Encountering the Marines

"So this is why the celebration feast for me joining the crew was a big meal in Drum Kingdom instead of a banquet on the ship?"

Yota stuffed himself with food that looked utterly unappetizing as he complained helplessly.

Ace stared at Yota in surprise, as though he were looking at some kind of alien. "Uh... our ship's cook really is a bit... well, Yota, you sure are eating with gusto."

Yota rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I have two taste systems. Besides normal human taste buds, using the Munch-Munch Fruit activates another set of taste receptors. So far, whenever I've used my Munch-Munch Fruit abilities, I haven't found anything that tasted bad."

"That amazing?" Ace muttered, his face full of envy. "That's just too enviable. You have no idea. Bonsy's cooking is practically a disaster..."

"You bastard Captain! What's wrong with my cooking?" An iron pot flew over from the distance and smashed into Ace's head, sending sparks flying everywhere.

"Ahahaha! That's not what I meant."

Watching Ace being chased around by the female pirate, wearing a placating smile, Yota could not help but smile as well.

"Although the Spade Pirates are nowhere near as well-equipped as the Straw Hat Pirates, at least the atmosphere on both ships is pretty nice."

With that thought, Yota turned his attention back to the dimensional travel system in his mind.

"Just as I thought... the dimensional travel system's energy replenishment is related to my involvement in the plot!"

"Back in the Naruto World, it took a full five years for the dimensional travel energy to fill up completely. But in this world, I remember the energy jumping sharply when I ate the Munch-Munch Fruit. Then, after I took out Wapol, it increased again."

"Also, while I was staying with Chopper, the dimensional travel energy grew at a considerable rate. After I joined the Spade Pirates, it surged even more."

"The dimensional travel energy I have now is enough to travel to two new worlds! That's twice as fast as it was in the Naruto World."

"If I travel between the Naruto World and the Pirate World, it's even enough for two round trips!"

Traveling to worlds he had already visited only required half as much energy, so Yota now had enough power to return to the Naruto World and come back again.

"The Third Great Ninja War should have ended in the Naruto World by now, right? But with my current strength, I probably wouldn't gain much there. Even counting the Munch-Munch Fruit's power, I'm only about as strong as a jonin."

"Still, I should be able to go to the Naruto World and collect some ordinary Earth Release, Water Release, Medical Ninjutsu, and genjutsu."

Some relatively common Water Release, Earth Release, and Medical Ninjutsu below B-rank, along with certain C-rank genjutsu, could actually be bought on the Black Market.

After all, ninjutsu of that level could be found in nearly every one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and even smaller shinobi villages would not lack them. They naturally could not be considered secrets, which was why they were sold on the Black Market. Of course, the price would probably be enough to make one gasp.

"Water Release Ninjutsu in particular... in the One Piece World, that kind of ninjutsu is practically strategic-grade. It's even more important than Medical Ninjutsu."

Though he had made up his mind, Yota did not immediately return to the Naruto World.

He was still aboard a pirate ship, after all. If he suddenly vanished, Ace's crew would probably think he had fallen into the sea.

Besides, pirate ships were constantly moving. Who knew what the coordinates would be based on? If they were based on the location of the planet's ocean, then when he came back, he would land straight in the sea. Even if he could stand on water with Chakra, there was no way he could cross the entire ocean!

"Hey, boss, that Marine ship is chasing us again!" Just as Yota was thinking, the lookout's voice rang out.

Hmm? Yota raised his head, narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked into the distance.

If one looked closely, they would notice that his pupils had changed somewhat, taking on an eagle-like appearance. This was another simple body modification he had performed on himself, altering the structure of his eyes into eagle eyes.

He had also studied the bodies of other animals and modified himself accordingly. But he later discovered that while reshaping his muscles into those of other animals did increase his strength in the short term, it also placed a tremendous burden on his other organs.

More importantly, because they were incompatible with the human body, muscles modified from other animals could hardly be strengthened through training. In the end, he gave up on that idea and set his sights on other superhuman humans.

But special organs like eyes, which could not be trained in the first place, were another matter entirely.

With his eagle-eye-enhanced vision, Yota could now see nearly a kilometer away, far beyond the limits of ordinary people.

"It really is the Marines. But... a Marine ship of that scale should belong to an officer from a Marine branch or a warrant officer from headquarters, right? Are they sure chasing the Spade Pirates with that level of strength isn't just suicide?"

"And from what they said, this Marine comes after the Spade Pirates often? Could there be someone special involved?"

As Yota pondered this, he heard the Spade Pirates' crew teasing their captain. Things like, "Captain, just give in to her already," and, "She's gone through so much trouble for you, chasing you all the way to the Grand Line."

Scratching his head, Yota simply leaned against the railing. He felt that the atmosphere was a little strange, so he decided not to stick his neck out.

Although Ace was directing the Spade Pirates' ship to move at full speed, pirate ships were still somewhat inferior to Marine vessels. Besides, the other Spade Pirates members were all laughing and joking rather than putting in much effort. Before long, the Marine ship had closed in on the Spade Pirates.

With a boom, a cannonball hurtled toward Ace's Spade Pirates. But everyone knew how accurate naval artillery was in the age of sailing battleships... Without any surprise, the shot landed several meters away.

The warship on the other side was not particularly advanced, and its firepower was clearly nothing impressive either. The cannonballs it fired came sparsely, and the occasional shot that did hit the Spade Pirates was easily blocked by Ace.

Ace was only holding back. Otherwise, the Flame-Flame Fruit was no bottom-tier Logia Devil Fruit. With the disaster-like power of a Logia Devil Fruit user, he could have thrown a single punch from afar and burned the entire Marine ship into a pile of ashes.