One Piece - I Am A Different Luffy! - Chapter 554 - Back to the Sea and Heading Toward Elbaf.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV

Dawn Pirates Territory.

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"Is everyone ready?" Usopp shouted excitedly as the ship began to prepare to set off once again.

"Goodbye, everyone!"

"Good luck!"

"We want souvenirs from Elbaf!"

"Call us if you need help!"

The collective shouts continued for a while as people gathered around the Black Pearl once again, mostly Luffy’s companions with their children and many family members of other crewmates.

This time it wasn't in the middle of the sea while Luffy wanted to head straight back to sea, returning exactly from the point where they had stopped — Egghead.

The plan was simply to fly over the sea and stop at the point where the old island used to be, then they would return to normal sailing.

"Let's go, everyone!" Luffy said excitedly.

The ship began to levitate at that moment, while Luffy joined everyone at the edge of the ship waving to everyone there.

"Bye, Daddy!!"

"Come back soon!"

"Mustang!"

"Gifts!"

"Luffy! Come back soon, my love!"

His children said their goodbyes as Luffy responded in kind. Just like many other members.

The ship started to rise higher and higher until it reached a good altitude before beginning to move directly toward the direction they had come from with Egghead.

Vegapunk would still be working on the projects Luffy had left with him, applying them to both military and medical fields, among others.

He would be handling Kuma... So much so that Bonney was torn between staying or continuing the adventure... Luffy said it would be okay if she stayed, but she would also miss out on the great journey in search of the One Piece.

She decided to go after realizing there wouldn't be any concrete results for months, after all, they had to reintegrate all compatible organs back into Kuma and gradually replace his mechanical body with an organic one, making him cease to be the first Pacifista.

That would take a long time, since they had to test organs and other elements in the body, to see if they would adapt perfectly, and they might need help from talented members in medicine like those on this ship, who could greatly speed up the process, but now the focus of most was only one.

And Kuma would be fine in Vegapunk’s hands, Dragon would also be there to help him.

Now it was just a matter of returning victorious to the territory, with the world already turned upside down when that happened, he wasn't worried about enemy forces attacking them — the territory was very well protected when you had so many islands together and powerful members to guard them.

The World Government would retaliate against them easily if given the chance, but Luffy and his crew had struck a heavy blow to their power.

Besides killing two Gorosei, they took the Mother Flame — without the energy, the government could never reactivate the ancient weapon used against Lulusia.

They no longer had their military power... Of course, that wouldn't leave them idle, and there were clearly many attempts to obtain the energy, or capture Vegapunk.

But that wasn’t a problem... everything would be easily handled thanks to the territory’s position and its defenses — there were thousands of genetically modified animals, some even capable of using Haki. How could he worry about an army attacking them?

The ship traveled for the next few hours while Luffy and the others divided their time between training and leisure, barely feeling the ship due to the increased speed from Luffy’s fruit.

After some time, they finally arrived at the same spot where Egghead used to be. The ship came to a stop as it splashed against the sea water once more.

"This is super cool!" Franky shouted excitedly.

"We're back on the adventure! Yohohohoho!" Brook yelled.

Luffy ignored their enthusiasm and walked over to the edge, where he felt a presence in the distance passing by them.

"Hey, you!" Luffy amplified the echo of his voice to alert the small seagull.

The bird looked curiously at the call, especially at the ship — after all, she could’ve sworn there hadn’t been any ship around until just a moment ago, since she’d been looking for them in the area to sell newspapers.

She flew toward Luffy, who pulled a coin from his pocket and tossed it. The bird caught it and bit into it, but then remembered something the moment she saw their flag.

She threw the coin back at Luffy and took out a newspaper, handing it to him.

"What’s this?" Luffy asked, confused by the bird.

"Owhh!!" she said, pointing at the newspaper and shaking her head at Luffy’s coin.

"Captain! She’s saying we don’t have to pay anything," Chopper appeared just then. Luffy could talk to dogs, but not birds.

"I figured that... I just wanted to know why..." Luffy said, looking at the seagull, a bit surprised.

"Owhh, Owhh!!" the seagull expressed again.

"Didn’t really get that," Luffy chuckled and looked at Chopper.

"She said we’re supposed to get free editions of the newspapers... it’s an order from the higher-ups. We’ll receive free newspapers every time a Morgans News seagull is within our range," Chopper said, and Luffy nodded thoughtfully.

"That sounds great!" Luffy laughed, knowing it must have been something Morgans himself arranged, a courtesy for being in his territory.

"Thanks!" Luffy said in the end, and the seagull began to fly away.

After Luffy said goodbye, he turned his attention not only to one newspaper but five others he had received.

"Chopper, can you hand out the rest of the newspapers to everyone else?" Luffy asked, and Chopper nodded, taking them to whoever was interested in the news — which was many — while Nami ran off to check the sky.

"Hey, Luffy! You should’ve picked up some newspapers back in the territory... isn’t that where Morgans’ headquarters is now?" she asked, a little suspicious.

"You’re right, but I was too busy. Anyway, let’s see what we’ve got here." Luffy then turned his attention to the front page.

He was surprised.

"Why didn’t he tell me this yesterday?!" Luffy couldn’t help but grumble in frustration, since he’d talked to Morgans about his stay, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about this.

On the front page was the terrible news about a clash between SWORD and Blackbeard.

Coby had been captured, as the headline stated — the hero of the Marines was now in Blackbeard’s custody and was being taken to his territory after a major conflict at sea.

"Looks like that hasn’t changed... but there’s no Perona to save him..." Luffy still remembered that from the original story, though he didn’t have much more information. And Perona now was sipping tea in her room with her ghosts, alone on that ship — she had even invited him to join her a while ago.

‘That means Coby will have to escape on his own... but he has Conqueror’s Haki... he’s stronger than before... he might manage... The problem is, I don’t know what’s going to happen... I hope Grandpa does something.’ Luffy thought.

"Hey, Luffy!! We have to save Coby!!" Unsurprisingly, Lucy immediately shouted, running over to him with the newspaper.

Luffy sighed. "We’ll go to Elbaf first... Coby’s in custody, I don’t think Blackbeard will want to kill him without getting something out of it first..." Luffy said.

"But..." Lucy looked distressed about their friend.

"Don’t worry, sis... Grandpa will show up soon, and they can rally SWORD to rescue him. There’ll be news in the papers soon," Luffy said while Lucy ended up nodding, trusting his words.

"Alright..." she said.

"If anything happens, we’ll leave Elbaf and head straight to Blackbeard’s territory — you know it’s not that far from that island, right?" Luffy said as she nodded, trusting her brother.

Luffy finally left the ship’s prow and headed to the deck, just as he saw Reiju passing by with a tray of refreshments and snacks.

"I’ll take one of those," Luffy said with a smile, and she nodded.

"Luffy... your friend?" Zoro murmured with a newspaper in his hands, Kuina at his side.

"I know... let’s leave that for Grandpa to handle," Luffy gave the same answer he had given to Lucy, but this time out loud, knowing more people would ask.

He walked over to one of the edges, where Chouchou, Hugo, and Enel were looking out at the sea, talking about something, while Chopper, Usopp, Brook, and Hachi were playing nearby.

Elizabeth was standing at the back of the ship also looking out at the sea, with Jinbei at the helm, while listening to some suggestions from Nami.

The rest were doing things here and there, but there was a long row of chairs in the middle of the deck with most of the girls sunbathing while sipping drinks that Reiju brought them.

"So, what are you guys thinking about over here?" Luffy approached the trio classified as the bullies of the crew.

"Captain," Hugo murmured when he saw him.

"Tsk." Enel just clicked his tongue.

"Woolf! Woolf!" Chouchou barked.

"Oh, I missed you too, Chouchou," Luffy said, scratching the animal’s head.

"We were just talking about how our lightning-filled friend here is still as arrogant as ever," Hugo suddenly said as Luffy returned to them.

"Really? Enel, you should’ve faced that monster back at Egghead — you were bragging that you’d handle it better than I did." Luffy suddenly grinned, while Enel made a slight grimace.

"I wouldn’t have lost to that thing..." Enel scoffed as Hugo raised an eyebrow and Chouchou barked mockingly.

"You dare mock a god?" Enel growled.

"Come on, come on... You’ll get another chance..." Luffy laughed.

He then turned back to Hugo. Since the disagreement they had over Elizabeth, they hadn’t spent much time together.

"Let’s have a drink." He offered, pulling out some very expensive bottles from his system.

‘A drink worth hundreds of millions of berries for pirates worth billions.’ Luffy thought it was fair.

"Hey, Pedro! Join us." Luffy saw Pedro working alone and waved him over when he was called.

"Of course, Monkey D. Luffy," he murmured.

"Hey, that looks really good!" Zoro quickly picked up the scent of alcohol and came over too.

"And how are Hancock’s sisters? My sisters-in-law?" Luffy asked, taking a sip from the bottle before passing it to the next person.

"They’re doing very well, Captain... I believe Sandersonia is pregnant..." he said, and Luffy looked at him surprised.

"Really?! Hancock didn’t tell me anything. That’s fantastic!" Luffy laughed.

"She didn’t want to tell anyone, though I believe Gloriosa knows, but hasn’t said anything either." He looked a bit embarrassed.

"Hahaha. We should celebrate even more!" Luffy exclaimed happily to Hugo.

"Kuja only give birth to girls... So should I expect one or two girls like you?" he asked cautiously.

"If you’re thinking about the past... Hugo. It’ll be different this time." Luffy said with care as the man nodded, looking at him with a thankful glimmer in his eyes.

"I’m sorry for questioning you before, Captain... You’re always making the best choices for us..." he said at last, referring to whether Elizabeth should be in the crew or not.

"I’m not perfect, and I can definitely be wrong sometimes, but I trust my instincts..." Luffy said, glancing toward Elizabeth in the distance, as her yellow eyes met his when she noticed he was staring — he smiled at her and saw Jinbei approaching.

"That drink smells nice. May I join you?" Jinbei said.

"Well... in that case..." Luffy didn’t waste any more time and began summoning several barrels of sake and wine.

"Let’s throw a banquet!" he declared as everyone immediately began preparing for the most common thing they did while traveling — banquets.