Chapter 58

After the party that lasted for the whole night, Carmen, Dan and Cavendish were seen lying down unconsciously, within the mess of drunk and unconscious Fallen Monk pirates. The sun has already risen up in the sky, brightening the day; Rowan couldn't help but sweatdrop watching this scene.

He sighted Cavendish slowly standing up weirdly, before looking around left and right. His face distorted strangely, indicating that Hakuba was in control.

"Don't." Rowan casually stated, to which Hakuba-possessed Cavendish shivered before slowly lying back down, acting as if he is in a deep slumber.

Although their time together has been brief, Rowan came to believe that Urouge and his pirate crew are not the enemies of his crew. It had been quite energy-consuming, but he was keeping his watch all night, intently observing if any malicious act is done against his crew.

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Hospitality should be returned with hospitality.

'That being said,' Rowan looked around at the beach they were currently located in. Prior to the party, they allocated Prominence next to the location of the Fallen Monk pirates' ship, Hanjomaru. The design of ship was quite unique, with its figurehead with an appearance of a white demon with yellow teeth. 'And what did his crew call him? High priest? ...Sounds like a cult.'

He believed that Prominence was majestic to look at. However, after coming across many pirate ships, he realized that Prominence can use an upgrade in terms of appearance. Additionally, if he looks closely, some paintings on Prominence wore off; his ship deserved better treatment.

'Also, gotta add figurehead of our own.' Rowan thought with excitement. It was tiring with just him and Carina in the past, but now that they have more members in the crew, a more exquisite design is possible.

"Rowan!!" From afar, Carina waved her hand while placing her other hand close to her mouth, shouting towards Rowan.

Woken up from thought, Rowan turned to Carina in confusion. "Yes, I am Rowan."

Carina used weakened Soru and quickly appeared in front of Rowan. Looking around with squinted eyes, she crouched slightly and slightly unzipped her purse, revealing a strange-looking fruit.

It was purple in terms of colour. The shape seemed oval and flat; there was no doubt that what Carina was holding was a devil fruit.

Rowan's eyes widened as he whispered, "How?"

"Don't you see this?" Carina pointed at the dark bags under her eyes. "I ran around the nearby forest all night. There's got to be ones like a devil fruit in an island as big as this one!"

Rowan shrugged, for there was no point in refuting any further. The girls in his ship seemed to have an ultra instinct for precious items... especially Carina.

Carina whispered hurriedly, "Let's see which one this is!"

They entered Prominence and fetched the devil fruit encyclopedia that was within the bookshelf of the common room.

Rowan quickly opened the book and began to flip through, with Carina right behind him, reading in anticipation.

"Err, purple. Oval and flat. So it isn't Dark Dark Fruit," Rowan muttered as he continued to flip the pages, "...I think it's this one."

They finally landed on one page. It read: Teleport Teleport fruit, Paramecia-type. It had the exact same appearance as the fruit that Carina acquired.

"Teleport?" Rowan couldn't help but think in awe. 'TELEPORT?!!'

He could already tell from the glance that this fruit's ability is broken. "That... is shocking, right- Carina?" He turned back, only to find Carina frowning while munching on a piece of fruit in her mouth.

Rowan couldn't help but wince seeing that. Her bite looked quite big as well.

After swallowing, Carina made a disgusted expression as she wobbled on her spot, grabbing onto Rowan's shoulder to support herself, "W-what is this taste?!"

Rowan sympathetically gazed at Carina and chuckled, "Ah yes, I remember the sensation. Even mixing the most bitter medicine with dog stool won't taste as bad as this."

"I need a glass of water. Right now." Carina turned back, trying to run towards the kitchen. However, she unexpectedly disappeared with a purple flash of light. Rowan was left bewildered.

*Bong* "Ow." Immediately after, Rowan heard Carina's groan. Exiting the common room, he saw Carina, who was holding her head in pain while sitting down on a staircase.

"Well, you are going to need some time to practice that ability of yours." Rowan commented.

Even though she was in pain, Carina made a cheeky smile, "Shishishi, think of what I can steal with this ability!"

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"Sahaha, I'm all fired up now!" Urouge grinned as he jumped up from his spot.

"80040, oh, you are awake?" Rowan greeted Urouge while doing push-ups at a blinding pace, with not even the slightest trace of exhaustion on his face.

Recently, he's been thinking that the simple exercises ceased to have any effect; he needed to devise new methods of training himself physically.

"Indeed!" Urouge replied before sighting a series of purple flashes appearing here and there behind Rowan. "Hmm?"

"Don't mind, it's just Carina." Rowan simply stated as he continued his exercise. "80120, 80140..."

While grinning, Urouge's eyes widened as he heard Rowan's muttering, "You can count up to that much?!"

"80160, 80180, well yeah, 80240, I was able to do this from the start, 80320, wonder why, 80360..."

Urouge grinned and got into a push-up position himself, "If so, I shall defeat you by counting up higher!"

"Ugh..." Meanwhile, Dan sat up while holding his head, "I think I drank too much." Looking at his right, he saw the Fallen Monk pirates and Cavendish snoring loudly.

"These guys are amazing." Dan chuckled before turning to his left this time.

"Hey Carmen, what's up." Dan greeted Carmen, only to see that she was staring at the front with a shocked expression on her face. Curious, Dan shifted his gaze to where Carmen's eyes were locked onto.

Dan sighted Carina flashing from one place to another. He too became shocked witnessing the scene.

"What happened while I was asleep??" Dan cried out. "Oh come on, don't tell me I am gonna lag behind even more?!"

Dan tragically knelt down with his knees and hands on top of the sand.

"Boo," Carina grinned as she flashed right in front of Carmen and Dan all of a sudden, "surprise~!"

"Y-y-you-" Carmen shakily pointed her finger towards Carina, before suddenly smiling, "you can't touch Seastone anymore."

Carina's eyes flashed dangerously hearing this, "Wanna have a go?"

Carmen growled as she stood up, with her hands blazing into a fire, "Prepare to be cooked."

Dan was found to already have moved next to snoring Cavendish, holding his knees together with a dark glow emanating behind him. 'I need a devil fruit for myself. Yes, a very powerful one. Hehe, what can it be? Oh yeah, how about one that makes me turn into a dragon? Or a broken fruit like Air Air fruit? Or Light Light fruit? How about...'

So the chaotic situation formed, where Rowan and Urouge were doing a push-up competition on one side, Carina and Carmen were having an angry spar with one another, Dan was continuously murmuring in depression, and the rest were all piled up on top of one another, snoring in sync.

"Oh Farul, this is what party and alcohol do to people." Alfred said from a distance while gently caressing Farul, who cried in agreement while sitting down on the sand. "But aside from that..."

Alfred's eyes narrowed as his eyes pierced through the vast forest in front of them, "Something doesn't feel right..."

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In the middle of this unknown island, there lied a huge camp amidst the forest. Numerous tents were placed around one huge tent in the middle. Atop of the tent. a flag of jolly roger was placed, where the skull had long, curly blond hair and heart-shaped eye holes instead of the usual circular shape. The bones behind were replaced with pink feathers.

Inside the huge tent, a huge number of pirates, amounting up to two hundred, were seen to be standing stoically in an orderly fashion on one side. On the other side, one man was holding an orb, while a huge and obese woman was seen sitting on the chair, visibly shaking in fury as her eyes focused on the orb.

*BOOM* The table broke as the dirty blond-haired woman slammed her fist hard, causing some pirates to jump in fear.

Her face, which is currently red from uncontrollable anger, was constituted of the brown-coloured eyes, round nose, black-coloured lips, and freckles. As she stood up, her full height reaching approximately five-meter was revealed.

"Who are they?" The woman whispered angrily as the orb in the hand of the man showed a scenery of the Grimheart pirates and Fallen Monk pirates on the beach. Specifically, her eyes were locked onto Carina, who was sparring against Carmen.

"I've been looking for that devil fruit for seven years!! SEVEN YEARS!!! I finally reached here and killed the weakling who possessed that ability—only to see another bug stealing it from me, yet again!!!" The woman hysterically screamed, lifted up the huge-sized bed behind her, and slammed it down, completely shattering it.

The subordinates around here all shivered in fear and looked down, not even daring to let out a single sound.

"C-captain, please calm down." The man who was holding the orb said while sweating profusely, attempting to prevent any further damage. "They are not merely any pirates. The Fallen Monk pirates are well known for their captain: 'Mad Monk' Urouge with a bounty of 58 million Beli. And the Grimheart pirates are known for an utter eradication of the marine base G-11! Please, captain, we can't afford to fight them!!"

Huffing hard, the woman once again growled in anger and grabbed a piece of a broken table with her huge hand, before slamming it to the man holding the orb. Even before the man got a chance to cry out in pain, he was buried deep into the ground.

"No one is stronger than I, you hear that clear?!!" The woman shouted but heard no response from the dead man.

Angrily lashing out her hands, the tent cloth behind the woman ripped and the ground around her cracked in sheer force. "Bring me my mace!! I am going to kill all of them!!!"

The rest of the subordinates frantically nodded before hastily rushing off her sight, leaving only the woman in the tent.

"Fallen Monk? Grimheart?" The woman growled and slowed down her breathing as she took out a picture from her pocket. It depicted an obese man with dirty blond hair that looks similar to the woman's. "Brother... don't worry. I, Crantin Gertrude, won't let those weaklings go unpunished for daring to take your fruit."

On the outside of the tent, a mysterious man with black attire from head to toe, standing on a tall tree branch, was seen watching the busy movement of the Gertrude pirates. Behind him were the other similarly dressed individuals standing on different tree branches.

He slowly raised his right hand and held out his index and middle finger, making a particular signal. At the next moment, all of them dashed off from their spot, leaving nothing but silence.