The Silver Haired Pirate

Chapter 37

With the assistance of Kazan, the two eventually made their way back to Gate 1, where Kazan worked, and where his friends were currently at.

They talked all along the way, catching up and reminiscing.

Of course there were things Aki couldn't say like "I'm a pirate" or "I have a bounty" etc. since Kazan is a man who's always looked up to the justice system of the world.

And Aki didn't want to ruin the friendship they had.

The two walked until they came across a large door with a 1 painted on it, large and bold. Kazan grinned and hopped in front of Aki who resisted the urge to chuckle at his dopey grin.

"Okay okay okay! Prepare yourself to be amazed! This is where I work it's awesome!"

Aki didn't have to have heard that to know though, considering he could sense a large accumulations of people just beyond the gate.

A couple belonged to his friends which made him wonder why it was only a couple and not a few. Usopp was elsewhere, not by the other two.

It made him wonder but he swept those thoughts away before following Kazan into the large space that was filled with machinery to carve wood and build boats.

Aki suddenly felt as though he himself needed to double check his vocabulary since the only words that could come to mind to describe this sight were; amazing, gorgeous, so cool.

(As you've probably noticed) Aki was a sucker for architecture and not just building architecture, space architecture too. Machinery architecture, engineering etc.

And Kazan knew this, clearly, since the smugness radiating off of him was clear and fogging up the air.

Though Aki didn't care much since everything else around him was so much more captivating

Even more so when Aki felt a sudden drop in emotional well being in the direction of his friends.

Kazan seemed to notice too and headed in that direction, Aki hot on his tail. When they got to where Aki's friends were Luffy immediately latched onto him. Wrapping his arms around Aki's neck and hanging onto him like a koala would to a tree.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noting the distress lingering in Luffy's eyes. Nami and the rest turned to face the two of them (Akimitsu and Kazan) mixed emotions danced in the air, though distress, shock, and frustration were the most prominent.

"We can't fix your ship." Was what the rectangle nosed man said. The one sitting on some covered lumber.

There were two other guys sitting near him, one that made Aki uncomfortable because he didn't stop staring at him.

A man with a top hat and a bird, a rather strange goatee and narrow eyes.

And then there were two other people standing to the left of Nami. A woman and a purple haired man.

Aki studied the rectangle nosed man's face before sighing. He figured if professionals couldn't do it then nobody could.

Aki hadn't known the ship as long as the rest (minus Nico Robin) so letting go of it wouldn't be as heart wrenching. He by no means wanted to impose his ideas with that thought though. He didn't know the ship as well, didn't have as many memories, so he wouldn't say anything. He would feed his opinion he would feed others opinions. He'd stay on the side of rationality, but even then stay silent unless called upon.

So all he could do was nod in defeat.

Kazan glanced at Aki, he'd known Aki for a long time, he could recognize when Aki was shutting himself down. It was a strange practice that Aki had even since he was young. Aki, when he figured his opinion wasn't important, he'd shut himself down before saying anything.

It honestly annoyed Kazan. Aki was brilliant always had been always will be. He had good ideas and always thought things through.

Kazan clenched his fist in frustration but said nothing.

"Even if we patch it as much as we can, the probability of you making it to the next island is 0%" rectangle nosed explained.

Aki wasn't well versed in ship knowledge. He didn't spend most of his time reading through those types of books. But he knew, if it wasn't fixable something, like the keel, would have to have been severely damaged.

"What? But we had been sailing perfectly all this time!" Nani exclaimed, shock written all over her face.

It was obvious even if Nami didn't want to admit it, she too knew that it's the end of the road for the ship.

Acceptance is hard to grasp when something like this, losing a loved one or loved thing, comes into play. You want to lie to yourself, lie about it, pray that it isn't true. Convince yourself otherwise.

But there's always an underlying feeling of despair because no matter how hard you hurt the truth a part of you always knows otherwise. Aki knew the feeling all to well.

It was not a pretty feeling. How could it be?

"Is something wrong with the keel?" A blond man, smoking asked. A shipwright no doubt.

"Yes. It is severely damaged."

Ah. So he was right.

A/N
Hell yeah unedited because I'm in a rush and I don't have time rip