Baterilla

The boat continued on its way, sailing across the endless ocean.

Inside the ship's hull, a big table was set up.

All of the "nameless" sailors were there ready for another meal, but they didn't seem excited to eat.

The big doors leading to this room parted open, revealing Susein carrying a large metal tray in her hands.

The sailors had sweat falling down their faces.

-... Please, merciful God that oversees us, please don't let it be crab again... Said one of the sailors in a rare silent prayer.

All of them seemed to be thinking the same thing…

/Bong/

She placed the trail on the table and lifted its cover-up, revealing…

-This smell… Wuck!

The "delicious" smell of a well-cooked crab.

-It can't be! Please no more! I think my hand is growing a carapace from eating so many crabs…

The sailors were not happy at all to be eating such a rare delicacy though...

-#!

Susein wasn't someone to get angry at such petty things. But even she would get angry when people showed such aversion to her food.

She was on the verge of snapping out.

-Ok! Everyone. Just eat it this time, okay? We will be soon reaching the next island where we will be able to buy more food supplies. Until then just eat the Sea king meat. Said Loodwick.

Although they looked at the meat as if it was the most disgusting thing in the world, they still ate it slowly.

Susein thanked Loodwick and they parted ways to do their own things.

…

On the deck of the ship, there was a large pile composed of crab meat.

I wasn't like the picky sailors, for me, it was just good food.

And Sea king meat had the bonuses of being incredibly nutritious, and consuming it regularly seems to increase the body overall constitution… When processed well.

You wouldn't want to have your tongue burn because of its acidic blood, right?

This meat even had a surprising effect on me. And that was in relation to my skin.

After my fight with Lucassu, my body aged significantly, making some wrinkles appear on my forehead.

Since then, my body has slowly recovered to its previous appearance. That of a man in his 20's. Very slowly.

After 8 months my body is still recovering. But after eating this meat, it entered a rapid metabolism, making my skin recover to its previous healthy state.

Although I wonder if this was caused by the meat or the pressure from the fight itself...

Ace on the other hand, had to eat alone in the captain's quarters, in order to keep his identity a secret...

He actually came to me after the fight and told me he used his fruit, but no one seemed to notice it since no one came to ask him about it.

But he did raise the flag that we will have to eventually tell the crew about his true identity…

As for the sailors, I can understand why they are upset. Eating the same thing over and over again can be a little… Boring.

And it's not like we don't have supplies. We have a lot of them in fact.

But the strength of our sailors is… Too low, so feeding them the Sea king meat was me and Ace's way of increasing their strength fast.

The effects are pretty apparent, in one week, their strength more than doubled overall.

-How much longer until we reach Baterilla? I asked

-... At least one more week if the wind continues to be this bad. Replied Fedrum

-This is so slow… I hate ships…

John got up after finishing his food and went to the bow of the ship.

-Enough time has passed, time to restart my training.

He lifted his right hand and a red "aura" started to envelop one of his fingers.

It finally stopped when the tip of his finger got fully black.

-It sure took me a while to understand how this shit works. The feeling sure is strange.

For the past week, I kept rethinking the entirety of my battle while I recovered.

At the start, I didn't even know I had actually awakened Busoshuku Haki, but Ace came to save the day and told me what he had seen.

-From that point, it took me an entire week to do this…

Unfortunately, the clones can't train Haki. Why? Because Haki is the manifestation of one's spiritual energy.

Clones don't have a soul, they only have my memories, acting in a similar way to a machine.

They receive all of my memories, but they aren't "me"...

It's complicated, let's not delve into the intricacies of this topic.

-I will just leave the clones to train the other techniques, I will focus on Haki from now on.

I pointed my finger forwards and jabbed towards the air.

Tobu Shigan(Flying Finger Gun)

/SPLASH!/

After a delay of a second, the water 40 meters away exploded. As if something had crashed into it.

-... Its power was indeed enhanced, although not by much. But I guess training is going to pump this up to a dangerous degree.

-I also need to master observation later… Perhaps even conqueror's…

Okay, that's a bit too much.

…

/Boom!/

/Bang!/

I kept trying many techniques in the ship's bow, trying to get the hang of using Haki.

After half an hour of training, I was shunned by an angry Fedrum who couldn't steer the ship due to the chaotic waves.

So I went to the ship quarterdeck and started to train my techniques behind the ship, using the waves created by my attacks to propel the ship.

So that he didn't have anything to complain about.

Slowly, the encounter with the Sea king was washed away by the waves, and everyone went to their usual schedule.

Ace continued his Haki training, Susein practiced her techniques, and Haki, now, she could fully envelop her fists.

The fruit users trained their Fruit control and the sailors… Continued with their physical exercises.

And one week later, we arrived at Baterilla.

The island was filled with green mountains and a peaceful port city, meaning the Marines did a good job protecting it.

The houses were colorful and most of the citizens were walking around with happy expressions. They didn't even frown when such a big ship came into their port, showing that they were either used to this or that they had full trust in the Marines.

There were several lighthouses around the island, they were all in good condition.

Overall, this place was just like any other city in the four Blues.

But it was the place Ace once called home.

-We are here! Fedrum! I am leaving the ship's affairs to you. I will be right back. Said Ace

He then turned to me and asked:

-You coming?

I was genuinely surprised, after all, I imagine Ace is going to visit his mom right now.

So why invite me? Did he consider me a friend of this level already?

-What are you waiting for? Asked Ace after jumping from the ship to the docks.

I jumped after him and let him lead the way.

…

Ace was already used with walking in this town, as if he had done so dozens of times.

The people looked at us with curious looks.

I guess our clothing is indeed "odd".

Ace left his red cape at the ship since it can easily get dirty from walking around like this.

He only uses it in the ship since he finds it "comfortable to sit on".

So everything that is left is his fancy clothes. Something there is already rare around these parts.

As for me, I am wearing a grayish Tuxedo with a black hat. I look like a CP agent.

The heat wasn't really a problem for us, it's literally impossible for Ace to sweat because of his Fire fire fruit immunity to fire.

And I am just resistant to this low level of heat.

(Around 30C)

Ace stopped and looked at an old candy shop on the corner of the street.

-Old man used to bring me and Luffy here to eat some sweets when we visited the island…

(Ace never grew up on this island, he lived on Dawn island in the Goa kingdom.)

-He used to bring us to all sorts of places under the Marines' protection in order to convince us to become Marines… He tried poaching us several times but Luffy always…

-Always what? I asked

-He always screamed: "I will become the pirate king!"... And Garp always punched his head…

Ace pulled his hat down a bit.

-I wonder how they are doing right now…

While Ace thought about them, I bought some candies in the shop.

-Here.

I threw a sack filled with crackers to Ace.

He looked at it and a small smile formed on his face. But I couldn't see it due to the mask.

-I hate these, they are too hard. Almost broke my teeth when I was smaller.

-Tsk. You aren't a kid anymore…

We kept talking while we made our way to the cemetery, Ace told me many of his childhood adventures with Luffy and Sabo. And their dream of Freedom.

-You were truly a devil when you were small huh?

-Haha!...