Journey to One Piece

335. The 5th Yonko

"These particles are really poisonous for the animal kingdom," Chopper said as he finished checking the aerosol particles that had kept the violent mutated animals at bay.

"So, everyone is affected. Doesn't this chicken know that?" Sanji said as Chopper submitted the full report.

"He is a dying old man. Why would he care?" Robin said.

"The better question is, will Zephyr team up with this chicken head?" Vivi said. This point made everyone a bit numb. Ken wanted to say that one full-time pirate and one man driven by justice could never come together. But he had seen enough in his life to know that everything was never a certainty.

"This is absurd... Eh!" Ken wanted to speak up, but those with Haki soon turned around and looked in a direction. The direction of the main island where Shiki's palace was supposed to be. They looked at the direction because they heard a loud noise from there.

No, it wasn't a noise; it was a full-blown blast.

"Ken, what do you hear?" Luffy asked as his own clairvoyance was in full action.

"I can't hear shit," Ken replied as the blasts weren't just a single blast.

"We need to leave." Zoro got serious. They left the camp immediately and almost ran towards the palace that they had their eyes upon for a very long time. Of course, they couldn't just use their abilities to reach the place and had to physically run.

The whole running gag was kind of new to the Straw Hats as they hadn't done so, or rather it was never required. They had always held abilities to reach a certain place, and Ken would always use his, but for some reason, with the blasts happening, Ken didn't want to add to more blasts.

Of course, in the long run, Zoro had the habit of straying off, and Robin had to course-correct.

"Kuso Marimo..." Sanji insulted.

"You wanna fight?" Zoro shouted back, only to be berated by Nami. Everyone had already taken the anti-dotes to the artificial aerosol pollutants in the air, thus they were safe.

It was morning time, so the mutated animals were awake, and they charged at them like crazy only to be cut down by Brook and Zoro. Ken was emitting his pressure, and though it did scare them, they were too crazy to even consider their own deaths.

With all the dead chimeras left in their wake, it took the Straw Hats at least an hour to reach the palace. It was in ruins, and everything around had been destroyed. The explosions that had been happening had already stopped when they reached, and by that time, Ken and Luffy had a general idea of what was happening.

There was a huge fight, no rather, it was an ambush of one party with another. The two parties here were Zephyr's Neo Navy and the Shiki Pirates. The explosions that they were hearing were from the blasts that Zephyr had brought in cartons.

Zephyr had used wine and other supposed food items as a sign of good faith. Apparently, the Navy, in its research under Zephyr, had created these boxes that would explode when they came into contact with each other. This was a type of weapon that they had created, and Zephyr was using it against Shiki's forces.

As the Straw Hats entered the palace, they saw that Shiki was holding his own, but his forces were clearly outnumbered. It was a chaotic scene with explosions, clashes of swords, and bursts of Haki. The alliance between Shiki and Zephyr had clearly gone sour, and it was turning into a full-blown war.

The Straw Hats had a choice to make: to intervene or to stay on the sidelines. But with the chaos unfolding before them, it seemed that the choice might be made for them.

"What the fuck is going on?" Nami was appalled with everything happening. 

"Only thing I heard was the fact they had made some kind of deal and it broke off at the last minute." Ken said. The loud explosions before really made him unable to listen to them as the static in the atmosphere was clearly cut short due to fire and dried up everything beyond. 

In order to stop this ongoing battle which wouldn't last for a long time, Ken came forward and released his Reitasu at them. 

This came in full force as Ken didn't hold back at this time. The two parties which had been fighting constantly were on their knees with their face planted on the ground. 

"What... the .. hell..!" 

"Who.. Who has that kind of presence..." 

"Is it.. Fujitora.." 

The men who had gone down were struggling while many of them lost their consciousness. Ken had mixed Conqueror's Haki in it and it acted doubly as it actually physically hurt them a bit. It was nothing like Shanks of course and his Reatsu played more a active part here but he had learnt this small useless trade in the last two years. 

Zephyr and Shiki slowly turned their heads as they too felt the affects of the Reatsu. They had an ugly look on their faces as they looked at the Straw Hats. Especially Zephyr, who had already met Ken. At that time itself he could tell that Ken was a monster. 

This AOE attack was just enough to prove his conjecture. He stopped fighting and stepped back. The other party did the same. 

"Straw Hat Luffy.. The new Yonko of the New World." Shiki said as he put forward his Conqueror's Haki to offset the huge change that Ken had brought. 

"Yonko?" Luffy was confused and so were the other Straw Hats. 

"Oh.. Then you haven't heard the news. The newspapers are already calling you, a 5th Yonko.. I have been waiting to meet you. The one from East Blue." Shiki said. Ken had remembered that after Fishman and Dessrosa, they called Luffy as such but they had to leave New World and run against time to reach East Blue. It was because of that they didn't get any proper news coo.