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Chapter 61: It's Not Torture, I Swear! II

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"What are you doing?" Hancock asked with curiosity. Her Empress manners were seemingly long gone.

She really tried and tried to act in her usual manners when around Yovan, but he always says something that just negates her Empress side. She found it so unfair.

Yovan was seated on top of a strangely not lazy Antarisa. The latter was lying on the Crow's head.

He seemed to be in a daze, very much lost in thought while throwing feathers into the ocean until she attracted his attention, "Hm? Just thinking about the future."

"Are you dying?" Her eyes seemingly lit up. He pretty much always ignores her, so it was quite rare to receive an answer.

As for the feathers? She thought he was just missing around as he was throwing them about since long ago, seemingly making sure the Calm Belt tastes their darkness.

"Of course not." Yovan shook his head, looking at her weirdly, "What gave you that idea?"

Hancock looked at him weirdly in return, "An old decaying skeleton known as Yovan?"

"Oh," Yovan arched his brows, seemingly remembering what he looks like, but he couldn't have possibly forgotten that, right?

"I will not die." He answered with a shrug. Confidence reeking off him. There was once a time when he felt like he will surely die, but something changed.

"Boss!! But I will die! Please help!"

Hearing Laffitte's voice made Yovan turn around to eye his crew. They were all struggling, all because of him.

Kaku was fighting Laffitte, both using swords. Kaku had two katanas in his hands as he relentlessly attacked Laffitte while the latter only had one sword. 

It was actually the cane he usually has on him. This time it was unsheathed, revealing a rapier.

He was being beaten. It wasn't even a fight, more so a one-sided battle. Kaku was faster than him, and so much better swordsman than him.

Moreover, he couldn't use his Devil Fruit. It wasn't allowed. If that wasn't enough, the two of them were being constantly slapped by feather hands, keeping them on guard.

That wasn't the end of it. Hancock was using her Conqueror Haki at almost all times except when she needed to rest or if she was exhausted.

But about a month passed, so they adapted to her Haki quite a bit, at least to the point that they can actually fight comfortably while within it.

Yovan even goes far and beyond to beat them up sometimes, but it was all to lecture them on the importance of hard work, so it's okay.

He was even training them on the use of Soru, a technique to move at extremely high speeds in order to avoid attacks. Well, it was more so a leap, making it seem as if the user vanished.

Yovan was the one who came up with how it's used after his confrontation with Vice Admiral Tarus in the Turtle in Between.

He simply observed him using Geppo and Soru and made his crew try it too. His state unfortunately didn't allow him to try it.

The principle of this move was to kick off the ground several times in the blink of an eye. He just wasn't sure how many times were needed.

It was, however, hard to the point that even Bege who was training harder than anyone in Geppo was barely making any progress.

He was fighting Kalifa in the air, but he was only able to double-jump before having to fall back to the ship again.

It was all for the greater good, just so he wouldn't need Laffitte to pick him up again... For the greater good of his suits.

Still, Yovan absolutely ignored Laffitte, minding his own business minus the feathers that beat them up from time to time.

All the while, most of his focus was on contemplating his future. He was planning something, and he wanted to go as badly as possible because he realized something over the last month.

[Devil Fruit: Kakin Kakin no Mi, Model: Crow (Awakened): 999/∞]

His Devil Fruit mastery was stuck again. It rose relatively rapidly for the past month until it didn't anymore.

The last time that happened, he awakened his Devil Fruit, and after mastering his awakening just recently, he reached another bottleneck.

'But what more could there be?' He of course had many possibilities of what might happen in mind, but it was all left for the future.

"Can I trust you to keep everything a secret?" Hancock asked with a frown, a trace of fear very apparent in her eyes.

She was still fearful about the Slave Mark, understandably so. Not only does her life depends on that remaining a secret, but also her people's lives.

And she knows Yovan is basically her nemesis. There is so little she can do against him, but nothing have a high enough chance of success for her to take the risk.

And what better time was there to ask than now because she can see her home far in the distance, Amazon Lily. Her services are no longer needed.

"Hm?" Yovan raised his brows at her, "That you basically got beaten by me easily? Don't worry Baao, I'll probably not tell anyo... Wait."

He halted his words, and looked at her again with the weirdest look he has ever given her, "Baao? Bao? Boo? Baaaa? Beo? Boa? Oh, yeah... I remember of course, it's Boa!"

He seemed so happy. He finally memorized her name much to her poor facial muscles. They were working overtime as her face continuously twitched out of speechlessness, especially as he added, "Boa Honeycock!"

Again, Yovan stopped, happiness leaving his face as he studied her chaotic facial expression, and he realized something, "That was a joke by the way. I of course remember your name. Anyway, bye."

A burst of feathers erupted, sending her flying toward her Island. Her Observation Haki didn't help her predict that because it was too busy trying to see a future where Yovan dies just out of spite.

Yovan wanted to bury his face in the ground to hide his expression though he remember he had a mask on, so he acted like nothing happened.

He even started singing loudly to his crew just out of kindness, "Nothing happened!! Something didn't happen at all!! You saw nothing!! Because nothing happened! but a slap might happen!! If you saw something happen!! So it's better if nothing happened!! Because torture might happen!!"

For some unknown reason, everyone in his crew felt a chill travel down their spine as they listened to his sweet singing, so they continued to work harder in their training.

That made Yovan happy, knowing that his singing could bring the passion out of people, the passion to work harder.

His singing might've even traveled to Amazon Lily as Hancock screamed while wildly stomping on the mask she had to keep on for a month, "AHH!! Just wait!! I'll beat you up someday!!! Ahem..."

Her manners took a complete turn as she noticed her people rapidly approaching her location, "I The Pirate Empress will not forget your offense for one day, you'll kneel before me... For I am beautiful!!"

"AHHH, the princess is back!!"

"She must've beat that monster before coming back!!"

"As expected of our princess' beauty. It would bring even ugly monsters like him to his knees!!"

"Didn't what she just say insinuate she has yet to defeat him or make him kneel before her?"

"AHH, heretic!! Common sense using witch!! Our princess is beautiful! Of course everything will go her way!!"

"Sorry!! I used common sense. Our princess is the most beautiful of course!!"

Thankfully, Yovan wasn't there to hear that. No, he stood up, turning to face his crew, "Laffitte, change directions! We're going back to Paradise!"

Laffitte was all too eager to escape his torturous training, leaping at the steering wheel.

"And... We'll do something big, perhaps too big. There will be chaos. Paradise may as well be as dangerous as the New World after what we will do!! That's an exaggeration by the way."

"Let's not make it an exaggeration. Let's make it a reality." Bege suggested.

"No, let's make it worse!!" Laffitte wisely advised.

"What is it?" Kalifa asked. As his self-proclaimed secretary, she likes to keep up with everything and make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid.

"It's... Something I won't tell you until it happens. Just listen to my instructions, and everything should probably be fine." Yovan responded with a wide smile, eyeing her strangely.

Kalifa didn't like that as she questioned again, "Please don't make any stupid decision that may ruin everything."

"A decision has already been made, and there is no going back on it... Things will happen, and you all just have to adapt... This is a test."

His eyes shone with a golden light, one that told everyone of the seriousness of the situation. This was a test like none other, and it included them all.