Chapter 38. The Yonko wait

"Haa Haaa, I'm getting old, to be beaten by a youngling like you!" Jojo said as he panted.

"Don'tcha lie old man, you're not a day older than 30!" Ace didn't take him seriously.

"Chahaha my grandmother was a giant, so I'm a quarter giant! We live longer. I might look like I'm in my late 20's, but I'm in my late 50's, that's still young for me though." Jojo said.

"Hmm.." Ace was smiling. He took a liking to this strong old man. He was about as strong as Hancock. And the best part, he had conquerors Haki as well. Although it was weak.

His armament Haki was really strong.

"Old man, how about you joining my crew, sail under the skull once again?" Ace asked.

His question instantly changed the Jojo's demeanour, from his happy tone to a serious, almost angry look.

He stared at Ace, as Ace waited for him answer.

After a minute of silence, the old man broke out laughing. "Chahahahah, to think that I, Jojo Pojo would be asked to sail under someone else's flag!" He laughed for a while.

Ace looked confused.

"Kid, you don't know, but I could be considered as someone quite evil 7 years ago, if you had asked me this before I got stranded here, I would have fought you to death... But these 7 years have indeed changed me." The old man continued laughing.

He seemed to genuinely find it funny that he had changed so much.

It seems like he hadn't even noticed how those lonesome years had changed him until he found himself not getting angry by Ace's question.

At first when he seemed to become angry, he might've reacted like that because he got ready to boil up in anger, but after a while he noticed that he felt no anger at Ace's question.

Which made him laugh crazily.

"But I can't join you... My last campaign as a pirate ended in utter failure, which made me take an oath, that I would never captain a ship again." Jojo sighed.

"Then there's no problem, you won't captain a ship, I'm the captain." Ace said happily as if he had won. He spoke as if it was a done deal and that Jojo had already joined.

"Huh... Chahahahah kid it seems like I don't have a choice in the matters, In that case, Hammerfist Jojo Pojo officially joins your crew!" He laughed.

Ace smiled happily and laughed with him.

He had originally planned to find Sabo and kidnap him, making him his vice captain. But thinking about it, he got annoyed, 'that yellow haired bastard dared to forget his own brother? I'll give him another Scar that'll be impossible to forget!' Ace thought.

Looking at the 3 meter tall, tan man with a long beard and lots of muscle, Ace was content.

Jojo was strong, real strong.

Hancock at this time was way stronger than a vice admiral but slightly weaker than an actual admiral.

And Jojo was certainly also weaker than an admiral. Ace hadn't actually met an admiral so he was just making an educated guess.

Although, from Jojo's stories, his theory got confirmed.

Jojo's last campaign failed because of one of the admirals.

Although he was beaten up, he could somewhat push back the admiral.

While he was distracted by an admiral, the vice admirals demolished his crew, and the few surviving ones escaped.

That's how his last campaign ended.

After Jojo joined the crew, Ace and Jojo returned to Amazon Lily and assembled the crew. Ace introduced the new member as the vice-captain.

Nami questioned if they knew each other before, since Ace had claimed that the vice captain role was already intended for someone.

Ace explained that Jojo is better fit than the other person and more experienced, the crew accepted this.

Urouge and Jojo instantly became good friends.

On another island far far away, One of the four Emperors was having a late night party as they barbequed.

"CAPTAIN! LOOOK AT THESE NEWS THAT JUST GOT RELEASED!" A crewmember hurriedly shouted as he read the news that had come.

"Tsk tsk it can wait until tomorrow ya'punk! *Hic* Shanks spoke in a drunken manner.

"Look at ya, looking so excited, what? Did someone shoot a world Noble or something hahaha!" Lucky Roux laughed before filling his mouth with meat.

"Eh, how did you know?" The crewmembers suddenly asked.

His response got everyone on the scene to sober up and turn towards him.

Did someone actually shoot a world Noble? Who is the fool?

Seing their expression, the crewmember explained.

"Captain, the Flame Emperor punk we met, he's in trouble! He crossed paths with a world Noble and killed him!" The pirate said hurriedly. This was grave news.

The scene got pin-drop silent as everyone stared at the pirate, not believing what they heard.

Shanks took the news paper and read it through.

The silence was deafening.

And everyone stared at their Captain who was frowning while he read on.

After a minute, he burst out laughing.

"HE REALLY IS HIS FATHER'S SON!

DAHAHAHAHHA" yet his laughter wasn't the goofy laughter that he usually had, rather it was a laughter that came from reading something absurd and surprising.

None of the crewmembers laughed at these news.

On another part of the sea, a gigantic ship, called the Moby Dick, was was sailing throughout the night.

On deck, many pirates were staring at their captain, the most feared man alive, Whitebeard!

Everyone got silent as they noticed the heavy haki their father was unintentionally releasing.

Whitebeard is known as the strongest man alive, and he used to be the Pirate King's rival.

There is not a single soul under the sky that will claim that this man is not fear inducing, and if there is, they know nothing about the world.

Everyone on his ship respected him to death, and considered him a father figure and at this point Whitebeard had become silent as a frown graced his brows.

Unintentionally he started leaking Conquerors Haki, making everyone solemnly look at him.

At first they didn't notice it but the waves intensified, and soon the sea that they were sailing started to shake, it got so powerful that the whole ship started rock back and forth, to the point that the weakest members couldn't stand up. The powerful waves weren't just in the area, the sea quake had reached a big part of the sea.

Many islands would have a multiple tsunami's drowning them during this night.

Even when Whitebeard sat down, he towered over others as his height is 6,66 meters.

"Demon Ace pirates... Huh." He finally said after reading through the paper, his thoughts were impossible to read. His voice was silent yet powerful as it echoed throughout the ship, as if it had the power of quake in it.

The country of Wano, the country of the samurai, is also the resting place of a dragon!

Kaido, the strongest beast and one for the four Emperors. Right now he was bursting with a fierce Conqueror's haki that spread all over the island and shock it.

His subordinates were all on the ground, barely able to breathe as cold sweat ran down their foreheads.

"Worororororo!" His laughter echoed as he had read the news paper. Someone dared to kill a world Noble? He only knew of one person that had such guts, his former captain.

And the whole world united to slaughter him and everything that had to do with him.

Today, people didn't even recognize his name anymore, even though he was one of the strongest people to ever live, and it made Kaido quite excited that there was someone else sailing the sea, that had the same type of guts as his former captain.

"If you dare show yourself here...." He didn't finish his words as mutiple of his crewmembers fell unconscious.

Only three were able to stand tall, King, queen and jack, his strongest members, they were looking at each other in confusion.

On one of the island belonging to the powerful nation of Tottoland, whole cake island, a very tall man sat down as he read the news.

Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest of Big Mom's children. The one closest to the strength of an emperor, and second only to Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin, one of the four emperors.

He is fiercely loyal to his mother and siblings, and right now he was reading about a person making big waves.

'Is this person a threat to my family? Katakuri wondered with a heavy face. And the worst part, this rookie's bounty jumped straight up to 990,000,000 berries, making him one of the most wanted.

The whole world was shaken up by these news.

-~-~-~-~-~-~

So, the first half of the story is done. Soon they'll be ready to fight the big guys if you know what I mean.

Some exciting arcs are on the way!

Leave some powerstones and a review if you're excited!