"Yeah, Captain. Going in alone is too dangerous. How about taking me with you?"
Tashigi placed a hand over her chest and looked at Arton with hopeful eyes.
Just like Ain, she had long since started thinking of Arton as someone she wanted to stay with for the rest of her life.
There was no way she could just sit by and watch him go off into danger alone.
As a former Marine, even now Tashigi still had a kind of instinctive awe toward a place like Enies Lobby, an organization directly under the World Government.
Because of that, she was deeply worried that Arton would run into danger there.
If something really happened to him, the Flameblade Pirates would be finished.
Given everything Arton had done at this stage, the World Government probably wouldn't even give him the chance to survive long enough to develop further in prison.
They would most likely execute him immediately.
After all, Arton was someone who had laid hands on a Celestial Dragon.
Whether out of revenge or out of wanting to show the world once again what happens to anyone who touches a Celestial Dragon, the World Government would most likely put Arton to a public execution.
If the World Government merely planned to imprison him, Tashigi honestly wouldn't be all that worried.
After all, Arton had the sailing diary system. As long as he kept writing in it every day, he would continue to get rewards over time.
But there might already be women inside the World Government who possessed diary copies.
And there was no guarantee those women wouldn't be fiercely loyal to the World Government.
If that were the case, they might warn the World Government to kill Arton as soon as possible.
And if that happened, things would become even worse.
After hearing Tashigi speak, Ain also wanted to say that she hoped she could go with Arton.
But when she thought about how weak she still was at this stage, and how she still hadn't received a template, she realized she didn't really have any way to help him.
In the end, Ain fell silent and looked at Tashigi with envy.
Maybe only someone like Tashigi—someone who had already obtained a powerful template and real strength—was qualified to move together with Arton.
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Tashigi."
Arton looked at her with a smile, feeling like all the attention he had showered on her lately hadn't gone to waste.
"But whether I take you with me or not... we can decide that when the time comes. We still have some distance left before we reach our destination, so there's no need to rush it right now, is there?"
"All right. If that's what you think, Captain..."
Tashigi was still worried, but at this point she could only nod and accept Arton's view for the time being.
"By the way, it's getting dark."
Arton lifted his head and looked at the sky.
"Feels like it's about time to sleep."
"But Captain, didn't you already sleep for quite a long time earlier? Are you really going to be able to sleep again tonight?" Ain asked in confusion.
"Probably not, no."
Arton smiled a little.
"But that works out fine. Everyone worked hard during the day, so tonight I'll take the watch."
His eyes drifted toward the lookout platform.
Up until now, he had been the one sleeping in his room while the others handled watch duty aboard the ship.
Arton felt that this time, it was only right for him to stay up and guard the ship himself so everyone else could get some proper rest.
Chapter 652: If They'd Known, They Wouldn't Have Fought Over It So Hard
Arton could naturally feel how much the Flameblade Pirates respected him.
Because of that, there were times when he wanted to give something back to them too—like letting them get a proper rest for once.
Besides, standing watch wasn't exactly hard work for him.
Even pulling an all-nighter didn't drain him nearly as much as one round of Tashigi drawing strength out of him did.
Forget one sleepless night—even standing watch for ten days or half a month straight wouldn't really be difficult for the current Arton.
But there was no way Ain and Tashigi were going to let Arton take watch alone.
If, halfway through the night, Arton suddenly got inspired and wrote their next destination into the sailing diary, and no one was there to stop him, the situation would be a complete disaster.
The moment they thought of that possibility, both Ain and Tashigi reached out and grabbed one of Arton's hands.
"How can we let Captain stand watch all by himself? I'll help too. Besides, I want to talk with you more, Captain."
Ain's expression was solemn as she said it.
"Right, and if Captain needs a body pillow in the middle of the night... I-I can handle that too."
Tashigi said that with a bright red face.
"You two... fine. Since you're both saying that, then let's all go to the lookout room together."
Arton shook his head and sighed.
With Ain and Tashigi putting it that way, even he felt too awkward to refuse.
So the three of them climbed up to the lookout and began the night watch together.
Partway through, Uta brought them a late-night snack. After eating together, they passed a quiet, peaceful night.
Time flew, and before long it was already dawn.
"Damn it... I actually fell asleep."
Arton opened his eyes, looked at the familiar ceiling, and muttered to himself in annoyance.
He'd clearly said he was going to stand watch, so how had he ended up falling asleep?
Especially when he'd already slept for such a long time the previous afternoon.
"Good morning, Captain."
"Good morning, very-much-awake Captain."
Ain and Tashigi's voices rang out one after the other, making Arton instinctively prop himself up on his elbows and look ahead.
Not far in front of him, Ain and Tashigi were crouched there, fighting over the same lollipop.
"Uh... well, thanks for waking me up, I guess. Come to think of it, don't tell me you two actually stayed up the whole night on watch."
"Mm, but don't worry, Captain—we're still full of energy."
Ain smiled.
Tashigi already had the candy in her mouth for the moment, so Ain was the one free to explain.
Apparently, sometime in the second half of the night, Arton had slowly drifted off to sleep.
After that, Ain and Tashigi had just chatted while waiting for daybreak.
Only once the sun lit up the sea—and after they saw Arton's body wake up before his mind did—did the two of them stop reminiscing about their old Marine days and decide to see whether they could use Arton's body to wake up his mind too.
Judging from the result, the method worked pretty well.
They had barely even started before Arton opened his eyes.
That left Ain and Tashigi a little disappointed, since they'd originally planned to give Arton a very pleasant dream before fully waking him up.
If they'd known it would work that fast, they wouldn't have fought over it so fiercely and woken him so early.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.