While Luffy and the others decided to stay for a while, planning to spend some time strengthening themselves and adjusting to his Nika form.
Lucky Roux and the others took the remaining members of the Red Hair Pirates aboard a small boat and prepared to head for the New World.
Yasopp was deeply reluctant and had even suggested staying behind with Shanks.
In the end, however, Shanks's insistence left no room for argument, and he departed with Lucky Roux's group.
Still, he gave himself a high-minded justification.
I have to stay with these people and keep an eye on them. I can't let anyone get other ideas along the way and betray the captain.
After all, Lucky Roux's attitude toward Luffy and the captain is so bad now. Who knows whether he'll incite the others to mutiny?
The small boat slowly made its way through the passage to the New World that the NEW Marines had recently opened.
It was an underwater passage only a thousand meters deep, far safer and more convenient than the old route through Fish-Man Island.
The small boat gradually rose until it finally broke the surface.
Sunlight shone over the sea, making the water sparkle.
Yet what greeted them was not the freedom and peace they had imagined.
Ahead of them, an enormous steel warship lay motionless, as though it had been waiting for a long time.
At the sight of the colossal warship, over a hundred meters long and built entirely of steel gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, Lucky Roux and the others' expressions instantly darkened.
They had notified the NEW Marines beforehand, but this was not a NEW Marines warship sent to pick them up.
There was a world of difference between the NEW Marines and the Marines.
The NEW Marines were