"C-Captain Arton... I don't think I can keep going."
Tashigi was panting hard when she said it.
"Then we'll stop here."
Arton nodded.
That worked out for him too. He was pretty much at his limit already.
If they kept "training," he honestly wasn't sure he could hold up.
Handling Uta in the dream and Tashigi in the real world at the same time had been a lot more than he could comfortably take.
And that was on top of everything Robin and the others had already put him through before that.
With one final move, Tashigi finally lost control of her template's power and dropped out of her 100% activation state, returning to normal.
"So, do you need to rest for a bit, my dear Miss Tashigi?"
Arton gave her shoulder a light pat as he asked.
"N-No... I'd better go back."
Tashigi shook her head.
She had felt the ship shaking violently earlier.
That meant the ship had definitely reached its destination and returned to the Blue Sea by now.
And since she'd basically snuck off to get some private time with Arton, she had no intention of letting the others find out what she'd been doing.
"All right. If that's what you want, I won't stop you, Tashigi."
Arton smiled.
Tashigi nodded and got to her feet with some difficulty.
But then she suddenly realized she still hadn't cleaned Arton up, so she quickly bent down and carefully took care of that too.
Arton, for his part, was more than happy to let her.
Of course, even that kind of "taking it easy" was its own sort of trial for him.
A minute later, once Tashigi was satisfied she'd cleaned him up properly, she smiled, gave him a little wave, and left the infirmary on shaky legs.
Arton let out a breath. Looking at the bathwater, now a little cloudy from all the vigorous activity, he shook his head, got up, and went to rinse himself off properly with clean water.
After that, he headed straight back to his room to sleep.
And he slept for several hours.
It wasn't until Carina came to call him for dinner that Arton finally woke up.
"This is weird. How come I never realized before that you like sleeping this much?"
As she walked beside him toward the dining room, Carina asked the question with a puzzled look.
"Maybe it's because we went to Skypiea. I guess the altitude didn't agree with me."
Arton shrugged with a grin.
"What kind of excuse is that?"
Carina shook her head, but with the dining room already right in front of them, she didn't press him further.
Once Arton sat down, Carina set a nicely prepared meal in front of him.
"Anyway, where are we heading next? Our dear Captain Arton got any orders for us?"
While admiring his profile, Carina asked curiously.
"Yeah, seriously. Isn't it about time you told us our next destination?" Nami added.
The rest of the crew looked at Arton too, waiting for their captain's orders.
"Hm? Did you all forget already? Before we went to Skypiea, I'm pretty sure I said our next stop was Enies Lobby."
Arton looked around the table as he said it.
"Uh... yeah, I guess you did say that."
Uta scratched her cheek and laughed awkwardly.
"I was starting to think you really had forgotten our original destination just because we took a detour to Skypiea."
Arton smiled.
Tashigi glanced around the room.
She wanted to say that she hadn't forgotten, especially since this was connected to Hina.
But the moment her eyes landed on Arton's face, she got embarrassed all over again and lowered her head.
Right now, she genuinely had no idea what kind of expression she was supposed to wear around everyone.
So to avoid giving herself away, she decided it was safest to just keep her head down.
Most of the others had their eyes on Arton, so no one noticed Tashigi acting strange.
Ain, though—another former Marine—caught it right away, and seeing Tashigi like that made her quietly suspicious.
"Enies Lobby?"
Raki and Conis looked at Arton and the others in confusion.
"What kind of place is that?"
Chapter 635: The Possibility of Hina Joining
"Oh, right. You two still don't know about this yet."
Nami suddenly realized.
Arton had already told the others that he planned to head to Enies Lobby and pull Hina out after she was imprisoned there and put on trial.
He had even seemed ready to record the whole thing in the diary system.
But the moment he wrote something like that in the diary, it would also be put right in front of all the other women who had diary copies.
If ordinary people or pirates found out, that was one thing.
But if Marines or World Government agents learned about it, then it would have a huge impact on Arton's plan to rescue Hina.
They might even set up an ambush for him.
To keep that from happening, Nami, Carina, and the others had deliberately started distracting Arton whenever he looked like he was about to write anything related to it in the sailing diary.
After that happened enough times, Arton more or less dropped the idea of recording it there.
Back then, Raki and Conis still hadn't joined Arton's crew yet.
So without seeing any of it through a diary copy, there was no way they could have known anything about Enies Lobby.
"Let me explain it to you, Raki, Conis."
Nami smiled and gave them the full story in quick, concise terms.
After hearing it, both Raki and Conis felt a mix of excitement and nerves.
They were excited because it sounded like they were about to take part in a major event.
But they were nervous because neither of them had much confidence in their own strength yet.
Raki especially—considering she still didn't even have a template.
Both of them were worried that if they really went to Enies Lobby, their weak strength would only hold Arton and the rest of the crew back.
"Let me check the chart... got it."
Nami spread the sea chart out on the dining table and said, "We're actually not that far from Enies Lobby right now. If we sail at full speed, it should only take us a few days to get there."
"Good. That's all I needed to hear."
Arton nodded in satisfaction.
He could practically already see the scene of pulling Hina out of Enies Lobby.
Hina was a Marine, sure—but maybe this time she might actually be willing to join his pirate crew.
Tashigi had already set a precedent. Maybe Hina could follow her example and join him too.
Of course, for now, that was all just something Arton could think about privately.
With Hina's personality, it would probably be much harder for her to join his crew the way Tashigi had.
Last time, even after seeing the Celestial Dragons' evil with her own eyes, Hina still hadn't intended to leave the Marines.
That alone was enough to show how deeply she cared about them.
Unless she truly lost the ability to remain a Marine at all, Arton didn't think there was much chance of Hina becoming a pirate.
As for whether Hina might join him the way Ain had... honestly, even now, Arton still hadn't fully figured out why Ain had been willing to join his crew in the first place.
So trying to predict whether Hina would do the same was even harder.
"Now that the destination's settled, everybody can break. Go do whatever you need to do."
Arton smiled and rose from his seat.
And yet everyone just looked at one another.
Not a single person seemed ready to leave.