37 Chapter 35. Back To East Blue

Spending two hours straight to train the new devil fruit was worth it. The proficiency improved from C-rank to B-rank and allowed the devil fruit to exert more power.

The girls also came back to the ship with multiple shopping bags that were being stored inside small barriers and were following the group closely.

The girls first separated their clothes and the other stuff that they had bought. After that, they took their respective stuff inside their room before coming back to the deck of the ship.

"Alex, how did you do it?" Nojiko curiously asked, sitting next to him on the sofa. The other girls sat beside her while looking at him with the same curious expression.

"Well, I'm a special existence so…." Saying that Alex raised his hand in the air which then began to turn into lightning. "I have eaten another devil fruit, the lightning one using which I can talk with anyone who is inside my lightning web."

"Lightning devil fruit?" Robin's eyes widened in surprise, hearing that. No matter how amazing telepathy was, she wouldn't have cared much about it; however, the lightning devil fruit was considered one of the few invincible devil fruits. "How do you even find it? No, the question should be, how did you even eat a second devil fruit without blowing your entire body?"

"As I said, I'm special, Robin." Alex reminded her with an amused chuckle.

"This….." Robin looked at him with a speechless expression. "If you don't want to explain, it's fine then." In the end, she decided to ignore it like the other things she dismissed.

"Now, we have two Logia devil fruit users on the ship and one is inside her kingdom," Kaya spoke with a small smile. "Hehe, our crew is getting stronger and stronger day by day."

"Yeah, we will soon become the strongest crew and then we will extort money from various kingdoms…." Nami began to giggle with a nasty smile while her eyes turned into a belly symbol causing everyone to laugh out loud. "By the way, what happened to the devil fruit that was inside the living room? Is it useful?"

"Oh, yeah. Where did you even get that devil fruit?" Alex gazed into her eyes and asked curiously.

"Well, I found it in that Lucci guy. He wanted to send it to the Marine headquarters, however, I decided to take it." Nami casually replied, causing him to chuckle. "Those guys were very weak, you know. A single strike was more than enough to knock them out."

"Well, they were considered as strong as one hundred men. Though compared to your physical power, I guess, they were too weak." Saying that Alex turned to look at Tashigi was sitting quietly next to Kaya. "Say Tashigi, do you want to eat that devil fruit? It suits you very much."

"I don't want to eat a devil fruit…" Tashigi replied in an irritated tone as she was getting tired from this question. "I just wish to follow the path of the sword and get stronger."

"You will become strong using your sword, Tashigi. I know that too, however, if you don't eat a devil fruit, you will be left behind by every one of your friends." Alex explained with a serious expression. "One day, you will reach the limit while the other girls will keep getting stronger. I'm not asking you to completely depend on the devil fruit, I just want you to develop it along with your sword skills."

Hearing his words, Tashigi began to think about it with a serious expression. She has already realized the gap in strength which keeps getting bigger and bigger as time continues to pass.

"You should get a devil fruit, Tashigi. It will be very beneficial for you in the future." Robin began to persuade her as well, soon followed by the other girls who kept telling her to eat a devil fruit.

"Will you all stop irritating me now?" After some time, Tashigi yelled in an annoyed tone causing the girls to giggle. She glared at them and then turned to look at Alex. "I will eat that devil fruit, however, don't expect me to use it frequently since I'll be using my sword skills more."

"Haha, it's not a big problem however you will still need to develop it." Saying that he took out the devil fruit from the system. Though he didn't give it to her, instead he created a solid thread of lightning which didn't contain any electric current and threw it in the air, successfully catching a pigeon which was heading somewhere.  

Pulling the pigeon toward himself, he forcefully fed him the devil fruit before killing it using his lightning powers. When he got the system notification, he threw the dead body toward the sea along with the rest of the devil fruit.

He once again took out the devil fruit from the system storage and then handed it to Tashigi who along with the other girls was looking at him with a weird expression.

"This is Zushi-Zushi no mi, a paramecia devil fruit that will allow you to manipulate gravity," Alex told her the name of the devil fruit causing everyone to look at the devil fruit in surprise. "You can channel the devil fruit power using your sword."

Tashigi nodded at him before taking a small bite of the devil fruit. Though she instantly began to spit it out with a disgusted expression causing everyone to smile amusingly.

She then took out her sword slightly from the sheath and tried to make the sofa float. For some seconds, nothing happened; however, after that, the sofa began to slowly float in the air.

"It's quite beneficial….." Tashigi smiled with a satisfied expression. She then put the sword back in the sheath causing the sofa to land on the ground.  "I'll have to practice for some time to get used to this."

"Take your time, Tashigi." He nodded at her with a small smile and then began to inform her about the techniques that she could develop with the devil fruit.

The girls also began to suggest to her some techniques that she could develop using the Gravity power. The discussion lasted for an entire hour and only ended when Alex suddenly stood up from his seat.

"You all wanted to head back to East Blue, right? Today, we will be going there, temporarily stopping our journey on the Grand Line." He informed them with a calm expression causing the girls to cheer in joy except for Robin who simply nodded.

Raising his hand in the air, he created a door in front of himself using the power of the devil fruit that he had received recently. "You can stay with your family for some days cause after that, I'll be sending all of you to train for an entire month."

The girls looked at him in shock, not because he used another devil fruit power since they have now stopped caring about his abilities, it was because of his words. Training for an entire week was already more than enough for them but now, he plans to train them for an entire month.

"Why….?" Even Robin, who usually remains calm, couldn't help but show a dreadful expression. "Can't we just train for a week like we always do?"

Hearing her words, Alex shook his head in denial causing all of them to look at him with hateful expressions. "After one month, we all will launch a war against one of the strongest pirate crews so it's necessary for you all to train otherwise you might die in the battle."

The girls kept glaring at him for some time however, in the end, they all nodded at his words. If he says that they still need the training to fight those enemies then it means that they have to train, no matter how much time they need to spend on that training island.

"Alex….!" Robin suddenly called him out. "Since they all are heading to the East Blue, let me go to the training island. I'll spend my time there, honing my skills and abilities." Robin said in a serious tone, knowing full well that she needs a lot of training compared to the other girls who began to train way before her.

"Okay." Alex calmly nodded and then created another door in front of him. "Go through this door, you will find yourself in the top area of the training island." 

Robin waved at the girls with a small smile and then walked through the door with a determined expression. The moment she passed through it, the door closed automatically.

"Will we reach East Blue, if we pass through this spatial door?" Kaya curiously asked, glancing at the door in front of her. "Can you directly send me to my hometown with this door?"

"Not with this door, you'll have to go through the other door." Saying that he created another door in the air and then motioned her to head in it.

Kaya walked through the door with a small smile, not before giving him a quick kiss on the lips causing him to smile. Just like before, the door automatically closed, the moment she passed through it.

He then created another door in the air and turned to look at the sister duo. "You two should leave as well. I'll have to take Tashigi with me since I don't know the village and way to reach there where she used to live in childhood." He could only open the doors to the places that he had visited before or he remembers the place completely otherwise the door wouldn't work.

"You can take a look into my room since it's a village in East Blue, I'm sure that I have drawn a map of it." Saying that Nami stepped forward and gave him a quick kiss. "Bye, I'll see you soon, Alex."

Nojiko walked forward and gave him a quick kiss as well. "Take care of yourself, Alex. Make sure to eat on time." Saying that she walked through the door alongside her little sister.

The door closed automatically along with the other door that he had created in the beginning. The duo then went inside the ship to look for the map of Shimotsuki Village.

It took them some time however in the end, they managed to find the map of that village. Alex quickly memorized the map and ways to reach that village before putting the map back in the drawer.

He then created a door which led them to the Orange town and from there, he began to travel in the south direction, heading straight to the village alongside Tashigi who looked quite nervous.

After flying for nearly 20 minutes, they finally reached the village which was quite peaceful compared to the places that were on the Grand Line.

"You should go now. I'm sure that he will be very happy to meet you after such a long time, Tashigi." He patted her head with a smile and then used his power to make her land on the ground. "I'll come back to take you after a few days to make sure to enjoy your time here."

"Thanks, Alex." She stared at him with a pleased smile before walking toward the place where she used to live with her father. She wasn't sure how her father would react to her sudden appearance however, in the end, she didn't think much about it as she just wanted to meet him after such a long time.

Alex kept looking at her disappearing figure for some time before he turned around and created a door in front of himself. "It's time to head to the Logue town and see the changes that have taken place in that town." Saying that he passed through the door, wanting to meet her there so he could recruit her to his crew.