Chapter Text
Reader pov
The warlock who had made the mistake of challenging you exploded in a burst of blood and black shadows, his soul shrieking as it was consumed by his demonic patron once his mortal body had taken his last breath.
Yet his last attempted attack, while interrupted, seemed to still had been close enough to completion to activate partially. You only got the time to curse and put up a shield before a flash of light flooded the entire zone along with a massive deflagration of raw magical energy.
Once the uncontrollable flow of magic fully dissipated, you groaned and put your hands on your knees with a huge relieved sight. The warlock himself had not been particularly strong, but the volatility of uncontrolled magic powers was a completely different story.
"Fuck that was a close one," you mumbled.
"Sure looks like it."
Your head snapped to the side at the words, and you suddenly noticed the slightly translucent presence of two people. A man wearing a red coat, with a curious but enthusiastic smile and a wide black mustache, and a woman with long blond hair, a flower in said hair, who was wearing a long light blue dress.
You blinked.
What the fuck.
"What the fuck ?" you asked plainly.
"We were hoping you would tell us," the woman said gently.
"I- How would I know ?" you retorted with a frown. "What are you two doing- wait. Don't tell me that dumbass was trying to resurrect people to kill me," you groaned and facepalmed.
Though as soon as you said it, you knew it had to have been exactly that. Stars above, to think that second-rate warlock had tried to pull a forbidden necromancy move to compensate his blatant lack of skill, it was no wonder he had lost so quickly. Even if you had not interrupted his incantation, there was no way even the middle-ranked demon he had made a contract with would have been willing to grant him enough power for the ritual to succeed.
"Oooh, that makes sense," the man laughed happily. "It felt weird to be pulled out of the afterworld ! So we're back to the land of the livings ?"
"Roger, I think it's not that simple."
Your heart missed a beat, and you stared at the two people again, this time with a bad feeling settling in your guts and your professional eye as a magic wielder, which quickly revealed a gold string of pure energy linking each of them to your soul and revealing their identities to your mind.
"Oh no. Oh hell to the no. Nope, nope, all fucking hell nope," you declared as you paled.
There was no way you were magically bonded to the ghost of the late Pirate King and whoever that Portgas D Rouge woman who seemed to be very close to him was.
"Oh, you figured out what's going on and what's that gold string ?" the pirate asked you with a bright smile.
Fuck my life.
You ran both hands over your face and then through your hair with the most tired sigh you had ever sighed, knowing you were in for a very long and very awful time.
Then to your surprise, you felt the faint sensation of hands on your shoulders, and when you looked back up, both ghosts were next to you and looking at you with soft and encouraging smiles.
"Looks like we're in this together, little lass."
"We might not be able to leave on our own, but we'll help you solve this problem however we can," the woman assured you with a gentle voice but determined expression.
For some reason, their support helped you feel a bit better about the upcoming trials, and you took a deep breath before standing a little straighter. Your rational mind took the reins, and you reminded yourself that they were just as much in the dark as you were, arguably more than, since you at least knew how magic worked.
"Alright," you stated, and decided you might as well show some manners. "Let's start again with a proper introduction. My name's Y/N, and I'm a wizard."
"Don't you mean a witch ?" the man asked curiously. "Also, the name's Gol D Roger, I was the Pirate King before my death."
"Honey, I told you before, witch and wizard hold the same kind of meaning as pirate and Marine, it has nothing to do with genre," the woman sighed like it was something she had said many times before. "My name is Portgas D Rouge, I was a witch. And that silly man's wife, though you probably never heard of it."
Your jaw dropped in shock.
"The Pirate King had a wife !?"
"Our marriage happened shortly before I turned myself in, it's a pretty secret thing," the man grinned.
You stared at the two floating transluscent silhouettes for a while, just taking the situation in since that had not been what you had signed up for when the day had started.
At the very least, you had not expected to end up introducing yourself to the ghost of the late Pirate King and his all but unknown wife in a random meadow full of flowers – though said flowers had not survived your stupid opponent's death, alas – with the sunset bathing the burnt and destroyed place in gold and red lights, right after you had defeated a warlock determined to kill you and possibly steal your magic knowledge.
To think you had been so sure that residing in the South Blue was going to ensure you at least a couple decades of a peaceful life, where you would be able to happily practice your art in secrecy and do your research without any unnecessary trouble.
"Alright," you grumbled, and had to remind yourself that neither of the two ghosts in front of you was responsible for this situation. "Regardless of who you are, here's what I can tell right now. Some asshole attacked me today, and he started an incantation to resurrect powerful people through a binding soul contract to kill me. I killed him before that could happen, but apparently he was far enough in his ritual for the summoning part to happen and now you're here and bound to me," you explained as plainly as you could.
The Pirate King's jaw dropped in shock, but the witch brought a hand to her chin in clear thinking process, which made sense since she would understand the implications better.
"But we only latched onto you because you were the last conscious living being around," she stated knowingly. "Since you were not the one to summon us, you can't give us orders, set us free, or send us back to the afterlife."
"Eeyup," you agreed with a tired smile. "So now we're stuck together, and I have no idea how to undo any of it. Ghosts and magic bindings aren't my area of expertise to begin with, throw in the fact that our situation is the result of a failed and interrupted ritual by a second-rate warlock, and there's no way I'm going to risk meddling with what looks a hell of a lot like a soulbond. I'm really sorry to tell you this, but unfortunately I don't even have access to the kind of knowledge susceptible to help me solve what's happening to us."
Then you grimaced and amended that last statement.
"I mean, technically speaking I know enough about warlock practices to summon a demon powerful enough to undo or at least explain how to undo this whole shitshow, but I would rather not do that unless we've exhausted absolutely all other available options," you said with absolute certainty. "Those fuckers are vicious and the second they realise who I am, their price is going to triple at the very least."
There was a beat of silence, during which both ghosts looked at you, then at each other to have what appeared to be a silent conversation through their eyes, and ultimately nodded solemnly before smiling at you.
"It's alright, little lass, we'll stay with you for now. We can try and see how far away we can go so you get some privacy anyway !" the Pirate King grinned.
"But if you want to try to find a solution, my mentor was a warlock specialised in ghosts, and ghouls along other low-level demons since those where the easiest magical entities to negotiate with," Rouge informed you, which piqued your interest immediately. "She was already old when I reached eighteen so she's likely dead now, but she told me the name of the island where she intended to spend the rest of her days and hide her scrolls so the World Government would never get their hands on it, maybe there'll be something there to free us from this situation."
Your eyes widened in hope. As a wizard, your knowledge of bindings to other magic beings was rudimentary since you had dedicated your life to a whole other field, but you still knew enough to be able to use a warlock's notes and perform the spells required to free you from those two ghosts and give them peace again.
"That would be mighty useful," you chuckled. "So where's her secret stash ?"
The blond woman's smile turned a little nervous, and she avoided your eyes for a few seconds, to the point her husband looked confused as well.
"Honey ? What's up ?"
"Well… it's in an island called Atlantis, and I know how to get there even without a log pose, but it's located in the New World."
Your curious look turned into a crestfallen expression. There was no way you could reach, enter, explore, and find your way in the New World even with a ghost to help you.
"We're in the South Blue !" you protested in shock. "I don't even know how to sail, how do you expect me to reach that island on my own ?"
"We won't force you to do anything, dearie," Rouge instantly assured you with a soothing tone and a barely-there caress on your cheek. "I'm just telling you everything I know so you can make your own choice."
You bit your lips at that, since her kindness was almost overwhelming. Your own mother had certainly never shown you that kind of soft and gentle affection, and you could tell it was already doing a lot to convince you to help this blond woman who exsuded kind protective mom vibes in spades.
Damn your familial trauma.
"And I'm pretty sure there's at least a couple people out there who wouldn't mind lending you a hand once they know you're helping me," Roger grinned. "My first mate had planned to retire in Sabaody with his special lady, maybe you can meet him there !"
Which sounded both reassuring and not at all, since you knew the reputation of the Dark King painted him as a man few would dare to mess with, and you really did not feel like taking the risk of pissing him off.
You looked down at the pitiful circle of green grass between your feet, the only patch saved from utter destruction by your shield, and tried to put some order into your thoughts and options. As far as you could see, you had three possibilities.
One, you could keep things as they were, and learn to live the rest of your existence being soulbonded to the ghost of the Pirate King and the witch he was married to, which meant staying in their general vicinity for however long you had left to live.
Two, you could summon a demon and likely end up free of ghosts, but stuck in hell with your soul belonging to a sadistic asshole for the next hundred years or so.
And three, you could risk your life on the off-chance that Roger's two decades old contacts might be willing to help you reach the island where Rouge's dead former master had hidden scrolls that might contain something that could perhaps send them back to the afterlife.
Not to mention the presence of the warlock who had challenged you proved your existence and location were already known to rather unsavory people, so staying on the island you currently resided was no longer an option no matter what decision you ended up making.
You raised your head back up, just in time to see the two ghosts looking at each other with an intense gaze full of gooey love and absolute devotion, like they had clearly done for years, would undoubtedly do for decades to come at the very least, and strongly suggested that at one point or another, they would start having ghost sex.
"New World it is !"