The next day the sun shone with full strength, the sky had only a few clouds. Nobody would be able to tell that the previous night there was a huge tsunami that had taken down the lower portion of this island city.
All of the houses, the dockyards and the ship building industry were all destroyed and all that Aqua Laguna had left were rubbles. The one things that Ken liked was at least there was no pollution made by plastics among the rubbles and it was just sand, concrete and wooden rubbles in the aftermath.
The Straw hats reached the the shores of the island early in the morning, not because they were marveled by the damage caused by nature and wanted to help the people rebuild the lower part of the island but because they were anticipating a retaliation.
"Ken, are you sure that they have been reported of what had happened here?" Nami asked as she was just sitting on the rubble and looking at the distant calm sea with a bored expression. They were here because they were anticipating the Buster Call.
Since the CP agents and the train never reached Enies Lobby, Spandam might be very agitated and would want to destroy everything in order to get the things that he wanted. Robin and Franky with the plans of Pluton. It was too important for him and the Government.
Robin was already a headache and the plans of Pluton were too important for them. So the Straw hats were anticipating the attack.
"They should be here. It's not like Eneis Lobby is nearby. Wait for it." Ken said as he just closed his eyes. Straw hats weren't the only one here waiting, the others were also here including Iceburg and Franky.
They both had a very serious face as they looked at the shore. They had heard about the Buster Call before too and frankly speaking they were terrified. A navy to take down a whole island. Iceburg had heard what happened to Ohara and knew that none of them survived and the one who did was being hunted down like a dog.
And so the waiting began. Iceburg had already applied emergency in the city and asked the people to go inside their homes and not come out. He had given a false alarm that there would be storm soon after the Aqua Laguna and they needed to safeguard themselves.
Of course, the people of Water 7 believed him as he had immense respect for Iceburg as he had done a lot for the city and them too. Right now the city was in a kind of lockdown, and people weren't coming out of their homes.
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The waiting was a very long one, so long that the initial fears of Iceburg and Franky's family actually went away and were replaced with boredom. Luffy and Ussop decided to have some fun in the water and were even joined by Nami, who was trying to practice water bending.
In the afternoon, it was Ken who had heard the sounds of ships coming towards them. Ken had sensed them, and the other men of the Straw Hats also sensed it. They stopped having fun and eating.
"They are here."
Franky and Iceburg, who had been quite chill, even exchanged some words.
"One thing I didn't understand Why is Franky important in all of this? You are just a thug." Nami said, as she didn't hold back her words at all. She still wanted money from him, but she was also confused about why the CP agents were interested in him.
"There was one legendary shipwright named Tom who had once lived on this island. He was known for his great ships. He was so great that he had even made Oro Jackson, the ship of the Pirate King."
"What?"
"Such a legendary man actually lived here?"
"What happened to him? Can't we get our ship from him?"
"He is dead, or should I say murdered. He was taken away because of the crimes he once committed by making the ship. Normally, the shipwright isn't responsible for the crimes of the one who sails, but he was special. He had the plans of one of the ancient weapons, Pluton." Ken spoke in a grave tone. Franky and Iceburg, who were already tensed about the coming ships, stiffened hearing Ken's words.
They couldn't believe their ears. That story about Tom wasn't known to everyone. All the people knew was Oro Jackson. How come this guy even knew of an ancient weapon, and he had used the words so casually that it made them feel that an ancient weapon was nothing in front of him?
"Punisher Kenny.. You know more than you have let people on." Iceburg replied. Ken smiled at him, didn't reply, and instead continued.
"Tom had two apprentices. One was Cutty Flam. He was quite the innovative guy and was known to make awesome new ships. And the other was Iceburg." Ken said. Everyone immediately turned to look at Iceburg with admiration.
No wonder he was so good with ships and building things. He had such a good teacher.
"Now Cutty Flam had a tough life, and I won't go down to explain what had happened due to privacy reasons. But Cutty Flam is still alive and is among us right now. Isn't that right, Franky?" Ken said. Franky was visibly shaking when Ken spoke about Cutty Flam. He knew that Ken had already recognized him. He wanted to refute Ken's words and didn't acknowledge his previous self. He hated that his ships were used to take Tom away to Enies Lobby.
He was naive, and he hated himself for that, never forgiving himself. The straw hats, the Franky family, Paulie, and the other foremen now looked at Franky with wide eyes.
"You have spoken too much, Punisher Kenny," Franky said.
"Does that mean that I am wrong? Don't you want revenge for what happened? This is your time to exact revenge. You have a chance now, and hopefully with it, you will be able to forgive yourself."