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Chapter 20
Title: Celestial Date...
….
-Max POV-
Having a Celestial Dragon in my ship was quite amusing. During the first day, she just went around telling everyone she was a World Noble. But sadly for her, no one believed the words of a girl whom I had notified the crew that she was a little crazy. They definitely will believe me more than a crazy-sounding girl.
Normally doing something like this would be beyond stupid, especially by a Marine like me. I have around a week before they find out who did it and what happened. Well, the latter would be a little more muddled because this world didn't have widespread camera technology, and while the Celestial Dragons were safe in their castle above the sky. They were also arrogant enough to not have cameras in their places because they didn't want anyone seeing their deeds and their fellow World Nobles would mock them if they saw something unsightly in the cameras, like being kind to a slave or something along those lines.
Anyway, I wanted Sharlia to take a fancy to me. Now manipulating someone's feelings to incite love would normally be a hard thing for most people. But once someone learned one major fact everything came easy… people love romance cliches once they happen to them. For example, someone kidnapped and started acting nice with the person and giving her compliments, like beauty and the beast, which is also known as Stockholm Syndrome.
….
-Ace-
Today was a good day, that was what Ace thought as he peacefully went around Sabaody Archipelago. Recently he had just beaten a Vice Admiral and was happy about it.
He knew that some marines could be bad, but that guy was on a whole other level.
"Ace, I think we should go to Fishman Island already. After all, something dangerous might happen in this place if we stay too long." Said Deuce, Ace's second in command.
"Hahaha, Deuce, don't worry about it." Ace encouraged his friend while slapping him the back goodnaturedly, "After all what could go wrong?-"
*Bump*
Suddenly he bumped into someone and both of the people fell to the ground on their behinds.
""Sorry about that."" Both of the men spoke at the same time.
But what shocked Ace was that the man he had just bumped into was a Marine, a captain to be specific. And as he had just finished beating a Vice Admiral a couple of days ago, he felt quite confident.
"Sheesh, I thought you were a normal guy. Welp, if you are a marine, then I won't feel guilty!" Yelled out Ace before gathering flames, of course, Max wasn't about to allow that to happen.
So by using <Soru> he kicked off the ground at incredible speeds, and midway to Ace, he had already transformed into his hybrid bear form.
Baaam!
He punched Ace on the top of his head, but the young man was skilled and saw that since he couldn't use his Devil Fruit quick enough to do anything he decided to block. Though he winced a little at the impact.
'What monstrous strength!' He thought, feeling Max's hit made a crater below them, and at this split second, Ace felt a hit straight to his chin, rocking the brain around his skull and knocking out the young man.
Ace's crew looked at this in shock as their captain's body fell to the ground. Fire Fist, the infamous pirate, the Super Rookie was defeated in two hits.
"Should we put him in seastone cuffs?" Asked Ray.
Max shrugged, "No need, we can't go capturing every small fry we come across."
Then they just walked off, leaving behind an unconscious Ace and his crew as they try to heal him. Max turned back to his human form and put his hands in his pockets. "Hope I didn't kill him so early," he whispered under his breath.
...
Sharlia snorted in discontent, she saw how the people acted, but this feat of strength was nothing. The World Noble had seen how the Admirals fought, and even she was a little afraid of the monsters in men's clothing, though she will never admit her fear outside. After all, she was still a Celestial Dragon, a God amongst men, and a fearful deity was no deity at all.
Max glanced at the proud woman and sighed, "Admitting fear isn't such a bad thing. After all, only by doing so and overcoming our fear can we be called courageous."
Sharlia took these words to heart and thanked him. "Heh, for a brute you sure have a way with words."
Of course, the 'thank you' came out more like an insult than anything else. It made Ray frown, after all, she wasn't about to put up with anyone insulting Max in front of her, even if they were a Celestial Dragon… no, more so BECAUSE Sharlia was one of them.
But Max's comforting hand landed on his cross-dressing comrade and she shook his head. "No need to get to her level."
"Heh," Sharlia smirked condescendingly, "Listen to your master little bird. He always says some wise words."
Raynare looked at her and shrugged. 'What a stupid woman, she doesn't even understand the hidden meanings of our conversations. She hasn't had a normal conversation in her life.'
Max on the other hand looked at both of the women and muttered. "Troublesome."
….
The rest of the day on this side of the Grand Line was spent by Max cracking criminal skulls, feeling once more in his element this time. Especially with the confiscation of the criminal's wealth, it made him feel better, he knew that Negan would be smiling in the afterlife.
"Eeep!"
Max looked at the screech and saw Sharlia looking at him with a fearful look.
'What now?' He wondered, but when looking around he saw himself surrounded by bleeding people (some might be dead). 'It seems like even the cruel world nobles have a limit to how much gore they can see.'
That was when he also remembered that he had been pushing her quite a lot ever since he kidnappe- *cough* helped open her eyes at how the world was. Yeah, that sounded better. If someone asked me what happened with the Celestial Dragon, that would be my answer.
….
-Max-
Some would say that my decision had been impulsive to kidna-... I mean go on a journey with a Celestial Dragon. But this would be a very good move on my part. Well, that was for the future, because I could also turn into a criminal depending on how the situation was handled.
…
After a couple more chaotic days, I decided to take Sharlia on a date, nothing too fancy. Just a simple date to show her how the world worked.
"Why aren't these people bowing?" She asked, annoyed.
"Because they don't care about you enough," I answered to the clueless lady, obviously knowing that if people saw an unguarded Celestial Dragon… well, they would rip her apart. A lot of places hold contempt for the World Nobles, but Sabaody Archipelago does so the most since it was so close to Marijoa.
"What?! So they can't recognize my greatness?!"
"Unless you are wearing your usual World Noble clothes they don't even know who you are," I answered her patiently.
Surprisingly she didn't seem mad… oh right, she did get kidnapped by yours truly and spent most of that time watching me bust heads into a gory mess and she even had to clean the ship's floors that one time. Yeah, I did a pretty damn good job at breaking her snobby attitude, and what was left is just plain naivety on her part. She is like a kid who doesn't know better.
"By the way, what's a date?" She asked as we walked into a coffee shop and I ordered for both me and her, no need to have her cause another scene.
I decided to think about her answer as I sensed a man up on the roof with a sniper rifle aiming it at my head. He seems mad? I have been trying to sense emotions with my Observation Haki, it isn't working, well technically it isn't. Since I can sense intense emotions like extreme hate, love, etc… though the downside is that I can't tell the difference between the two.
I grabbed a small pellet from my pocket and flicked it at the man, head shooting him and killing the man where he stood.
"Ahhh!" There were some screams as his body was discovered, but I didn't bother with it.
Anyway, after some thought, I decided to give her an answer. "A date is like when you decide to spend time with someone you like very deeply in a romantic way."
"That sounds like a lot of work, can't you just get someone that catches your eye and bring them to your room? Dad and brother do it all the time."
"Remember what happened the last time you tried something like that?" I smirked once I saw the pale look on her face. Yeah, that was a hard moment to forget.
That was when suddenly a cold shadow descended over me, a very tall man was crouching as he looked at us. "Arararara, this is quite a troublesome situation. I thought I only had to beat dear captain Max here, but now what is this? A date? Ahhh… how troublesome."
My body froze in shock at the man's appearance, he came out of nowhere, I barely caught a whiff of his presence before he appeared. I looked up and smiled at the man… Admiral Aokiji...
....
In case it wasn't clear, Max let Ace go, and the fight was in Max's favor as he knew his opponent's abilitues already and how to best deal with him. Also Ace was in quite a high as he had just beaten a Vice Admiral, it's from the novel where Ace's journey is told.