Treating Whitebeard

Yota pushed open the door and looked on in surprise. Whitebeard was not drunk at all; he was studying a sea chart with a serious expression.

Honestly, the contrast was rather striking: Whitebeard had the height of a little giant, yet he wore such a meticulous, analytical expression as he assessed the intelligence.

Hearing the door open, Whitebeard shifted his attention over and pointed at a stool beside him. "Sit down, kid."

Yota casually shut the door behind him and asked Whitebeard curiously, "Captain Whitebeard, you don't seem surprised by my arrival?"

Whitebeard's long crescent-shaped mustache twitched upward. "Do you think this old man's Observation Haki is just for show?"

Yota was immediately at a loss for words. He had thought the old man had noticed something, but it turned out he was simply cheating with Observation Haki!

Still, Yota was somewhat surprised that Whitebeard's Observation Haki could cover the entire ship without anyone noticing. After all, he had never been famous for his Observation Haki in the original story.

Those pirates of the older generation had honed nearly every aspect of their abilities to the limit. They only had abilities they excelled at and abilities they excelled at even more; they had no weaknesses whatsoever. They truly could not be underestimated.

"I see. Then Captain Whitebeard, you should know that your sons are all worried about your health. With a great battle approaching, you don't want them to keep worrying, do you?"

"Heh heh heh, you're right. They already call me an old child—am I supposed to keep being so willful?" Whitebeard grumbled, sounding somewhat dissatisfied.

Yota immediately felt black lines forming across his forehead. Doesn't saying that only confirm you really are an old child?

Then Whitebeard looked at Yota. "Besides, brat Yota, you shouldn't be calling me Captain anymore!"

As he spoke, Whitebeard poured two bowls of wine, one large and one small, then handed the smaller bowl to Yota.

With a faint smile, Yota accepted it. "Then please take care of me, Pops Whitebeard!"

Whitebeard was already over seventy. Even if Yota added together the ages of both his lives, he would have no psychological resistance to calling him Pops.

Besides, this Pops truly treated his sons well. If the old man's standards were not so high, the pirates wanting to acknowledge Whitebeard as their father could probably line up from here all the way to Mary Geoise!

And Yota had been looking forward to treating Whitebeard for a long time—this was the first time he could obtain the body structure of a pirate on the level of the Four Emperors! Yota was certain that after treating Whitebeard, his body modifications would advance another step, and his potential would increase considerably once more.

Although Whitebeard was not a monster like Kaido or Charlotte Linlin, who relied entirely on physical talent, his physical strength and defense were at most a hair below theirs. In terms of pure bodily power, he was not inferior to either of them in the slightest.

After all, even while seriously injured and plagued by illness, he had been able to stop a ship with one hand without budging an inch. The strength of his arms probably had to be measured in thousands of tons!

There was not much to say about the treatment process. At most, Whitebeard was so huge that after Yota swallowed him with the Munch-Munch Fruit, Yota himself grew several meters taller. Once he spat Whitebeard back out, he returned to normal.

For a moment, Yota felt that his Devil Fruit was rather similar to Luffy's—it could grow larger and smaller too.

Yota did not feel much from this treatment, aside from becoming absorbed in studying Whitebeard's body structure. Whitebeard, however, felt completely different.

The long-lost sensation of ease, the feeling of strength flooding his body after his once-weakened form had returned to health—it made Whitebeard unable to restrain himself as he unleashed his incomparably powerful Conqueror's Haki.

Yota, standing beside him, narrowed his eyes and his body trembled slightly. He actually felt a brief wave of dizziness. Though it vanished in an instant, it left him deeply shocked.

His current combat power was outstanding even among Vice Admirals. Especially after he began training in illusion techniques, his resistance to Conqueror's Haki had become extremely strong, yet he had still been affected.

If it had been an ordinary Rear Admiral, even if they did not faint on the spot, their combat strength would likely have been greatly reduced by the intimidation.

"The old man's Haki is truly terrifying... No wonder he's called the strongest man on the seas."

At that moment, the entire Moby Dick had fallen into chaos. For ordinary crew members, Whitebeard's Conqueror's Haki could knock them all unconscious, but for most Squad Commanders, it was practically a sobering remedy.

"Who was that?"

"Is someone attacking us? That sounded like Pops's Haki!"

"Hurry and see how Pops is doing!"

Amid the clamor, a crowd rushed in, only to find Whitebeard sitting there drinking wine with a ruddy, radiant face.

Seeing his adopted sons rush in, Whitebeard set down his wine bowl and glared. "What are you all making such a fuss for? This old man is doing just fine!"

"Uh... Pops... you didn't encounter an enemy?"

"This old man was simply bored, so I exchanged a few moves with your new brother. What, do you all think I'm old enough to be taken out by an enemy just like that now?"

"No, no."

"Of course not."

A group of pirates in their forties and fifties were being scolded by Whitebeard like grandchildren. To put it bluntly, Whitebeard had been the one using Conqueror's Haki in the middle of the night to disturb everyone's sleep, yet now he acted as if he were the one in the right.

There was no helping it. Whitebeard was everyone's father, so they could only humor him.

Marco took one look at Whitebeard's rosy complexion and invigorated appearance and understood something. Then, hearing Whitebeard mention a new brother, he immediately turned his gaze toward Yota.

"So Yota has joined the Whitebeard Pirates now? He's become your adopted son too, Pops?"

Whitebeard grunted twice, but he knew he could not reveal his former condition in front of everyone. He merely said vaguely, "That's right. I finally went along with your wishes."

However, Whitebeard soon felt that something was off, because it sounded as though he had accepted Yota only because Marco had suggested it, as if he had been unwilling.

Thinking that, he slapped his forehead. "You've got me all mixed up. Come, this is my newly adopted son, Yota. He's all of your little brother as well."

The other Squad Commanders exchanged looks, joy appearing on their faces.

Leaving aside whether their personalities would get along, speaking practically, Yota's ability would be incredibly useful in battle. He was practically an unlimited source of recovery.

And Yota's strength was not bad either. At the very least, among Whitebeard's Squad Commanders, he should be able to squeeze into the top ten.

Honestly, given Pops Whitebeard's usual temperament, they had assumed Yota would join their crew very quickly. They had not expected it to take this long.