Here's a little omake from Zephyr's perspective, set about a week before Ken got to Gourmet Island.
Marine Instructor Zephyr regretted taking this post. Garp had offered to do it. He could've just let the old goat put out to sail, and they wouldn't be facing this clusterfuck now. But no, he had wanted to see the Celestial Dragon "Marine" with his own eyes. Zephyr had thought he'd see through his deceit, to his corrupt nature within, and in so doing save the Marines from a doom within their ranks.
But "Captain Ken" had surprised him. He'd proven loyal, noble, and self-sacrificing. And in that last trait laid the rub, because Captain Ken was dead, Sengoku was breathing down Zephyr's neck, Kong was breathing down Sengoku's neck, and the Whitebeard Pirates were rampaging in Paradise.
It had been two weeks since the Exalted Dawn had completed its fateful mission at Marwold Falls. Though a resounding success on paper, it had been a catastrophe in practice. Morale was at an all time low, and the crew was barely listening to him. They followed orders just the same as any marine, but there was a sullenness to the whole complement. No spring in their steps, no snap in their salutes. The exception, of course, was when a fight broke out.
The Whitebeard Pirates and their numerous subordinate crews were out for blood after Kennard had somehow managed to take Marco the Phoenix with him—the blood of the Marines aboard the Dawn most of all. And the sailors currently under Zephyr's command were just as keen to spill pirate blood in the name of their fallen leader. Zephyr rubbed his new prosthetic arm, built custom by the shipwright Franky. The previous one had been lost just the previous day, in battle with the Little Pirates and their leader, Little Oars Jr. Pathetic. A decade ago, Zephyr would've slain the lot of them by himself.
On the decks, Commander Lucci stalked about on crutches, his leg in a cast. On his shoulder, his pigeon watched on imperiously, its wing in a sling under its own tiny Coat of Justice. Lucci was another figure Zephyr had misjudged. The old admiral had been sure the infamous Cipher Pol assassin was here only for Kennard Burke, and that he would vanish as soon as the Celestial Dragon he was assigned to died in action (much like the Battle Tailor and the incredibly conspicuous, oversized Chore Boy had). Instead, the Commander had stuck around, continued performing his duties. If anything, it probably would have been impossible to repulse Oars Jr. without him, and the Exalted Dawn may well have been lost- he was certainly the strongest Marine aboard, eclipsing even Chore Boy Onigumo and Zephyr himself.
It would be a relief to re-link with the battle group; they were only a few more hours away. Thankfully none of the other ships under Commodore Smoker's command had been damaged badly in the massive storm that had separated them. Ken's last act of rebellion may not have slowed down the Whitebeard Pirates at all, but it had certainly done a number on his allies. As Zephyr watched those sailors work the deck, sullen and surly all of them, a shadow fell over the entirety of the Dawn.
Icarus, the great Ouki bird, was returning from yet another hunt beyond the horizon, still wearing the hat it had stolen off Oars Jr.'s head the day prior. The speed and suddenness with which the beast appeared lately left Zephyr wondering if Lucci's pet bird was teaching the great monster Rokushiki. That bird was definitely going to eat the lot of them any day, Zephyr was sure of it.
As Icarus perched atop the mainmast of the Dawn, something fell from his massive claw. White and black fabric, fluttering down towards the deck. Even with a leg too badly damaged for Trafalgar Law to easily fix, Commander Lucci got to it in the blink of an eye, snatching it out of the air. In the hands of a human it was clear what it was. A burnt, tattered Coat of Justice.
Lucci held it up to his nose, took one long whiff, and loudly declared for all to hear, "It's Captain Ken's. It smells fresh." A murmur went up among the nearby sailors, and quickly started spreading across the deck, growing into a steady buzz. Damn it.
"Commander!" Zephyr snapped out, matching the assassin's volume. "I need to have a word with you." Dutifully, moving slowly once again, Lucci made his way up to Zephyr's position near the helm, expression as neutral as ever. "Commander," he spoke more quietly to the younger officer this time "You saw what happened to his Vivre Card, same as me. There's no need to stir everyone up. The sooner they move on, the better."
"With all due respect, sir," the Commander replied, soft and sharp, "I'll believe he's dead when we find a body. He was wearing this as recently as a day ago." He held up the coat for emphasis "And it's bone dry."
"I can't control what you think, Lucci. I'm not a Celestial Dragon, after all." Zephyr all but snarled, "But you'll keep your opinions to yourself on my ship. That's an order."
"Yes, sir." The subordinate officer limped off, not looking chastened in the least.
Above, on the mast, the outsized augury began to cackle. "Kokokokokokoko" it said, in a voice not its own. And then a second voice joined in, "Kokokokoko", and a third, and a fourth. And then it was ten, and then twenty, a great chorus of them. Zephyr knew them to be pirates the great bird had gulped down. Dead pirates, laughing the laugh of a dead man.
It had been a day since that incident, and Zephyr was glad to be back with the Battle Group. No more surprise attacks from pirates, no more out-of-season Aqua Laguna. And best of all, Vice Admiral Tsuru had been sent in to take command of the group, so no more daily complaints from Smoker about the freedoms granted to 'Prisoner' Law. That was her problem now.
Commander Lucci had healed inhumanly quickly, and was already back on his feet, but hadn't been spreading any further rumors about the late Kennard Burke as far as Zephyr could tell. The buzz of the previous day had been quashed before it could get any real legs. Things were looking up aboard the Dawn. And then the accursed bird made its second delivery.
As Icarus passed above, a human body dropped to the deck, impacted with a wet crunch. The human cargo didn't cry out after the impact, he merely began to writhe, shifting in place ever so slightly. Zephyr marched towards the impact site, but the Dawn was a big ship, and by the time he arrived, Lieutenant Bell was already taking control of the scene. For all that she had been troubled since Zephyr met her, she was always on top of any situation where things started going sideways. If she could get her head on straight, she'd make a fine officer one day.
"Everyone stay clear," Uma gestured to the nearby crowd. Some were leveling weapons at the unlikely arrival, others merely looking on. "Let the doctor figure out what's wrong with him." And as Zephyr finally came close enough to see the stranger properly, it was clear as day that something was wrong. Trafalgar Law was leaning in close, examining a man who looked like he might have been made of two different textiles sewn together. One half of his body was burned crisper than Onigumo's attempt to cook bacon, and across a perfect lateral divide, the other half was comprised of so many shifting shadows, and a demonic grin. Unnatural.
Law's expression reflected the same unease that Zephyr could feel stirring within his own chest. "He shouldn't be alive," Law said quietly enough that only Uma and Zephyr himself could hear. "Half of his body just isn't functioning at all." As he leaned in, his voice dropped even lower "What happened to you?" The body emitted a wheeze in response, and a puff of smoke and ash escaped its mouth.
Commander Lucci and Lieutenant Commander Kaku had arrived on the scene, and Lieutenant Bell was rapidly cycling through a series of wanted posters, each one appearing in her hands for a mere second before vanishing and being replaced by another. After a tense minute, she found a match. "Pirate Prince Cavendish. Bounty of 200 million."
Zephyr glanced at her. "Do you suppose your bird did this to him?"
Uma frowned. "I don't really see how he could have."
The half-corpse wheezed again, and now a whisper of a voice came with it. Too quiet to hear, it was lost to the sea breeze. "What is he saying?" Lieutenant Commander Kaku voiced the obvious question.
Zephyr leaned in closer, but held his hands up, ready to guard himself. He needn't have. The shadow's voice came again, loud enough to hear this time. In the grating, screeching timbre of metal-on-metal, it laughed. "Kokokokokoko."
Lieutenant Uma's hand flew to her mouth. Kaku cocked his head. And Commander Lucci donned one of his rare smiles. Zephyr bit his tongue.
The rumors that day proved to be significantly harder to quell.
Three days passed with no sign of the Ouki bird. Zephyr would've taken it as a blessing, but the damnable avian beast had already left its mark. There were whispers about Captain Ken, Saint Kennard, exchanged across every meal at the mess hall, now. It was no good. Zephyr had seen too many Marines who didn't know how to let go, failed to live for the moment, lost themselves because they had chained themselves to fallen comrades. And Zephyr couldn't command sailors who still followed a dead man.
"They talk to you freely," Zephyr had summoned Commander Ain to his quarters to discuss the problem. "What are they thinking? What do you think?"
"If I may speak freely sir?" He nodded. "They loved him. They're looking for an excuse to believe that he survived against the odds. They say he's done it before."
"Commander…"
"I know, sir. I've sailed in the New World. They haven't. They don't understand what it means to face an Emperor."
"Still can't believe that punk managed to take the Phoenix down with him," Zephyr laughed at that, but not happily. "And now they're going to put him on a pedestal. All his deeds are ten times greater. All his flaws, polished out. He was a hell of a fighter, and I guess he really was a good kid in the end. But we can't let the symbol of this generation's Marines be a dead man. They need someone who can lead them."
"How am I supposed to do that when I can barely still fight? I can't live up to their expectations for their perfect prince from on high. Hell, he couldn't have, even if he were still alive!" Zephyr sighed, leaned his forehead against his metal hand. "I'm getting too old for this, Ain. I really am."
Ain's brow knitted and she stayed silent for near half a minute. Zephyr gave her the time to gather her thoughts. "Sir, I think you're wrong."
Zephyr chuckled, and folded his arms on the desk in front of him. "Can't say I've ever heard those words come out of your mouth before, Commander."
"You've been leading Marines for longer than any of these sailors have been alive! And you've said they all have a lot of potential. You can see things that they can't. You know what they don't know, and you know what they need to learn. If you could teach someone like me, teaching them should be no problem!"
"I can't lead them if they don't want to follow me." The acting captain of the ship rifled through his desk's drawer, pulled out a bottle of sherry and filled a tumbler. "And these sailors… after their old Captain made such a strong impression, they're only going to be willing to follow the best of the best. Someone with the strength to protect them. More strength than I've had in a long time."
The young woman's brows knit, her expression darkened. "So that's what this is about? That's why you're giving up!? Because of what happ-" she stopped short, clasped a hand over her mouth.
Zephyr tensed. "Finish that sentence Commander."
"I…" Ain hesitated, fishing for the right words, but she never got the chance to reel them in as the entire ship rumbled beneath their feet, and yawed a few degrees towards starboard before righting itself with a wobble. Eyes wide, she dashed out of the cabin and back onto the main deck, without bothering to wait to be dismissed. Zephyr sighed heavily, threw back the drink in his hand, and got up to follow her.
There was a scurry of activity on the deck, and it wasn't hard to see what was spurring so many frantic reactions. Icarus had returned once again, and was perched on the mainmast of a nearby battleship. Not one of the half dozen ships in the Dawn's battle group—a pirate battleship. It wasn't hard to recognize with the massive, elephantine figurehead on the front. The Mammoth, the command ship that Jack the Drought of the Beast Pirates captained. The ship that had been leading deadly raids throughout Paradise for the last month.
Of course, if the figurehead didn't give it away the massive body of Jack the Drought himself would. And he was no more than a body. Badly burned, he'd been lashed to the masthead in death—a crude crucifixion for a crude man. The whole ship was silent, and seemed to be still aside from rocking back and forth where the Ouki bird had dropped it moments before.
Most of the Dawn's senior officers had already rallied, and were standing at ready nearby. Despite the ship's seeming lifelessness, it could still be a trap; Zephyr turned to the officer he deemed least likely to die if something went wrong. "Commander Lucci, go check it out. Keep a low profile, and come right back over here at the first sign of trouble." The Tiger Man nodded sharply, and took off like he'd been shot out of a cannon, blurring around the edges as he crossed the open air to the apparent ghost ship, using a variant of Geppo that Zephyr didn't recognize.
"Lieutenant Bell, prepare a boarding craft and a search team to go over there and sweep the ship if the Commander gives the all clear." She nodded, and after a moment of focus a dinghy, sized to hold forty, popped into place beside the Dawn. Without even needing to be told, members of the White Tiger Brigade were filing onto it, following the procedures that they'd drilled on dozens of times before.
The largest of the bunch, Petty Officer Aphelandra, stopped where she had been preparing to leap overboard and join the boarding party. She pointed off towards the Mammoth. "Isn't there someone else there? See, on the big brown animal head at the front!" The girl was strong without a doubt, but someone really needed to teach her proper sailing terminology. Parlance aside, her observation was accurate. There was a human attached to the pirate ship's figurehead, small enough to barely be visible at this distance.
Lieutenant Bell, prepared as ever, had a spyglass in her hand even as everyone else was straining their eyes to make out the features of the distant figure. After a quick shuffle through her wanted posters, she declared "It's Page One, one of the Beast Pirates' Flying Six elite fighters. He's been nailed up. Crucified. Likely dead."
"It's what these fuckers deserve, after Marwold Falls!" Ensign Cirno called out from the boarding craft below.
"It's an eye for an eye," Lieutenant Commander Kaku said, calm but loud enough to carry. "It's Justice."
Trafalgar Law, at the edges of the crowd, raised the obvious question. "Who could've been strong enough to do this?"
"I bet it was Captain Ken!" Aphelandra supplied cheerfully, and the murmuring started amongst the gathering Marines, more intense than ever.
"His Vivre Card burned." Lieutenant Bell said tightly. "All the officers saw."
"What's a Vivre Card?" The large woman asked, oblivious as ever.
Nobody had the chance to explain it to her, though; Commander Lucci had returned. He had three objects cradled in his arms. "Thirty two pirates hiding in the hold." He began his report, "They posed no impediment to the execution of Justice. They were holding these." Lucci handed two Devil Fruits to Uma, who promptly Stored them without needing to be told. The former assassin turned to Zephyr. "And this was impaled on the ship's wheel." He handed a severed human head to his commanding officer.
"That looks like Pica, of the Donquixote Pirates." Uma supplied, quick as ever.
Beneath the distinctive helmet, the pirate's face showed signs of several days' decay. And nailed to his forehead was a playing card. The Ace of Hearts. The symbolism sparked a memory, a connection to a fifteen year old case file. One he'd brushed up on less than a month earlier. "Corazon…"
"Sir?" Rob Lucci raised one of his perfectly groomed eyebrows.
Zephyr pulled himself away from his thoughts. "Alright, everyone back to your stations. The search party will go forward. Everyone else, stay alert, but keep to routine. This ship won't run itself. Move it people!" The gathered Marines scattered back to their assigned duties. He tossed the decapitated pirate's head to Lieutenant Bell before she left, and she Stored that as well.
Alone upon the deck once more, Zephyr set his eyes upon the dead pirate ship, and the enormous bird perched atop it. His most trusted officer came up beside him. "What do you make of all this, sir?"
"Ain…" Zephyr didn't take his eyes off the massive Ouki. Unblinking, it met his eye from its perch and cocked its head to the side. "Head down to the CIC. Talk to the kids in comms, and the navigators. I want to start tracking that damn bird."
The Commander hesitated, just for a moment, and then saluted. "Yes, sir." She turned on her heel, and marched off to see it done.
The former admiral kept his post, and watched the bustle as dozens of Marines began to sweep the ghost ship. A near-forgotten ember of emotion was stirring in his chest, small but unmistakable. "Hypocritical old man," he muttered under his breath. Zephyr couldn't stop himself from smiling.
