One Piece My Partner is Too Crooked - Chapter 76

The dumb goddess Aqua’s mood remained low until noon. It wasn’t until Icey served up a luxurious seafood noodle dish that the aroma revived her spirits.

After devouring the noodles, Aqua even downed two bottles of the newly stocked sparkling wine, claiming her wounded heart needed healing. In reality, it was just an excuse to drink.

In the end, since they were all comrades sharing both joy and hardship, Icey decided to let it slide. If she wanted to drink, let her drink. After all, those two bottles were worthless. Yes, that was the main point.

After eating and drinking her fill, Aqua seemed in much better spirits and grabbed a fishing rod, heading to the second deck to fish. Realizing she couldn’t win against King in gaming, she decided to try another way to regain her lost dignity.

Fishing seemed a perfect choice since she had previously caught a half-kilo fish after some study—although the fish was blind in both eyes. Aqua still believed she had a natural talent for fishing and that with a little practice, she could beat King at it.

As for why she didn’t choose her strongest party skills, it was purely due to the cursed pride of the water goddess: pulling out her best skills seemed too boring.

After Aqua left, seeing that the restaurant had no business, King put down his game console and picked up the 10-kilogram dumbbells he bought in town to start training his muscles.

Although he didn’t enjoy this tedious physical training, after the incident with Kuro’s pirate crew, he wanted to become a bit stronger for the team, even if it was just a little. At the very least, he didn’t want to be a mascot always dragging down Icey and Aqua.

Icey thought the dumbbells were like sponges in a world full of powerful pirates. However, seeing this was probably King’s limit, he didn’t say anything. Maybe with this training, King would one day break his physical limits and become a One Punch Man like Saitama.

In any case, King’s determination to grow stronger for the team was commendable.

With Aqua and King both engaged in their activities, the lively restaurant suddenly quieted down. Icey poured himself a glass of iced orange juice and returned to his spot at the counter, checking their current assets.

The gold and jewels looted from Kuro’s pirate crew were exchanged at the town’s gold shop for 23 million Berries. Adding the bounty for Kuro and his men and the restaurant’s recent earnings, minus the 10 million Berries donated for rebuilding Foosha Village, they had a total of 42 million Berries.

This amount far exceeded the 30 million needed for the next wish for a crewmate!

The cannons and muskets seized, requiring special channels to sell, were still stored in the miscellaneous room of the Infinite Dream, with an estimated value of several million. However, Icey didn’t plan to sell them.

With the Grand Line’s dangers far exceeding the East Blue, he decided to equip the Infinite Dream with these weapons at Loguetown. He’d also use the remaining money to enhance the single-masted ship given by the carpenters of Windmill Village to withstand the unpredictable and complex environment of the Grand Line.

Of course, all this planning was based on the assumption that the Devil Fruit Aqua had taken a bite out of was just a worthless one. If it turned out to be worth more than 100 million Berries, he’d have to consider selling it or having one of the crew eat it.

“Wonder if this thing still has any power left…” Icey sighed heavily whenever he thought about the whole fruit being ruined by Aqua.

As he pondered this, a sudden loud bang echoed. The Infinite Dream shook violently as if struck by something massive, causing tables and chairs in the restaurant to topple over.

Icey was startled and quickly got up. Aqua, panic-stricken, came running down.

“Icey, it’s terrible! There’s a huge sea monster outside!”

Without time to ask for details, Icey rushed to the second deck at top speed, with King and Aqua following closely behind.

Outside, a massive shadow blocked the light, casting the Infinite Dream in complete shadow.

A gigantic black sea beast surfaced, with savage red eyes and a mouth full of sharp fangs. Its long body was covered in hard scales, and a slight movement of its tail caused waves to surge.

The sea beast resembled the Sea King of Windmill Village’s nearby sea, but it was several times larger! Simply put, it was the plus version of the Sea King!

“This is… the King of the Deep Sea in the East Blue?” Icey frowned deeply.

Since they spent a lot of time at sea, Icey had learned about the various sea beasts in the East Blue and quickly recognized the identity of this gigantic sea beast.

“Strange, these large sea beasts living in deep waters typically don’t surface to attack ships. Why is it suddenly appearing here?”

Aqua, nervous and whistling, tried to act nonchalant, which only made Icey and King more suspicious. Her guilty look practically screamed, “Yes, it’s my fault.”

“You caused this mess again, didn’t you?!” Icey gritted his teeth and scolded, “What exactly did you do, Aqua?!”

Aqua tried to argue but shrank back under Icey’s fierce gaze, fidgeting with her fingers.

“I-I was fishing for a long time with no luck, so I thought I could bless the bait with a strong life force… I didn’t expect it to attract this big guy…”

This useless goddess!!

“You idiot! Can’t you just stay out of trouble for once?! Do you know how difficult it is to deal with such a thing at sea?!”

Icey’s mouth twitched as he rubbed Aqua’s cheeks in frustration, his words flying out with his spittle.

Listening to Icey’s rant, Aqua’s intelligent eyes suddenly sparkled with an idea to fix the situation.

“Stop! I’ll take responsibility!” She broke free from Icey’s grasp, stepped forward, and faced the menacing Deep Sea King.

With a hum, a blue magic circle lit up beneath her. Water surged as the sea level around the Infinite Dream began to drop. No, the ship was sinking into the water!

Thump!

Icey interrupted Aqua’s spell with a flick to her forehead. “What are you trying to do?!”

For a moment, he had hoped for something from this dumb goddess.

Holding her aching head, Aqua whimpered, “Taking responsibility! You said it’s hard to deal with it on the sea surface!”

“…So you’re trying to sink the ship?! We’d die faster underwater!” Icey was exasperated.

Aqua nodded vigorously.

“But it’s a sea beast. We’d die even faster underwater,” King said, staring blankly at the Deep Sea King. Despite his calm exterior, the engines of his heart were roaring in panic.

“Oh, right!” Aqua slapped her thigh in sudden realization.

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