A beast that knows how to endure is far more terrifying than any hunter.
That was Sammie's instinctive reaction.
Of course, that sentiment only applied from her perspective. If it were Ozz? He'd probably put it another way:
"It's the quiet dogs that bite."
And if a dog dares to bark?
"Break its damn teeth."
(Somehow… that rhymes.)
Then again, calling him a dog didn't quite fit. After all, the guy had Conqueror's Haki. At most, he could pass for a rebellious flamingo.
Still, before setting that flamboyant bird free, Ozz had made sure to put a leash on it:
He kept a piece of his Vivre Card a literal lifeline. No matter where the guy ran, even to the ends of the earth, Ozz could find him in an instant.
"Don't worry,"
Ozz leaned his head back lazily, resting it on something soft and snowy-white. Gazing up at Sammie's delicate face, he grinned.
"As long as you've got a gun to its head, even a wolf'll learn to heel."
Especially if.
It's a gun that ignores space and speed.
Of course, as any proper angel investor would, Ozz didn't just take he gave a little something in return.
For instance:
The secrets of using Ryuo.
After all, he had made a promise to the World Government. And while, sure, breaking a promise wasn't a big deal for a pirate, there was still such a thing as keeping up appearances.
If the guy set sail and immediately got himself killed?
That'd be embarrassing. Real buzzkill.
Gotta maintain a little class, you know?
Three days after Ozz set that flamingo free.
A piece of explosive news, nudged along by certain unseen hands, spread like wildfire across the globe.
"Extra! Extra!!"
"Rising Pirate Star Emerges!! The Heavenly Yaksha!!!"
"Recently, on the Sabaody Archipelago, he clashed with a living legend former crewmate of the Pirate King himself… the 'Black Gun' of the Next Generation…"
"And was forced to retreat!!!"
In the bustling cities, newspaper boys shouted on every corner. Across the sea, flocks of delivery gulls soared through the skies, wings heavy with headlines.
All of them screaming the same thing:
The world had changed again.
On a deserted island.
One of the main characters in this story, Ozz, had just finished training his teleportation-based Devil Fruit powers for the day.
"Beru beru beru beru"
Click.
"Moshi moshi. Trouble, No. 7?"
Ozz casually bit into a hunk of meat as he glanced at the Den Den Mushi in front of him, its features morphing back and forth between cute girlish forms: black hair, then white.
"Ozz-sama! The article you've been waiting for is finally out!"
"Yes, and as always your heroic figure is just soooo dashing!!!"
"Ozz-sama, shall we head over and assist you"
The conversation veered wildly off-course, as it often did. Sometimes, overly clingy maidens could be a bit of a handful.
Ozz didn't know if anyone else shared that problem, but he was living proof that it existed.
"Beauty is a trap; paradise, a tomb."
Politely declining their not-so-subtle offers of "service," Ozz hung up the call.
Come to think of it, it'd been days since he'd read the news.
Back on the Sabaody Archipelago, he never had to buy papers himself Sammie would always have someone deliver them. Now, though, he had to get one on his own.
So… where are those seagulls?
Ozz tilted his head upward, scanning the sky.
As if the heavens were answering his wish or perhaps due to some special instinct among delivery gulls to detect customer demand a shadow soon cut across the sky.
"Gaa"
A gull soared overhead, spotting the island below.
Normally, it wouldn't expect anyone to be here. These little specks of land were usually uninhabited, save for the odd passing ship.
It was just making a token flyby before heading to the next drop point.
But then, to its surprise it saw someone waving at it!
An actual customer?
It flapped down a little lower, thinking it might actually make a sale today. But as it drew closer maybe a hundred meters up it suddenly froze in midair, alarmed.
And stopped descending.
Ozz, meanwhile, had already been celebrating the sheer luck of it. What timing! Like the world had just handed him a pillow the moment he wanted a nap.
But just as he reached out.
The gull stalled, midair. Then, after getting a good look at his face, it started cawing loudly.
Something along the lines of:
"YOU! You're that bastard on the blacklist!!"
And just like that, it spun around and made a break for it.
Ozz, still holding up his hand to signal "I'm here," froze with his arm awkwardly suspended in the air.
"…."
He exhaled slowly. His expression darkened.
You ungrateful little.
Eyes locked onto the fleeing gull, Ozz vanished in an instant reappearing a full kilometer up in the sky.
The poor bird nearly had a stroke. It forgot how to fly for a second and went tumbling out of the sky only to be caught by the tail feathers just in time.
"Hah? So what if I skipped out once or twice? It's not like I didn't pay. I just used your wallet to pay!"
"Tell Morgans this blacklist me again and I'll pluck every last feather off his smug little bird head."
"Now scram. I'm feeling generous."
After buying a paper with the seagull's money, again Ozz let the poor thing go and warped back down to the island.
Still chewing on a meat-covered bone, he opened the newspaper.
The first thing that jumped out at him?
A dramatic photo.
It showed him and Doflamingo clashing in the Red Light District, sparks flying as Conqueror's Haki collided. Must've been snapped by some sneaky seagull during the fight.
Sure, the article called it a clash, but let's be honest it was more like a curb-stomp.
Still, with black-and-red lightning arcs flying everywhere, who could tell whose haki was whose?
Classic case of: "One epic picture, infinite wild speculation."
"After confronting each other face to face, the two engaged in a fierce Conqueror's Haki clash. Shockwaves from their battle knocked out everyone nearby. What followed was an all-out brawl…"
"…Eventually overwhelmed, with his crew slaughtered to the last man, Doflamingo managed a desperate retreat…"
Huh. When did I massacre his crew?
These reporters really could spin gold from scraps.
Ozz didn't mind the embellishment though. None of it hurt him.
But for the other powers on the sea reading this?
It was a very different story.
They had no idea this was all part of Ozz's backdoor PR deal with the World Government.
So when they read it, they weren't laughing.
They were taking notes.
Doflamingo had just been etched into history.
Yeah, he got beat but look who beat him.
Ozz had become one of the most notorious names on the sea:
"Infiltrated Marineford,"
"Split the skies in Loguetown,"
"Former Roger Pirate,"
"Went toe-to-toe with three admiral candidates…"
For a young pirate to survive that kind of encounter?
Nobody would scoff. In fact, they'd be impressed.
Just like how Crocodile surviving Whitebeard, or Moria escaping Kaido, earned them government invitations.
Same logic.
And across the seas.
Among the few men paying especially close attention to Ozz's name,
Shanks, Buggy, Mihawk…
Each of them read that article again and again,
Reactions, wildly different.
----------------------------------------------------
(Next Chapter: "The Little Hawk Takes Flight")
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