Chapter 13

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(~30 chapters in advnace)

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Chapter 13

Title: Killing Joke?

….

Ray looked at Negan with an angry look in her eyes once he and Max came on the ship. 

"What's got your panties in a twist Ray." Negan complained, "Go and yell at Max for once, sometimes I think you are into him. Sadly for you, he isn't into guys."

"What, how do you know he isn't into guys?" Ray asked suspiciously.

Negan raised a questioning brow at that, he was only joking about Ray being attracted to Max, but now it might be true. 

"Well, whatever, not my story to tell." So in the end, the bat-wielding man decided to dodge the situation he wasn't qualified to handle. "Fat Joey, get me some goddamn lunch from the cafeteria, God knows you need the exercise."

"C'mon now, don't be an asśhole Negan." Max's calming voice reverberated through the ship, he had a gentle smile on his face, his slightly spiky brown hair made him seem both threatening and nice at the same time.

Ray on the other hand looked at him with intense eyes, many thoughts were running through her head. 'How did Negan know that Max liked girls? Was it from a brothel? Does Max visit brothels like Negan does?! What if he was charmed by one of the girls there? Wait, why do I even care? It's not like I hold any romantic feelings for him.'

She felt a conflict within herself because while Ray disguised herself as a man, she was still a woman. And would be lying to herself if she didn't find Max attractive, he was always kind, reassuring, and was even able to hold a mad dog like Negan in line. There were many new orphanages in Max's name as he built and rebuilt many of them. 

His kindness as a marine was known through the North Blue, and even though his rank wasn't increased over Marine Captain, that was mostly due to how little time he had spent in the establishment. They couldn't make someone who hadn't been a marine for even a year go past the Captain Rank.

….

-Max POV-

Seeing Ray's reactions as I came in was quite fun, she was pouting quite heavily and blushing furiously. Wonder what happened to her? She probably got mad at Negan again, the guy just seems to be able to annoy everyone else, though I find him kinda funny.

"Tell me, Captain! D -Did you sleep with some girl at a brothel?" Ray tried to sound calm, but the stutter in her voice betrayed her emotions.

I thought her worries were amusing, so was her childish crush on me. She blushed a bit around me, so it's either a Hero warship or she had a childish crush. 

Was she in love? I wanted to know what she was feeling, though the game of guessing her emotions by basing them on actions is fun… it gets harder as time goes by. People Express their emotions in many different ways. Also, I would like to sense what people feel, as Fujitora could. In my opinion that would be the most useful Observation Haki ability.

For all I know, this little girl could be a yandere and stab me in the back. Sure, that seemed a little far-fetched, but not impossible either. Honestly, the person I would trust most now would be Negan. At least I can expect him to be bat shìt crazy and borderline sadistic while still trying to crack some jokes during his violent spree. 

But I know that as long as I don't keep the leash too tight on him, Negan will be my perfect attack dog and possibly a friend. 

Ray on the other hand… needs to be observed some more. It isn't that I don't trust her… okay, I don't trust her, but that was only because we know nothing about her. Not even her origin, which isn't good at all for me. I know Negan in and out, and also know of his weaknesses, that's how trust was developed on my part. 

My emotions on the situation don't matter, I like everyone here, even Ray, but I don't want to end up dying as a side character just because one of my men decided to stab me in the back. That was how Whitebeard died, if he didn't have that initial stab inflicted on him, then he would be able to put up a better fight, instead, he was destroyed in Marineford, he lost. Both Ace and he lost their lives, Jozu lost an arm too. All for what? Nothing, that's what. Blackbeard, the one who betrayed was the real winner there.

Life sadly doesn't have main characters, because if I went and killed Luffy right now, he would die a nameless death. Just like Bellamy did. 

Luffy's life was filled with coincidences that helped him live, interrupting just one of them would kill the future Pirate King. This was my advantage, if I went after Luffy when his battle with Katakuri was over or when his battle with Crocodile finished, then I would be 100% sure that I could kill him.

Still though, just because I could, doesn't mean that it will happen. What is needed most right now is to leave the future as it should be and not try and change it for sh*ts and giggles. Because that would just be me shooting myself in the foot by nullifying almost all of the advantages I have over others in this world.

…

…

A little later and my warship returned to dock.

"What should we do now sir?" Asked Raynare, I looked in her eyes and saw the absolute trust she had in me. This is something I wasn't sure that was because of my strength or leadership, why does she look at me like that?

No, it's not just her, everyone else on this ship looked at me like I was some damn messiah from God who knew everything like I have all the answers.

"We do the usual because I and any men willing to follow will be going to the Grand Line in a week or two," I answered truthfully.

Ray nodded and smiled brightly. Sheesh, sometimes playing the role of a good leader is hard… well, not that hard since everything was quite easy. Just act like you know sh*t when you don't know what you are talking about. That is a good leader, not someone who prances around showing how unsure he is because a leader's job isn't just leading, it's more so making people feel safe under his leadership. I know the future, but even then I can't say that my decision was the best one, of course, I will tell others that, but I don't like lying to myself.

Still, though, all of these things will seem petty once I become strong enough. There will be no need to worry about any betrayal… because even if they did so, I can take care of it by then.

But even though I don't know if I make the best decision all the time, my decisions will always be the best ones I could come up with in the time and the available information.

…

…

-General POV-

As Max was contemplating all of this, within North Blue, many things were brewing and an up-and-coming new pirate, Basil Hawkins, looked at the front page of the newspaper, he was a tall man with long blond hair and stern-looking eyes. 

He took out some cards and started reading his outcomes. "Chance of victory 30%, the chance of victory if caught off guard 70%, chances of me finding some important hidden information… 98%?"

Basil looked at the last card once more and then looked back at Max's face in the picture. "Interesting…"

....

A/N: People look at Max like that, because while he sometimes doesn't think that his decisions were the best. No one can make the best decisions all the time, but his men respect him from his attitude, Ray and Negan do too. Both for different sides of his personality.

P.S: I mean when you have leaders like Luffy... yeah, the MC seems like a perfect person to lead in comparison to our favorite rubbery boy.