Chapter 45 - Forgotten Memories

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Chapter 45

Title: Normal Dinner…

…

Max and Ray were at a dinner table with the Strawhats, even a bandaged Zoro and Nami were there too. The latter had been healed from the disease, all due to the two Royal Doctors who sat at Max's left side.

"Vivi, can you tell me what Crocodile was planning? I have a general idea, but not a lot of the inner workings." Said Max, smiling gently at the young girl. 

For a split second, even Vivi was enamored by his innocent-looking smile, but she came to her senses who she was talking with. Max hadn't even bothered to hide his true nature.

"The inner workings of his organization are quite separate. Though every one of the members wants to raise in Rank so they can have a better position when the New Country will be made." Vivi explained, not bothering to hide anything from him.

Max's smile widened. "Well, I already knew some of that. But I have another offer, wanna marry me?"

*COUGH!!* Raynare, who was sitting next to him, spit out her food in shock. *cough* *cough*

Kureha shook her head as she looked at the young woman coughing on her food. 'What a helpless girl. She has such a kind heart and fell in love with that kind of guy, knowing how he is.'

Max got up and patted Raynare on the back, helping her get back to normal. Vivi at the same time was blushing a storm.

"I will never let you marry Vivi -chan!!" Yelled out Sanji in anger.

"Let the girl decide for herself," said Max, looking at the swirly-browed blonde with a pointed look. "So what do you say, Princess Vivi?"  

Luffy looked confused as he stuffed his mouth with food. 'Marriage? What's that? Some kind of food?'

"I -I -I don't know, I should consult my father," Vivi panicky said. "Of course no offense to you, as your appearance is very appealing, and your body type is very good. But I can't decide something like this by myself-"

"Hahaha!" Max laughed good-heartedly. "Don't worry, no need to be so nervous. I won't eat you. Though I was being serious with the offer. After all, if you have to marry someone anyway, better get someone strong right?"

"Y -Yeah…" Vivi agreed, her face was very flushed as she looked down at her lap. Not having the courage to look at Max, after all, she was just a young girl. Dealing with such a sudden proposal was shocking.

"Well, my offer still stands on the table. If you want to conjoin our kingdoms, then it will be done. As a bonus, any threat that you or your country face then I will take care of it." Max still tried to entice her once again. "Crocodile would be gone, just give me the word."

"HEY!!" Unexpectedly Nami was the one to stand up and look at Max angrily. "Stop pressuring her into marrying you. No girl will ever fall in love with someone like you. So how about you shut up and let us eat in peace. We will take care of Crocodile! So stop trying to pressure her!"

Max looked at Nami and his eyes narrowed, but then they softened and a gentle smile appeared on his face. "Sorry if it came out like that. I understand the bad position she is in, though it seems like it came out like I was trying to pressure her into marriage. That wasn't my intention."

Nami huffed and sat down. "As long as you understand."

"What about you?" He asked Nami.

"Hm?" She was confused. "What about me?"

"Are you single?" Max asked.

This made a devilish look appear on Nami's face. "I wouldn't marry someone like you even if the other option was to throw myself on the sea."

"Xahahaha!" Max laughed, seemingly amused by this, confusing everyone. "You really are feisty. But no, you aren't royalty so there will be no need to immediately marry. So how about dating first?"

Nami narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't date you no matter what you-"

"I will give you ten million beri for one date."

"Okay, let's go out whenever you want." She agreed immediately, shocking the others. Though Max doesn't seem bothered by this at all.

Kureha on the other hand was only paying attention to Raynare who had a sullen look on her face. The old doctor pitied the young girl, she had fallen in love with a man who would never be the knight in shining armor. Instead, Max would only use her till there was nothing left of her.

Chopper kept eating his pasta and looked at the scenario in the same confusion Luffy had. Marriage? Dates? What were those? Neither of them knew, but it didn't matter to either as they were more concentrated on eating the food in front of them.

Luffy looked at the young reindeer doctor with a challenging look. For some reason, the Strawhat Captain had taken it to himself and challenged Chopper in a pasta eating contest that the young reindeer seemed to be winning… without even being aware of the competition.

'This guy… is very strong. He can eat so much in so little time!' Luffy looked at this in shock, like he had just found a rival. While at the same time, he was oblivious of the Tense atmosphere around the table.

Max of course noticed this about Luffy and Chopper, he also saw the silent competition between the two. It was an entertaining side-show, to say the least.

"Nami -swaaan~ you shouldn't go out with such a scumbag like him!" Said Sanji while pointing at Max, who seemed unbothered by this and even had the gall to look bored during the whole ordeal. "Hey! You think this is some kind of enterprise!!"

"Nah, you are too boring to be entertaining." Answered Max without even missing a beat.

Sanji's anger reached the sky and his eyes had been lit aflame. It made Max wonder if this was how he got his Diable Jambe ability. Also, he wondered how long it would take Ace to come here from that mountain that he had crashed during their race to come here. Normally people would feel guilty for doing something like that, but Max wondered if he should have gone a little harder on Ace. After all, better bleed here than in a fight against Blackbeard. 

While Max had an 'alliance' with Blackbeard,  he wouldn't mind powering up Ace so he could at least take an arm or two from Blackbeard. After all, a stronger Blackbeard didn't necessarily mean that it was advantageous for Max.

Rather, Max looked at the Strawhat pirates. The first stage of the plan, showing that he was strong is completed. Now he needed to show that he was trustworthy in his own way and a friend too. This would make the future alliance even sweeter since it would seem like Max didn't do it out of benefit. But because he was genuinely nice.

Of course, this was all hypothetical with Max, he didn't know if the plan would be successful yet. Many things could change this in a heartbeat.

…

At the same time, in Fishman Island, John was working his night job as a cook in Shyarly's Mermaid Caffe. But this was only due to the place having a good hiding place for the money that he robbed from criminals.

Currently, he was counting the money as he had just finished dinner service.

That was when Camie, one of the waitresses came in. "John! The owner is asking for you."

He almost jumped out of his skin due to the sudden entrance of Camie. She saw him counting some gold coins and looked at him confused. "Where did you get that from?"

"Uhhh… I confiscated it?" He said, immediately realizing the shìtty lie he had just told.

"Okay." But Camie, the green-haired mermaid naively accepted. "But Shyarly has called you."

"Yeah, I will be there…" John nodded, glad at his dumb Camie could be.

He then put the gold inside some floorboard and went to meet the owner.

.

He arrived at Shyarly's room without a problem and saw the giant shark mermaid smoking and looking at him with a strange look on her face. "John, what do you do when a customer tells you that they didn't like the food and want a new order?"

"I spit on their food." Answered John without missing a beat. "I -I mean do what the customer says."

Shyarly narrowed her eyes. "You wanna be fired?"

"No, of course not, big-owner lady, but you know… my tounge just slipped when I said that." Like always John tried to weasel his way out of this.

"What about the gold  Camie told me that you have?" Shyarly's eyes were glued on him like a hawk looking at her prey.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he looked to the side, finding the dull wall very interesting suddenly.

Shyarly sighed. "C'mon now, we both know what you do for a living. Stealing from criminals."

"I would call that confiscating from criminals-…" John stopped as he felt like what he said sounded familiar. A blurry memory appeared in his mind.

'Negan, it's called confiscating, not stealing.' Said the man jokingly in the memory. He had brown hair and an amused smile on his face, even though the man's facial features seemed blurred.

"Ah… I know my name now." Said John suddenly, surprising Shyarly. "I must find someone called boss-man."

He turned around and started walking away.

"John!" Shyarly called out loud. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," John admitted. "But I must go and find Boss-Man."

"Do you even know who this Boss-Man that you keep calling out is?" Asked the giant mermaid, with a frown of her brows.

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