New World

"At last, we've reached the New World!" Deuce, wearing an eyepatch, stood on the deck with his arms spread wide. The pose he struck made Yota's eyes hurt.

Please, your name was Deuce, not Ruth! And doing that kind of pose made it easy to crash into an iceberg, didn't he know that?

But the New World's welcoming ceremony soon showed him the consequences of striking random poses. A massive wave mixed with terrifying Cold Air nearly froze him into an ice sculpture in an instant.

"Ah, so cold, so cold! What's going on? It's sunny right now, so why is the seawater this cold? It's practically freezing!"

Shivering from the cold, Deuce hurriedly retreated. Ace stretched out a hand and released a huge blaze, finally warming him up quite a bit.

"This is the New World. Not only can the seawater be colder than ice, but icebergs falling from the sky are perfectly normal too," Yota said lazily.

"Haha, how could something like icebergs falling from the sky possibly happen?" Deuce said with a dry laugh.

Yota narrowed his eyes and ignored him completely. The New World's climate was far more insane than that of the first half of the Grand Line.

Leaving aside everything else, even a sea overlord as powerful as Golden Lion had nearly been wiped out by a single storm. The fact that Golden Lion had been reduced to a drowned rat showed just how terrifying the sea climate here truly was.

Fortunately, the Spade Pirates' navigator was Ace, the only capable person on this ship besides himself. Otherwise, Yota really would not have dared to come to the New World.

At this point, more than half a year had passed since Yota boarded the ship.

Over those six months, the Spade Pirates had gone through quite a few events. But most of the danger had been shouldered by Ace and Yota alone. It was not as though the other Spade Pirates crew members had contributed nothing, but their combat strength was truly abysmal. They could only provide logistical support.

To say nothing of anything else, Ace and Yota had already begun to figure out Armament Haki, yet among the remaining crew members, half of them still could not even use Observation Haki despite having a standard textbook!

With Observation Haki, coupled with Ace having fought quite a few opponents possessing Armament Haki, he quickly awakened Armament Haki during one battle.

Although Ace had awakened it through talent and did not really know how to train Armament Haki, Yota did not need overly specific guidance. As long as he fought Ace a few more times, he gradually figured out Armament Haki as well.

It was precisely because they possessed both types of Haki that the two of them dared to come to the New World. Ace might fear neither heaven nor earth, but Yota felt a little uncertain inside.

He knew perfectly well just how reckless Ace had been when he first came to the New World.

First, he went looking for the Red Hair Pirates. Fortunately, he had only sought out Red Hair to thank him for saving his younger brother Luffy. Furthermore, Red Hair was open and magnanimous by nature, so no conflict arose between them.

After that, he started courting death, running straight to Wano Country to look for trouble with Kaido. If Kaido had not happened to be away at the time, there would probably have been one more person beaten up by Kaido.

He failed to find Kaido in Wano Country, but encountered Kaido's child Yamato instead. After merely drawing with Yamato, who was wearing Sea Stone handcuffs, he still failed to recognize the gap between them and went directly to find trouble with Whitebeard.

Come on, even someone as hardheaded as Luffy knew to make a strategic retreat after encountering Big Mom, grow stronger for a while, and only then go looking for trouble. Did Ace really have to be that brave?

Oh, right. Back on Fish-Man Island, Ace had even burned Whitebeard's flag. Whitebeard was broad-minded and might not personally trouble Ace, but the sons under him would not indulge Ace.

Though Ace had not run into any problems in the original story, and after being defeated by Whitebeard, had willingly acknowledged Pops,

before he met Whitebeard, he had truly been surrounded by danger at every turn. It was entirely possible that one of Whitebeard's sons, or an All-Star under Kaido, might have killed him.

After all, two fists could not beat four hands, and even a good man could not withstand a crowd. Whitebeard's sons and Kaido's subordinates would not reason with him. If they could not beat him alone, would they not just gang up on him?

What was more, Emperor Vice-Captains like Marco or King were probably strong enough to defeat Ace even in a one-on-one fight!

Thinking about the journey through the New World made Yota's head ache.

Still, he had nothing to complain about. In truth, once any Pirate Crew entered the New World, the Four Emperors became an insurmountable mountain.

Even if Ace's Spade Pirates did not want to clash with the Four Emperors, that would be impossible. These four pirate overlords of the New World would instinctively suppress any Pirate Crew that might threaten their position. Even pirates like Whitebeard and Red Hair, who did not harbor much malice themselves, had beneficiaries under their flags who would willingly do the same.

Just as the saying went, hit the little one and the old one would come. All pirates in the New World belonged under the Four Emperors, and how could pirates possibly avoid conflict with one another? Thus, any newly arrived Pirate Crew would eventually have to face the Four Emperors.

With Ace's status as a super rookie and a Shichibukai candidate, he had already been someone the Four Emperors Crews watched closely. It was difficult even to lie low and develop. Conflict was inevitable; Ace had merely brought that process forward a little.

Putting aside those worries, Yota turned his gaze to Ace. "Captain, where are we going next?"

Ace was not only the captain of the Spade Pirates, but also their navigator—after all, in the original story, he had dared to pursue Blackbeard alone, which clearly meant his navigation skills were impressive.

Ace looked at the map in his hand, then checked the Permanent Pointer. "Let's find the Red Hair Pirates first. I happen to have some things I want to thank them for!"

"Still, the Red Hair Pirates are rather hard to find. If we really can't find them, we'll go look for the Whitebeard Pirates first!"

The Red Hair Pirates' territory was the smallest in the New World, but unlike the other Four Emperors, they were basically traveling every day and had no fixed headquarters.

Unlike Kaido, who had Wano Country, or Big Mom, who had Totto Land, even Whitebeard had a headquarters where he often stayed.

Only the Red Hair Pirates were truly wandering about. Sometimes, even Shanks himself did not know where he was.

Once, when Shanks and Hawkeye—or someone else—were holding a banquet, they brought out liquor said to be a specialty brewed on a deserted island. But deserted islands in the New World had no Log Poses. In other words, the Red Hair Pirates had drifted there entirely on their own. At the time, they probably did not even know of that island's existence.