273- Sphinx Island

It's been a few days.

Ethan begins training with Charlotte Linlin after she agrees to become his student, teaches her Haki and some skills that she can use with her Sun and Cloud.

The Marines refused Ethan's request for help, so Ethan would train Linlin to be at a level where she would be able to delay at least one of the prominent members of the Flame Pirates.

"Sensei, I'm hungry." Linlin lay on the ground exhausted after hard training, her stomach making a loud sound.

Before she becomes berserk due to hunger, many delicious dishes were brought in by her pirates.

'I have to find a way to make her not lose control of herself because of hunger or any other reason.' Ethan thought as he saw her happily eating the food.

Ethan took his eyes off her and didn't plan to fix this flaw in her at the moment because he was more focused on creating a skill that could stop Kairi.

His previous fight with her and seeing her techniques made him understand more about space and how to manipulate it better.

While Ethan is practicing his new technique, Den Den Mushi in his pocket starts ringing.

Ethan pulled it out of his pocket, "Arthur-sama, we found him."

Ethan's eyes twinkled, "Where is he?"

"He has returned to his hometown."

After listening to the location, Ethan stood up and told Linlin that he was going to go for a while and then started flying away.

...

Sphinx Island.

Ethan walked into the hidden village behind the waterfall until he saw several pirates helping people and distributing food and clothes.

Ethan didn't care about all this and walked up to a tall, huge man with blond hair, "Hi, are you Edward Newgate?"

Edward does not recognize Ethan and he also does not look like a resident of the island of the Sphinx, so he becomes wary of Ethan. "Yes, I'm Edward, but who are you?"

"I am the leader of the Mercenary's Guild, Arthur." As soon as Ethan introduced himself, he saw Edward Newgate's fist close to his face.

The Mercenary's Guild is notorious for capturing pirates, so Newgate attacked Ethan as soon as he knew his identity because he thought Ethan had come here to catch him.

Ethan grabbed Newgate's fist easily and said softly, "Don't worry, I'm not here to catch you."

Newgate did not seem to believe Ethan and attacked him again, but Ethan disappeared from his place and appeared behind Newgate and hit him in the back of the neck, causing Newgate to lose consciousness.

The rest of the pirates took up their weapons and attacked Ethan while the civilians retreated in fear.

Ethan had no desire to fight so he used the Conqueror Haki to make everyone who attacked him pass out.

It didn't take long for Newgate to wake up and looked around in confusion and then noticed that all of their crew were on the ground unconscious while Ethan was sitting on a nearby rock looking at him.

Newgate stood up and was ready to fight to the death but Ethan tried to calm him down, "Don't worry I'm not here to catch you or hurt you, if I wanted to do it I would have done it when you were unconscious."

"Then why did you come here?" Newgate is still wary of Ethan.

"To make a deal."

"Deal?"

"Yes," Ethan nodded and then looked at Newgate seriously, "I will give you powers and protect this island and its inhabitants and send them supplies from time to time."

Newgate was kind of tempted by these things because the thing he cared most about was this island and its inhabitants, "What do you want in return?"

"All I want is for you to fight for once for me." Ethan didn't make many demands, which made Newgate surprised, "But if you want, you can be my student."

Newgate looked around at the people of this island and then at Ethan, "Can you give me time to think?"

"I will give you half a day to decide, I want to hear your answer as soon as possible." Ethan stood up and started walking away but after a moment he stopped and looked back, "Also don't worry if you want to say no, I won't do anything to you."

What Ethan means is that he will not capture Newgate and hand him over to the Marines, even if he refuses.

After this, Ethan used teleportation in order to go to Linlin and continue her training.

...

Ethan returned directly to the Sphinx Island after half a day in order to hear what Newgate had decided. "So have you made up your mind?"

"I agree to the deal, I will fight for you once." Newgate shakes hands with Ethan.

"Newgate, do you know what these are." Ethan took out a devil fruit from a box that he carried with him.

"Is this a devil fruit? This is the first time I've seen one." Newgate looked at the Devil Fruit curiously, although in the New World there were a lot of Devil Fruit users, it was still rare to get an uneaten Devil Fruit.

"This is Gura Gura no Mi, the strongest Paramecia type devil fruit." Ethan buys this Devil Fruit from the system because no one has eaten it yet, and he wants to owe Edward Newgate to him.

If Newgate had not chosen to fight for it, he would not have obtained this Devil Fruit and would not be called the strongest man in the world fifty years from now.

Ethan threw the devil fruit at Newgate, "Eat it, this devil fruit will give you the title of the strongest man in the world one day."

"Why are you giving me this devil fruit we just met." Newgate was puzzled and didn't understand why Ethan was giving him this devil fruit, 'Is he lying about the ability of the devil fruit in order to make me eat it.'

"I just think this devil fruit suits you better than anyone, and I also want to see Edward Newgate, the strongest man in the world in the future."

'Does he really think that I will become the strongest man in the world?' Newgate was shocked and after a little thought decided to eat the fruit.

The fruit was so small that Edward swallowed it whole without chewing, but the foul taste still spread on his tongue. "It's like eating shit!"

"Oh!! I didn't expect Newgate to eat shit before." One of the Newgate crew joked and everyone started laughing.

"That was a metaphor, you idiots!" Newgate's face turns red, "If you don't stop laughing, I will make all of you eat shit."

"Angry Newgate, run!" The crew started running away while they laughed.

"Do you want to say goodbye to them?" Ethan stood beside Newgate, "We're going and you won't see them for about a month."

"No need, let's go." Ethan nodded and put his hand on Newgate's back, and the two of them disappeared from their place.