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Chapter 32: The Painting In Between I

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"What are you doing?" Yovan asked with apparent curiosity.

"Hm?" Laffitte raised his head, "I'm just learning to sew. Is it odd?"

"Nah, you do you." Yovan shook his head and walked up to the head of the ship, eying the oncoming waves and letting the breeze brush against his feeble face.

They safely departed from Cactus Island about two days ago without any trouble. Their destination was one of the other six Islands besides Cactus Island.

According to Igaram, pirates coming back from that way spoke of the certain Island Yovan wants to visit. 

Laffitte was instructing Capone's subordinates while learning how to sew. Capone was smoking a cigar to the side. Yovan was enjoying the sweet breeze while contemplating his life.

They were all just a bunch of strangers. Their thoughts were also strange, very alien from normal thought processes because Yovan was contemplating whether he was slacking off.

He was deliberating if there was more he could do to survive because he had this fleeting feeling that Limitless will still fuck him over at the end of the countdown.

Yovan was lost in thought for a long while, the strangely peaceful way allowing him to be in a daze. Things only started becoming strange once they approached their destination.

Yovan was woken up by a loss of balance, feeling the ship leaning to the front.

"We're almost there," Laffitte walked up to his side, eyeing the phenomenon before him, "It's brilliant, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Yovan looked down, far away. He could see an exquisite city, a moving city, "Befitting of its title... The turtle in between."

Instead of the mostly flat ocean, They were traveling an ocean akin to a mountain slope, going down the ocean at a 30-degree angle, barely able to keep their balance.

The incline was colossal, leading to a junction with another incline, and within that incline was the moving city, a city built on a colossal leatherback sea turtle.

"The city that never stops moving huh," This is one of the cities Igaram knows a lot about because of its nature.

For some reason unknown to Igaram, thus to Yovan as well, the water functions weirdly here, creating a slop that stretch for a long distance to form a circle.

The leatherback sea turtle moves along the junction in constant circulation. The deep circle in the middle of the ocean is called the Turtle strip.

It's a miraculous view that could fascinate anyone, even Yovan whose mind was always elsewhere. 

It was tempting him to go to his old ways, and adventure like he always did, but he knows that that's a path of Death. 

He was hesitating, tempted to paint something after such a long time, to stitch the gorgeous memory into his mind.

"It seems that will have to follow for a while," Laffitte remarked. The city was high above the turtle's back with seemingly no way to reach it. There was only one other ship following the turtle like them.

So, they did the same and continued following after the turtle for a while before a change happened. The turtle started diving down and down until the city was situated at sea level.

The city seemed to have been built perfectly with the turtle's mannerisms in mind. A very special port was constructed on the turtle's back, a small ocean you can say.

It allows the ships to settle there even when the turtle is up sea level. However, it only allows passage when the turtle dives down.

Just like now, The strangers' ship entered the port while others left, "I'm curious, how do they get up the incline?" Laffitte wondered. He can't imagine any normal ship going against the ocean current to climb up.

"Let's see it for ourselves," Yovan remarked as they docked at the port. What's about to happen seems to be something even the locals enjoy as he could see many looking at the leaving ships.

All of the leaving ships assembled in one location near the very edge of the incline. They seem to know exactly where they should stand for the oncoming phenomenon.

The water around them started turning green, very deep green. It seemed to be their own doing, and soon it was clear why.

Another turtle emerged from the water, seeming to be trained for this exact purpose because on the colossal turtle's back was a half water ball almost completely filled with water.

The water ball was perfectly attached to the turtle's shell, allowing it to scope the ships along without any damage to the ships.

The Turtle then started swimming up against the current, breaching it with ease. All the while, the ships were still perfectly balanced in the water ball, gravity doing its job.

The turtle swam into the distance, vanishing from the people's view, likely to deliver the ships far away from the violent current because they will definitely not be able to escape it.

"Lahahahahahahahahaahaha," For some strange reason, Laffitte started laughing as he watched the work of art that has happened before him, and Yovan had a sneaking suspicion...

His thought process was halted by Laffitte openly sharing his thoughts, "Do you know of an even more fantastic scenery? What if we break the glass ball while lots and lots of people are inside?"

"Nah, we should rob them all while inside of the glass ball. They'll have nowhere to escape." Capone corrected Laffitte's flawed plan.

"But that's not pure enough!" Laffitte disagreed, "If we only break for the sake of breaking it, the rush will feel immeasurably better."

"Are you a psychopath? Why do that when we have nothing of value to gain?" Capone looked at Laffitte as if looking at an idiot.

"Of course we will get something out of it, the rush, the excitement, and enjoyment! These things are invaluable!" Laffitte's response was... Well, special.

"Oh, right. You are a psychopath, and... Hoi, why the hurry?!" Whatever it is Capone wanted to say was halted by Yovan walking away from the duo, feeling a headache.

Yovan put on a loose black sweater that also hid his neck, complemented by a simple white cape and white pants, and black leather loafers. 

He went on to hide most of his face with one of Laffitte's classic black top hats before jumping off the ship.

"Should we split up to look for information?" Capone suggested. It very much wasn't like him to ask for confirmation, but without meaning to, Yovan took the temporary role of the captain of the ship. 

"Sure." Yovan side-glanced at Capone, very much aware that the latter must be planning something, but he wasn't his father nor his captain, so he didn't care.

And so, Capone made his way to wherever along with several of his subordinates though he did leave two of his subordinates to follow Yovan in case he needed anything.

And it seems that Yovan didn't notice his role in the team. The way he sees it was that this is a temporary team of strangers, and they will surely split up sooner than later.

Laffitte, however, followed after Yovan to tour the city together, "It seems that most pirates coming from the blues come here." Laffitte noted.

"And I can see why," Yovan agreed. The city was bustling with activities just as it was filled with Marines.

The ship that arrived alongside Yovan's likely was compromised of pirates too which is why they were hiding their faces. The Marines didn't seem interested in preying on the visitors as long as they don't act out of line.

The city's buildings leaned more toward an old architectural style, the Tudor style. It was also extremely stable because Yovan didn't feel the motion of the ocean despite the continuous movement of the turtle.

Even as the city started elevating due to the turtle emerging from undersea, no one felt a thing.

"You really should've hid your face," Yovan remarked.

"I'm just a nobody. I'm sure they won't pay attention to me." Laffitte shrugged with a sweet smile.

'No, they will!' Yovan wanted to scream, but he knew it would fall on deaf ears. The psychopath doesn't seem to realize his obvious psychopathic tendencies.

The city was oddly peaceful, but Yovan didn't prey on why. It was likely the plentiful Marines or something else. It's left for Capone to find out, his crew should act as a nice lookout for information.

His steps came to a halt soon enough, stopping before a gorgeous shop. It seemed to be a shop of paintings, sublimed by several gorgeous flowers of all colors.

Yovan stood there for a bit, stroking his chin. His hesitation drew curiosity out of Laffitte, "What??"

"Do you think I will slack off if I start painting again?" Yovan honestly asked, surprising Laffitte. He really didn't expect the feeble monster to ask such a question that told him a lot about Yovan.

"Hmm, yeah, your lifespan will likely be extended for a few hours more, but you still die soon... By your own hand." Laffitte also gave an honest answer.

The only answer that would get Yovan in that shop, ending up buying a lot of stuff for his old hobby. 

In fact, he went on a shopping spree with Laffitte buying anything they might need to the point all the money he collected during his bounty hunting days was on the verge of running dry.

"This is it..." Yovan murmured with a smile, finding the guide to his destination, an eternal Pose leading to a series of Islands called Boin Archipelago, and luckily, it was dirt cheap because literally, no one wants to go there.