89 Chapter 89
"Hahaha! Calm down, Marco. Don't let him toy with you like that."
'Isn't that Thatch?'
"Sigh. You're right. I should be better than this."
I saw Blackbeard standing in a corner, smiling at me.
'I should take care of him before it's too late. Once he gets his hands on the Devil Fruit, he is done for.'
"Have a nice day, burned pineapple chicken. I've got some stuff to do."
He glared at me, and I turned around. I went to my room and sat down on my bed. I grabbed one of the books Deuce gave me and started studying.
[1 week later]
I'm sitting in the giant's training room, looking at everyone training. Deuce, Ace, Laffitte, Van Augur, and Urouge are beginning with their Haki training. Deuce, Van Augur, and Laffitte decided to start with Kenbunshoku/Observation Haki. But Ace and Urouge wanted to start with Busoshoku/Armament Haki. Sabo is teaming up with Deuce to do the stick hitting training.
Even though Van Augur and Urouge haven't mastered Rokushiki, it will be a waste of time if they don't start learning Haki right now. I told my crew to master Rokushiki because I wanted to strengthen their foundation. But those two are already good enough to start learning Haki.
Robert, Robin, Perona, and Brook are focusing on their Devil Fruits. They are making steady progress. Especially Brook. I can already see hints of ice on his attacks. If he keeps this up, I can do some sparing with him without holding back too much.
Paulie is training his rope technique. I still can't understand how he can pull an unlimited amount of ropes out of his sleeves. Even a magician couldn't do that. But I guess this is what they call 'Anime Logic'.
The giants are training the only way they know how to. Fighting. They just keep punching each other till they fall down. Dorry and Brogy are also doing their best to teach the other two how to use Haki.
"Ey Ken, I can't get the hang of this." said Ace
"That's because you're impatient. The strength of Haki is will power, but to control your will power, you need to be calm. Look at Laffitte, for example."
Laffitte has his eyes covered with a cloth, and Van Augur is standing behind him with a stick. Van Augur keeps hitting Laffitte on his head. Laffitte doesn't flinch or anything. He stays calm, and every now and then, he manages to dodge an attack.
"Laffitte stays calm no matter what. Once you've learned how to use Busoshoku Haki well enough, you can use it without being calm. But that will decrease your control of it. Just keep trying till you figure it out. I'm not expecting any of you to learn it in a month."
He nodded and got back to training.
"Oh yeah, Captain." said Dorry
"What is it?"
"King Neptune wishes to meet you."
"Huh? How do you know that guy?"
"I don't know him, but we knew his father. King Neptune invited us inside his palace because his father told a lot of stories about us."
"So why would he want to meet me?"
"He just wanted to meet the person that is worthy of becoming our Captain, and he said that he has a request. But he didn't tell us what it is."
"I guess I can go and pay him a visit. Sabo, Ace, Laffitte, you guys are coming with me."
They nodded and stopped what they were doing.
"Don't think that you guys can stop training because I'm gone. Van Augur, keep an eye on them for me."
"Yes, Captain."
We walked out of the training room and off the ship. We started walking towards the palace.
Whitebeard and his crew left a couple of days ago.
After some walking and many people staring at us, we arrived at a gate with two guards in front of it.
"Hold it, humans! This is the Ryugu Palace. No one is allowed entrance without permission from the king!" screamed one of the guards
"My name is Ken, and these three are my crewmates. The king has invited me to his palace. I'm sure you've been notified."
The guard suddenly turned pale.
"Of course, we have heard about your arrival, sir. I'm sorry for not recognizing you."
"It's okay."
They opened the gate.
"Please go ahead."
We walked inside, and we saw a shark merman coming towards us.
"It's nice to meet you, sir Ken. My name is Fukaboshi. I'm the eldest son of King Neptune and the late Queen Otohime."
"It's nice to meet you too. These guys are Ace and Sabo, my brothers. And this is Laffitte, my friend, and navigator."
"It's nice to meet you, Prince Fukaboshi." x3
"It's nice to meet all of you too. Please follow me. My father is waiting in his throne room."
We started following him through many hallways before we finally arrived at the throne room with a giant throne. Neptune was sitting on his throne, and a lot of guards are in the room. His two other sons are standing beside him, and Fukaboshi also went to stand beside him.
"Welcome to my palace, humans."
"That's not a nice thing to say."
I could immediately feel anger from all the guards and his sons.
"I'm not calling any of you fishes, so why should you call us humans? You know our names, so use them, King Neptune."
"Insolence! How dare you talk to the King like that!" screamed Fukaboshi
"It's okay, Fukaboshi. He is right. Please come and have a seat, Ken and his friends, jamon."
"And friends? Does he not think anything of us?" whispered Ace
"Just let it be. It will be bad to start a fight in the middle of enemy territory." whispered Sabo back
We sat down on a couch in front of the king and his sons. A couple of maids came and brought us food and a lot of drinks. Ace immediately started digging in. Sabo and Laffitte, on the other hand, didn't move.
"I've heard that you have a request for me."
"There is no need to hurry. How about you just enjoy what is in front of you first?"
"Getting me drunk isn't going to be any help to you."
"That wasn't my intention at all."
"Just get your request over with. We're both busy men."
"Sigh. I want to ask you for your help with a guy called Vander Decken IX. He is the Captain of the Flying Pirates. He has been harassing my daughter, Shirahoshi, with his Devil Fruit powers. He keeps sending love letters and threatens to kill her if we don't allow him to marry her."
I could feel a lot of hate coming from him.
"How can you not even take care of one guy?"
"He isn't particularly strong, but his Devil Fruit is annoying. He has eaten the Mato Mato no Mi/Mark-Mark Fruit. It's a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that makes the user capable of aiming at whichever target he decides upon from any location and at any time with anything he pleases. He marked Shirahoshi, and now he is throwing weapons at her from where ever he wants. So we can't locate him."
"He sounds like an annoying guy, but he is not a big problem. The question is, what would you give for your daughter's safety?"
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[What do you guys think King Neptune is going to say?]
Anime Quotes:
I used to always cry and give up... I made many wrong turns... But you... You helped me find the right path... I always chased after you... I wanted to catch up to you... I wanted to walk beside you all the time... I just wanted to be with you...You changed me! Your smile is what saved me! That is why I'm not afraid to die protecting you! Because... I love you..."
- Hyuuga Hinata (Naruto)
Kurosaki-kun, you know I had a lot of things I wanted to do... I want to be a teacher... I also want to be an astronaut... And also make my own cake shop... I want to go the sweets bakery and say, 'I want one of everything'... Ohhh, I wish I could live five times over. Then I'd be born in five different places, and I'd stuff myself with different food from around the world... I'd live five different lives with five different occupations... And then, for those five times... I'd fall in love with the same person...
- Inoue Orihime (Bleach)
Love is simply an electrical bug in the human neural circuit."
- Akasaka Ryuunosuke (My Pet Girl Sakurasou)
