One Piece: Reborn as Enel

Chapter 266: Giants, Impressions and Parting Words

_________ POV Narration _________ 

"Touch that weapon, and it will be the last thing you'll ever do in this world... I wonder what'll melt first, that ice or your flesh?" The Emperor's words echoed in the wind as the air around him continued to buzz with energy. 

"... You came into my home, disrespected me in front of all of my people... And now you dare threaten me?!!?" Ymir clearly didn't take kindly to Enel's words.

The other giants below all started getting riled up as well, not appreciative of Enel's apparent disregard for their King.

"I was not threatening you, King Ymir, I was giving you a warning.

Hmm... Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to you, Giant King, but I couldn't help but get mad at your words." 

Enel sighed and decided to take a step back, not wanting the situation to derail any further. It wasn't like it was difficult for him to defeat the entirety of Elbaf even alone, but he was not exactly in the habit of genocide, at least not anymore. 

"At my words?" Ymir raised an eyebrow, not quite sure if he had said anything specific to the Sky King to gain his ire. 

"Oh, let's just say I didn't appreciate you calling one of my associates a Demon.

You see I happen to be very good friends with one of her children as well, and I didn't take kindly to that."

Ymir, as well as the other giants that heard Enel's words, seemed to be a bit taken aback by it. 

"I was unaware that you had heard my conversation with the Red Haired one...

But even then, it was in relation to our past with that d-... With Charlotte Linlin. Her actions spoke for themselves, she earned her name." 

Ymir seemed to stand by his earlier words regardless of how they may have affected Enel. 

"I do happen to know that past you speak of... The actions of a child who couldn't control herself. That is what you have based your entire judgement of her on.

I always thought you giants were Great Warriors with Honor and Wisdom... I guess I was wrong?"

Enel shook his head as he remembered a bit more about Big Mom's rather tragic story.

She hadn't shared it with him in that life, sure. Oven had mentioned some bits and pieces, however, and they were enough to help him remember her story that he read in his past life.

The fact that the giants still held their animosity towards her for an incident that happened while she was an uncontrollable child was rather pathetic. 

She, as a child, could simply not control her hunger. Her special body made her always desire more, and she went mad with that hunger.

Of course, she didn't remember those fits of anger, she didn't remember eating all of the people that she cared about at the time.

She only remembered waking up to no one left around her. 

It was a rather strange twist of fate, had that not happened then she, as well as all of the other children would've had to go through hell due to being sold into slavery by their dear 'Mother Carmel'. 

The giants seemed to have witnessed her massacre, and they had judged her as a demon from that day forward. 

Not that they were much kinder to her beforehand, as another episode of hers destroyed one of the giant's villages.

Those actions were not easy to forgive, Enel could understand that. But they were the actions of a child, a child who couldn't control herself and who didn't know any better.

The Giants, the strongest race alive. One of the wisest races alive. But they couldn't spare the time of day and manpower to actually try and help Big Mom.

It was just ironic. Big Mom would go on to cause a lot of suffering to a lot of people, yet that all could have been avoided had the giants stepped up to help a child in need. 

In the end, the event lowered Enel's opinion of the giants drastically. 

"Hmph... Her actions were inexcusable, and I stand by our decision to not associate ourselves with her.

Besides, her actions throughout her life make us want to associate with her even less! She is an evil pirate and the worst of scum!

And the fact that you would keep someone like her by your side makes me question you as well, Sky King..."

Ymir's tone seemed to become a bit condescending by the end, but Enel didn't seem all that bothered by it.

Back on the ground, Whitebeard, Shanks, Mihawk and the others were still looking at the situation with the expectation that things could go down at any moment.

The Red-Haired Emperor didn't like the idea of fighting against the giants, but at the same time, he knew that Enel's army was the only one capable of facing the world government.

In the end, he couldn't afford to stay impartial right at that moment.

In the skies above Elbaf, Big Mom and Enel's other allies looked down at the situation with quite a bit of confusion.

Big Mom herself was unsure how or why Enel knew about her story, but she could at least assume that Oven had told him. 

She felt a bit flattered that Enel would go that far for her. Although she was not the type to have others fight her battles for her.

"Hmm... Despicable? Maybe. Maybe they are beyond that, maybe they are the worst scum of the earth?"

Ok, maybe Enel wasn't actually defending her all that much after all. But that was ok with her as well. She didn't care much about how others saw her actions anyway. 

"But you know what? Now that the time has come, Linlin, as well as all of her children, chose to fight by my side, for the sake of giving this world freedom... What do you plan to do?" 

Enel took a short pause as he stared the giant king in the eye, awaiting his answer with a challenging gaze.

"... The World's Freedom? From my seat, it just looks like a change of leadership... I am not going to endanger my people to fight for your cause! The Kingdom of Elbaf will take no part in this war!" 

Alas, it was not exactly the response Enel wanted. 

"This isn't just my cause, Giant King... But I doubt I'll be able to make you see reason no matter what I say." 

But the Sky King wasn't going to keep pressing the issue endlessly.

Some of the giants, Brogy and Dorry among them, seemed to have been moved by Enel's speech, they seemed to want to speak out, but they were forced into silence by their King's decision. 

In the end, Enel decided to no longer waste his breath on the Giant King. He just ordered Shiki to lower the islands for the Whitebeard Pirates, Red-Haired Pirates and Mihawk.

Even if he left without the giants, he still gathered quite a large army just within the island of Elbaf. 

But before he left, he took one last look towards Ymir, who was now standing with his arms crossed and waiting for Enel and his army to leave.

 "Your choice today... Is to stand on the sidelines and hope for the best. Something that I am sure the Great Warrior Giants of old would find laughable. 

You proved yourself to be a ruler of cowards, and a cowardly ruler... But no matter, I bid you farewell." 

And with that, Enel vanished with the clap of thunder, and the islands started moving once more.

In the skies above, Mihawk's eyes were as wide as saucers as he entered the command station room where everyone else was present.

'What...' 

He felt as if his eyes were deceiving him, Whitebeard passed by the massive doors and laughed a bit when seeing the figures inside.

"Sengoku! You old crook, seems we're fighting togheter this time!" He was a lot less affected by the sight of so many legendary figures in one room.

"Hmph! Don't get used to it, Whitebeard! The Marines plan to go back to their previous job after we win the war..." Sengoku scowled a bit, not commenting much to either Shanks or Mihawk. 

Marco was also joining them momentarily, and his reaction was a similar state of shock to Mihawk.

The Strongest Swordsman did manage to regain his composure, however, although he still felt a bit strange. 

Even compared to Shanks he wasn't lacking in terms of power. He was used to walking into a room and being the most dangerous man within it.

He wasn't expecting that to be the case with Enel's army, but the extent to which that wasn't the case was simply astonishing.

'I guess I can understand why Enel didn't feel it a priority to convince the Giants to join in... This place is already crowded...' 

"Well, there won't be any need for people like me to become pirates if we win... Freedom is the goal of every pirate, the only thing left would be the criminals...

So I guess Linlin would be the one in danger here?" Whitebeard walked up to the table and sat on his larger-than-normal chair with a wide smile on his face. 

"Hmph! Stop living in the past old man! I am a proper queen now!" Big Mom's face morphed into an amused scowl as she heard her old comrade.

"Living in the past? With the amount of relics in here, it's hard not to!" Shiki laughed a bit as he looked at the table.

Suffice it to say, it was a gathering of old legends, each powerful in their own right, rulers of their generations. 

Even though there were some exceptions to the rule, like the admirals, the table was still mostly filled with old people. 

"You folk are sure lively today!" Enel appeared already sitting down on his golden throne, as the table and map in front of them opened up. 

"Of course we are! Lottsa new people to introduce to the shit show..." Garp said as he gave Enel a toothy grin.

"Well, I'm sure you'll all have the time to get acquainted... In the meantime, we should all start heading for our next stop."

The Sky King smiled at everyone present and raised his gauntleted hand, pointing a finger at one specific island.

"Egghead, the most technologically advanced island in the world, home of Vegapunk." 

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Hello! Hope you liked the chapter!

Sorry for missing an upload, I was not able to stay at the PC at all yesterday, only returned at home at 12am, I quite literally passed out whilst writing :)))

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