Villains? Heroes? It Doesn't Matter

"If you don't want to, forget it."

"...No! I never said I wouldn't. I was just thinking about it!"

Carina had been extremely unwilling whenever Li Mingyuan ordered her around.

But if the situation were reversed, it would be completely different.

Carina immediately snapped back to her senses, eagerly grabbing Li Mingyuan's arm and nodding repeatedly. "You really do have a good eye! That's right! After roaming the East Blue for so many years, my navigation knowledge is pretty impressive. As long as you're willing to follow my commands, whether it's a Marine base or anywhere else, I guarantee I'll get you to your destination!"

"Of course, on the condition that you obediently follow my orders."

She had barely finished speaking, and before she could officially start issuing commands, Carina could no longer hold back a smug little laugh.

Seeing Carina like this, Li Mingyuan found it rather amusing.

He could guess what Carina was thinking without even using his brain.

Fortunately, Li Mingyuan barely managed to keep a straight face. Still looking solemn, he said, "Then I'll be relying on you, Miss Temporary Navigator. For now, take us along the edge of the island and sail back to the cargo ship's crew."

"If anything comes up, just call for me to handle it."

With that, Li Mingyuan stood before Carina and waited for her instructions.

At that moment, faced with Li Mingyuan taking her so seriously, Carina felt utterly refreshed. She did not care what Li Mingyuan was thinking. Since command really had fallen into her hands, she would not hesitate to order him around.

"Fine, you said it yourself. There are only the two of us on this ship. You said you can do the work of ten sailors by yourself? Then I'm really going to use you like ten people, so don't complain afterward!"

"First, furl all the sails!"

And so, under Carina's command, Li Mingyuan began bustling around to prepare for departure.

Though sweat soon formed on Li Mingyuan's forehead amid the tedious labor, he did indeed follow every one of Carina's commands. Watching this, Carina felt like a serf finally rising up and singing.

Even Carina herself had not expected Li Mingyuan to actually obey her instructions.

Before long, she could not help but look at Li Mingyuan's busy back and grin wickedly.

"Hehehe! Didn't expect this, did you? You'd have a day like this too!"

Carina secretly rejoiced. Let's see how I order you around today and make you pay back all the sweat I shed before!

Meanwhile.

After tidying up the ship, Li Mingyuan looked at the pirate vessel that was about to leave Arlong Park and gazed out at the scenery over the sea.

Naturally, Carina could not possibly know why he was obediently listening to her now.

She probably thought she had finally vented some resentment.

Little did she know that while she was focused on how to torment him, Li Mingyuan was focused on Carina herself.

Based on their earlier time together in Arlong Park, Li Mingyuan was certain that he had already left a deep enough impression on Carina. What he needed to do now was officially reverse that image and start raising her favorability.

Letting Carina take charge on purpose involved a small psychological trick as well. The relationship between Li Mingyuan and Carina was far too unequal at the moment. Li Mingyuan not only had complete control over Carina's movements, but could even decide her life or death with a single thought.

If one-sided fear kept piling up, their relationship would never become close in the end.

By deliberately putting himself in the position of being commanded, and letting Carina feel needed and as though she was playing a crucial role in navigation, this small reversal was enough to make their private two-person space bring them closer together.

Otherwise, even if he truly needed someone who understood navigation, he could have casually mentioned needing help to Nami earlier, and she likely would not have refused. There had been no need to create this sort of two-person space.

Seeing that the pirate ship was now sailing normally.

Li Mingyuan quietly breathed a sigh of relief. At the last moment, he turned back and glanced once more at Arlong Park. Within Arlong Park, Nami and Nojiko could also be seen leaving in the distance.

Li Mingyuan did not linger on the two of them for long.

His gaze was instead focused on an inconspicuous corpse—Hachi, the Fish-Man.

"I didn't expect Nami not to even lower her head and look at Hachi's corpse once."

Li Mingyuan did not quite know how to describe how he felt at that moment.

But thinking about it, it made sense.

In the original story, Hachi had successfully been redeemed. Aside from the fact that he had always acted like a simpleton, it was probably also due to some authorial favoritism. But regardless, he was still one of the Fish-Men who had harmed Nami. Without all the later patches and redemption, Nami could never have forgiven him. Even if Li Mingyuan had killed him, to Nami, it merely meant one hateful Fish-Man had been removed. Naturally, she would feel nothing about it.

So Hachi was dead, and that was that.

Unlike in the original story, Nami did not spare Hachi even a single extra glance at this moment.

He wondered what Dark King Rayleigh would think if news of the Arlong Pirates' destruction reached the Sabaody Archipelago.

Li Mingyuan had originally considered that point, which was why he had not wanted to kill Hachi right away. But since he had already done it, it did not matter. When Hachi had joined the Arlong Pirates in ravaging the East Blue, Dark King Rayleigh had never stopped him either. After all, One Piece valued everyone having their own adventure, and others were best off not interfering. Since he had allowed a true pirate to run wild, being killed in return was simply the natural cycle of justice.

Hopefully, this rather likable figure from the old era would not act irrationally toward him because of some mistaken judgment.

Retracting his gaze, Li Mingyuan continued with the physical labor at hand.

Thus, the enormous pirate ship slowly sailed along the island's outskirts.

After a short while.

Li Mingyuan once again saw the cargo ship's crew by the shore, with a cluster of small boats docked nearby.

"Ah! Is that...?"

"It can't be wrong! Isn't that the guard at the bow of the ship?!"

As the pirate ship gradually approached, murmurs like these faintly drifted over from the island's shore.

Li Mingyuan told Carina to stay on the ship, then leaped down and landed directly on the shore.

Looking at the sailors before him, each wearing a different expression.

Li Mingyuan did not stand on ceremony and directly demanded the two Arlong Pirates officers.

"The matter with the Arlong Pirates has been resolved."

"Of course, even if I didn't say so, I imagine the news spread across the island during that time."

"Thank you for watching over them. You can hand those two officers back to me now."

At Li Mingyuan's words, the crew exchanged glances, and someone hurriedly ran into the forest.

A moment later, the first mate and boatswain, who had been nowhere to be seen, dragged two Fish-Men to the shore. Judging by how heavily they were panting, they clearly had not expected Li Mingyuan to return so quickly.

The first mate and boatswain looked at Li Mingyuan with ingratiating smiles on their faces.

As they handed over the Fish-Men, they asked about the battle between Li Mingyuan and Arlong. After expressing their amazement, they also told Li Mingyuan about their future plans and the crew's current itinerary.

To Li Mingyuan's surprise, the cargo ship sailors did not seem to plan on joining the islanders' celebration, nor would they stay on the island for long. After resting here a little longer, they intended to take their unconscious captain directly to a nearby island.

Unlike Arlong Park, that place from hell they had not even dared approach, other nearby islands still had cargo ship-related outposts.

Which meant.

This was probably the last time Li Mingyuan would meet the crew before him.

"That's fine too."

Li Mingyuan stood aboard the pirate ship with the two Fish-Man officers in hand, looking at the sailors on shore.

Watching the first mate still waving at him, he seemed to be thinking about something, a contemplative look on his face.

"What's fine about it? They're all trash."

Carina, standing nearby, could not help curling her lip.

"Even if it looks like a touching farewell, the truth is that you might not even know them as well as you know me. What's there to say goodbye about?"

"They look respectful toward you now only because you're strong and helped them. If you were just an ordinary civilian, then take another look. This group would definitely skin you alive and take your money to fill the cargo ship's losses."

Carina shuddered in disgust and vigorously rubbed her goosebump-covered arms, shaking her head repeatedly. "No, I can't take it anymore. It's disgusting. I can't even look at them."

"I'm going to the captain's cabin. You can stay here and keep looking at those fake smiling faces."

With that, Carina turned and left without caring about Li Mingyuan's reaction.

Only Li Mingyuan remained.

He stood where he was and helplessly looked at Carina's retreating figure.

He had merely said that it was fine too. He had not even said much else. How had that provoked her?

"Forget it."

Li Mingyuan sighed.

Having had his mood ruined, Li Mingyuan could not be bothered to watch the sailors' farewell any longer. He turned back, carried the two Fish-Man corpses over, and threw them together with Arlong's head. Then he found a crate on the deck and sat down.

Leaning against the ship's rail and watching the bright, sunlit sea, his thoughts gradually drifted.

Li Mingyuan believed Carina had not been lying about the sailors' misdeeds. She had no reason to deceive him on that point. But the reason he had not said anything further to the crew was mainly because, whether those claims were true or false, they had nothing to do with him.

After all, no matter what this crew had done outside, the fact remained that they had been polite to him. Including the captain, they had treated him with respect throughout the journey. If not for that, then when the cargo ship had been attacked by those officers, he would probably have waited for the Fish-Men to finish killing everyone before cleaning up the scene, rather than saving them first and killing the Fish-Men afterward.

This was simply Li Mingyuan's standard for dealing with people.

Whoever treated him politely and well, even if they were truly villains, he would deal with them as he saw fit.

He had not always had this habit. It was mainly because after crossing into the Warring States era of the Naruto world, the battlefield had reshaped his values. In that great crucible of bloodshed, neither Madara nor Hashirama had clean hands. Everyone was stained with the blood of innocents. But would he turn against them as enemies because of that? Of course not.

People all had two sides, and that was true even in One Piece.

Kaido had committed every kind of evil in Wano Country, but to King, was Kaido not a good big brother? Judging solely by his fighting style and personal presence, he did not seem like the same person at all. Yet without question, they were two sides of the same person.

So in the end, regarding this cargo ship, he chose to turn a blind eye and pretend he had seen nothing.

"Maybe my sense of morality is a little abnormal now too."

"If this keeps going, maybe one day I really could end up joining the Celestial Dragons' camp?"

Thinking of that, Li Mingyuan revealed a bitter smile.

Time passed.

After that, Li Mingyuan and Carina's pirate ship continued sailing according to the Log Pose and sea chart. Roughly two or three hours later, they approached an island with a Marine base.

After landing on the island, Li Mingyuan and Carina wasted no time. Amid the stunned gazes of the surrounding residents, they carried the Fish-Men's heads straight through the residential district and headed directly for their destination.

Within the 16th Marine Branch, Marines were still training continuously.

After arriving at the Marine base, Li Mingyuan got straight to the point and spoke with the Marines at the entrance. Before long, someone led them to a reception room.

A few minutes later.

Li Mingyuan, seated on the reception room sofa, saw Captain Nezumi's loathsome face appear before him.

"Hmm... These really are the Fish-Men's heads."

After inspecting the Fish-Man corpses, Captain Nezumi first wore a rather unpleasant expression. But then he turned toward Carina and Li Mingyuan with a smile. "Thank you for removing a menace from these waters. You must both be quite skilled, right?"

"From what I've heard, these Fish-Men were pirates from the Grand Line, and it seems they even had one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea backing them... To be honest, we have been troubled by them for a long time. If we acted rashly, we might end up like the other East Blue Marines who were defeated by the Fish-Men, with disastrous consequences. But letting them continue unchecked would also go against our duties. I never expected these Fish-Men to fall at your hands today."

"Do you have any titles known to the outside world? No matter what, at the very least, you aren't pirates, are you?"

Captain Nezumi spoke probing words as he carefully observed Li Mingyuan's expression.

Clearly, he was deeply wary of a powerful person suddenly appearing in the East Blue who could wipe out Arlong's group.

After all, by common sense, someone like that should not exist in the impoverished East Blue. Even if such a person did exist, they could not possibly be an unknown nobody. For someone to emerge without warning now, the possibility that they had come to the East Blue from the Grand Line, like Arlong's crew, was actually much higher.