Head asshole, Garling, rattles out. "Always too soft for your twin, who betrayed you and the Throne."
The man taps at the hilt of his sword. "Apologize for your transgression and your death will be quick."
Shamrock meets Garling's eyes. Not steadily. But he does.
"I would do it again, for my brother. In a heartbeat."
"Shame." Something how he says it, yeah, Benn doesn't think he's really disappointed at all.
Flash.
Observation Haki announces, there's someone in the fog now. Someone who wasn't there before.
A person who walks forward, out of the heavy fog, in dark robes and wide brimmed hat. A naginata not unlike Whitebeard's taps against the ground.
Benn narrows his eyes. "Who are you?"
The hat tilts to the side. "A ghost."
There's so muttering and hissing from Knights. Something about a 'Zaza,' a word choice that makes Shamrock narrows his eyes in turn and Benn notes the reaction to ask about later.
Right now, there's a third party who's just entered the picture. One that could be an enemy.
The fog swirls around them, and in their movement, ah, that's a woman. A woman who moves to stand between the twins and the Knights.
The woman sweeps her hat off her head. Revealing red hair, tangled and long, flowing down her back. For everyone to see that it's the same shade as Shanks' and Shamrock's.
"You will not touch my sons. Ever. Again."
Hell, another relative? Their mother? Benn glances over at Shamrock, see if this is something that came back to bite him in the future, but he looks as shocked as everyone else. Maybe even more, with how pale he is.
The maybe mother- She levels her naginata at the Knights. At certain silver haired man in particular.
