– Nero –

Life could be cruel at times.

To grant someone the barest glimpse of greatness, only to then let the fog of ignorance fall upon the path once more… it was akin to letting a parching man in a desert catch sight of crystal clear water, before revealing it to have been a mirage. One could not miss what one did not know existed. In a way, life had dangled the perfect lure in front of Nero's face and afflicted him with the curse of knowledge.

So yes, life could be cruel at times. That his words may ultimately turn out to be helpful hardly made things better in Nero's opinion.

For Nero, the rokushiki were special.

They weren't only some of the most powerful set of fighting techniques in the world. Their knowledge and the ability to perform them was the sole prize Nero had walked away with from his stint in the Government. If one discounted his friendship with Koala (whom he had believed dead at the time), his daily improvement in the rokushiki had been one of his few sources of pride in those bleak days.

After graduating from boot camp, the frequent beatings he'd suffered at Jabra's hands had made achieving mastery that much more attractive. Rob Lucci's scornful derision for Nero's lack of proficiency, and his being declared worthless shortly thereafter, had only reinforced this in Nero's mind.

While Nero's motivation had once been a desire to be recognized as their equal, somewhere along the way it had morphed into something else. It wasn't quite mastery for mastery's sake, but it was close. Not least because the rokushiki had been the focus of his existence for so long that becoming an undisputed expert had become his life's goal. If one were to take one more step, one might even say that Nero needed closure.

He'd seemingly been getting close to reaching that milestone as well. For one, Tequila Wolf had been an enlightening experience. Jabra had certainly been highly proficient in the art and what Nero had been too weak to see prior to the sea train fiasco, had become much more apparent in his final battle against the CP9 agent.

And two, awareness of the gap between them was the first step in filling it, was it not? He'd been doing so well too.

Or so he'd thought.

So, when Jabra had casually revealed the existence of a secret seventh technique, he'd found that rather than having conquered the intended peak, Nero had climbed a hill to find a mountain looming before him. To say the least, it had done a lot to put his current progress into perspective.

"Rokuogan is the ultimate attack of the Rokushiki style, which only those who have absolute mastery of the other six can access."

Curiously enough, Bellamy had known more about the rokuogan than Nero had, despite having no discernible background which might explain this. Though frustratingly for Nero, despite being aware of something he had no right to, the actual extent of Bellamy's knowledge had been limited. Apart from the minimum requirement necessary to perform the technique, Bellamy had only the following to add:

"I've heard that the user must focus their physical strength to launch a devastating shock wave from his knuckles in a forward direction, causing severe internal injuries to the victim." He'd said. "In a way, it functions similarly to an impact dial."

While better than nothing, it really hadn't been a lot to go on when trying to reverse engineer something Nero had only experienced once. Naturally, Nero had had his work cut out for him. Considering that his only clue had been a possible resemblance to a White Sea dial, Nero had quickly secured Laki's assistance with a hefty bribe of (Ross') sweets. He'd rather not futilely bang his head against the wall, thank you very much.

"Rokuogan...?"

Many months and a copious amount of dials later, Nero had been finally ready for his first test. And how could it be otherwise, it had been a spectacular failure.

"I think the leaf moved a bit? Like half a milimeter? Laki, what do you think?"

"Uhmm…"

"It didn't move at all, did it?"

"I'm afraid not."

Of course, a single failure was never going to be enough to dissuade Nero from his path. The cave hadn't managed it. The CP9 hadn't managed it. A minor setback wasn't going to. Nero wasted no time in moving on to his next theory. Perhaps, if studying the anatomy of shellfish and its mysterious internal mechanisms wasn't enough, feeling its effects firsthand would work.

"Are you really sure about this?"

"Yes."

"Like really, really sure?"

"Yes."

"You do know that it will hurt, don't you? Like...a lot?"

"No pain no gain, right?"

That had been the start of a few very pain-filled weeks. At the very least, Nero had gotten intimately familiar with what the rokuogan was supposed to feel like in miniature. Not that it had resulted in much progress to be honest. After all, just because one knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of pain, didn't automatically mean that one knew how to dish it out.

The experiments had only confirmed this unfortunate reality.

"Rokuogan."

"…well, the leaf trembled a bit. It's progress."

"Back to the drawing board?"

"Back to the drawing board."

How did one "focus their physical strength to launch a shock wave" anyway? Without noticeably moving to boot? Utterly lost on what to try next, the pair had brought their (lack of) findings onto the agenda of the Crew's regular Friday meetings and asked for ideas. While most of the well intentioned advice had either been inapplicable or off-target, Eddy had come up with a potential way forwards.

"So, I've been working on my version of the Seimei Kikan, you know."

"Remind me, what was that again?"

"It's a technique that allows the user to completely control all of their body parts, even parts that cannot normally be controlled. This includes involuntary functions such as digestion too."

"Interesting world we live in."

"I'm surprised that you didn't know about it. After all, I got it from Kumadori."

"Didn't you cut the guy's head off on Tequila Wolf? When did he manage to teach you about it?"

"He had a very talkative personality."

"That he did."

"Plus, Izou knew about it too. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the technique requires one to extend one's consciousness throughout one's entire body."

"Consciousness?"

"Will, chi, bioelectricity, haki, whatever floats your boat really. The main thing I'm getting at is this. If you have complete control over your body and it's functions, wouldn't focusing your physical strength be included in that? Not really sure about it, but hey. Maybe it'll help?"

"It's better than what I've got. Let's try it."

Izou had been delighted to add even more hours to their already grueling training regimen, but Nero couldn't argue with the results. The Whitebeard commander had somehow beaten the technique into him and Nero still wasn't quite certain how he'd done it. All he remembered was that Izou had exuded an air that screamed learn or die, and that Nero had no intention of doing the latter.

While having a New World pirate come after you with deadly intentions had been a thoroughly terrifying experience – enough to make Nero unlock his observation haki to get away – Nero couldn't argue with the results. Even when discounting his new haki, the benefits had been palpable. His punches had gotten significantly stronger and his legs faster by virtue of being able to mobilize greater amounts of his reserves at will.

That said, there was still a teensy tiny problem.

"Rokuogan!"

His control ended at his skin. Beyond that, whatever physical strength he'd gathered to try and expel from his body…very quickly dissipated into thin air.

"I can see a crack in the bark at least."

"Nero, that's an oak tree. It's covered in cracks."

"Well, one of them did get a little longer."

"Huh. Now that you mention it."

It was pure chance that Nero stumbled across his next clue. He'd been up and about, taking a leisurely stroll through Baltigo Base to try and get used to his new observation haki, when he'd come across Hack demonstrating fish-man karate to Aisa and Robin. This had been significant in so far that Hack's punch had created a visible shockwave. While it hadn't been exactly the same thing as the Rokuogan, it had been enough to pique Nero's curiosity.

The following theoretical lecture did make it abundantly clear that fish-man karate and the rokuogan were only very tangentially linked at best. However, there had been one key detail that had caught Nero's attention. Namely, Hack's martial art was based around the manipulation of water. Water, which was usually outside the user's body. As so far, affecting anything beyond the limits of his skin had remained out of reach, Hack's lecture had thrown open another door of possibilities.

Attempting to figure out the underlying principles of one martial art style, especially one as esoteric as water manipulation, and applying it to another was never going to be a simple task. And nobody had ever accused Nero of being a genius when it came to the theoretical side of things. Thankfully, Hack and Nero did have nearly half a century's worth of experience between them and slowly, very slowly, they'd dissected the puzzle that was the rokuogan together.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"ROKUOGAN!!!"

The results of their research had been two tiny, barely noticeable indents in the face of a cliff. But Nero would swear that it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his entire life.

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– Bellamy –

I didn't regret making my deal with the Revolutionary Army. Having a safe base of operations had already proven to be extremely useful, because as nice as the Black Pearl was, an actual land base allowed for significantly larger training facilities. Not to mention that on land, we could go all out without having to worry about accidentally sinking our own ship and us along with it.

Then there were the bevy of other benefits such as a shipyard for repairs, a stable source of supplies, information as well as instructors for my crew. Sadly, as everybody knew, nothing in life was truly free.

"I hear you've got a problem on another island and need us to bail you out?" I asked, swaggering into the office and plopping down on the couch. The owner of said office soon joined me with two cups of coffee.

"No. We're going for a walk and thought you might want to tag along." Sabo dryly replied. "Coffee? The sortiment is a little limited as we aren't on Baltigo, but this place does produce some of the most fragrant beans in Paradise."

"With two sugars please." I replied, accepting the offered cup. "By the way, a walk? Really?"

"It's a very long walk."

"Across the ocean?" I asked incredulously.

"You can walk on a ship's deck, can't you?" He replied with a completely straight face. "All jokes aside, we're planning a liberation and the team could use a few additional heavy hitters."

"A liberation, you say?" I echoed in a questioning tone.

"According to some intel, the minor island has been recently taken over by a group of pirates who have enslaved the entire populace to work in its mines."

"Why does that sound so familiar, I wonder?" I murmured, referencing our adventure on Argent Isle. Of course, Sabo's following smirk clearly signified that he was aware of those events.

"Why indeed?"

"That was retorical." Sadly, my grumbling seemed to provide the chief of staff a lot of joy. Sabo's grin got a little wider.

"I know."

"You're an ass." I muttered under my breath, but sadly a veteran like Sabo had good hearing.

"Please. If anything, I'm a gentlemanly ass." He said brightly, as I let out a small groan. Point to him. "Anyway, we're hoping to secure the friendship of the locals and set up a base of operations there. So try to keep the collateral damage to life and infrastructure to a minimum, will you?"

"When have I not?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

In this case, Sabo's call had been nothing unusual as I had agreed to do the occasional mission for these guys like the simple one we had done last month. To be honest, I wasn't that opposed to the idea either. With the Payback War slowly looming over the horizon, we'd spent a relatively long time training our asses off in between missions. While the last couple of months had no doubt been productive ones, I was ready for a change in scenery.

"Alright. Count us in." I said. "We could use the distraction."

"Glad to hear it." Reaching behind himself, Sabo handed me a small folder of documents. The mission dossier.

"Though, it must be quite something if you're calling us in." I commented as I leafed through the pages. There weren't that many.

"Not really." Sabo smiled, casually sending a verbal jab my way. He obviously hadn't quite forgiven me for the stunt I'd pulled with the Pure Gold. It wasn't my fault that he hadn't expected me to drop a mythical treasure in his lap. "In fact, we don't expect any substantive amount of resistance. You guys are a contingency measure."

"Do please elaborate." I asked, one of my eyebrows disappearing behind my hair. "What constitutes a substantive amount resistance to you?"

"Gecko Moria comes to mind, though you did deal with that situation rather handily." Sabo hummed. "Though anything above a marine Rear Admiral would qualify."

"Well, in that case. Should be a walk in the park… though, where are we going exactly?"

"Just a small island called Silver Mine."

"That's not a very vague name at all, is it?"

"Nope. In fact, we have good reason to believe it to be rather literal." Sabo answered. "The island is more or less one giant silver mine."

"Right. No wonder you guys want it. I'm not sure how big those mines are, but they must be fairly lucrative if you're willing to risk exposure to secure them." Draining my coffee, I placed the empty cup down on the table with a soft clink. "Though, if you don't mind me asking, how is it that the marines or the World Government haven't taken over yet?"

"It's a small island, much smaller than the one you met Moria on. Silver Mine is unmarked on most maps and believed to be a deserted rock. Until a short time ago, it was actually deserted, before a small group of prospectors decided to dig a hole there."

"And of course, they found silver and started a silver rush."

"More or less. Only a small one though, which hardly made it worth the notice of the World Government. Especially when they are as busy as they are right now. You had something to do with the latter I believe."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I denied reflexively.

"Oh, don't play coy. Who else could possibly be responsible for the sudden flare up in hostilities between the Joker and Gild Tesoro? I hardly think that it is a coincidence that the Casino King decided to break his unofficial non-aggression pact with your former patron mere days after you visited the Bloody Countess."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you've got an active imagination?"

"All the time. But am I imagining things in this case?"

"…no." I admitted. We were allies, so lying wasn't going to help me here. "Got to say though, I hadn't expected her to move this fast."

"It certainly caught us by surprise. The joker too, if his network's panicked response is anything to go by. Coincidentally, his current predicament benefits you tremendously."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Because he needs everything he has to fend off Tesoro, he can't devote nearly as many resources to tracking you down as before." Sabo explained. "Case in point, the strain on our counterintelligence efforts to keep you hidden have decreased significantly in recent weeks."

"Thanks for that by the way. Really appreciate it."

"Don't worry about it. What are friends for?"

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Chaos amongst Criminals

Welcome to Marineford Daily News, your only source of accurate and unbiased truth.

In a surprising twist of events, two of the four lords of the underworld have turned on each other in what can only be described as a frenzied feeding frenzy.

Formerly believed to have been on cordial grounds, war has erupted between the blackmarket weapons dealer also known as the Joker and the Casino King, Gild Tesoro. The number of bodies washing ashore and the steadily increasing cases of people vanishing without a trace are clear indicators of the deadly nature of the conflict. It is only by the valiant efforts of the marine corps that no gunfights have broken out on the streets and that innocent civilian casualties have remained within acceptable bounds.

While it is unclear what prompted Gild Tesoro to break this alliance of convenience, but analysts are saying that this is a break from his usual MO. It certainly seemed to have caught the Joker with his pants down. However, the quick marine response – it only took them three weeks – lends credence to a claim put forward by Vice Admiral Aramaki. Humble as the man is, he didn't outright declare that he had anything to do with the situation. Instead, he praised the veteran Vice Admiral Tsuru for coming up with a plan of action to keep our streets safe, while only hinting at his own involvement.

On an unofficial note, a recently promoted senior marine officer with a plant based devil fruit, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that this entire chain of events was clearly the result of a carefully executed operation of the Marine HQ. After all, only their tactical brilliance could have possibly faciliated the current infighting between criminals while the hidden hand of the government remained…hidden.

It is surely a blessing that we have individuals of such genius intellect and incredible humility protecting us.

This was Marineford Daily reporting.

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