49- Ann

After defeating all the pirates, Ethan threw all their bodies out of his ship and then burned the pirate ship.

Ann looked at Ethan and the girls in shock. She hadn't expected this group of people that seemed like ordinary people to have such strength.

But she didn't think about it for long. She looked at Balloon being treated by Kaya and then ran towards him and hugged him with tears in her eyes, "Balloon."

*chirp* *chirp*

When Ann hugged balloon, the bird started to tweet, Ethan heard the bird and then approached Ann, "He tells you he's fine."

All the girls looked at him strangely upon hearing his words, "Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't lie about what I said, that one of my Devil Fruit's abilities is the ability to understand animals."

"Balloon, is he telling the truth." Ann looked at Balloon inquiringly, the bird nodded confirming the truth of Ethan's explanation.

"Can you tell us who you are and why these pirates caught you?" After Ethan asked the question, the girls looked at Ann curiously.

Ann sighed and started telling her story. Ann is an orphan girl and was found by the person who adopted her with a dead man, apparently the man was fleeing from a battle zone between pirates and the navy while carrying Ann and died from injuries he received from pirates.

The person who found Ann was old and didn't have a family so he decided to take care of Ann as if she was his granddaughter so he took her to the village where he lives. This person took care of Ann until she was 5 years old, but this person died of old age.

After he died, the villagers decided to choose someone to take care of Ann, and a couple who had not had children for years were chosen to take care of Ann. Ann was grieving for a month over the death of the old man, until one day she found a little bird so she decided to take care of it so she took it home with her.

The couple agreed to Ann's request and had her take care of the bird so that she would forget her grief and be busy taking care of the bird and playing with it.

As the couple expected, Ann began to forget her sadness and started to smile more while playing with the bird, and Ann gave the bird a name balloon. The years passed and the little bird became much larger and began to carry Ann on his back and fly with her in the sky, those years that Ann spent with the bird were the happiest moments of her life.

But all her happy moments were destroyed when Spiel attacked her village and then took Balloon. Her entire village was slaughtered by Spiel except her, because Balloon always returned to her whenever he escaped.

And the reason that she was captured was because Balloon will always come back to her.

Ann sighed and stroked Balloon's head, and reveals that Balloon was the last of its kind, whose blood is supposed to have magical properties, which is why Spiel wanted it.

After Ann finished telling her story, Balloon approached Ethan and started tweeting as if he was talking to him.

Balloon tells Ethan that his blood does indeed have magical properties, but he can only use it if he contracts someone who has magic, and he wants to contract with Ann but she doesn't know how to use it. So he wants Ethan to be a means of communication between him and Ann in order to teach her magic.

'I can also learn magic instead of buying it at the store.' Ethan smiled

Balloon also said that his type can contract with one person in life, and if that contracted person dies, Balloon will also die. So birds of his kind will choose someone they trust to contract.

Also, birds of his kind can sense the talents of magic in humans, and his kind will approach the person with the talent to form friendship with them and protect them if possible because they are very rare. This is why he is so attached to Ann because she is one of the rare people with a talent for magic.

Unfortunately, because they cannot communicate with humans, they cannot teach magic to talented humans or contract with them.

After listening to Balloon, Ethan told the girls what he had said, which made them feel shocked.

"Ann, how about joining my crew I can help you connect with Balloon and you can learn to use magic."

"I agree, I've always wanted to connect with Balloon and understand what he's saying." Ann nodded and agreed to Ethan's request, Balloon wasn't the only reason she wanted to join Ethan's crew, but she herself wanted to get close to Ethan, she feels a strange feeling in her heart just by looking at him. 'Is this love at first sight?'

[Ann is applying to be a member of your ship, do you agree?

Yes

No]

'Yes'

[Ann has been appointed as a member of the ship: Ann's talent has been increased by 50%]

[As a reward for accepting a ship member, the host will get a talent similar to Ann in using magic.]

[The host already possesses a talent in magic because of your Devil Fruit, so your talent will be combined with Ann's to produce a higher talent]

*chirp* *chirp*

*Has your talent increased in magic, how did you do that*

*Anyway, I want to join your crew too, I'll go everywhere Ann goes.*

Balloon approached Ethan and began tweeting, Ethan looked at him and nodded.

[Balloon is applying to be a member of your ship, do you agree?

Yes

No]

'Yes'

[Balloon has been appointed as a member of the ship: Balloon's talent has been increased by 50%]

[As a reward for accepting a ship member, The host will get the magical blood physique.]

[Added new crew member, ship will be expanded]

The ship started shaking and crashing, the girls on the ship were expecting something like this so they weren't surprised, but Ann and Balloon were afraid because they remembered that Spiel had attacked the ship and they thought his attack was starting to have an effect now and that the ship was starting to crash and would soon sink.

"Don't worry it's all right" Ethan calms Ann and Balloon and tells them what's going on, and after a while the ship's expansion is complete.