A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

Ups and Downs

After learning of the attack, a few commanders and their division members left the ship to clean up the evidence by burning the bodies. They were disgusted with the mangled bodies, and even had to pick them up to put in the bonfire. They would not risk anyone finding out about the boys.

The bodies totaled thirty men and one woman. They were a little put off that Vista killed a woman, but there was no other choice. Besides, this one was probably the one who had followed them because she was worried about the children. It didn't take too long, and soon only blood was in the clearing. Once it rained, the blood should wash away.

Marco and Kingdew were the supervising commanders, directing their division members to what to do. "Luffy didn't kill any of his attackers. Do you still think he'll kill one of us?" Marco asked in a flat voice.

"No, I don't," Kingdew answered. Marco smiled.

"Took you long enough."

Luffy did not follow through on what he told Vista, and had eaten all of is candy that day, but miraculously had not puked up all of the sugar. When Thatch watched Ace and Sabo decline sharing their own candies, the chef had chuckled, looking fondly at Luffy's pouting.

The next day, there was a NewsCoo brought to the ship, dropping multiple papers on the deck. Since whitebeard was too big to hold the papers, his sons read him the more important or interesting parts of that day's newspaper.

"Pops, it looks like someone had called in before dying during the fight between G5 and Vista and the boys," Marco said, reading the newspaper article about the missing bodies on the island. "Their ship was still there, so it was suspicious for them to be missing. It looks like Vista was the only one reported. There's only a small part that talked about him being in the company of children, but nothing about them fighting or their abilities."

"It is good you took care of the bodies, then," Whitebeard replied. Marco grinned, and pulled out the Wanted poster.

"Looks like we have another Wanted man on the crew," the phoenix said, holding up the Wanted poster. Despite having many strong commanders on the crew, few actually had bounties. Unless they did something to stand out, they were just part of large crew that was known to have powerful pirates.

"Gurarara! That's some good news! We shall have a party tonight!" It was a huge deal to get a Wanted poster, so of course they'd have a party.

News spread of the Wanted poster like crazy, and Vista was not the first to know. He learned only by the congratulations thrown his way throughout the ship. But, he was happy about it. Before the party was started that night, Luffy asked the pirates why being Wanted was a good thing. "I was always told to not get caught cause bounties were bad."

"Well, most people other than pirates think having a bounty is bad, but it shows that you are formidable to the marines and World Government. Sometimes they give out ridiculous bounties for stupid reasons, but we always celebrate when someone gets a Wanted poster," Marco explained. "Pops, I, Jozu and Teach all had Wanted posters."

"That's not very many for an emperor's crew," Sabo commented.

"It's hard for everyone to have a bounty when there are so many on the crew. Pops has the second highest bounty in history. The first was the Pirate King, Gold Roger. He was a powerful man and highly known man in history, so he had the highest bounty. He was a respected pirate by other crews. We were friends with them, even if history calls us rivals.

"One of our own even left to join his crew on the quest to find the final island, Raftel," Marco explained. "And one of Roger's cabin boys is now an emperor himself."