252. Back to The Crew

After resting for a night, Jon leaves Alabasta and returns to New World already. He would love to stay longer, but his crew is waiting for him. They are very close to their goal already as they've finally gotten the last poneglyph.

The clue on the last poneglyph has risen their spirits, so they really want to go to Laugh Tale as soon as possible. Besides, the Marines are quite busy with the Blackbeard Pirates attack on Alabasta now, so it's really the best time to find Laugh Tale.

The Marines' activities on Alabasta is also one of the reasons Jon needs to leave quickly. They will surely try to capture him even though he was the one who defeated Blackbeard Pirates as he is a highly wanted pirate with a very high bounty on his head.

It will be very troublesome facing those Marines, so he chose to leave. Vivi also understands this, so she didn't ask him to stay longer. She also knows that the Straw Hat Pirates are very close to their goal already, so it's not right for her to hinder them just because she wants to stay with Jon a little longer.

They will have a lot of time for themselves in the future after the Straw Hat Pirates succeeded anyway. There's no need to rush things now. Besides, she still has many things to do as Alabasta's Princess.

Upon Jon's return, the Straw Hat and Red Hair Pirates are having another party. These guys just really like party that they'll have another one after finishing a party if there is a reason. Jon knew this would happen, so he just follows along and enjoys this party.

Other than enjoying the party, Jon also enjoys punishing Bartolomeo and his lackeys. They've dared to deceive him, so he can't just let them go without any punishment. He releases Kurama to play around with them while he parties with his crewmates and the Red Hair Pirates.

The problem is, the Barto Club guys are much more perverted than Jon thought. He thought they would suffer as Kurama's playthings. But they actually enjoy it because they are Straw Hat Pirates' fans, which means they also idolize Kurama, Jon's demon beast.

They might be screaming when Kurama tosses them around or shoots super small beast bombs at them. But their screams aren't just out of fear, but also excitement. They are still scared, but their excitement is stronger than their fear.

Jon doesn't know that though and just enjoys his party. He believes Kurama will do a good job and even Kurama thinks he does a good job, everyone else too. None of them realize how perverted the Barto Club guys are, so they don't know how happy those guys are to get punished.

After the party, most of them are wasted while some are still fine. Jon, Jans, Robin, and Nami are one of those who don't waste themselves with alcohol. They are currently checking the Road Poneglyph that the Red Hair Pirates promised them.

"How is it, Robin? Can you find the location?"

"I think so. But it won't be easy and we have to travel to some locations first. These Road Poneglyphs are pointing to 4 different locations, after all. We need to go there first and only then will we find Laugh Tale's location. Even so, it wouldn't be that easy to determine the location after we found those 4 islands."

"Heh, as I thought, it won't be that easy or a lot of people would've found it."

"Well, at least we know what to do now, so it's a good thing already. No matter what, we are one step closer to our goal now."

They all leave the Road Poneglyph and return to the party location where a lot of people are sleeping on the ground. Some have woken up now. One of them is Sanji who immediately cooks a hangover soup after he woke up.

He twirls around happily when he sees Robin, Nami, and Jane return. Jon ignores him and goes to Thousand Sunny to sleep. He is actually very tired now as he hasn't had a proper rest after the war against Blackbeard Pirates.

One night of rest wasn't enough to recover all the energy he spent in the war. Even when he was in Alabasta's palace, his rest was used more for him to heal his injuries. So he still spent energy when resting to recover his health.

Now, he needs to rest to recover his energy to 100% again. So before he sleeps, Jon meditates to absorb nature energy which will make his chakra recovers much faster in his sleep. His crew will move soon, so he needs to be fully ready by then.

Well, more than recovering his energy, Jon needs to recover his mental fatigue. He was really stressed because of Blackbeard Pirates attack on Alabasta and still couldn't be relieved even after defeating them because his crew might get into a war with Red Hair Pirates.

Luckily, everything was solved. But his mind was still worn out because of everything that happened so quickly. So he needs to rest his mind and make it ready to face more trouble that they'll face.

No one disturbs him because he deserves to rest after doing all those works. Even Luffy is surprisingly senseful enough to not make a ruckus near the ship until Jon wakes up the next day even though he is very impatient to leave because they've found the clues to find Laugh Tale.

That's why right after Jon wakes up, Luffy immediately orders his crew to get ready to leave the island. He wants to find Laugh Tale as soon as possible. They have gone through a lot of things, after all, so it's understandable that he can't hold back now that they can find their objective.

The Red Hair Pirates can see Luffy's excitement, so they don't hold him back and just pray good luck for the Straw Hat Pirates. They bid farewell to each other and the Thousand Sunny soon leaves the Red Hair Pirates' base island.

As for the Barto Club, they also leave, but they don't follow the Straw Hat Pirates. They actually have enough sense to not follow the Straw Hat Pirates because they know this is a very important journey.

After all, this will be the journey that will make Luffy the Pirate King. So there's no way they will disturb such an important event as the Straw Hat Pirates' greatest followers. They know the best thing they can do now is wait and prepare for the Straw Hat Pirates' return.

Sometime after the Straw Hat Pirates and Barto Club left, the Red Hair Pirates are talking while lazying around as usual. They seem to be in a good mood, but they also seem to have something in their minds right now.

"Leader, why did you cancel that plan? I thought you really want to test them."

Lucky suddenly asks Shanks while drinking.

"Yeah, it's not like I like to fight, but I actually want to know how strong my son is now."

Yasopp also chimes in, mentioning about a fight all of a sudden. Shanks smiles before his expression becomes serious.

"Well, it's because I don't need to test them anymore. Or do you think a crew that has a man who is powerful enough to defeat an Emperor crew alone still needs a test?"

They all look at each other with stunned expressions before Benn talks.

"They surely don't need a test as a crew, but you said you want to test Luffy to see it for yourself whether he is really worthy of that hat or not."

"HAHAHA! That was just a joke, guys. Why should someone need a test to be worthy of a straw hat? I already made a promise with Luffy that we would see each other when he has became a great pirate for him to return the hat. It was always my intention to give him that straw hat, so there's no need for a test."

"Wan't the test supposed to see if he has the quality to be the next Pirate King?"

"That's not for me to decide. If he can reach Laugh Tale, then that's enough. You know it too just how difficult the way there is. We have tried it before and failed, so if he succeeds, then he really deserves that title. As for the quality as a leader, I think someone who can make a monster like that Demon Eyes follow him surely has a very high leadership quality."

Everyone gets silent at another mention of Jon.

"Leader, don't tell me..."

"Yeah, the main reason I canceled the plan to test them was Jon. You can say I was afraid of him when I heard he destroyed Blackbeard Pirates alone. It's not that I was afraid of fighting him, I was afraid of the result of the fight. He won't destroy Alabasta even when his opponent is one of the strongest Pirate crews. But that's because he has a special relationship with that Kingdom. It won't be the same if he fights us here. He would just obliterate this island without a single thought, especially because he thought we were torturing Barto Club. Just from his eyes, I could see that he doesn't care whether we are Luffy's friends or not. He is closer to Barto Club than us, so he would surely fight us for them."

Shanks is silent for a moment and the others also think about it.

"Well, even if I wasn't afraid of the consequence, I still won't fight him. I don't have the confidence to defeat him even with your help. Our whole crew might still lose even if we receive help from our subordinate crews."

The Red Hair Pirates are very silent now because they actually feel the same as Shanks. But they would still fight if their leader ask them to fight. They are a very loyal and solid crew, after all. So they are actually relieved that Shanks canceled the plan, but they were just curious of his reason.

"Well, now we just need to wait and see whether they'll succeed or not."