I was roaming around the capital again, but my good mood is already gone. 'this is taking too long. I can't afford to waste too much time here, and those gangsters are really getting on my nerves,' I thought as I walked in the streets of the capital with a frown on my face.

'Wilson and the rest should have completed their tasks by now. I'll call to see where they are now so we can go drinking or something. I'm sure that will cheer me up,' I thought again as I took out my den den mushi and dialed Wilson's number, But I didn't receive an answer.

'what's going on? Could something have gone wrong?' I thought as I asked no in particular inside my head. 'With Wilson there, I doubt anything could go wrong, But I should check for myself to be sure,' I decided as I dialed Laffite's number this time.

"gotcha," the snail made the sound that showed it had successfully connected to the other side after several seconds. "This is Johnny. I'm in a hurry so, just listen. Wilson isn't answering my call, so I'm on my way to make sure everything is in order. Meet me there if you finished your task, or call me after you finish it if you haven't," I concluded and hung up the line as I made my way to Aldo's safe house as fast as I can.

I arrived at my destination after five minutes and heaved a sigh of relief as I found Wilson and Elly safe and sound in the wrecked gang's safe house.

Elly was the first to notice my arrival as she turned around and smiled in my direction. "Oh, captain, what are you doing here?" she asked, surprised at my presence after I had made it clear that I want nothing to do with this kind of work anymore.

I was about to answer him when I was interrupted by Wilson, who finally seemed to notice my presence too, as he came running towards me and shoved his face too close in front of my own.

"do you have any idea how bored I was, taking care of these small fries? You should come with us next time so we can get it done as quickly as possible," he said as he glared at me with annoyance.

"too close, you bastards. How many times do I have to tell you not to shove that ugly mug of yours so close in front of my face for you to understand?" I said as I punched him in his nose, pushing his face away from mine.

"I was planning to act myself anyway since some gangsters have gone done made me angry today," I said in an icy tone as the scene of the old shop owner getting roughed up flashed inside my head.

"so they made you angry, huh?" Wilson said with an excited smile. "I can still remember that one time when you got genuinely angry," he continued with a chuckle, and I felt my eyes twitch. "it was when those things, what did you call them? Baboons? Threw some half-eaten apples at you," he said as he raised his head and started to laugh loudly.

"What happened then?" Elly asked as she turned her head to look at me again curiously. "and why would you get so angry over some animals throwing fruits at you, captain?" she asked, and I felt my eyes twitch even further.

"he hunted every single one of their species on that island until they were extinct and then burned down all apple trees there too," Wilson answered as he laughed even more loudly. "Our brave captain here can't deal with- " and that as far as he got in his sentence as I sent him flying with another punch to the face.

"I'm going to make you go extinct if you don't shut your mouth, you damn blabbering gorilla," I said with a tangible aura of malice surrounding me.

"It doesn't matter anyway, captain. You still haven't told us what you're doing here," Elly said quickly, with a nervous voice, trying to change the subject.

"about that, I tried to call Wilson a little while ago to see how you guys are doing, but I didn't get an answer, so I came here to check on you two," I said as I finally remembered why I came here in the first place.

"Hey, big guy, why the hell didn't you answer the den den mushi when I called you?" I said as I turned to look at Wilson, who just tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"Den den mushi? What the hell is that?" he asked in a confused tone as he scratched his head. "Is that snail thing Laffite gave us? Was it some kind of communication device?" he asked again, sounding even more confused.

"Laffite was supposed to explain it to you earlier. Did he forget to do that or something? That's not like him," I asked with a sigh as I tiredly began rubbing my eyes.

"Oh, he did, but I got bored and didn't listen to a word he said," he said with a broad smile. "And where is your den den mushi right now?" I asked, hoping against hope that Wilson's answer would not be too ridiculous.

"I ate it," he said while laughing and rubbing the back of his neck, causing both Elly and me to deadpan on the spot. "You ate it?" I asked, hoping that my ears were merely playing tricks on me.

"I was hungry and thought it was a snack meant for the road, so I ate it, but it didn't taste good at all," he said in an irritated tone as he spoke his sentence word by word as if he was explaining something very complicated to a group of mentally challenged children.

"that's because you're not supposed to eat it you fucking moron," I shouted as I punched on the top of his head with all my strength and buried his head into the ground, creating a small crater in the process.

"captain, Wilson, now is not the time to fight. It looks like we've been surrounded, while you two were arguing," Elly said in a hushed voice, causing both Wilson, who was getting himself up, and me to halt our actions as we looked at each other and then smiled.

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