discedo | [video]

But my goal contradicts what they want. It's just going to make both them and myself suffer more if I keep going like this.

Then why do you do it?

I don't. I cut ties. All I want is to be left alone to my goal but they continue to seek me out.

I think that should tell you something, eh.

I will not conform to what they want for my life.

That's still not what I'm suggesting. But not everything has to be so absolute. There are more directions than just East, North, West, and South, eh?

Then how can I ever truly make a decision, knowing that it is completely correct?

You've probably never heard of the saying, "All routes lead to the Grand Line" but it means, whether you go east, west, south, or north, you're still likely to wind up in the same place you meant to go no matter what.

The end result might be the same, but the path you take to get there can be very different.

Sometimes you can't be entirely correct, you can't always just trust your instinct or your head, or your heart, and that's why having nakama around no matter what is so important. Because they can keep you on point.

And if you're running away from your nakama, no matter what the right reasons, it's still the wrong direction.

[ There's no response for a few moments as he considers Marco's words, weighing the value of his opinion. He's been in that situation before, one with supportive allies, but then they'd started to get in the way. How could he explain that? ]

The decision to leave them made me much stronger. If it really is determined that I will reunite with them no matter what my path, as you say, then what I think of it now is unimportant.

Still, having that mindset just seems like a way to shirk responsibility and undermine the importance of certain choices.

I'm not saying it's fate, I'm saying friends don't give up on friends. No matter how much you walk away, they'll want to leave a door open.

Your choices still matter. No one can force friendship on you, if you're absolutely determined to have nothing to do with it, they can't stop that.

My point wasn't that you'll wind up with friends no matter what. It's that your revenge is just as likely with getting your friends to help as on your own. In some ways, probably more.

But you'll see for yourself, eh?

I'm not asking for aid. I don't want to.

Not only is it mine to face on my own, it's something that they would be wasting their lives over like idiots. It's dangerous and they each have other goals. All I want, all I've been wanting, is for them to realize that and stop.

Maybe they'll continue to chase me, but it's the last thing that I want from them.

[Sighs softly.]

You can't help someone achieve their goals by getting distance from them or pushing them away.

My brothers all have different goals as well, eh? Different things we want, different dreams. But we're together to help each other get closer to those goals. As far as we can.

And even if one ran away or had to separate for a bit, we wouldn't give up on him for anything or any reason. We'd try to support him from afar and get him to come back, and if he got in trouble, we'd declare war on the whole world to help him if needed. [That's dangerously close to admitting the truth that they didn't in fact, order Ace away like Marco claims even when everyone knows the truth.] His goal would still be ours, and if he died we'd carry on his will. That's what vengeance is half about in the first place. If you're so sure you're going to die, that if they came along, they'd be risking their goals as well... that's how it should be.

Such a thing isn't a light undertaking, and it's not meant to be taken lightly. If you're going to set yourself up to chase something like this you have to be ready to not just lay your life on the line -- and I don't mean risk death, I mean how you'll live in the future -- but that of your nakama too. Goals like this... [Rubs his chin.]

I told you before my brothers are my reason for living, right? Without them I'd be willing to die trying to kill Blackbeard to avenge my father. But because they need me alive I have to be careful, to make sure that I don't kill Blackbeard if it means risking that I'll fail and kill myself in the process. They'd be safer in a world without Blackbeard, but even without him, in greater danger in a world without me. We will get our revenge... [If Marco has any say in it, and he does. At least a little.] But for the sake of the future, not the past. To carry on Pops' will means we have to live as much as we can, seize as much out of life as we can. To carry on Ace's will we'll try to make the New World a better place that his little brother can survive and make it to Pirate King in.

These things...

Shanks gets in my way. He didn't let me kill Akainu. Because if I kept trying, I wouldn't just risk my life, but all my brothers, and I'd be risking my chance in the future to kill Blackbeard.

If you don't want to risk your nakama's goals, their lives, then your timing is off. Become the strongest man in the world if you have to, so that you won't have to worry about risking them, but I don't think you can save them by pushing them away. That's... [Child's thinking, he wants to say. Something Ace tried. He can still see Ace up on the execution stand begging them to turn their backs on him so he wouldn't have to see them get hurt for him, so they wouldn't get hurt. Yelling at Luffy to run away and trying to disown him, anything to save any one of them. Of course it didn't work.] I can only compare our situations, eh? Since mine is all I know, but in my situation, even if Vista or Jozu or one of my brothers decided to hunt down Blackbeard on their own because they couldn't stand the thought of him living while Pops wasn't, I'd go get them back. So we could get him together, so we could fulfill Pops' wishes, so we could bide our time to find a better future. I guess to them it'd seem like I was just trying to get back what we once had, but I know there's no going back. It's their future that concerns me. That's why I want to see it together with them.

I'd love to say "fuck it all" and go it alone. But it's not enough. And no matter how much I'd want it to be myself, alone, my personal vengeance and not risk the others, they'd do it no matter how much I ordered them not to. Because that's who they are, who we are. If one of us is willing to risk our own lives for something, then we all are. Whatever that goal is, whatever the consequences.

You'll do as you will Sasuke, but if your situation is remotely similar, then trying to get them to back off probably won't work like you hope. Even if they don't hunt you down, I guarantee they'll be waiting for you. Nakama are home, they'll always have an open place for you. Vengeance is a grave you have to struggle to fill with the right person. Where will you go when you're done digging?

[ That final question causes any other initial arguments to fade as he really gives it some thought. Where would he go? His normal answer would be that it didn't matter, and to him it still didn't. Back "home", to be arrested. Out in some remote area, alone, in hopes of being left alone. To the next life. Aren't they all the same? ]

There is nothing in my life that is more important than seeing this through to the end. They've always encouraged me to simply give up on it and forget it. Him, especially. As if I started it, or am the one in the wrong. If they're really so devoted as you say then they will learn to see past their own naive views of the world.

I don't agree with them that you should give up, and I do think they're naive as you say.

But don't be so ready to assume you're not being naive either. If nothing else matters to you than being a tool, a weapon for revenge, then you can't succeed at that either.

Revenge is a means to an end, not the end itself.

The world that will be created in the process of me accomplishing my revenge is not one that will be receptive to my continued existence in it.

Then maybe you need to look for another means of it, eh?

There are millions of ways to see someone dead.

Mah... again I can only compare situations. I'm one of the most wanted men in the world and nearly everyone wants me dead these days, but I've got my family and several islands who want me alive. I had no choice but to wait for Blackbeard to start showing the rest of the world the way he is, so to kill him, I suspect I'll just have to get a lot more of them on my side anyway. So I guess on that, I luck out. Killing him isn't going to make the world hate me extra, if anything, maybe less.

I have to ask though, if those you want to kill are really that beloved, why not show them for what they are?

Like you, I'm a wanted man. A criminal, though an uncommon one. Those with the truly damning evidence are members of my family that are already gone, and I'm not someone that would be trusted. People are stubborn anyhow when they don't want their every day lives interrupted by something that they consider uncomfortable.

There might be a few people that still want me alive, though it's largely to use my strength for their own benefit.

Aye. I'm in the same position. The people outside my family only want me alive to fight Blackbeard, since they fucked up and accidentally helped him only to get likewise betrayed by him, just like he did to us. Imagine that.

[A small eye roll despite his even-toned deadpan scorn.]

Still, Sasuke, no one ever has to be alone if they don't wish to be. More people than just those seeking to use you for their own ends will want you around, but they can't know it and neither can you if you never take that chance.

I spent a long time not wanting to deal with any people whatsoever, but I learned better. That there's more to life than just kill and be killed. There's living all in between that.

The government, Kaidou, Big Mam, every god damn rookie out there practically... 99.99999% of the world at least wants me dead. But I still have my crew, and finding more allies, more people who hate Blackbeard as much as I do...

If the people who murdered your family are foolish enough to do something like that, they're going to make other mistakes and that will produce other enemies, people who might have to be in hiding just so they don't get killed themselves. Finding them won't be easy, but if you're setting yourself up for this war, then every little chance counts.

Take the World Government. So far as I can tell, they're bigger, more organized, and objectively worse than anything any other world seems to have so far. They also have countless enemies because of it. They have to fight so many world-class pirates that that alone could keep their hands tied with trying to get us pirates to kill each other, but they also have to try to keep the countries in check. And now they've got Dragon's Rebellion to deal with too. When we had to fight them for Marineford, to get back Ace, we got every single ally we could. Even in the middle of the fight, more third parties showed up right and left and both Pops and the marines tried to get them to help because otherwise they'd be an enemy.

The stronger someone is, the more enemies they make. Don't get me wrong, just because we went to war against the government didn't mean we were about to ask Dragon or Kaidou for help. A common enemy doesn't make a friend, but it's a starting point. Shanks pisses me off, but he still had my back, protected my family, for Ace's sake and because fuck the government. Even Crocodile who tried to kill Pops in the middle of the fight still helped us against Akainu because he hates the government that much.

We didn't lose Marineford because our convictions were weaker, but the marines were trying to protect the whole world from us and we just wanted to protect Ace. Even in revenge, friends help. Maybe the whole world thinks your assholes are good protective forces, just like my world and the marines. But proof of otherwise comes from actions. The government destroyed whole islands, but there are still some survivors and that spurs Dragon's revolution. Blackbeard they thought they could tame, that he only betrayed Pops and us because they could offer him more, to keep him loyal, and he turned around and used that against them.

People who betray others for personal gain don't just do it once, eh. Finding the others who've been betrayed like that... it might help. And if it doesn't, at least you can say you did your best and had fun along the way.

I know what my actions are going to bring about already.

War, and not on a small scale. Those that have harbored grudges against those people and that place will be free to take action then, though I'm not going to hold out for anything significant. I'm prepared to fight with the small team and limited forces that I have on my side because my convictions are stronger than theirs. That's all that I need.

[ That and the power that he's worked to attain for the entirety of his life, but without a proper motivation he wouldn't have had anything. ]

Then I hope you get everything you're looking for, eh? So long as you don't forget your small team.

[ Honestly, that's another thing that's been on his mind. ]

It's not something I plan on doing. They've risked themselves for me already and I've done the same in return.

The same people who've been trying to help you all along but nearly getting in the way or a different set?

A different set. [ Though he takes issue with the argument that they've been trying to help him all along. Never was his goal supported. Otherwise it wouldn't have been a problem. ]

Nakama?

That's certainly a word you like.

I wouldn't go that far.

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[filtered 65%] All aboard the TL;DR train >>;

[filtered 65%] and my response looks so short and sad!

[filtered 65%] It's IC so that's all that matters :P

[filtered 65%] LET'S HOPE /feasts on the beautiful tl;dr regardless

[filtered 65%] Yay XD

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[filtered 65%] He is just... on a TL;DR roll this thread wtf

[filtered 65%] it is beautiful!

[filtered 65%] OTL Sasuke is just like bitty angry Ace who doesn't have a Marco :<

[filtered 65%] he needed a Marco so so long ago!

[filtered 65%] Poor Sasuke. If only Itatchi had been more like Marco maybe :|

[filtered 65%] Itachi was awesome, it was just too little too late

[filtered 65%] :< Poor Sasuke

[filtered 65%] he's got Marco to talk to now, though!