Chapter 68: Back in the New World
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Chapter 68: Back in the New World
….
-Isuka POV-
As I walked back to my ship, my subordinates greeted me and asked many questions about Max.
"Is he as short as they say?"
"Lieutenant. Does Max have the ability to control minds?"
"Miss Isuka! I heard Vice Admiral Max's Devil Fruit is a Mythical Zoan, is that true?!"
I ignored them all because the Vice-Admiral was viewed quite well amongst the normal low-ranking marines. I knew that not everything was as it seemed, and he even sailed with a World Noble for a time.
Also, Max was a King while at the same time being a Marine. This wasn't anything illegal… technically, but it would result in a conflict of interests. A Vice Admiral had a lot of influence within the Marines and their power was just below the top of the spectrum. Yet, if Max's countries fought against others, who would he help? That was the dilemma that would rise up in these situations.
Also, why would he ask me for help? There were many others more powerful than I who would follow him.
**
I went straight to my room after dealing with some small managerial tasks for my ship. Work today took longer than usual as certain thoughts plagued my mind.
These intrusive thoughts wouldn't leave my mind no matter what.
So... Why me? That was the main question I asked myself.
I had followed and admired people before, the man who had saved me used to be a Vice-Admiral too, but in the end, he turned out to be nothing more than a pyromaniac who would burn down a whole village just to catch one criminal.
"What should I do? Can I even help him against a Yonko?" Saying my thoughts out loud usually would help with my decisions. But not this time.
I mean, what would my use be in such a situation? Distract the enemy? Just imagining Big Mom made me shiver. She would slap me away like a fly. So even as a distraction, I wouldn't be useful.
***
-Max POV-
Not even twenty four hours passed since my talk with Isuka, and as I was resting in Sabaody with Raynare drinking some juice while sunbathing.
At the same time Negan was doing… whatever he does during these times. Probably something super messed up to some criminal.
But I can sense Isuka running towards us, which was surprising since she should have taken a couple of days to sort out her moral dilemma.
"Max!" Her voice was heard before she was even close enough to be seen.
"She is noisy," complained Raynare. "Just from her voice, I can tell that she will become very annoying in such a short time."
"Xahahaha," I laughed at her predicament. "This will make the ship more lively."
She only sighed and put on some sunglasses. "Wake me up if you need something," with that said she put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones.
Where did Raynare even get those? And why didn't she buy me a pair? I would ask her now, but she already had them on so she wouldn't be able to hear me.
"Max!" Isuka's voice rang out, this time closer than before and I could see her as she walked right next to me. "I have made my decision!" She yelled out proudly and then pointed at me. "You decide for me!"
What? That's not a decision… also why does she act like she just came up with the greatest idea. "Why would I do that? This is your decision to make."
"No!" She refused stubbornly, "You must decide if I will be useful to you against the Yonko?!"
"Well, I went through all this trouble to ask you, so the answer is obvious," I waved her off.
"Then say it, am I useful?" She asked again, this time with even more resolution. Her gaze seemed almost piercing, her honesty seemingly wanting to compel me to tell her the truth.
"Yes, you will be very useful," I will make sure of that personally if I have to. "So will you join me?"
"Of course!" She yelled out in joy and grabbed my hand, jumping in happiness. Then she saw what she had done and hurriedly let go of my hand and blushed. "S -Sorry…"
Raynare was maybe right, Isuka might grow to become a troublesome member of the crew. Welp, as my second in command, this is Raynare's problem. A boss' duty was to always put an unreasonable amount of troublesome work on his subordinates and take all credit for it.
Jokingly I released my hold over my intentions and directed them towards Raynare, which made her throw a drink at me.
I caught the projectile midair and cackled. "Kekekekek~"
Isuka just looked at us confused. Raynare on the other hand took off her headphones and addressed the newcomer.
"Don't worry youngling," she muttered jokingly, "This is normal between me and Max."
Yeah, she was right, back in the day Raynare acted like an embarrassed young girl. But now, she had grown some confidence and knew that I wouldn't just leave her or not like her because of some jokes we made at each other.
Also, Isuka looked even more baffled by our actions. Well, she will get used to it eventually.
***
In the next couple of weeks, we entered the New World, though not in the traditional way of going under the Red Line and into Fishman Island. Instead, the road we took was above the Red Line, through Mariejois.
There were no problems and no annoying World Noble stopped us. Sharlia hadn't arrived here yet as her ship was slower than ours. So we didn't stop to greet anyone else and just went straight into the New World.
If there was one word to describe the place at first, I would call it Weird. Because as soon as we entered the place, my ship was hit with blazes of snow, rain, icebergs as big as warships fell from the sky. Those ice structures were big enough that no cannonball could take them out in one hit. So either I, Negan, or Raynare had to move personally to take care of them.
Isuka just looked from the side and seemed to contemplate her part in the world. The insecurities about her power grew even bigger and she started training harder to try and stand next to the three of us.
"This place is quite bad," Raynare complained. "Hopefully it's like this only at the start, it will be annoying if we had to deal with this every day."
As she said that, her big wings swiped at the air, creating a giant blast of air that cut another humongous iceberg cleanly.
She was right, if things continued like this, eventually we would get tired. But I knew that this won't last too long, maybe a day or two at best.
"Lately I haven't had time to look at the sky and think about my choices in life," Negan muttered seriously. But he wasn't able to keep up his facade and chuckled like a maniac. "Yeah right~ as if I have ever thought about things like that."
"We know you are stupid Negan," Raynare intervened. "There is no need for you to tell us something we already know."
And there they go again, arguing, back in the day Negan was the one to start these stupid arguments. But now Raynare had gained some self-confidence and started the arguments whenever she was bored.
Isuka looked at this weirdly and whispered to me. "Are they always like this?"
"Yeah, Negan used to bully her back in the day about her feelings towards me," she looked a little surprised at that. "But now she bullies him about Mero, the mermaid that came along with us. Yeah, she has feelings for Negan."
"The mermaid cook?" She asked bewildered. "But Mero always seems like such a nice girl,
unlike Negan's… well, he is Negan."
Isuka already knew what was up even though she had only been with us for a couple of days.
BOOOOOM!!
Suddenly, a cannon shot rang out. I looked at our ship and saw that none were shot from it. Instead, the water before the ship exploded as a cannonball landed right in front of it.
We were already under attack and looking towards where the cannonball was shot from. Our attacker was quite surprising, someone that I hadn't quite taken into account.