Chapter 23 : Sea Calamity

"Well, then let's go to Red Hair's territory first," Youta nodded, "It's more sensible than you directly rushing into Whitebeard's territory right now."

Ais grinned, not caring about Youta's caution. In fact, he felt a little lacking without a solid beating!

In the original work, when he fought Daifuku one-on-one, he thought Daifuku was so strong that it was incredible he wasn't the captain of the Hundred Beast Pirates. This just shows how limited his insight is.

Unlike Luffy, who encountered Kizaru and Rayleigh at the last moment before entering the New World, and then participated in the Summit War, truly understanding the strength of the Yonko and the Admirals.

This was also Luffy's luck. Without the events in Sabaody and the Summit War, without two years of hard training, their entry into the New World would have been a disaster.

Similarly, if Ais had recognized the strength of the Admirals and the Yonko early on, and then lurked for a few years, maybe it would have been a different story when he met Whitebeard.

But Youta didn't want to remind him, after all, joining the Whitebeard Pirates was the real gain for Youta.

"Okay, in that case, the Black Spade Pirates set sail!"

...

"Hey, Ace, where are we now?" Youta asked Ais with a puzzled expression.

As a ninja, Youta had learned some knowledge about stars and navigation for wilderness orientation, and after crossing over to the world of pirates, he had also learned some simple navigation skills.

So after sailing in the New World for a while, he felt something was wrong. Although most navigation knowledge in the New World was worthless, even star charts couldn't be trusted, he could still discern whether they were making progress towards their destination.

A somewhat strained smile appeared on Ais's face. "Um...maybe...perhaps..."

Youta's expression gradually changed, revealing a pair of dead fish eyes. "Tell me, did we get lost?"

Ais nodded awkwardly, and Youta slapped himself on the face.

Damn! When I entered the New World, I just thought the Black Spade Pirates had only Ais who was reliable, and then this guy messed it all up!

Is God playing tricks on me?

Getting lost in the New World was no small matter, and there was one very important point: if you followed the magnetic force of the Eternal Pointer, the routes were generally safer. In the ever-changing weather of the New World, they were relatively smoother.

If you go outside the route, those changes in climate could be truly life-threatening. Don't just talk about icebergs falling from the sky; even meteorites falling from the sky or the sea water reversing flow are considered normal occurrences.

Even more extreme, you might encounter an underwater volcanic eruption while sailing, turning the sea water into magma, and the entire ship would be gone!

However, fearing the worst invites it, even before Youta could say anything, he felt the entire ship suddenly shake.

"This is... a rushing sea current!" Both Youta and Ace turned pale, and the other members of the Spades Pirates were even worse off. However, they didn't have time to react. In an instant, Youta felt the entire ship lift to a height of hundreds of meters. And the ship was still rising, conservatively estimated to reach a height of over a thousand meters.

From this height, no matter if it's made of the Treasure Tree Adam or the Wapol Alloy, any ship would be smashed into a pile of mud. If there's a palm-sized fragment left, that's considered good quality!

"Ace!" Youta looked at Ace and suddenly shouted, mouth agape.

Ace instantly reacted, transforming into a ball of fire and diving directly into Youta's mouth.

Then, Youta swallowed his entire body, and when he bounced back out of his mouth, his feet had turned into mechanical lower limbs like Iron Man's.

Intense flames spewed from his feet as Youta flew out, until the Spades Pirates' ship reached its highest point. Under the influence of inertia, it had already left the waves and was falling downward. Youta, or rather Youta Ace, rushed directly under the ship, ready to support it.

Then with a crack, Youta Ace's hand sank into the bottom of the entire ship. He cursed inwardly, "This is ridiculous, how do those superheroes in movies drag planes? Wouldn't they just break the plane?"

"It seems to be because of some sort of bio-magnetic field? Right, there's a way!"

Dark Haki, emanating from his hand, quickly permeated half of the ship's bottom. Strengthened by Dark Haki, the ship finally stabilized.

However, supporting such a large ship, and using Dark Haki, even with the combination of Youta Ace, they still felt some strain.

"We need to quickly put the ship down... Damn, a sea tornado!"

The enormous sea tornado formed almost instantaneously, leaving Youta Ace dumbfounded as it directly engulfed the entire ship, leaving only a scream.

...

"My head is spinning..." Youta slowly opened his eyes, feeling completely weak. At this moment, the ability of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, having exhausted his stamina, had been released, so he and Ace had long since separated.

After all, it was just a temporary fusion, not a permanent blend. If it were a permanent fusion, Youta's personality would have merged with Ace's.

Of course, maybe before that happened, they would have exploded on the spot due to the conflict between the two Devil Fruit abilities.

Youta remembered someone saying before that the Gomu Gomu no Mi could combine the abilities of two Devil Fruits, but in reality, this fusion was only temporary. If it were a permanent change, the abilities of the two Devil Fruits would still conflict within his body.

And temporary fusion would continue to consume Youta's stamina; once his stamina was exhausted, they would naturally separate forcibly.

Struggling to lift his head, Youta found himself on a beach.

Not far away, the ship of the Spades Pirates was still parked askew, the entire ship stranded on the beach.

At this moment, half of Youta's body was soaked in seawater, but fortunately, even though he had no strength in his body, he still had some mobility thanks to the Chakra inside him.

After all, seawater and Sea-Prism Stone weakened physical strength, but had little effect on Chakra, so he quickly got up.