158 Time to leave Zou!

New world, Zou.

In the Rightflank forest.

The sound of fighting was loud and clear for anyone that happened to be there.

Two blurs moved forward, backward, sideways, as they traded blows until they came to a stop revealing them to be Bert, and his lovely girlfriend, Akemi.

Surrounding them, were Elene (holding Libell), Robin, Stella, and Ian.

"Huff-huff!" Both Akemi and Bert were breathing heavily.

They had been dueling for a while now. Trying to push Akemi to her breaking point.

Why? One would ask.

It is because she had undergone Ian's strengthening, and she needed to adapt to her new strength. As such all of them tried to help her until they reached this point where they sought to test her newfound strength.

And so far everyone was pleased with her progress.

As apparent from Bert being slightly tired, Akemi had given him a run for his money.

Still, no one approached waiting for Bert to give his judgment.

Bert sat upon the ground promptly. In his mind, all of the fights they went through kept replaying and replaying.

Until he suddenly opened his eyes.

"Captain, I would say she is close to me in strength. In fact, based on what I saw during our earlier fights, she merely needed an advantage, like if I slipped and made a mistake, she would press on to corner me and perhaps even win!" Bert said. His voice steady now that he had rested a bit, and a hint of pride was apparent.

One would think he should be jealous, but Bert was not like that. Even if she was even stronger than him, he would be even happier, knowing that she would be able to protect herself.

The rest smiled at her.

Elene came closer and tried to give her a one-armed hug due to her holding Libell.

"Um… I'm kind of sweaty right now, so…" Akemi tried to spare Elene that, but Elene didn't care and hugged her anyway.

"Eh? Who cares about that! Anyways, Congratulation! Now you can beat up Bert if he misbehaves with you!" Elene teasingly spoke up right into her ears with a whisper.

Making Akemi giggle as she pictured that. And Bert to sweat for some unknown reason.

Stella came next and praised her.

"You are definitely fast! I can only silently pray for your opponents' tsk-tsk!" She playfully said.

But behind her playful words, the truth remains that Akemi was indeed fast. She was extremely close to Bert at that.

And as of now, in speed, besides Elene and Ian, she was the second-fastest person on their crew. Followed by Stella and then Robin.

"Congratulations!" Robin smiled at her as she handed her a bottle of water and a towel for her to use.

Akemi had been training since yesterday, with only four hours of sleep in between. Congratulations were indeed due.

Akemi took the towel and bottle of water happily as she thanked them all.

"Thank you, guys!" She replied to them. But they could tell from her almost choking on her thanks that she was feeling quite emotional. And they gave her gentle smiles.

"Big sis you are so strong and fast!" Libell spoke up in her childish voice. She was greatly impressed with her new big sis.

Akemi giggled at her as she patted her head.

For her part was beyond happy.

Never did she expect to be accepted as one of them so quickly. She thought they would need to test her at some of their fights in the future to see her loyalty and priorities, but no. they just up and accepted her on the words of Bert.

They even gave her a newfound power. And now were congratulating her for a bit of training. She knew at this moment that this crew was the best thing to happen to her.

After all, she had her lover Bert in it, and she had friends who treated her as if a family member too. What more could she want?

She vowed to herself at this moment, that the crew would have her absolute loyalty.

Turning to look at Ian she saw Him smiling at her.

He was the person capable of making her stronger.

She bowed her head and thanked him once again.

"Once again, captain, I thank you with all of my heart!�� She sincerely spoke up.

Bert had at one point gotten a towel himself to dry himself and he had moved to stand next to her and held her hands comfortably.

Ian nodded while smiling.

"You are one of our family, it is only natural after all!" He told her.

Her eyes widened for a bit before she leaned on Bert and smiled in content. She didn't think that Ian would say it so straightforwardly, but then again, such was Ian.

Ian seeing that the timing was good he spoke up.

"Alright, you guys! Since we have done what we had to do, it is time for us to leave! Akemi is there something you still need to do here? Or are you set to go? Actually, now that I think about it, is it fine with you to leave Zou?" Ian told the rest that it was time to leave.

But then he remembered about Akemi. Since she had spent her whole life here it was quite possible she would need more time before deciding to leave.

In that case, Ian wouldn't mind coming to pick her up when she feels ready.

"Ah? No-no I'm fine to go right now!" Akemi was surprised at first before she replied to Ian.

"Are you sure? We can always come to pick you up later when you feel like you are more ready? In other times we would even stay here with you waiting, but you know of our agenda and its importance, sigh!" Ian told her as he sighed.

Akemi shook her head.

"We can go now! I'm ready captain!" She resolutely said.

And Ian smiled at her.

"Alright! You would not believe this coincidence guys, but just yesterday, Dragon contacted me about the person I want us to join! He told me he had information about his whereabouts and now we are ready to set sail and get our newest member aboard! After which, we will head out to kick big mom's ass!" Ian told them how he got info about the new member from Dragon yesterday. He then laughed as he spoke about kicking big mom's butthole. Well more specifically Elene would!

The rest laughed with him.

And though they didn't know who this newest member was, they didn't ask. They knew that since Ian was hiding this information from them, then he had a reason for why. Perhaps it was to surprise them.

"Would we go now?" Bert asked. If so he had to ask permission from Inuarashi and Nekomamushi to pick some rare ingredients only found here.

Ian removed his ring and gave it to Elene.

"Yes! Make sure to pack our stuff and get everything we need! Meanwhile, I will go pick up Sanji!" Ian told them and seeing they nodded he started walking away.

"Big brother Ian can I go with you?" Libell called for him and he stopped and smiled at her.

"Sure!" She hurriedly jumped at him and climbed to sit on his shoulders.

Ian shook his head at her antics.

"Should we run or fly little princess?" Ian asked her with a doting voice.

"Fly-fly-fly!" She excitedly started to say.

And who was Ian to disagree? He took off to the sky just like the little princess demanded.

It was time for the Nightmare pirates to leave Zou!