Chapter 9: Do You Think I'm Stupid?
"How did you grow a dozen centimeters in a week?"
"What kind of martial art makes so much noise every day?"
"Do you think I still have a chance to learn it?"
In the dining hall, Shane was devouring his food like a tornado sweeping through clouds. The plates next to him were piled into two mountains. In the gap between the mountains, the wrinkled old man was like a curious child, pestering him with questions.
Shane managed to brush off the earlier questions with various vague excuses.
But when he heard the last one, he finally lifted his head from his plate, a speechless expression on his face.
"You're almost seventy, right? Do you really want me to tell you the truth?"
"..." Garter let out a long sigh. "Never mind. I'd like to live a few more years. I don't want to shake these old bones apart."
"Let's get serious," the old man said, smacking his lips. "The journey these past few days has been smooth. We have two hours at most, meaning we'll reach Cherry Blossom Island before sunset today."
"..."
Shane was slightly taken aback, then nodded. He wasn't surprised. If they hadn't been held up by the Lord of the Coast, which led to the Garter being anchored for a full day of repairs, they would have arrived at this time yesterday.
"Thank you for all your care these past few days."
After completely swallowing the food in his mouth, he looked at Garter and said with great sincerity, "If you hadn't provided me with a peaceful environment to train in, I wouldn't have been able to make a breakthrough in these few days."
"What nonsense are you talking about! Compared to you saving our lives, what does any of this count for?!" Garter laughed heartily. "But hearing you say that still makes this old man feel pretty damn good, haha!"
"Oh, right! From now on, the Garter will always reserve the most luxurious room on the ship for you and your family, free of charge! Food and drink are on us, too! This was a unanimous decision by the entire crew, so you have no right to refuse!"
"Only an idiot would refuse," Shane, who never liked to be a wet blanket, said, laughing along with him. "Then it's a deal. When you come to Cocoyasi Village next year, I'll bring my whole family to freeload! Good thing my two little sisters don't eat much. If they were both like me, we'd probably eat you into bankruptcy!"
"You're being too modest. In fact, just you alone these past few days has already nearly bankrupted me."
"Hehe..."
As they joked, the boy suddenly remembered that it had been exactly one week since he left home. With two hours left until they docked, he could use the time to have a good talk with his family in his room.
"We're here! This is Cherry Blossom Island!"
"You can disembark from here. It's too late today, so you can find an inn in the outer district to rest for the night. It won't be too late to enter the city tomorrow to find the sword dojo you're looking for."
"We need to go to the northern warehouses to unload our cargo. We have to continue our journey right after. I'm afraid the next time we meet will be next autumn."
At the southern pier of Cherry Blossom Island, the sailors crowded the railings, waving goodbye reluctantly to Shane on the shore.
Old Garter accompanied him for the final stretch of the pier.
Shane listened carefully to his instructions, but the corner of his eye caught sight of ragged beggars squatting at several intersections leading from the pier to the city. Although they were scattered, their numbers were not small.
He couldn't help but speak up.
"That's strange. Cherry Blossom Island is a famous commercial hub in the East Blue. It should be quite wealthy. Why are there more beggars and homeless people here than back home?"
"Naive," Old Garter scoffed. "These are all professional beggars who live in the city. They squat here all year round. The pier has a high flow of traffic, and there are many rich people who come to the city to spend money. There will always be some uninformed outsiders who fall for it."
"These guys have all gotten rich from this. The occasional truly poor person you see is just some unlucky bastard who lost all his money at the casino and got thrown out. They're not worthy of sympathy."
"Alright, this is it. I'm off!"
They finally reached the end of the pier. Old Garter patted him on the shoulder without another word, took a puff from his pipe, and turned to walk back towards the ship.
Shane stood quietly in place, watching him board the ship. It wasn't until the Garter set sail and gradually became a small black dot on the horizon that the boy finally turned around, chose the path to the left, and headed towards the outer district of the city.
It was already dusk, the sun setting in the west.
Looking up, he could see the distant town, with its classical architecture, enveloped in twilight. The main canal ran through the city from north to south, lined with cherry blossom trees. The city's buildings were symmetrically distributed along the banks of the canal, neatly planned and arranged in rows.
It was also the season for the blossoms to fall. The river's surface was covered with millions of pale pink cherry blossom petals, flowing downstream. A gentle evening breeze carried their light, elegant fragrance all the way to the pier.
"A prosperous economy, beautiful scenery, and spring-like weather all year round. No wonder it's a tourist destination in the East Blue."
Walking in such an environment, Shane's mood became much more peaceful.
As he was about to leave the pier area, he noticed the port's ship management office, which was already closed for the day. It was indeed too late. He would find a place to stay first and come back tomorrow morning. He should be able to get the passenger ship information he wanted here.
Garter still thought he was on this island to study swordsmanship, but in reality, his goal had never changed. He was here to use the well-developed port to find a ship to the Goa Kingdom.
Logically speaking... after sacrificing Shanks's arm, he had more than enough points on hand. The urgency of obtaining Luffy's straw hat had naturally decreased.
But, after tasting crab once, who could refuse the temptation of another huge sum of points?
Anyway, he had a month. Only a week had passed, so he had plenty of time to make a round trip from here to the Goa Kingdom.
"P-Please, have some pity... I haven't eaten in two days and two nights. Just a little money is fine..."
A weak moan suddenly came from beside him. A dirty hand holding a metal box stretched out. Remembering what Garter had said, Shane couldn't be bothered and walked right past him.
But he hadn't gone more than a few steps before he heard the clinking of coins falling into the metal box.
Shane subconsciously turned his head and saw a thin, frail boy in a worn-out kendo uniform stopped in front of the beggar, who looked to be in his fifties. The boy was carefully shaking all the coins out of his cloth wallet.
His eyesight was now far superior to an ordinary person's. Even in the dusk, he could clearly see that they were all small denomination coins of 20 or 50 Belli. The total was only two or three hundred Belli.
The beggar was clearly dissatisfied. He frowned and glared at the frail boy, still holding out his metal box.
"I-I only have this much..."
The frail boy's face was full of embarrassment. He suddenly remembered something, hesitated for a moment, and then took out a large, dark piece of bread from the satchel on his back. He forcefully tore off a large chunk and placed it gently in the metal box.
"I haven't had dinner yet, so I have to save some for myself. I'm sorry."
The frail boy didn't dare to look at the beggar, stammering, "Don't judge it by its looks, and it doesn't smell like much, but trust me, it's very filling. A whole one is enough for a day."
Without waiting for the beggar to say anything, he packed up his satchel and hurried up the steps towards the city gate.
Shane looked at the beggar.
As expected, the old fraud just held up the black bread, glanced at it, and without any interest in even taking a bite, tossed it aside in disgust. Then he poured out the coins from the box, counted them, and spat on the ground next to him. "What bad luck. A damn poor bastard!"
Shane frowned and turned his head, wanting to call out to the kid. But he hadn't expected that despite looking so frail, the boy was quite fast on his feet. In the blink of an eye, his figure was gone.
He stood there for a while longer, quietly watching the beggar. The beggar also looked back at him with a bewildered expression.
"Can't you be a little more arrogant? For example, curse at me and say, 'What are you looking at, you little brat? I'll gouge your eyes out,' or something like that?" Shane said suddenly, his voice low.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" The beggar rolled his eyes. "You're terrifying with all those muscles. I can tell you're not someone to mess with. Am I crazy? Why would I provoke you for no reason?"
Shane looked down and only then remembered that when he was walking from the pier, he had found the island too warm and worked up a sweat, so he had taken off his coat and put it away. He was now wearing just a single shirt, his exaggerated physique on full display.
"Sigh."
How boring. Shane sighed. To the beggar's disbelief, he walked over, pried the two hundred Belli from his hand, and continued on his way into the city.
I can only blame my bad luck for not running into a bigger scam. I'm still not used to this new body, and it's hard to control my strength once I act. Two hundred Belli is only enough to buy Nami a couple of cheap hairpins. Beating someone half to death for such a small matter really isn't worth it.