Chapter 44 - 44: Beauty and the Beast.

Time quickly flew by as three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Right now, a marine dog ship could be seen accosting on a piece of a gigantic Yarukiman mangroves with the number sixty five painted on it.

And all around this mangrove, several numbers of massive Marine war ship could be seen surrounding the said mangroves as if it was protecting it.

Well it wasn't false because that place was actually the Marine local headquarters on Sabaody Archipelago !

Sabaody Archipelago is, in actuality, a massive mangrove forest in the middle of the ocean made up of 79 separate trees known as Yarukiman mangroves, In which each trees are called Groves and serves as an island for which people lived on. People can get from one grove to another via the various bridges built connecting around the many tree roots.

As the dog like ship accosted, all the marine soldiers around no matter their ranks kept looking at it in admiration and respect muttering among themselves while some

found themselves yelling their admiration out.

...

"Whoaaa, it's, it's the vice-admiral Garp ?!"

"Yesss, it's him, the Marine's Hero...!"

"The one and only Hero..."

"Whoa, I heard that he was accompanied by the instructor Zephyr this time around."

"Really ? What for ?"

"Well I don't know..."

...

"Oh shit, it's the first time I see him in person I have to take a picture with him, do you have a Cameko ?" (It's a Den Den Mushi which can take photos and videos)

"Nope and I don't need too, I already have a picture with him Heh..." The guy replied with a mocking smile as he showed a picture out of nowhere.

"Ahh that's not fair damnit...!"

"Blehhh, hahahahaha...." He stick his tongue to mock his friend.

"You...!"

A fight between friends nearly broke out due to that as one was jealous and the other one too much complacent...

______________________

Meanwhile in the ship...before accosting...

"Yawnnn...."

Edam woke up rubbing his heavy eyes that were threatening to pull him back into sleeping goddess's embrace once again.

He sat up for a couple of minutes the times his soul take back control over his body.

Shaking his head to wake himself up, he then began to strech out while yawning again.

Looking at the side where the girls should be, his two deep black colored eyes met with another pair of magnificent and bright but deep dark blue eyes looking back at him in a daze.

This pair of eyes of course belong to Hancock who seem to have woken up for a while now but didn't get up and just sat still.

As their gaze met, none of the two talked for minutes but Edam's eyes were blinking continuously while her eyes kept staring back in a profound daze not moving an inch.

With this bit of awkwardness filling the room atmosphere, Edam decided to break the silence and opened his mouth.

"Hey come on let's go take out breakfast shall we ?"

However she was still in a daze and didn't replied at all.

Seeing this Edam sighed and thought nearly in exasperation. 'Again...' it clearly wasn't the first time that she went into a daze state during those three days. He really wondered what was actually going on in that head of her.

But then as he thought about something an amused smirk appeared on the corner of his lips as he laughed "evily".

"Hehe..."

He then crouched down just before her and then...

Suddenly jumped on her...!

She fell on her back with a "kyahh..." sound as she finally broke out of her dazed state.

"Wha-...?"

However as she looked at Edam approaching dangerously and knowing what he would do she tried to protest with a "Wait no, no please... no, Edam..." while she kept moving back in "fear" till she was cornered by the wall as she tried to protect her two weak sides... "Don't..." how she said it was so cute just like a cute and harmless young girl being preyed on by a beast.

This is the story of a beauty and a beast... literally. (lol)

Edam could clearly hear her little heart race like never before but it couldn't prevent his "evil" grin to grow again.

He then jumped on her again to tickle her...everywhere ! Her jade like feet, her ŀustrous neck, her perfect and slim waist but curvaceous enough to put to shame every woman in the world even though she was only twelve years old or something, in any case she was tickled at every weak spots a human was weak against tickle.

She did tried to suppress her laughter by placing a hand on her mouth but Edam seeing that decided to counter attack shamelessly by using his ultimate trap card...

His super cute, super soft, and super ticklish...namely his Monkey Tail...!

Facing off against this terrible trap card it didn't take long before her mild laughter began to fill the room merrily clearly not able to contain her laugh in, as sounds of "Ahhaha, please stop it..." resonnate for five minutes straight waking up the two sisters who looked at their eldest sister who was currently below their "savior" while he was on top of her tickling her as she laughed her heart out...

"Big sis...?" The two looked at them and called out to make sure that they weren't dreaming or anything.

"Eh...?" Edam and Hancock turned their heads at the same toward them stopping all at once as Hancock's face blushed an adorable red while Edam smiled a bit and said as if nothing was happening.

"Oh good morning you two, how about we go eat something ? I'm starving, aren't you ?" At the end of his sentence he gazed at the red tomato below him and smile gently making her blushed even more as she looked elsewhere to avoid his gaze.

To the side the two girls were looking at them with a weird look in their eyes.

...

Stepping out of the ship's interior to go to the deck a near magical sight greet them right away...

Bubbles...to the right...

Bubbles again...to the left...

Bubbles once again...in the air...

There were bubbles everywhere !!!

Hell there were even bubbles coming out of the ground or of the roots in that case.

Anywhere you looked at, a bubbles was sure to be there floating quietly as it float and float and float to finally burst after reaching a too high of an altitude.

As Edam had already seen and also had the honor to have a lesson on those bubbles a few days ago he wasn't surprised at all but incredibly amazed at this sight.

To the side however, in deep contrast to his own expression, the three sisters had a somewhat uneasy expression and the reason was... this place was the beginning of their nightmare.

Looking at that Edam couldn't help but let out a reassuring smile toward them, he could hear their hearts beginning to race faster and faster even though they just stood there.

"It's okay now..." His smile was bright and somewhat pure as he gave them each one pat on the head calming them immediately.

He then engage in a conversation with them leisurely about to wait for his two grandpa who were setting some matters as after a few moments, Garp and Zephyr came out and said.

"All right, let's go kids..."

The two were surprisingly not dressed in their official suit but were instead dressed in plain civil clothes as if they were on vacation already.

Garp was dressed relaxingly and wears sandals, a red tropical shirt and light-colored shorts. In his right hand was vice-admiral cape.

As for Zephyr he wore his standard outfit, a pink shirt with a polka-dotted tie under his purple suit. And he just like Garp didn't wore his Marine cape for a certain reason but just kept it in his hand.

After the two made their appearance, Stella too step out. After three days of rest her complexion had turned even better, although she still retained a melancholic smile maybe due to her blurry past.

Gahan as a result suggested her to go with Edam to take a walk around.

She was now dressed in a new and simple white dress, not the flashiest but it was still enhanced several times by her mȧturė and fresh presence.

As for the three girls they too were dressed in new clothes and wore something near similar in colors to their old clothes, pink for Hancock, Green for Sandersonia and orange for Mariegold, and they radiated a lot of freshness with the addition of new sandals on their feets.

They had made a stop on an island to resupply themselves in food, Edam took the opportunity to buy them some clothes and with the pocket money he saved until now, about a thousand of berry.

And as for Edam, he wore his favorite hood t-shirt with a simple brown shorts, while his tail was camouflaged as a belt and a small pouch hunging on his waist.

"Grandpa where do we go then ?" Edam asked Garp excitedly.

"We're going to the huge building there first." Garp pointed out to a huge building where a lot of marines where flowing in and out continuously.

They made their way there but only Garp and Zephyr entered it while Edam and the four girls were made to wait outside, not because they couldn't entered but because it wouldn't take long and it was just to asked some informations so...

...

Meanwhile in the closed office...

"Wahaha... so it's true after all, the Dark King really became coating mechanic...? Wahahaha..." Garp laugh to tears as he took hold of Zephyr shoulders to not fall down.

"Hum... did Rayleigh really found a "honest job" ? No way right... ?" Zephyr asked in doubts. As he said that he emphasize on purpose the words "honest job" because coating mechanic is mainly coating pirates ship for those who want to travel to the new world so it wasn't really a honest job for the government way of doing things.

"Haha... you wish..." Garp wiped his tears and said as if finding the simple thought ridiculous.

"Well... next report-...Pfff Wahahahaha..." After reading the next report, he exploded once again in laughing tears while rolling on the floor, this one was just too much for him.

Even Zephyr's face was twitching in disbelief when he read the report.

"The one and only Dark King was sold off as a slave after having lost in gambling...?" Zephyr who was always calm found it hard to believed this.

One has to know that this Dark King wasn't a nobody... far from that... just thinking about that was pretty incredible.

Zephyr then read some other reports about the person they were searching for as the other guy wasn't in the right state.

"Well she's indeed with them."

It took Garp all his energy to stop laughing as they moved to the next and final report being the place.

"Oh so Grove 13 is it...let's go then..."

...

As for Edam & co they were currently speaking about the bubbles as Edam explained what Zephyr told him before.

"...and well you see because of that the bubbles can't get out of here..." after explaining for a couples of minutes he looked at the building and said.

"Oh they are done, I really wonder what sort of place is this Grove 13...?" 'And who is this Dark King ?' He asked himself curiously as the four girls looked at him with tilting head wondering what he meant by that.

The building was really large and really big with massive wall to make sure that no one could eavesdropped on it.

They weren't left in the dark for too long as Garp and Z came back and told them that they were to go to Grove 13, drawing out a surprised expression on their faces.

"Well I can hear from far away..." Edam just shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

Each of them had an even more surprised expression apart from one being Hancock whose face was for whatever reason flushing red.

She then remembered during those few days that they spent together, a certain moment where she had tried to confess something but couldn't in the end and just muttered at a very low voice near inaudible.

She was wondering embarrassedly if he did heard what she said at that moment.

But unknown to her Edam was totally oblivious to this because he would most of the time "switch off" his sense when he speak with someone as speaking with his enhanced sense was "disturbing" to say the least.

"Hey Hancock are you alright ?" Edam turned to her as he could hear the pulse accelerate at a fast pace.

"Uh ? uh... yea-...yeah...I'm all right...all right..." She nodded repeatedly like a hen and then lower her head with a red and embarrassed face.

Mariegold and Sandersonia just looked at her with a strange faces wondering what was happening to their sister while the two grandpas looked at her with a thoughtful faces thinking in their heads, " Heh..."

Weirdly enough even Stella which was somewhat melancholic for days now had a faint smile when she looked at Hancock.

...

It was then with a lot of enthusiasm that Edam & co made their way to Grove 13.