Warnings: A bit of gore

.

81.

Shanks is finding himself stronger, but he takes care not to get arrogant. Rayleigh had pounded it into his head enough times to know why.

It is hard not to, what with Buggy.

Buggy had his Devil-Fruit and all the problems that came with it. However the advantages that came with the powers, Buggy wasn't suited to fighting.

Shanks though. Shanks had found out that he could fight and beat down people twice his size, and nearly twice his power with just some quick thinking.

He is suited to fighting and that just makes him sad, thinking about a young Namika telling him not to fight because it would hurt people.

82.

Rayleigh eventually tells him what his power is that is on par with or even stronger than a Devil Fruit.

Conquerors Haki, the rarest kind of haki.

It made people fall unconscious if their will was not strong enough and made people listen to him.

It is such a leg up from being a useless, spurned street urchin. It burns him too, to realize that if he had realized his gift earlier, he could have prevented his sister's slavery.

83.

Roger is the ideal kind of pirate captain, the one that makes every day an adventure and doesn't give unreasonable demands of his crew.

Shanks could say that he loves him like a father, except he wouldn't dare compare his captain to his good-for-nothing, scum-of-the-earth father. So he just calls him Old Man Roger.

The captain bears it willingly, albeit grudgingly if the sound thrashing he received afterward is any indication. Shanks just accepts all beatings and dishes out as good as he gets.

84.

Shanks doesn't despair when all searches turn up nothing.

He accepts that he can't have everything and just searches harder. The rest of the crew, his family, looks at his search and doesn't declare it stupid or ridiculous. They give him the means to do so and puts him to bed when he is roaring drunk in depression.

Buggy bears his desperate punches and doesn't treat him like glass.

Rayleigh listens to him when he rants and the captain punches him when he becomes unreasonable.

85.

It would be inevitable that he finally hears about Mihawk.

It's hard to mistake his friend, given his piercing yellow eyes and the sword strapped to his waist in the picture. He is a new bounty hunter and the article extrapolates about how cold he is, how capable.

Shanks wants to punch them all in the face.

It's very easy to understand somebody when you've fought with them for years. The picture shows the lines of strain on Mihawk's face, of how tense his body is.

Mihawk is not happy. Mihawk is pushing himself with a punishing and terrible pace. Mihawk is lonely.

86.

After the Incident with the Newspaper, as the younger recruits were calling it, Shanks sits down, thinks and extrapolates, mulling over the picture and noticing details that he had missed the first time.

He thinks that Mihawk's personality, while a bit dense and gloomy, is not one for vengeance.

Mihawk would never kill for vengeance, he was more likely to kill out of boredom. He probably became a Bounty Hunter by complete accident.

Shanks laughs so hard that he falls to the floor.

87.

His captain is called the Pirate King by the many enemies the man seems to gather.

The crew exchanges incredulous looks behind their backs and wonders if they'd hit their head too hard.

Their hot-tempered captain, a pirate king?

Roger was fairly sensational and a very good pirate. He wasn't always a good man though. Point, his long held grudge with Whitebeard.

Shanks holds in his giggles while Buggy gives up and howls on the floor.

Their captain scowls at them, raising a threatening fist further proving their point.

88.

Trouble comes to them; they no longer go looking for trouble.

The title of Pirate King is annoying and very much like a magnet. It attracts attention.

Roger revels in it like a lizard warming himself in the sun. Rayleigh gets gray hairs controlling what the marines will report about.

Shanks decides right then that he doesn't want to be a pirate king. He wants to have fun and to drink merrily. Pirate King is a nice title and all, but it seems to be a constant annoyance too.

89.

The first clue comes from a man, surprisingly.

Shanks had a good memory, but this is the first man that had ever beaten him. The children didn't count. This man made his sister scream and cry, and his face is burned into Shanks's memory.

He downs him quickly, efficiently to the shock of the people watching. To the surprise of his crew, Shanks doesn't leave the man to lie prone on the floor. He drags the man back to the boat, a savage look of anger on his face that cleared a path for him.

His haki is all over the place and everyone avoids him, except the Captain and Rayleigh.

"What's this, brat?" the Captain asks.

Shanks kicks the unconscious man on the ribs pettily. "I remember his face. He is the man who took my sister from me."

Rayleigh holds him back while Old Man Roger crouches down so he is level with the man.

"I'll take care of asking him," Roger says, a quiet and predatory aura all over him. "Your haki is all over the place, brat. Control yourself or he'll keep passing out before we can ask him."

Shanks bares his teeth at the scum and stalks out.

90.

They get it out of him, in small terrified increments.

The rest of the crew hold no sympathy towards the slaver. They all hate slavery, being pirates. Slavery is, after all, the anti-thesis of piracy. And they had all heard Shanks and Namika's tale.

Anyone with a heart would be moved, if only a little. Shanks's idolization of his sister helped too.

91.

His name is Boris and he is an ass.

Rayleigh is half-tempted to allow his Captain to use the man as a target practice. The stress from watching over a cranky Shanks accumulates and almost clouds over his judgement, except that Buggy helps him sort out Shanks.

Rayleigh cranks a little smile.

Buggy will be a great First Mate someday.

92.

"Little red-hair?" the slaver slumps, face covered in blood and bruises. "Ah, the feisty one. Nearly didn't get sold. She awoke her haki in the ship. We almost crashed, the captain fell asleep. Had to drug her or we never would have reached the archipelago."

Rogers smile is not kind. "Who bought her?" he says softly.

"A tenryuubito," he answers, hacking out a wet cough.

The man's fate is a forgone conclusion. It really is. Rayleigh just sighs through his nose as a wet squelch comes and there is the sound of blood pouring.

93.

It only took a careful cross-examination and a lot of ground work. Roger, Rayleigh and Shanks separate from the Jolly Roger to do some digging. The crew party and adventure in a Winter Island.

Shanks is almost vibrating with tension. He wants to know. He wants to hurt. Most of all, he wants to see her kind, green eyes as she smiles at him from the depths of her soul.

They find the name St. Roswald and slump, a mixture of giddiness and despair.

94.

"It would be folly to mount an attack by ourselves," Roger says. "We'll have to plan this carefully."

But then, the captain contacts an illness that makes him cough up blood and suddenly, all promises of glory and finding his most precious treasure is gone.

Shanks scowls at the Old Man, but he understands too. He already had the information, all he had to do was use it. The captain was sick and didn't need other troubles to burden him, what with him disbanding the crew and ensuring everyone's safety and happiness.

They had all become notorious enough that marines would recognize them on sight.

95.

The execution is set. Shanks risks it and attends the execution. He spies several other famous pirates and people in the square and he just knows that his flashy captain would do something outrageous.

This falls through when his captain suddenly declares One Piece in front of the entire assembly, and that's not even taking into account the various media's filming the entire thing.

It should be a solemn thing, but Shanks finds himself struggling with his laughter through his tears. His captain is brilliantly ridiculous, even when dying. The rain falls and it is a blessing.

Moving away from the execution platform, he feels a familiar glare and glances around, finally meeting Mihawk's eyes for the first time in years.

96.

"You look ridiculously flashy," Shanks has to say. It really came out instead of a proper greeting because the plume in Mihawk's hat is starting to annoy him.

Mihawk scowls, knowing what he means and removing the hat. "It was available and it is raining," he grouches. "Why are you here?"

Shanks shrugs. "My captain got executed," he says.

Mihawk is incredulous. "You served under that ridiculously flashy man?" he says, throwing back Shanks's words at him.

He scowls at him. "Stop that. I have a boat. Let's talk there."

MIhawk stops him by pulling on the collar of his shirt. "No, idiot. Let's go to my room. It's raining! I don't want to be tossed around by waves unless it's necessary."

Shanks allows himself to be dragged away and finds himself smiling.

97.

It's a strange thing.

They had not seen each other in years, yet conversation comes easy to both of them.

Perhaps it was because they had each kept the memory of each other fresh instead of forgetting and moving on.

It only took an hour and Shanks had Mihawk smiling again, the hard lines around his eyes softening and he looked less like a predatory bird and more like a young man.

In turn, Mihawk hits Shanks several more times and there is a little application of haki that makes Mihawk's eyes gleam with interest.

"I missed you, old friend," Shanks mutters around his beer.

Mihawk gives a smile, a mere fractionally inching up of his mouth, but it is a smile.

98.

They exchange information about the one person they both had been searching for and find out that they both have a lot of things they need to tell each other.

"It would have been easier if you had kept a den-den mushi," Mihawk mutters. "But it's not like either of us could afford it back then."

Shanks knows that too, but he has to agree. Keeping in contact would have made their search easier and faster. A united effort instead of two separate ones.

"It's done now," he says instead. "We can dwell on the what-if's later. How do we find St. Roswald?"

They exchange annoyed glances. For all the time they had spent apart, neither had really contemplated on what they would do if the one who owns her is a tenryuubito.

99.

The paper that comes in the next day derails all their plans.

There is a break out in Mariejois by a fishman.

While neither of them have anything against fishman, there is also the uncertainty that one of the slaves that escaped was Namika.

"Freaking fishman," Shanks mutters just to relieve his feelings.

Mihawk kicks him under the table and tries to borrow a messenger pigeon. The bird fights and there is a mass of feathers and screeching of featherly indignation.

Shanks gets tired and utilizes his conquerors haki to subdue it.

100.

The letter comes back affirmative.

Shanks doesn't know what to feel.

He stares at the written words and feels his fingers turn numb, before a fierce joy embraces him and he gives Mihawk a helplessly happy stare.

"We-we really didn't need to look for her," he said. "But I am glad we did."

Mihawk smacks him on the head. "Idiot. If we didn't search, we wouldn't have known she was among those that escaped."

Shanks finally laughs. How strange, wet tears trail down his cheeks as well.

Mihawk pats his shoulders awkwardly and gives his own lopsided smile, the strange look of elated joy on the swordsmans face.

.

.

Yay, separation done….except, I don't want to spoil anybody. Note: Prequel to Tomb on the Hill. That means this doesn't have a happy ending…

Please R & R.

~Hallen