Preparing to Head to the Ninja World

After half a day of cannon fire that looked like children playing around, the Navy warship finally drew close to the Spade Pirates' vessel. Several grappling hooks then flew over from the warship, clearly preparing for a boarding battle.

The Spade Pirates did not stop them. Although they had all picked up their weapons, none of them looked particularly serious, and everyone was still laughing and joking.

"Fire Fist Ace, surrender at once!" A valiant-looking female Marine leaped aboard, sword in hand and a stern expression on her face.

Yota's Observation Haki swept over the female officer, leading him to one conclusion: weakling!

Listen, beautiful, you neither know Armament Haki nor carry any Sea Stone weapons. What makes you think you can brazenly tell a Logia-type Devil Fruit user to surrender? Those Sea Stone handcuffs hanging from your belt?

Ace scratched his head. "Sorry, but I can't let you catch me before I surpass that man!"

"Hmph! Stop making excuses! This time, I'll definitely send you to Impel Down Prison!" the beautiful officer shouted before charging straight at him.

She went in, she made her move, she... got flattened.

Well, so that was all the strength she had, yet she still dared to keep pestering him. Miss, you were really brave.

Luckily, Ace was not the kind of pirate who truly committed every evil imaginable. Otherwise, they would probably be discussing what to name her child now, or where to scatter her ashes.

What followed was a round of verbal sparring between the two. In the end, Ace still did nothing to the female Marine named Isuzu and simply sent her back to the warship.

As for Yota, he did not make a move either—didn't the other members of the Pirate Crew stay out of it too? Clearly, there was quite a story here, and it was probably a somewhat ambiguous one at that.

However, when the female Marine was thrown back, she glared viciously at Ace. "Don't get cocky, Fire Fist Ace! The next one coming after the Spade Pirates will be a real Vice Admiral!"

Hearing that, Yota wore an indescribable expression. Beautiful, are you here to catch pirates or to leak intelligence to them?

Still, seeing the strange atmosphere between Isuzu and Ace, as well as the complicated look in her eyes, Yota did not voice the complaint in his heart.

Forget it. The Navy had long made a habit of going easy on pirates. What did he, a pirate himself, have to say about it?

Still, the one who would soon be sent to pursue the Spade Pirates was a Vice Admiral. It would probably be a hard battle.

At the Vice Admiral level, there was no longer any meaningful difference between Navy Headquarters and branch bases. A branch Vice Admiral was the commander of an entire regional base, and their strength was not inferior to that of a Headquarters Vice Admiral in the slightest.

Or rather, aside from the distinction between Navy branches and Navy Headquarters in the Four Seas, all Marines in the Grand Line, whether from Headquarters or branch bases, were elites. The highest rank in the Four Seas' branch bases was only colonel, while only branches in the Grand Line had flag officers. Therefore, at the flag officer level, there were basically no weaklings.

Moreover, mastery of both types of Haki was practically standard equipment for Navy flag officers. Although Haki was not the absolute measure of strength, for a Logia-type user like Ace, opponents who could use Armament Haki and those who could not were completely different.

"Looks like I'll be facing a hard battle just after joining the Spade Pirates." Yota sighed. He was not afraid that Ace would lose. Before meeting Whitebeard, Ace was absolutely the kind of person favored by fate. A mere Vice Admiral definitely would not be his match.

But the other hangers-on of the Spade Pirates would probably get beaten up. Their strength was not actually that bad; compared to ordinary Supernova Pirate Crews, they could perhaps be considered average.

But compared with the elite officers brought by a Vice Admiral, they fell quite far short.

When the time came, the burden would likely fall on Yota, the Spade Pirates' second strongest combatant.

"Is this Jungle Island? It feels a little like a Mayan city."

Yota muttered as he looked at the island they were about to reach. The Spade Pirates had taken a different route from the Straw Hat Pirates, so the islands they reached were different as well.

This was a distinctly summer-type island in the Grand Line, filled with vast tropical rainforests and pyramid-like structures. It had quite a unique character.

"Alright, everyone rest on this island for a few days. We'll meet at the docks in a week."

"Miharu will watch the ship again this time. If anything happens, contact me directly with a Den Den Mushi. Everyone else can go have some fun." After Ace finished speaking, the Spade Pirates' crew erupted in cheers.

Setting sail in the One Piece World sounded incredibly romantic, but life at sea was actually dull and boring. What was truly interesting was the different scenery and atmosphere found on different islands.

Even in the original manga, the Straw Hat Pirates' voyages across the sea were only briefly mentioned. Most of the story focused on their adventures across different islands.

No wonder the Spade Pirates' crew, who had been cooped up aboard the ship for nearly a month, were so excited.

As for Miharu, the one left to guard the ship, he was the ultimate shut-in among shut-ins. Since joining the Spade Pirates, Yota had only seen him on deck once—when Ace introduced the crew to him right after he joined, and Miharu had come out to show his face.

So, being assigned to guard the ship did not upset him in the slightest. Instead, he was delighted.

Yota had originally wanted to remind Ace that a Vice Admiral's ship was still pursuing them. Now that they were scattering all the crew, what if that Vice Admiral caught up? Wouldn't that give the enemy a chance to pick them off one by one?

But after thinking it over, he realized that aside from himself and Ace, the others were basically just accessories hanging off their thighs. Even if they got captured, it did not seem to matter much. As long as Ace defeated that Vice Admiral, he could naturally rescue them all.

"But we've finally made landfall. This is a good chance to take care of my own business as well. Seven days should be enough time for me to get the training methods for those ninjutsu from the Black Market."

That was right. Yota had already decided to head to the Ninja World's Black Market and buy some Ninjutsu Scrolls. Besides Beli from the One Piece World, he also had plenty of hard currency like gold. Buying a few B-rank Ninjutsu Scrolls should be more than affordable.

Of course, the Black Market's Ninjutsu Scrolls went no higher than B-rank. Even if there were A-rank ninjutsu, most were widely circulated and not particularly useful.

Ninjutsu considered closely guarded secrets would never circulate in the Black Market. Even the B-rank ones available there were common, mass-market ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu such as Lightning Release Armor, Light-Weight Rock Technique, and Added-Weight Rock Technique definitely would not appear there. At most, there would be techniques like Water Dragon Bullet, Earth Dragon Bullet, and Water Formation Wall.