#rainmaker au

Shamrock really doesn't want his twin is in the world below so soon after recovering him, but he supposes there are worse places to go there than Sabaody Archipelago.

Now, if only the weather were more pleasant. Less rainy.

He wrinkles his nose. Shanks doesn't seem too bothered by the wet, but then he was raised down here. It's really more unfortunate that he seems more comfortable in the light rain than when it was sunny earlier, otherwise Shamrock could have made the excuse of possibly returning better in fairer conditions.

He chances a side look at Shanks, currently tilting his face towards the water, eyes closed.

When Rosinante sees that distinctly shaped and patterned hat, the beads that hang off of it, he knows that he's fucked.

Not only him, but Law too.

Because that's the- "Rainmaker," he hisses. Safely within a Calm bubble, of course, he hasn't lost himself that far.

"What? Like that bounty that Doffy's always glaring at?" Law asks, squinting in the direction that Rosinante has stumbled back from.

Wait, Cora-san is a World Noble?! That has to be impossible, Law thinks. No way that clumsy, highly flammable idiot was one of those.

(The type of person to leave Flevance to suffocate in lead.)

He looks over, ready to see the man tell the crazy woman wrong. But he doesn't. No, Cora-san's pale, almost as pale as Law is with lead in his veins.

"Wait, that's true."

A laugh that isn't a laugh at all. "Ah, so you didn't tell him. Wanted to slum out with the rest of us, Noble?"

Even if he did lie, Law already knows Cora-san's a liar! He didn't tell Doffy he could talk or had a Devil Fruit, after all. This is just another lie of his, a big one.

Weird to think about too. Does that mean Doffy- no. Focus.

"I still need him."

"Need him. Need him for what?" Her spear-sword's already starting to tilt in Cora-san's direction again.

next morning or afternoon. Beck or whoever is hungover and drags himself to check on Shanks. And finds him curled up in Magnolia’s lap. She’s petting his hair, made him breakfast and telling Shanks crew to not wake him. Beck is feeling like shit and trying not to be jealous of something childish. And Shanks may not even be hungover.

It's strange, Beck reflects, to see this woman take such care for his Captain.

Especially when he found the red haired kid all on his own at first. For a while. For a long while.

Where was she then?

"You know," he starts conversationally, lighting up his cigarette, "Good mothers don't leave their young brats alone for months at a time."

She doesn't look up, still pulling her fingers through the head of red hair on her lap.

"I know," is her calm answer. Just as conversational in tone.

"You know, huh? Have a defense?" Beck reaches up to rub at his head, to chase the pounding in it away.

"I don't. Only that I am not a good mother. So you are correct. Good mothers do not leave their children alone like I have done."

But she clearly cares.

"Why not stay? What's the problem with staying?" he presses.

As Beck watches, something...drips off her neck? Water, plopping off onto the wooden deck. Not tears, wrong direction for that, back of the neck, not towards the face.

"It's better this way."

In one smooth motion, she moves the sleeping head of Shanks onto the deck and stands up. Shanks grumbles and turns over, but doesn't wake.

The woman, the Rainmaker tilts her head in an awkward bow towards Benn.

"Take care."

And like that, she's gone. Gone over the side of the ship's railing. And Benn still doesn't know how she does that, what the hell is her trick?

"...she gone?"

Benn glances over, taking a quick haul of nicotine in.

Captain's waking up, or was already awake, rubbing at his eyes and tugging at his strawhat.

"Yeah. You want me to call her back?"

Shanks smiles. It's not a real one, unless you call the wobbliness of attempted bravery real.

"No. She always leaves in the end. I'm used to it."

Shanks is used to people leaving, huh. He shouldn't be, but he is. There's one thing that Beck can do in response to that. Only one.

God Valley is an island erased from the world.

Yet some small portion of it persists, under the unceasing rain. A rain that has continued to fall for weeks now, days and nights without stopping.

Upon those small fragments, lays a woman. A woman who looks like a drowned rat, covered in mud and filth and blood several times over.

She's laid there, facedown, for days. For all appearances as dead as anyone else who ever made their home on this island. It is only now that she moves, sits upright, wiping the muck off her face.

Clearing her eyes enough to fully take in the ruins surrounding her.

Her mouth works soundlessly for a few minutes.

Until at last, she screams.

"AAAAAAAAAAA."

The rain falls harder.

~

Heavenly Tribute has been going missing in the West Blue recently. Not all of it, but enough of it that it's be noted. Noted and extra ships of Marines have been sent to patrol the area. To keep an eye out for this audacious pirate. A pirate that will be surely personally executed by the Celestial Nobles once caught.

Besides the chanced that this convoy, of everything in the sea, being attacked is fairly low.

At least, that's what Captain Batsu thought before, well, this. Before his men had been forcibly disarmed and he himself made to surrender, least the Heavenly Tribute be lost in attempts to flee.

Common raiders, common pirates, common scum. They're only power is in the numbers, and if not for the storm coming down, the ships would have escaped them already. As it is, the storm is leaving them helpless in the water, helpless as the nameless raiders swarm to make their way onto the Tribute ships.

Only one person stands out among the rest. A slim woman, dressed in a long dark blue dress. A wide brimmed bamboo hat rests on the woman's head. Strings of glass beads hang from that same brim, hiding her face.

"You're the monster leading these raiders?" Impossible, for one woman to be able to keep such filth under control, what power could she have?

"That I am." Still. No physical response to even being called 'monster,' as the woman makes her way over to him.

"There are other ships on the way! If you don't leave now, you won't have the time to get everything off!" Now, Batsu isn't sure if that's the case for certain, but he knows that reinforcements will be quick to come. Especially for the Tribute.

"If that's the case, I'll sink it."

"You'll destroy the entire ship?!" Batsu can't believe it. What's the point of that, pirates are greedy, aren't they attacking for the loot anyway?

The woman's voice is unmoving. Emotionless. "Yes. Better it gone than those of the world above getting their hands on it."

That's- he finds his mouth just gaping. What is wrong with this clearly insane woman?

As she turns, Batsu can spot a flash of brilliant red, in the form of hair, hanging down her back in a heavy tangled braid.

The woman directs an order to a nearby raider, just as emotionless as everything else she's displayed and said so far.

"Kill them all. Leave not one survivor."

The raider grins, all scars and sharp eyes. "As you command."

"Wait, wait, wait-!"

SLUNCH.

Though the Marines would never admit it, the New World truly is its own world. Separate in its own way from the rest of the seas that cover the Blue Planet.

And in its separation, the New World has its own things to say about the pirate called The Rainmaker.

She's notable in both that she's alone on the seas, and also a woman doing so. Sure, she may lead raiders here and there, upon other seas, but in the New World?

She wanders alone. By herself.

Despite efforts to recruit her by other forces.

Never Whitebeard, everyone knows never Whitebeard. Everyone knows that the Rainmaker has the wrong parts for the man to be interested in in any sense of the term. As a lover or a 'son.'

Big Mom? The woman would never trust an alliance not married into, and you'd have to be blind and deaf to the Rainmaker's feelings about marriage overall.

Just ask her about the Divorce, for proof on the matter.

Kaido...with how violent the Rainmaker's said to be, and how the Strongest Beast loves war, one might have thought that a match in heaven! A match in a burning Holy Land, even!

Everyone who's anyone knows about the Arrangement between the Rainmaker and Black Maria too.

But then Red Hair came in and the gamblers, the watchers, were all hitting themselves over it. Because it's clear that they're related. Not only that, but Shanks himself is a momma's boy.

But the Rainmaker didn't do anything for Red Haired Shanks, except be there every once in a while. Probably bugging him for grandchildren, wagging tongues claim.

So the balance held.

At least, until Fire Fist came along. Came along and got himself scooped up by Whitebeard.

And then Rainmaker was everywhere. Bothering Whitebeard's ships in particular. Asking Fire Fist if he wanted her to do something about Whitebeard, of all things!

Crazy woman, to have such gall!

Crazy woman, just as crazy as her newest son apparently, and isn't that something to join the cawing News Coo and gossip of the fishes?

But the eyes are watching. Because who knows what will change now, when a hunter such as the Rainmaker has aligned herself to a rookie far more active than her eldest?

"Teach?"

Marshall D. Teach turns around from where he sits at the bar. Because that didn't sound like anyone from 2nd Division. Or anyone else from Pops' crew, for that matter.

There's a woman standing there, tangled red hair about her face, as she stares at him.

"Teach, is that really you? Did...you made it."

It's a face that he shouldn't know, or remember. But he doesn't forget anything from that fateful day, from the life Before. He knows who this is, and it's unbelievable.

What comes from his mouth is something a lot younger than he'd like. "Auntie Magnolia?"

Not blood-related to him, no one who shares his blood lives anymore, but she was there. On God Valley. Was friendly. Cared.

(Had her kids, soon before the end came.)

Something in her face lifts. Almost like a smile. "Yes, Magnolia. It's me. Your mother, Er-"

Teach doesn't want to talk about her.

(She's gone.)

"She didn't make it," he interrupts.

"Oh. I'm sorry." The only person who could say an apology for that and mean it, because she was there too on God Valley. Should have died there, but didn't somehow. "And no one else, then? Just you and me?"

He nods. "Just you and me."

Last of God Valley. A moment of silence, as they both remember. Mourn.

Finally, she speaks again. "It's good that you're alive, Teach."

Ah. Isn't that something to hear. He looks away. Looking for something to look at that isn't her face, isn't that sincerity, and finds it. Hanging off her belt. A wide brimmed hat.

That hat by her side...she may not be wearing it, but Teach knows where he's seen it before, that particular pattern. The Rainmaker bounty.

His fingers tap on the bar counter. She's strong. Just what he needs. What he can use.

"...one day, I'm going to start up my own crew. And I want you to join, Magnolia. Rainmaker."

Something cold curls in those eyes, stealing away the familiarity of the past.

"Will you burn that Holy Land down, as a pirate?"

His Dream will definitely do that. "You betcha!"

"Then I will. I will be part of your crew when you're ready, Teach."

"No, not Teach then."

He grins. A D's grin, ever so wide.

This is his first mission for the Throne and Shamrock has taken his chance.

The rest of the Knights are who knows where, in this heavy rain. Distracted by else the criminal has set up, no doubt. But Shamrock has laid eyes on the target.

The target that Father says must die for the honor of their line.

The Rainmaker.

The clothing, the colors, even the rain pelleting down...

A weak hearted soul would be discomforted by the clear allusion to Zaza the Rainmaker is putting on. Shamrock is not one of those.