章 110: Recovering

The entire ship was astonished to hear my declaration, Stussy included.

I had always assumed that Stussy, or the entire organization was aware of his existance; it looked like I was wrong. Hell, even Whitebeard showed a rare look of shock upon hearing the news. However, I wasn't about to let them revel on this news forever, I wanted to get back to enjoying my leisurely life as a Division Commander.

"Well, Pops. Where we going?" I asked, looking up at our captain.

"Call the crew and tell them to meet up on the island near Dressrosa. Though I don't feel like picking a fight with Linlin, its a perfect neutral territory where we can all meet around the same time. Set a course there, and map out some islands where we can resupply while we're at it," Whitebeard instructed.

The rest of the crew immediately agreed and started preparing to set sail. By then, the unconcious Marine troops were slowly waking up, and they rushed to the ship we were on and wasted no time threatening us to surrender. However, they were stopped by Vice-Admiral Borusalino.

"It's no use stopping them~" Borusalino commented, "It's too much work, after all. Don't you think?"

The Marine troops looked at us nervously before lowering their weapons. However, they didn't lower their guards at all. they flinched with every movement that we had made.

Stussy, on the other hand, was currently trying to make me lie down and rest. I was about to do so, but I promptly remembered the red fishman and his friends who were still aboard with us. I gently pushed back Stussy's hand, which was currently clutching my right shoulder; before turning to face the freed fishmen slaves.

"So, what do you plan to do?" I asked them curiously.

"We plan on staying aboard a bit before leaving the ship. Since we're still in the New World, we can easily swim back to fishman island. Thank you for freeing us, we won't forget this debt," The red fishman, who seemed to be their leader bowed and thanked us.

Whitebeard let out a hearty chuckle before sitting on a large barrel and taking out another barrel of wine to drink.

"Gurarara! I'll be paying Neptune a visit pretty soon, make sure you tell him that!"

They immediately nodded in compliance before setting out to help the rest of the crew. We weren't planning on celebrating any time soon because of all the cramped space, but it did give me an oppurtunity to finally address my situation.

Looking at my body, my skin had been completely covered with silver scales that I normally had when I turned to my animal like form. I had retractable claws that seemed sharp, though I didn't know how sharp they were. I didn't seem to have horns, but looking at the mirror that Stussy had gave me at my request, I could see the silver scales covering my cheeks; leading all the way to right under my eyebags. My eyes, on the other hand, had turned completely yellow; with the familiar black pupils showing in the middle. The two heads which were currently resting on each shoulder, opened their eyes to see our condition.

I know that they normally were controlled by me, but ever since I merged, it seemed that the aspect had taken control of the two heads. they still listened to my instructions, however, whenever I wasn't directly commanding them; the aspect used them to look around and observe. I also seemed to have my wings attached to my back as well. Granting me the freedom to fly while holding my axe in hand. It was a huge convineance for me.

I slowly turned to my damaged shoulder, along with some other major bruises along my body. My flesh had turned sickly black as the corruption continued to devour itself within my body. I quietly sat down and promptly began to meditate. The idea was to use my spiritual energy to try and expel the corruption from my body bit by bit.

As I began the process, the corruption slowly started pouring out of my wounds and landing on the deck. Burning right through the planks of the ship like a hot knife through butter. I heard the crew immediately start panicking over this, I guess they were worried that the corruption might lead to devastating damages to the ship. Something we really couldn't afford, Stussy was even more worried than the rest. She immediately coated her hands with Armament haki as she tried to touch my skin.

It hurt like hell expelling all the corruption out my body. It was akin to lava running through a humans veins, but the pain wouldn't let you die, so you had to suffer through all that intolerable heat. It took a couple of hours, but I finally managed to expell all of it from my body.

As I was slowly turning back to my human form. The pain that I had gone through almost quadrupled as I started losing my conciousness. Stussy immediately held my head as I dropped to the floor from my lotus sitting position. That was the only thing I truly remembered before blacking out.

I woke up in a comfy bed soon after, and looking around, I could tell that we were still on the ship that we had used to leave Red Port. However, the only difference was that my wounds had all healed, and a naked beauty was currently next to me sleeping peacefully. My tattered clothes had all been removed, leaving me naked within the sheets.

Nearby, I saw a pack of cigars that were quietly resting on a bed stand along with my lighter. I quickly grabbed a cigar before lighting it, I really liked the cigars; but they were getting too annoying for me to be constantly holding on to them the way I normally did. If anything, I could kill for a cigarrette with a similar flavor. I decided to make that a priority when we got to a nearby island to restock our supplies.

I smoked quietly in bed as I continued to watch Stussy sleep. She looked pretty cute when she let out her quiet snores. However, I dreaded having to wake her up. From the look that she had been giving me on the Red Line, I felt that she would be giving me a thorough scolding once we were alone like this. I could only dread the inevitable, but if it was her, I guess I could live with that.

She soon stirred before ultimately waking up. At first, she smiled at me and was about to embrace me, but when we hugged. She whispered in my ears coldly.

"If you pull shit like that again, I swear; I will kill you, raise you from the dead, and kill you again,"

She had already coated her hands with haki, so she had an iron grip on my shoulders. Moreover, I couldn't even see her expression, but I didn't want to see it either; it was probably something unsettling for me to look at. It was only then that she started yelling at me about storming Pangea Castle.

Her yells could be heard across the ship, leading to Whitebeard and the rest of the crew to snicker and chuckle when we had finally exited the cabin.