Work Text:
“...hello.”
“...”
As the silence stretched on, Jinbe did nothing to break it.
He still wasn’t sure what to think.
After all, how were you supposed to react when the face you were staring at was an (almost) perfect copy of your own when you were younger?
“Why.”
Vegapunk (the Stella, that is) blinked, as Jinbe walked up to him.
His teeth were bared.
“Why what?”
“Them.” He said simply, gesturing below. “The Seraphim.”
Vegapunk brightened up, to Jinbe’s shock. “Oh, yes! Aren’t they spectacular? I never imagined the Government would actually approve of any attempts to bring the Lunarian tribe back! The Nobles were always a headache - and disgusting -”
The faces of every Vegapunk in the room - except York - changed to look as if they had just been force-fed spoiled lemon juice concentrate.
Lilith included.
“-but their complaining was especially strong there.”
“Do you mind talking?” Jinbe asked patiently, sitting down.
Again, there was no reply.
“...well, I’m going to interpret that as you not minding if I talk.” The helmsman said. He sighed. “I saw you were using Fishman Karate, in your fight with Sanji - could I show you some techniques?”
The air remained as silent as it had been before.
At least, as far as his younger - clone? was concerned.
“What are you talking about, mister?”
Jinbe sighed as he turned to look at the younger version of Hancock, who was trying - and succeeding - to be as cute as she could.
Not that it would convince him to let them out, but he had to give her credit.
“What’s a Lunarian?”
Jinbe’s rage-infused train of thought - not that he was letting any of it show on his face - took idle note of Nami’s question. Enough that he didn’t repeat his previous question, or start questioning the Doctor’s ethics in a very pointed manner.
Edison cheerfully zapped over to them, eagerness visible even though his face was not. “A race that previously existed on top of the Red Line! Powerful enough that they were worshipped as gods, in the distant past before they were mostly wiped out. They were capable of flight, manipulating fire, and using their fire for strengthening their skin so much that even the Emperors would have trouble harming them, creating attacks like those of the Flame Flame Fruit - or becoming fast enough that I daresay even your captain would have to exert himself to keep up! Never all three at once, though.”
Looks of blatant shock were now being directed at the camera - and the children that were being carefully watched (and watching them) on the other side.
“I fought one in Wano.”
Zoro’s words caught everyone’s attention.
“Ah, yes… King the Wildfire, of the Beast Pirates. Kaido’s right-hand man, escaped from Punk Hazard more than thirty years ago…” the Stella muttered.
It wasn’t Conqueror’s Haki.
But the feeling of sheer murder being emitted by Jinbe was so strong that you could be forgiven for mistaking one for the other.
Practicing kata was something Jinbe did on a daily basis. He hadn’t done it as much lately, since joining the Straw Hats, though - instead, his practice time was spent sparring with Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, strengthening his Armament and Observation Haki. Getting back into - well, his more intense sessions was -
Well, it wasn’t strange, by itself.
But he had -
Okay, he’d never had an audience that included - whatever - Shark - was to him.
He still wasn’t sure.
His - younger - something - never moved, as he went through the strikes and techniques of Fishman Karate (fists pointed away from the bubbles the four children were trapped in).
He could feel his interest, though. As well as Hawk’s curiosity, and Bear’s apparent lack of curiosity (that was betrayed by the roiling emotions so strong he could feel them despite his relatively poor Observation).
“Pow!”
And even without looking, he could also feel S-Snake’s attempts to appear cute by practicing with him.
“You. Enslaved a Lunarian?” Jinbe’s voice was still calm.
But even Vegapunk could tell that a bad answer here would lead to bad things.
“I had to! It was the only way to keep us both alive!”
Whatever Jinbe had been expecting, that wasn’t it.
“What do you mean?”
And any questions that he had were asked quite nicely by Nami.
Who appeared to be nearly as unhappy as he was.
Vegapunk sighed. “I - I admit, at the time, King - or well, Alber, had done no wrong when he was brought to us. He was an innocent prisoner, so I did what I could to minimize his suffering.”
“But Judge and Caesar were both there too…” Atlas added.
On the sidelines, Nami’s teeth started to grind together as Sanji’s shoes started to increase in temperature.
“I wanted to break him out or give him freedom.” Vegapunk sighed. “But I would have been caught in a heartbeat, in all likelihood. And - well, the Government would order him dead on the spot if they decided he was of no use to them.”
Jinbe wasn’t sure what to say to that.
He couldn’t - well, he understood.
“Did he do anything before that?”
Luffy’s words came with a rare frown.
“Why do you care in the first place? That doesn’t matter!”
York speaking up successfully diverted everyone’s ire.
“I think about things I’ve never seen.”
The voice that was coming from - well, he knew who it was - was not like his.
It sounded like he had when he was younger, but definitely not quite the same. All the - additions - that had been made to his blood in the process of making one of the Seraphim had apparently left his vocal chords quite unlike his.
But it was similar enough that he paid attention almost immediately.
(Out of the corner of his eye, even without Observation Haki, he could see that - Snake? - was sulking).
His - well, something?
He was not sure how to put it.
“No, he didn’t do anything. But what do you want us to have done?! Get ourselves killed for nothing? ”
Part of Jinbe noticed that Lilith was angry now, instead of sad like she had been for the last several hours.
“Look! Maybe it was all screwed up, but what did you expect?! That we’d all risk our lives when every single person there could have kicked our ass without trying? We’d be sacrificing everything for nothing!”
…Jinbe wanted to be angry. And he was.
But even though he wanted to be angry, and he wanted to be angry at Vegapunk-
It was harder than he’d like it to be.
“Then why didn’t you get stronger and break him out?”
Until Luffy’s question got the tension in the room to ratchet up again.
“Because that’s not who we are.”
The Stella’s response was just as simple as Luffy’s.
“We’re scientists! We aren’t warriors!”
And Edison’s follow-up response was just as simple.
“Then why not get stronger and break him out anyways?”
It was the same question.
It was still a good question.
“Because it wouldn’t do as much good, in the long term.” Atlas replied simply, sighing. “We could help the world more working with the Government than we would spending the rest of our lives on the run.”
Before Luffy could ask again, however, Lilith spoke again.
“We aren’t you, Straw Hat. Why are you expecting us to be?”
And, in the end, there wasn’t much to say to that.
“I - I think of a lot of things I haven’t seen.” The young lunarian-fishman hybrid said. “And one of them that comes up a lot is that there’s another fishman. He has red skin, black hair, and - a sun on his chest.”
Jinbe felt his face become solemn, and he did not bother to hide it.
Even so long after he had passed on, the memories of Big Bro Ti still moved him.
He sighed.
“That - is an old friend of mine. One who died many years ago.”
For a second, he saw it.
The face of Shark screwed up, in rage.
Then, the second passed, and the rage vanished.
And confusion took its place.
“I - who is that? I - I get angry, when I think of them.”
Jinbe - well, he kind of smiled, and sat down.
“It’s a long story - but we have time.”
He smiled at the four children in front of him.
“Would you like me to tell you about Fisher Tiger?”
S-Bear did nothing.
S-Hawk scowled, but didn’t say no.
S-Snake tilted her head in curiosity and out of an attempt to look cute.
And - after a few seconds -
The last of them nodded.
And as the hours before the Egghead Incident slowly began to pass, Jinbe, Helmsman of the Straw Hat Pirates, former Warlord of the Sea, talked to his -
-friend.
For now, he would satisfy himself with that.