At this moment, many female players also walked over.
After a moment of silence, Yukino suddenly raised her hand and said, "Um... I want to stay in this era."
At these words, everyone looked at her in shock.
This might be the first time in over a decade since being transported to the One Piece World that Yukino had received so much attention.
"Yukino, are you crazy?"
Haruno looked at her sister in shock, her voice rising an octave.
During the over ten years since being transported, they had lived a stable life.
Although their status on the ship was probably only a little better than that of wallflowers doing odd jobs like Komachi and Raiha, they had never faced any real danger.
Haruno also knew that all of this was because of the protective umbrella that was Makoto.
Although her previous attempts to 'sacrifice herself' had failed, Haruno could see that as long as she didn't cause trouble, Makoto didn't mind keeping the 'sister odd-jobbers' around.
But regardless, Haruno never expected that her sister would want to stay in this dog-eat-dog era.
What was she thinking?
Mrs. Yukinoshita also frowned deeply and warned coldly, "Don't be ridiculous."
Although the relationship between Mrs. Yukinoshita and her two daughters now was, if not completely estranged, at least they were practically strangers…
But even so, she wasn't so cold-blooded as to watch her daughter go to her death.
Yukino calmly stated, "I'm not being ridiculous."
She just wanted to use this time to improve herself.
Wasn't that the reason Yu, Beam, and the others chose to stay in this era?
They wanted to use these twenty years to quickly strengthen themselves, to become better underlings for Makoto.
Yukino's thoughts were similar.
Of course, her ultimate goal wasn't to become Makoto's underling… but it was kind of similar.
She wanted to improve herself while also making a difference in this world.
During these over ten years on the ship, she had traveled most of this world and witnessed countless horrific tragedies caused by pirates and the World Government.
Makoto wasn't interested in this, but it had left a deep impression on our [Miss Justice] Yukinoshita Yukino.
Initially, after Makoto had caused havoc at the Holy Land, the World Government had shown some restraint.
But after two years, when the World Government saw that Makoto truly seemed uninterested in these matters, they resumed their old ways of exploiting the people, even worse than before… somewhat like a final frenzy before a collapse.
Yukino hoped to use these twenty years to grow stronger while also changing this world, which was rotten to its core.
Makoto didn't know what Yukino was thinking.
But he thought it would be quite interesting to leave this girl in this era.
He nodded, then gave her a thumbs up and said with a smile, "I hope you can still say 'I'm so cute' with such conviction twenty years from now."
Yukino lowered her head, biting her lip unwillingly, thinking to herself, 'I hadn't said that in a long time, okay?'
Although her foundation hadn't changed, she realized how foolish she had been in the past.
Among other things, she could never say 'I'm so cute' with conviction like she did in the Service Club.
The pretty girls on this ship were endless.
Her, Yukinoshita Yukino, couldn't even rank in the middle tier here.
On one hand, she felt the World Government was truly too inhumane and deserved to be sanctioned.
On the other hand, Yukino wanted Makoto, when he traveled to the world twenty years later, to see that she, Yukinoshita Yukino, could also make a difference.
Retreating back into the crowd, Yukino clenched her fists, vowing to make something of herself during these twenty years.
She had waited ten years, just for this opportunity. Not to prove how great she was, but to show Makoto that what she, Yukinoshita Yukino, had lost, she would get back.
Yu said coldly, "I'm not going to protect her."
Haruno was silent for a moment, then finally said she was willing to stay too.
She couldn't imagine what her sister, with her difficult personality, would become after twenty years in this dog-eat-dog world without anyone to talk to.
Haruno's decision didn't cause much of a stir either.
After all, the presence of the two sisters on the ship was just that minimal. None of the other girls were particularly close to them.
Whatever decisions they made wouldn't spark much discussion.
Although the Yukinoshita sisters' decision didn't cause much discussion among the players, it did spark some thoughts among other girls on the team.
For example, Nino.
This tsundere among the Nakano quintuplets had been pushing herself ever since her sister Miku, with whom she had the worst relationship, became the user of the Bake-Danuki Fruit.
She really didn't want to lose to her sister.
But unfortunately, the gap in top-tier Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits wasn't something that could be bridged by just working hard.
Reality was just that cruel.
And Nino's talent wasn't top-tier, just passable.
When she heard that the Yukinoshita sisters were staying to make use of these twenty years, she also hesitated, wondering if she should use this time to close the distance with Miku.
But Nino ultimately gave up.
She didn't want to wait twenty years, only for Makoto and Miku to return and see her as a wrinkled old woman.
She, Nakano Nino, wanted to stay beautiful forever.
Then, another year passed.
Today's headline news once again caused a considerable stir around the world—
[Kozuki Oden, Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division, Jumps Ship to the Roger Pirates!]
As soon as this news broke, it sparked discussion worldwide.
"Shihahaha—"
On a ship flying through the sky, Golden Lion Shiki looked at the newspaper and couldn't help but slap his knee and laugh, causing his subordinates to glance at him sideways.
"Newgate, you've lost your reputation!"
Shiki laughed until tears streamed down his face.
Previously, when Makoto had recruited them, the remnants of the Rocks Pirates, under his command, he had appointed Whitebeard as the manager.
At that time, Shiki had complained and had a leg cut off by Makoto.
That incident was a lifelong pain for Shiki. Although he knew the main responsibility lay with Makoto, he couldn't help but take it out on Whitebeard.
After all, he didn't have the ability to get revenge on Makoto, so he could only take it out on others.
Sigh, humans are just such pathetic creatures.