Vice Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates

Next Day,

Onboard the Going Merry,

"So, where exactly are we going now?" Nami looked at her trusty little navigation tool- Log Pose and asked.

"We are going to find the one person that Luffy has been claiming to recruit since the start. Let's head straight to the Florian Triangle." Liam shouted with some excitement.

Except for Jinbei, Brook was the person this crew needed to recruit. Not only was he a good musician, but he was also a good fighter, especially with his devil fruit.

"Musician! Musician! Musician! We're gonna get a musician." Luffy excitedly clapped his hands and started dancing with Usopp and Chopper.

"Hello! Didn't you hear what Granny Kokoro said? We need to stay away from that part of the sea. Hundreds of ships have disappeared from that part of the area."

Nami scolded Liam furiously and then looked at Luffy, who was already sulking on the deck.

She saw Liam pointing at Luffy and helplessly sighed.

"Alright, it's not like we can avoid it."

"So, what exactly is this place?" Usopp curiously asked and Sanji began to explain how this was the graveyard for the ships that were haunted by ghosts.

That certainly freaked out Usopp and Chopper. Usopp even started preparing ghost-repelling items while Chopper just ran toward Zoro, hiding behind his legs.

"Liam, it is ready. Do we need to use it now?" Franky came out from underneath the deck and asked.

"Of course, we need to use it. It's our first test drive." Liam excitedly nodded, and Franky returned to what Liam would call an Engine room.

It was specifically designed by Franky and him. Thanks to the equipment he brought, they were able to attach several new functions to the ship with the help of Merry.

Merry could control the ship in any way she wanted as long as she had enough wood to consume.

"Alright, everyone, hold tight!" Just like Liam, everyone else was excited as well.

As everyone began to grab something, a strange pink light burst from Going Merry's tail, and with a large boom, the ship simply took off.

Bang!

It sent shockwaves into the sea as it traveled to the high sky.

At this moment, a Den den mushi in Liam's pants began to ring.

[Purupurupuru]

Everyone looked at him with confusion. Even Liam looked confused. But, he still picked up the phone and suddenly, the shape of the transponder snail began to change a little.

[Click]

"Luffy, you little bastard! Where are you now?" An angry voice rang from the speak which frightened Luffy so much that he dropped on the deck and almost fell off the ship.

"Gra-gra-grandpa!" Luffy shouted as he rushed toward Liam and held the phone.

"Shouldn't you be in Water Seven? I came to meet you, and you just ran off. Do you know how mad I am?" Garp's angry voice rang from the snail.

"Are you coming to catch me, Grandpa?" Luffy shouted. He was still very much afraid of his grandfather.

The entire crew was surprised to see how scared Luffy was right now.

"Humph! Why would I come to catch my grandson? Do you know how much trouble you are in?" At this moment, Liam snatched the phone from Luffy and asked.

"Mr. Garp, what happened? Is one of the Elder Stars coming at us? Are marines going to send three admirals for us?"

Although Liam knew this was impossible, he still had some doubts. After all, if one Elder Star could find them, others could easily arrive with their teleportation array.

They could fight one of them, but not against all five. Even after awakening Gear Fifth, Luffy won't win.

"Compared to that idiot grandson of mine, you are much better. No, marines won't attack you. We plan to watch your next battle."

"Kaido is looking for you. According to our sources, he is nearing the Red Line." Garp replied, still with an unhappy tone but a bit more relaxed.

If Luffy made him extremely anxious, then Liam's existence made him peaceful. At least, he believed Luffy had already achieved so much with the help of his vice-captain.

So, he had a lot of trust in Liam.

"Is that so? Thanks for the info, Mr Garp!" Saying so, Liam immediately cut off the line. It's not that he didn't want to talk to Garp or let Luffy talk to Garp.

But rather, he didn't want anyone to hack into this line. This wasn't a secured line. It was secure to a certain degree but trained people could easily hack into this line.

Luffy didn't even blink. He just saw Liam putting down the phone and happily smiled.

"Woah! Are we going to face a Yonko so soon?" Vivi looked strangely scared. How could she not?

She was the princess of the Alabasta Kingdom. She might have become a pirate, but just a few years ago, Marines were still their allies.

So, she didn't fear them. But Yonko was a different beast. Her kingdom was almost destroyed by a Shichibukai, and Yonko were supposed to be stronger than them combined.

It wasn't a false claim. Even if Shichibukai combined their forces, they wouldn't be able to take down Yonko.

Even the alliance of two emperors would be hard to take down with their strength.

Among the Shichibukai, only Mihawk was said to be at the Yonko level. Bartholomew Kuma was at least around Admiral Level.

Considering their feats, they were at the lower spectrum of that strength. Boa Hancock and Dolfamingo were around the same level of strength.

Moria was weaker, almost at the same level as Crocodile.

So, the thought of fighting an Emperor still brought shivers down her spine.

"So, what do you say, Captain?" Liam looked at Luffy and asked. He knew Luffy was ready to face the Yonko, but he wanted to make sure they benefited more from this battle.

As for losing to Kaido, it was out of the question. Not because they were stronger than him but rather because of their numbers.

Luffy didn't have the strength to defeat Kaido in one battle. Neither did Liam but they had one thing in common.

Both had the strength to fight an Emperor and remain undefeated. That's because they could swap places once one of them gets heavily injured.

It was cheating, but it was a strategy worth using.

"You figure it out!" Luffy raised both of his hands in the air and shouted with some annoyance.

Despite the excitement burning in his heart, he knew Liam wasn't going to let him fight this battle as he wished.

So he just pushed everything to Liam and decided to have a good fight with Kaido.

"Alright then! We are entering the Florian Triangle. If I am not wrong, Moria's lair is there. With the thick fog as a cover, marines won't be able to find us easily."

"We have three targets here. First is a skeleton whose name is Brook. He is the musician that we need to fight. Robin, you will take Luffy with you alongside Franky and Vivi to find that Skeleton."

"Sanji, I want you to take Zoro and Usopp to Moria's ship. It is a big ship that is almost the size of an island. All three of you have a proper enemy there."

"One is the man who ate Invisible Fruit."

As soon as he said that, Sanji suddenly burst out with lightning and flame.

"What did you say, Liam?"

The anger released even his Conqueror Haki but the next moment, all of that got suppressed into his heart.

He fell on his knees and started crying.

"My dream fruit! Why didn't I find that fruit? Why did I eat Lightning Fruit? I could've gotten that fruit from Liam."

"Yeah, no! You plan to use that fruit's powers to sneak into Nami, Robin, and Vivi's baths. And, if you had done that, Luffy and I would've killed you."

Although Luffy doesn't understand why he would kill Sanji for watching the girls take a bath, he still nodded with Liam.

Bang!

Unlike others, Nami wasn't nice to Sanji. She slammed his head with her Iron Fist and made him reconsider his dream.

"The other is a girl with ghosts and negative powers. She could basically destroy your fighting spirit. Only someone with an extremely negative persona and cowardly mind can fight her."

When he said that, everyone instantly turned their heads at Usopp.

Usopp proudly patted his chest and spoke.

"Indeed! There is no one more cowardly and negative than me. If this was a contest of negativity, I would be the winner."

"That's nothing to be proud of!" Nami and Vivi scolded him at the same time, but unlike Sanji, Nami didn't punch him.

Because she was also a coward like him.

Soon, Usopp's legs shook a little bit as he asked.

"But, Liam, are you a hundred percent sure that I can take her down? What if she has other powers?"

Liam thought for a moment and gave him a thumbs up.

"Don't worry, with your Loli-subduing tactics, you can easily win against her."

...................

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