The Pirate Crew Is Formed

Mark stood at the bow, staring blankly at Cocoyasi Village as it receded farther and farther into the distance.

"Mark, did you ask me when you let Nami join the pirate crew?" Daisy walked up beside Mark and suddenly asked.

"What's wrong?" Mark asked in surprise.

"I'm the crew's navigator now. Did you ask me?" Daisy pouted, looking thoroughly unhappy.

Mark smacked his forehead. So that was what this was about. He immediately looked embarrassed.

All this time, he had treated Daisy like a chihuahua. He really had not considered how she felt.

But it had to be said that if Daisy had not identified the nautical charts and served as their navigator along the way, they might not have found Cocoyasi Village at all. They might have gotten lost long ago.

"I'm really sorry, Daisy... I've been too bossy all along." Mark readily admitted his mistake.

Daisy was not a chihuahua, and she had contributed a great deal along the way. Especially during the battle with Arlong, her marksmanship had played no small role.

"Mark, let me be the navigator!" Daisy looked at Mark seriously. "And the doctor too..."

Daisy as the navigator? Mark suddenly thought of all the nautical charts in the room and smiled.

"Then you'll be our navigator!" Daisy was a genius too, wasn't she?

She had gone out to sea alone to search for Donquixote Doflamingo and investigate clues about her mother's family.

Within a year, she had become familiar with quite a few nautical charts and learned the skills of a navigator. She could lead them out to sea, and she also had decent marksmanship and Devil Fruit powers.

A genius was right beside him, so why look elsewhere?

"As for the doctor, that's definitely you. Besides, Daisy, aren't we all handling multiple jobs now?"

Mark's words made Daisy smile.

"Seems like it."

From the moment Daisy ate her Devil Fruit, it had been destined that most ship doctors would be inferior to her. She also knew how to make nautical charts and sail the seas, so the roles of ship doctor and navigator were hers without question.

There was no need to mention Mark. He was the captain and cook.

Chiu Chiu had even more jobs now: dishwasher, combatant, generator, overboard rescue worker, and so on...

With just the three of them, they already had the beginnings of a pirate crew.

Now that the pirate crew had been formed, they naturally needed to make a pirate flag.

"Boss, Boss, how's the pirate flag I drew?" Chiu Chiu held a brush and scribbled away on paper, but no matter how it drew, the final result was always a big bird...

Mark took the pirate flag Chiu Chiu had drawn, frowned, and said solemnly, "Chiu Chiu, I can't say it doesn't look like a pirate flag. I can only say it has absolutely nothing to do with one!"

"Leave it to me!"

Taking the brush and paper from Chiu Chiu, Mark began to draw.

Mark's drawing might not have been beautiful, but after practicing carving for so long, he was at least better than Chiu Chiu.

The pirate flag was simple: a standard skull, a mass of pitch-black darkness behind it like flames, and a pair of wings on either side of the skull.

It looked like a simple skeletal angel.

It was not flashy, but it had an imposing presence.

Mark's darkness, Daisy's beauty, and Chiu Chiu's wings.

The three of them were the foundation of this pirate crew, and this pirate flag was born under their witness.

Daisy and Chiu Chiu had no objections.

"Then I'll hang up the pirate flag!"

"Okay!" Daisy and Chiu Chiu answered in unison.

They painted the pirate flag on the sail and banner. From this moment on, the Moss Pirates had officially been formed.

"Alright, boys... set sail!!!" Chiu Chiu flew to the bow and swept its right wing forward.

Mark and Daisy looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time.

"Benn Beckman, do you think we'll run into Garp?"

"Is it really okay for the captain to suddenly say something so terrifying?"

"Hahaha, I'm just asking..."

"Maybe... it's possible!"

"Then are we still going?"

"Of course. At worst, we'll fight Garp. Luffy has to become a pirate."

The Red Force, the pirate ship of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the newly risen Four Emperors crews of the New World, had arrived in the East Blue.

Yet it did not cause much of a stir.

The East Blue was simply too weak. So far, only a handful of people had entered the Grand Line, and even fewer knew of Red-Haired Shanks.

On the deck of the Red Force, Red-Haired Shanks and Benn Beckman stood side by side.

The two joked with each other while the pirates behind them chimed in.

They had come to the East Blue for only one purpose: to visit Luffy.

Of course... there was also one of Shanks's personal reasons...

To visit the Windmill Village restaurant owner... Makino!

"Captain... after we see Luffy in the East Blue this time, are we heading back to the New World?"

Lucky Roux asked as he gnawed on a huge chicken leg.

Benn Beckman cut in, "You don't know what the captain's really thinking? He comes to the East Blue every so often. Don't you know why?"

Building Snake adjusted his sunglasses. "Isn't it to see Luffy?"

"Tch! Snake, that's all you can think of!"

Yasopp said, "It's obviously for Miss Makino!"

"You don't know this, but one day after the captain got drunk, he kept muttering... Makino... Makino..."

Yasopp crossed his arms over his chest and put on an infatuated expression.

"Who... who said that!"

A faint blush actually appeared on Shanks's face.

The usually taciturn Benn Beckman joined in, "The captain's blushing. Oh, the captain's actually blushing!!!"

"Hahahahaha!!!"

"Miss Makino... hahahaha!"

A wave of laughter rang out across the Red Force.

In truth, Benn Beckman and the others did not know that Shanks felt more guilt than anything else. Makino had given so much for him and had always raised the child alone, while he, as a pirate, longed for the sea.

Yasopp had also abandoned his family and followed Shanks to sea after listening to him.

When it came to Makino, Shanks felt even more indebted.

Today might be the last time he returned to the East Blue to see her. After all, he was now one of the Four Emperors of the New World. If he frequently traveled to the East Blue, the Marines would definitely notice him.

Then Uta and Makino would both be in danger.

"Captain, I know... you've never been able to let go of Miss Makino, just like I've never been able to let go of my wife and child!" Yasopp came to Shanks's side and said wistfully.

Shanks froze slightly as he looked at Yasopp, then patted him on the shoulder without saying anything.

Two men with families, yet both had fallen in love with the sea.

"Captain... there's a pirate ship!" Lucky Roux stood at the bow and pointed in one direction.

Hearing that, Shanks and the others looked over.

"Never seen that flag before," Yasopp said.

"A new pirate crew?"

As the pirate ship drew closer and closer, Shanks saw the people on its deck, and his eyes widened slightly.

"That's... Mark, and little Daisy!"