Just like that, the massive brawl lasted three days.
Aus's monster-level strength earned recognition from everyone in Whitebeard's crew.
Sneaky and strong—totally broken.
Luckily by day four, both sides finally called it quits.
Both crews broke out supplies and treasure chests from their ships, trading like street vendors.
The intense fighting and Haki training left Aus pretty wiped too. He needed time to slowly master and settle everything he'd learned.
But he wasn't that interested in trading anyway. His stuff was just one Devil Fruit, plus some daily split of Belly and treasures.
After browsing half the day, he only used treasures to trade some Seastone from Whitebeard's crew—handy whether for making bullets or other uses.
"Buggy, Shanks, you two gonna keep standing there like idiots?"
Aus sat on a fallen tree trunk behind them, watching the pair standing with hands on hips looking smug. Pretty speechless.
"They keep staring at us, Aus!"
"Really?"
Across from them, little Marco who got dropped with one shot sat cross-legged wrapped in bandages, next to a chubby black kid also wrapped thick in gauze.
Marshall D. Teach!
Future Four Emperor—backstabbing Blackbeard.
But what both were staring at didn't seem to be Buggy and crew, more like Aus who was eating.
"Those guys are apprentice pirates?"
Teach asked seriously, eyeing the three.
"Yeah, they've been on Roger's ship for ages."
As an old crew member who'd followed Whitebeard from the start, Marco knew Roger's people pretty well. He'd known about the three kids for a while.
He just never expected that black-haired bastard to be this strong—completely beyond expectations.
"How the hell... that kind of monster is just an apprentice on Roger's ship?!"
Cold sweat dripped from Teach's forehead. The wound on his left shoulder still throbbed—internal damage hurt way worse than it looked.
The other two clearly didn't look strong at all.
How could there be such a massive gap between them?
This first meeting with Aus, the guy's overwhelming power had obviously left serious psychological scars.
While those two studied the three kids, the trio was likewise checking out their opponents.
"Hey Aus, Shanks, you noticed too, right!"
"Yeah."
"That guy—during ceasefire the past two nights, looks like he hasn't slept at all!"
"So what, not sleeping makes you tough?"
"Nah, heard he's never slept since birth."
"That's a real freak!"
Hearing this, Aus's attention was completely elsewhere.
Buggy had actually been watching Teach for three straight days—scary when you think about it.
About Blackbeard, Aus couldn't say he hated or liked the guy.
Strictly speaking, Blackbeard's greedy, horny, backstabbing behavior actually fit the world's stereotype of pirates way better.
Roger and Luffy types were more like travelers cosplaying pirates.
His reason for specifically targeting Teach with that shot was partly testing the guy's skills. Leaving scars on adult Shanks's face wasn't exactly easy.
But from that one shot, current Blackbeard was still just some kid.
Aus had zero interest in constantly terrorizing children.
He just looked toward the top of a massive tree where Roger, Whitebeard, and Oden were discussing business, occasionally having heated arguments.
Aus even spotted space cracks shattered by their power...
"Looks like this journey's really hitting the final countdown."
Slowly swallowing juice,
Aus pondered.
...
"So Oden's become a Roger Pirate now?"
The Roger Pirates set sail again. Buggy stared at the samurai on board, asking pretty incredulously.
"Pretty much. Think of him as borrowed from Whitebeard."
Aus didn't react much to this. Instead he had a chance to keep learning Ryuo.
Though he felt his bootleg Ryuo should be identical to the real deal, asking the original owner would be more thorough.
What if there were special tricks he hadn't figured out?
Aus grabbed his sword, slowly walking toward Oden at the banquet's center.
Then slowly drew it. This spooked Oden and the crew, atmosphere getting tense.
But against their expectations, Aus wasn't here to fight.
"Why you all staring at me like that? I'm here to ask about Ryuo."
Whew~
Oden sighed in relief. He really didn't want to fight this cheating little bastard again. Always missing while getting hit was pure torture.
Ryuo, this Armament application, wasn't anything he couldn't teach. They'd be crewmates from now on after all.
But after asking Aus about his Ryuo mastery, he was pretty stunned.
Aus just stuck out his fist. Layer after layer of red Armament started spreading across his body.
Like flowing water—with a casual wave, the wine bottle in Oden's hand exploded into pieces.
"Anything need improving?"
Aus smiled, totally lacking his previous terrifying battle look. "I figured this out myself during the past two days fighting."
Hearing this, Oden just opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Because he had nothing left to teach. What Aus demonstrated was the most legit Ryuo Armament there was.
Hell, he even suspected Aus had known it all along and was screwing with him now.
After all,
were there really people who progressed this damn fast?
Were they even human?
In Oden's silence, Aus got the cold shoulder treatment.
What the hell? Just because he'd messed with the guy a few times using Future Sight, he held this big a grudge.
Really petty.
He'd used this trick to annoy tons of people—only Oden had such massive complaints. Couldn't he look for problems in himself?
After failing to get instruction, Aus could only leave the banquet center under everyone's monster-watching stares.
Maybe sometimes being too excellent got you isolated.
With no choice, bored Aus went to find his two good buddies.
One Observation sweep found both at the ship's stern, still grinding through training.
Honestly, their current training results were useless to Aus now.
What he'd learned from Rayleigh and Roger had spoiled his appetite. Using Observation to steal Shanks's training methods was completely pointless now.
So might as well rest and train his Future Sight duration—trying to stretch from three seconds to four was better than anything.
But he didn't expect that seeing him, Buggy just said hi then kept slacking.
Shanks got fired up though.
He dropped his dumbbell, face lighting up when he saw him.
Then with fighting spirit blazing, stared at him and drew the sword from his waist.
"Let's fight, Aus!"
Aus: ???
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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