Chapter 129: Janet Cander Again?

''Welp, that was a rather long flashback, but it helped to pass the time." Muttered Diddy calmly while concealing himself underwater, using his beastly eyes to see through the ocean's current, searching for any ships nearby

It seemed like the flashback was the perfect length since not even a few minutes later, in the far distance, I saw something appear from beyond the horizon, starting with a white flag flailing in the wind, causing me to smile as I saw that familiar symbol.

'World Government!' Thought Diddy with a feral grin as he eyed the ship, which was slowly revealing itself from beyond the horizon.

After a few more minutes, the ship fully revealed itself, and if it wasn't a Celestial Dragons ship, then I don't know what to say; the ship was utterly massive, even bigger than a marine destroyer. Its figurehead was some weird animal that resembled an elephant but wasn't quite one; the sails had a massive symbol of the world government on them, so that was hard to miss, and other than that, it looked like any other ship. It was an incredibly expensive and wealthy ship, but a ship nonetheless.

'Sebas; Sebas, can you hear me?' Asked Diddy in his mind, and a few moments later, he felt the sensation of a foreign presence inside his mind.

'Yes, I'm here, Captain. Do you have eyes on the ship?' Asked Sebas while he, Mael, Freyja, Scar, Grand, and Trenza stood on the edge of one of the smaller islands a few kilometers away from Diddy.

'Yep, the ship has just appeared from behind the horizon; I'm going to take a closer look.' Replied Diddy in rare seriousness as he swam closer towards the ship, moving even faster than an actual fish.

'Don't do anything stupid.' Said Freyja lightly, earning her a grunt of annoyance from Diddy, who ignored her.

Once I got close to the ship, and when I mean closer, I mean I was literally right underneath it and latched onto the base of the ship, crawling atop the side of the ship, I emerged from the water, making sure to keep my body close just in case someone happened to look over the edge; because even with my speed, I didn't want anyone's suspicions to be raised until the raid actually began.

I didn't crawl all the way to the top, as that was way too risky; instead, I crawled across the side of the ship until I found a spot where I heard no voices from inside the ship.

"Bingo." Muttered Diddy with a smirk as he used his nail to cleanly slice a small hole in the ship's hull, which he used to enter the ship.

Once inside, I placed the cut-off circle and welded it back to the ship with my lightning before looking around, trying to figure out where I'd entered.

"Boxes, crates, and barrels; the cargo hold, what luck." Said Diddy quietly, and like a cat, he sneakily crawled around on all fours.

'Alright, I'm inside; what now, Sebas? Find the communication rooms?' Questioned Diddy as he exited the cargo hold once he sensed no one's presence outside the hallway.

'Yes, if possible, though if it's not, just leave it; the last thing we want is for you to get spotted.' Replied Sebas seriously with a nod, though Diddy couldn't see it.

'Don't need to worry about me getting caught; I was raised in the forest; concealing myself was the very first thing I learned.' Remarked Diddy with a slight smirk as he crawled atop the ceiling, passing by a couple of people dressed in black suits with a black hat.

"Hey, so why are we going here? I forgot." Asked a world Government agent as he stopped walking right underneath Diddy and curiously glanced at his partner.

"Haa, c'mon man, that's like the fifth time I've told you." Replied a different agent as he grunted in annoyance while eyeing his partner, who sheepishly laughed.

"Haha, don't be like that, Drake; you know I've got short-term memory loss." Said the agent while rubbing his head, causing Drake to grab his head and sigh.

"It's because the food from the Boin archipelago is Saint Xalrons's favorite food to eat, so once a year, we always sail here to stock up. Wait, we've done this mission five times; shouldn't you already know this, Bell?" Replied Drake as he explained before suddenly looking at Bell skeptically, who once again laughed.

"Yeah, about that, I also got long-term memory loss; it's a miracle I still remember your name." Stated Bell, causing Drake to just stare at him in disbelief

"So you've got both short-term and long-term memory loss? How did you even get this job?" Questioned Drake in pure confusion and curiosity as he stared at his partner, who shrugged his arms.

"I wish I could tell you, but I don't know either; I most likely forgot it." Replied Bell as he laughed before continuing down the hall while Drake just silently followed him.

'Saint Xalrons? Is that the Celestial Dragon that enslaved you, Mael?" Asked Diddy curiously as he watched the two agents leave before continuing down the hall while crawling atop the ceiling.

'Yes, my brother, and I was his slave for many years; he's also the one who force-fed me the sun-sun fruit, though I should thank him for that.' Replied Mael with venom in his voice as he tightly clutched his golden axe.

'Are Celestial Dragons a threat at all? I know most of them are weak, but there are always going to be outliers; I don't want our plan screwing up because of a stupid Celestial Dragon. Oh, by the way, I just found a communication room.' Asked Diddy calmly, while Sebas mentally jotted the information down while using Diddy's mind as a medium to see everything he was seeing, not that he knew, though.

'Heh, I've seen a lot of Celestial Dragons, and I've come across the rare few who are actually decently strong compared to your average Celestial Dragon, which isn't saying much, as even our Marksmen could defeat them in hand-to-hand combat. However, Saint Xalrons is the most non-threatening Celestial Dragon I've ever laid my eyes on; he's an obese fuck who makes Grand and I look like babies.' Stated Mael mockingly, though his words did cause Trenza to smirk in triumph.

'If anything, Saint Xalrons will be hard to kill because of the immense layers of fat protecting his actual body.' Added Mael, causing Diddy to chuckle while entering another room, which was filled with cages.

'Hehe, good to know, though I'll be the one killing Saint Xalrons; if anyone has a problem with it, they can speak to Naga-sa about it. However, be warned, she isn't nice to anyone but me.' Remarked Diddy with a feral grin, his statement causing Mael to grunt, though he didn't object despite wanting to.

'Heh, it seems like I found the Slave room or whatever it's called; I see nothing but cages with people wearing collars.' Added Diddy lightly while crawling on the ceiling, staying out of sight from even the slaves, though he suddenly came to a halt.

Stopping, I sniffed around, and just like what I previously inhaled, I smelled a familiar scent, causing me to frown slightly as I knew who it was. Following the scent, I eventually arrived at a small cage with a woman wearing a collar sitting in it, though weirdly enough, she was still smiling despite her situation.

"Well, not how I wanted for it to play out, but I should hopefully get to witness the Sun's Angel." Remarked Janet Cander with an enthusiastic smile as she grabbed her transponder snail and practiced taking pictures.

'What the Janet!? I had a feeling we'd meet again, but I hadn't expected it would be this soon, not to mention like this.' Thought Diddy in astonishment as he looked at Janet, though the mention of her name spurred Grand.

'Janets here, Captain! Hahaha, wonderful!' Yelled Grand excitedly, his loud voice resounding in Diddy's mind, causing him to grow angrily.

'Shut up!' Yelled Diddy, the anger in his voice prompting everyone to quiet down.

With Grand's obnoxiously loud voice gone, I silently landed on Janet's cage before leaning over the edge and looking at her through the bars.

"Hehe, what a funny meeting, Janet." Said Diddy quietly with a smirk, his voice just loud enough for Janet to head him as she stopped practicing shots and followed the source of the voice.

"Eh. Diddy? This; this is unexpected." Remarked Janet in surprise as she stood up and approached the bars while looking right at Diddy's glowing eyes.

"What you're doing here?" Asked Diddy and Janet simultaneously, causing Janet to chuckle while Diddy just looked at her.

"I'm originally here because I was searching for news about the Sun's Angel, though along the way, I stumbled across this ship while hitching a ride on a pirate ship, which has now sunken to the ocean floor." Replied Janet lightly, nodding her head before looking at Diddy and waiting for his input.

"You say hitch a rid, but I'm pretty confident you were just their prisoner; now you're a slave." Said Diddy skeptically while Janet continued smiling.

"I wasn't their prisoner; I was their hostage, and for the record, I'm not a slave, at least not yet; I haven't gotten the tattoo." Stated Janet with a small smile as she turned around, showing her tattoo-free back.

"Well, I'm here to kill Saint Xalrons." Declared Diddy as he nodded to Janet.