It had been six months and a half since Enka left Shadow Mose where he spent his childhood, shadows from the past still haunts his already hardened personality; nevertheless, it wouldn’t hinder him from hunting down the pirate who caused his parents’ demise.

Enka managed to find himself a cheap inn; tired as he is, he managed to get himself upstairs and punched the key into the keyhole and turned the knob, slowly as he pushed the door open. The room was fairly small; a small bed, writing desks complete with a lampshade beside it, cheap curtains shielded the room from bright rays aside from small holes on it. It was affordable or so to say, with it being practically cheap but Enka doesn’t care about something so trivial. He lazily dragged his body towards the bed and dropped face first.

‘I didn’t get any lead today, maybe if I’m lucky tomorrow…’ He turned on his back and placed his arm over his face, ‘Oh yeah, today is father’s day.’ Enka paused for a bit and whispered, “Father’s day huh?” Years has passed since his parents passed away, though he still remembers how his father would play with him. He didn’t have the chance to express his love for his parents, but that was all in the past; although he did have a father figure, Gen, the bounty hunter who took him under his wing.

“Ah, Gen-san huh, I think I’ll write him a letter. I'm sure he would like to hear something from me after such a long time.”

Enka did not even realize that he still has a soft spot inside him. He got up from the bed, pulled out the drawer and took out a paper and a pen then flicked the switch off the lamp. He starts off by tapping the tip of his pen on the piece of paper until the ink clots together forming a dark spot.

________________________________________


Dear Gen-san,


How many weeks has it been since we last saw each other, and so to say that I am already pretty far from the island where everything began for me. Honestly I’m really surprised that I got this far, it made me remember back then when you took me and trained me. Every day was like hell for me, the training was really hard for a child of a rich background like me, one who never knew what hardship really is, I was really ignorant of what is happening in the outside world. Well not until my parents passed away and I was left to fend off for myself.

And I have good news; recently I got a lead on the pirate who owes me a huge debt. Actually, it was harder than I thought, spending days just to gather a piece of information but at the end it was really worth it. It seems as though a piece of puzzle had been fit onto a large portrait, truthfully I am out of words and plus my goal is already set so until then… Oh and I want to use this chance to tell you that I really appreciate what you have done for me, thanks.



Your pupil,
Enka Hozuki

Byron grasped his revolvers, shivering at the chill of the night. His clothes were stained in the red substance that was blood and small cuts and bruises decorated his body. Stretching his arms, he tucked away his weapons and leaned against the wall. Glancing at his injured men, he replayed the bloodshed in his head. He grabbed a cigarette from his pocket and lighted the smoke.

“Care to pass me one Byron?”

The man turned around and saw a familiar face. It was his ‘right hand man’ and best friend Marcus Summers. The marksman smirked and passed the man a cigarette, lighting is moments later. Marcus inhaled and the two let smoke waft into the air. Whilst they were still relatively young, in their world which was governed by blood and prestige, age meant nothing. The two had conducted an attack on a rival gang’s ‘stronghold’. It had meant to be a clean ambush operation, but a hitch in the plan had led to a lethal exchange between the two gangs.

“We have to report to my father don’t we,” Byron replied slowly. “I really don’t want to since we can’t really call this mission a success. He’s probably gonna be quite pissed and I hate talking to my father when he’s pissed.”

“We don’t have much choice. Even if it was technically a failure we ended up taking out the marked targets and it’s not like the local cops are gonna catch us. They’re too scared of us. I doubt even marines would bother with our case, we can just bribe them since they’re so easy to corrupt.”

The doctor shrugged and looked at his wounded men. Whilst he was injured he was glad like all hell that he hadn’t received any major injuries. He reached for the pendant around his neck and gazed at a picture of him and Lauren.

“Man, I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt too badly. I’ve got a date with Lauren tomorrow and if I show up in a cast she’s gonna flip. Your sisters been pestering me for ages to just drop out of the gang and run off with her to some far away island and raise a family in peace.”

“You’re spending way too much time around my sister. I’m surprised that I haven’t beaten you up for going out with her, knowing your actual personality.”

“If you tried to keep me away from Lauren I’d shoot you in the knee. I’m gonna marry her and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Is that so? Anyway, change of subject time. Today’s Father’s Day after all, you do anything special for your dad? Me and Lauren took ours out to that Longarm restaurant for lunch, it was nice. We were supposed to take him to Centenary Square tonight except I got the orders to shoot at some idiots instead.”

“Nah, my father isn’t really into this whole celebration thing. Considering he sent his kid to go kill people rather than spend time with him, it’s not anything shocking. Well maybe if he had a kid that wasn’t adopted he would care slightly more about the whole Father’s Day thing. I don’t really care; I’m not the type of guy who’s going to invest time and effort into thinking of ways to celebrate a pointless event to simply sell more shit.”

“Shame, it’s a nice event. Anyway, we should probably leave before it gets too late for us to report with dignity.”

Marcus and Byron both let their respective cigarettes drop to the ground. Byron then informed one of his more trusted men that they were leaving to report to the ‘Boss’ and then the two walked off back to their ‘base’.

________________________________________


“…and that’s the extent of the operation.”

Byron, standing alongside Marcus, stared his father in the eye. The two had given a straight report of the occurrences of the shoot-out between them and the rival gang. Lying in the gang was something that was a sin, if someone tattled on you and someone discovered you had manipulated the details of an event; a long and painful period of your life would then ensue. Byron knew this first-hand; he had been the one operating the knives in the past.

“Well, as unfortunate and crazy as the events may have been, you two got the job done so there would be almost no point in punishing the two of you, nor do I plan doing anything that would discourage reviving a dying plan through a bit of violence. Good job then, I thank you for your efforts. Now if everyone would please excuse me, I have some matters to discuss with my son.”

Everyone else filed out of the room, most bowing before they left. Marcus patted Byron on the shoulder and left the two.

“What matters do you have to discuss with me father?”

Christopher Mather chuckled slightly; his smile was turning closer to that of an old man day after day.

“No need for that formality, right now I am not the ‘Boss’ but simply your father talking to you. Now, I know I’ve been slightly against your relationship with Keith Summers’ daughter in the past…”

“You told me that I should keep myself available in case you needed to arrange my marriage to some rival gang’s whore to secure our survival.”

“Hear me out, I’ve re-evaluated my stance and I’ve decided that I’m going to let you marry the girl. You seem to revolve your life around her and I’m not that cruel of a man.”

Byron was shocked, and then suddenly burst a genuine smile, one that rarely ever graced the man’s face.

“Are you serious? That’s awesome. Thank you so much father.”

“Yes, well it’s getting late and I know you need to clean up after your little adventure. You may leave now.”

Byron stood up and walked towards the door. Before completely leaving he stopped and turned around.

“Happy Father’s Day pops, I love you.”

Cosmo had the misfortune of being born an orphan, and thus not having a father figure or at least for a significant portion of time. So for the sake of convenience, I’m going to write about an alternate dimension in which Cosmo’s father never died, and Cosmo never went to be a free loader in the North Blue, but was instead working for his father, which he resented since he wanted to Skysino University, which he didn’t know was only a school casino-strip club super complex.

Sure, Cosmo was forced to live in the sleazy underbelly of the Casino district, but life wasn’t all bad; unless you happen to have issue with a thirteen year old being a bookkeeper for Skypiean mafia money laundering casino front. Sadly, it was because he was in that position, that he was able to realize something. They were no longer laundering money, but instead the money was going to Baltigo, the top secret headquarters of Revolutionaries that probably don’t even exist.

With a sigh, he picked up these incredibly illegal, although the wrong kind of illegal records and headed into the officer of his father; a balding, doughy individual by the name of Beagan. As one would expect he had an outlandishly lavish office, which was being upgraded into an even more outlandishly lavish office. Of course, the mafia and Cosmo did most of the work in the casino, so the man was simply spending his time playing a round of golf with himself. Cosmo’s eyes shifted through the office as he waited, stopping to look at the various statues which appeared to be moving. After about 10 minutes of Cosmo standing awkwardly in the door with files under his arm, Beagan finally noticed him, “Ah Cosmo! How was school?” He casually asked whilst playing golf.

He expected Cosmo to chuckle, but Cosmo kept his stern and boring expression, “You know I don’t go to school, I work for y--“ He began only to be cut off by his father’s bolstering laugh and the retort of, “It’s only work if you get a paycheck!” Which caused Cosmo to scowl, “Yeah, we need to talk about that one day, if we live… Anyway, why aren’t we laundering money anymore?” He questioned.

Beagan let out a dismissive chuckle, and quickly returned to his round of office golf, “It’s simple! Laundering money is way too expensive these days. So instead of laundering the money and losing some, we invested it in the illegal weapon’s trade; so instead of losing money, the mafia gains it!” He explained in a joyous tone as if he had accomplished something great.

Cosmo ceased movement after hearing his father’s explanation. It was probably safe to assume that one of the many aneurysms in his head had exploded as a result of hearing such outlandishly awful news. Nose began to trickle out of his ears and nose as he returned to life, and quickly tore the financial papers in half and tossed them aside, “Okay, I guess I was wrong to assume you knew the purpose of money laundering or why the most violent group in this city wants it done.”

“Ah don’t worry about it; I didn’t get this far on knowledge! But trust me, my know-how will get us far, the mafia will be glad I made them a profit for free.”Beagan reassured, which was incredibly counterproductive.

In Cosmo’s mind, this had to be a joke, the seriousness and consequences honestly could not have gone over the head of this grown man. He turned his back and began to head out of the office, “And it’s your turn to do the laundry, our clothes are awfully dirty.” Beagan quickly added. Cosmo lightened up a bit, seeing as he had at least an hour before his father figured out what was going down.

As he exited the office Cosmo was quickly approached by a suited mafia membered, “Are you Cosmo?” The slender Mafioso asked. Cosmo groaned, “I honestly don’t want to say yes.” He replied, knowing what was in store. The Mafioso remained ever stalwart, “Then you are, give your father this.” He stated as he handed Cosmo a bloody box, “Yeah, I’ll get right on that” Cosmo replied.

“Oh… Dammit!” Rang in the background, sooner than Cosmo had expected.

-The box contained a dead fish, and a dead cow’s head and nothing else. The message was clear; Cosmo and Beagan were going to have to meet the mafia at Caligulas’s Palace at 11pm, Sunday Night to be executed. -

With death a certainty, Beagan decided that it was time to spend time with his boy with a little bit of coffin shopping. He had sat himself down in the Death Master 9000, “This is a very nice coffin, Cosmo.” He casually stated, whilst mixing a drink the coffin’s minibar.

Cosmo being his usual self was wholly unamused. He let out a light sigh which expressed mild disappointment, “I think you’re way too optimistic about this; and anyway, they’re going to dig us our own graves anyway.” He also casually expressed. Began sighed, “And you’re always thinking the worse.” He quickly retorted. Cosmo shrugged, “Well, it’s pretty hard to avoid thinking the worse when we are facing the worse-case scenario. Mob makes good on their promise? We get killed horribly… But if we live? We go to Impel Down level one for tax evasion, treason, and your damn comb over.”

Beagan let out a dismissive chuckle. Suddenly, his optimism made sense; he had a plan, or at least that’s what Cosmo thought, “Oh no we’ll go to level five.” He replied, which caused blood to shoot out of Cosmo’s ears. Cosmo’s tone became strained, “Level five?” He questioned. Beagan shook his head, “Tax evasion is a serious crime, Cosmo”

-After the two bought some nice coffins with the money Beagan gained from selling weapons to revolutionaries, they headed to their death site where there graves were being dug.-

Cosmo let out a casual sigh as he looked behind him to the heavily armed mafia death squad. In the corner of his eye he caught an odd sight, one of the statues from his father’s office. Of course, he couldn’t linger on the sight as he saw one of the Mafioso pulling the trigger of his gun. He closed his eyes, and when he felt the splatter of blood on his face, he assumed they got one of them. But after about 10 minutes, he realized he was still alive. He opened his eyes to look and see the entire mafia killed where they stood, while both he and his father still alive. He looked up a bit to see the statues from his father’s office standing there armed with swords and guns.

Beagan made the sign of the cross for the first time in years, and turned to his son, “See Cosmo, what did I tell you about thinking the worst.” He expressed, thinking he had taught his son a valuable lesson about being the glass being half something. Cosmos simply stood absolutely stunned, in shock and awe, “This honestly shouldn’t be happening…” He stated; his pessimism couldn’t have failed him. Being as ignorant as always, Beagan let out a hearty chuckle, “Aw shucks; don’t get bent out of shape about honesty.”

Of course, Cosmo was right when he mentioned impel down. While Beagan thought he and his son were having a moment, the statues had yet to stand down. One of the statues threw off the bronze skin-tight suit it was wearing, to oddly enough reveal a suit with a trech coat-like jacket which shouldn’t have been effectively concealed, “We are the CP9, and we’re going to take you into custody.” He explained.

Cosmo shrugged, knowing that was pretty much the most reasonable outcome for this whole ordeal, “Yeah, of course you are, and of course you are.”He replied, without an ounce of sarcasm in his tone.

The two were promptly arrested, and all the evidence from their casino was seized as evidence, which was all pretty damming, especially when coupled with the fact that the city outright hated the Periwinkle family and were more than willing to damn them with honesty in Ennis Lobby.

Many mother later, Cosmo and his father were being guided down to the bottommost levels of Impel Down,“So how ‘s level five?” Beagan questioned.

The guard laughed “Naw, you’re going to level six.” He replied.

“Level six? What’s level six?” Cosmo asked, really expecting the worst.

“Level six for the scum who wrong the World Government on the highest level and thus must be erased from history; high ranking revolutionaries, yonkou, and worst of all… tax dodgers.” The guard happily exposited before tossing Cosmo and his father into two separate cells, where they would simply wait to die.

Cosmo’s cellmate, a rough and tough looking monster of a man shrugged as he saw Cosmo fail to get up from the ground due to apathy, “So what’re you in for?” He questioned. Cosmo sighed one last time, “Tax evasion.” He dully replied, pretty much content with his face, “And you...?” He uninterestingly questioned as to be polite. The other man’s face went white and he crawled into the other corner to get away from Cosmo, “I only dethroned a king, and destroyed several marine battalions!” Which, Cosmo failed to listen, as he laid down, pondering the existence of a world where his father died along with his mother.