All about Vegapunk Shaka!

1-And they called it Progress

Of  Johanarchy in ao3

Three notorious Navy Officers are invited to the first large scale testing of the Seraphim. It is much worse than anything they could have ever imagined.

Notes:

This isn't my usual dialogue formating, since I intend to use this story as part of my writing portfolio in zine applications and I figured it would be best if I formated it the american way. It is also shorter than my usual works for the same reason. That said, I still really wanted to share it because I wanted to write on that particular subject ever since the Seraphim have been properly introduced. They fascinate me, and so does Vegapunk.

I hope you enjoy your read !

I didn't like this fanfic so much because I see Shaka's personality as far removed from that of the manga and I don't know, I'm not convinced by the writing of the other characters.

In the middle of the steaming, nightmarish landscape of destruction they had just brought into the world, the Seraphim stood tall and proud, all lined up and looking into the distance with a military rigidity that made their juvenile features feel all the more glaring.

Around them, what remained of the city groaned in slow agony, as the few buildings that were still standing collapsed one by one with a thunder-like rumble. The fires were slowly dying, leaving only tall pillars of smoke and ashes to spiral in the wind, blocking the light of the sun.

A little further away, Vice Admiral Tsuru stood atop a hill next to her two best friends, and looked over the field of crumbled walls that, not so long ago, thousands of people called home; and she felt sick. Billowing in the wind behind her back, the symbol of Justice that she carried on her shoulders felt like it weighed the world, maybe even more than that. She glanced to her left; Garp was looking down into the ruins, his usually youthful eyes empty and dull. To her right, Sengoku stared at the Seraphim themselves, face blank and neutral; only one who knew him as well as Tsuru did could have noticed the faint trembling of his lips and the clenching of his jaw.

"Punk 01, reporting to Stella. The real life conditions test has been a complete success. Complete annihilation of the target area has been achieved in less than 46 minutes, with no defective behavior observed. Recording of the events will be provided to you as soon as I come back to Egghead, but you can already mark the project as ready for military use."

The sound of the slightly robotic voice behind her made Tsuru's mind snap back to reality. Shaka, the "New Vegapunk" that had accompanied them to oversee the operations, was speaking with his creator over the transponder snail. She couldn't make out the response that the original Vegapunk gave him, but in truth, she did not care. What she had heard from the cyborg was already more than enough to make her understand that the horrors they had just witnessed were much beyond Vegapunk's limited understanding of real life. This wasn't an experiment, not a machine to be tested, not numbers and equations on a graph, this was real, visceral, human. It was wrong.

They were children.

Tsuru's eyes went back to the Seraphim. Vegapunk did not understand what he had made. How could he ? He had not known the Warlords of the Sea personally, aside from Kuma. He, as far as she knew, never had children. And he had certainly never been on a battlefield. He could not grasp the wrongness of what he had done.

Shaka ended the communication and walked to the top of the hill, where he called in a somewhat unnaturally strong voice, "Seraphim, report for duty !"

All seven children turned in a mechanical motion and ran toward them. Once in front of them, towering over the four adults, they lined up again, backs straight and chin up.

"All systems operational, ready for combat." they all declared in unison. Tsuru felt her stomach turn.
"You may rest until I call you up again. Remain in the surrounding area. Understood ?"
"Yes, Doctor."
"You are dismissed."

The seven Seraphim instantly broke their military posture and each took on their own individual, though hauntingly familiar, behavior and expressions. Seemingly the most energetic of the group, S-Flamingo was the first to start running around.

"First one at the top of this pile wins !" he shouted as he sprinted toward the ruins.

Competitive, S-Hawk and S-Crocodile raced after him, using their wings to quickly close the distance. S-Gekko quickly followed, yelling that it wasn't fair to start running before giving the signal. The remaining three looked at each other and silently decided that they would rather play quietly, away from their rowdier friends. They walked to a big rock, a little further away, where they sat down and started chatting. Down the hill, S-Crocodile had successfully tripped S-Flamingo and taken the lead, laughing maniacally while the other called him a cheater.

Tsuru and Garp's eyes met, and both of them knew that the other was feeling the very same heartache. How many years had it been since they last heard those same sounds ? Tsuru could have sworn that it was only yesterday she was spending her shore leaves watching her lovely granddaughter running around with her friends in the same way the Seraphim were right now.