Chapter 134: The Sea Has No Right to Judge Me!
"..."
Nami stared blankly at the wanted poster, as if she had been turned to stone.
Shane and Nojiko were silent, patting her shoulder in sympathy.
But after a few pats, they exchanged a look, turned their heads away, and began to tremble, trying desperately not to laugh.
"Meow?"
The little mochi-like creature, on the other hand, was intrigued. It climbed onto Nami's head, tilted its own, and carefully examined its reflection in the wanted poster.
"Meow~"
The little mochi-like creature nodded in satisfaction and patted the photo with its tail, as if to say, "Look how photogenic I am!"
"..."
A vein slowly throbbed on Nami's temple.
She took a deep breath, trying to suppress the impending eruption of rage, but her voice still trembled.
"MO…CHI…"
"GET—DOWN!!!"
She lunged for the little mochi-like creature on her head, but the little guy was quick. It nimbly rolled away, landing on her shoulder and blinking innocently.
"Meow?"
"You're still playing dumb!" Nami gritted her teeth. "Why did you get all the credit for what I did?! What, are you the Flame-Flame Fruit user?! Are you really worth a hundred million Berries?! Are the idiots at Marine Headquarters all blind?!!!"
The little mochi-like creature was finally caught, and Nami began to squish its face, making it contort. It was in so much pain, but it couldn't cry.
Gin, who was lying on the railing, wagged his tail happily, enjoying the show.
Hehe, so good. It's finally not me on the receiving end of all this.
What's with the smug look, Gin?
Shane had had enough. He kicked Gin off the ship.
"You can talk to it all you want, but it won't understand," Shane said, rescuing the little mochi-like creature from Nami's clutches and placing it on his own head with a grin. "You're always letting it stick to you like that. The Marines probably thought the flames were coming from it."
"So, the Marines think the little mochi-like creature is a flamethrower, and you're the one holding it," Smoker said, blowing a smoke ring. "Tsk, a cat tree…"
"GO TO HELL, SMOKEY!"
THUMP!
Nami couldn't take it anymore and punched Smoker on the head.
Smoker's face was instantly bruised and swollen, and his cigar was sent flying. He clutched the large, red lump on his head in disbelief.
"That's impossible! You can't even use Haki! How did you hit me?"
"I told you, fire suppresses smoke!"
Nami clapped her hands. After letting out her anger, she felt a little better. But when she looked at her own wanted poster, which was still at 80,000, her face fell again.
"There's still a chance," Nami said, clutching the wanted poster. She went to the bow of the ship and looked out at the sea, her gaze firm. "There must be a chance. In the next battle, I will definitely prove…"
Prove what?!
Nami suddenly tore the wanted poster to shreds and threw it into the sea, shouting at the ocean with tears in her eyes. "There won't be a next time! I'm never looking at another wanted poster again!"
Just you wait, Marine Headquarters!!!
Sooner or later, I'll follow my brother and attack Marineford, and I'll turn the entire harbor into a sea of fire! Let's see if you can still mistake my ability then!
"That resentment… it's off the charts," everyone who was watching the orange-haired figure couldn't help but shiver.
It seemed that for the next two days, it would be best to avoid her.
"By the way, Smokey," Nojiko said, turning her head. "What's your bounty? You skipped it before."
"It went up a little," Smoker said, taking his eyes off Nami's back and glancing at the wanted poster in his hand. "It's 160 million now."
"Dammit, still so much higher than mine!" Nojiko said, annoyed. "What about Uncle Zeff and Robin?"
"Same as Gin, the old geezer's bounty hasn't changed. He didn't fight that day, so it's normal. As for Robin…"
Smoker looked through the posters and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "...Strange, it seems she doesn't have one."
"She doesn't? How come?"
Nojiko didn't believe it and looked for herself, but she couldn't find one either.
"It makes sense," Smoker said thoughtfully. "After all, Robin didn't fight that day, and because it was in the desert, she was wearing a local-style sun hat and sunglasses the whole time. The reporter probably didn't recognize her, so they didn't take her picture, and Marine Headquarters has no way of knowing she's on our ship."
Robin took a sip of her coffee, her expression calm.
"What's wrong? Are you thinking, 'Oh, I guess I'm still not considered a part of this crew'? 'But that's okay, at least a person with a dark past like me won't bring them any trouble'?"
Shane sat down across from her at the round table and laughed. "Don't worry, they'll find out soon enough. I'm actually quite curious to see the looks on their faces when the World Government finds out you're on my ship. No matter how angry they get, it won't do them any good."
"..."
Robin's fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly, and the black coffee in her cup rippled.
She looked up at Shane and was about to say something, but in the end, she was speechless.
She had always been the one to hide in the shadows, quietly observing others.
But this black-haired young man who had invited her to join his crew always seemed to be able to see right through her.
She had just been feeling a little sorry for herself…
"Where to next, Captain?"
Robin elegantly put down her coffee cup and, very naturally, changed the subject with a smile. "If I'm not mistaken, the next stop on the Alabasta route is Jaya Island. Are we going there?"
"Jaya Island?"
Shane thought for a moment.
If he remembered correctly, the Knock Up Stream near there could take them out of the Blue Sea and to the Sky Island region ruled by Enel.
In the end, he shook his head.
"No. The World Government is taking us very seriously now. If we continue on this route, the risk of being ambushed is too high. We need to change things up."
He had to be on his guard.
He was pretty sure that Jaya Island was crawling with Marine spies right now.
He might just push open the door of a tavern and find a certain guy in a cap waiting for him at the bar.
"I remember you have Eternal Poses for all the islands around Alabasta, right?"
Shane looked at Robin. "Alright, let's take Jaya Island out of the equation, and the ones that would take us back, like Drum Island. Then we'll cover the labels and draw lots."
Go wherever the lot takes us?
Nojiko's eyes lit up. "Good idea! I'm in!"
"I agree."
"Me too. An unknown adventure is always more alluring."
The other crew members also nodded.
"Then wait here,"
Robin said, going to her room and returning a moment later with a bag.
Clatter—
Over a dozen Eternal Poses with their labels covered were scattered on the round table, their glass casings glittering in the sunlight.
"Go ahead, Captain,"
Robin said with a small smile, making a "please" gesture. "The choice of fate."
"My luck has always been good."
Shane casually picked one up and held it up to the sun. The needle in the glass dome trembled slightly and then stabilized, pointing to the northwest.
"Let's go! This is it!"
Shane laughed, tossing the pointer high into the air and catching it. "To this… well, I have no idea where, island!"
...
Three days later, The Curtain Call was still sailing at full speed on the sea.
And the weather in the Grand Line was always unpredictable.
One moment, the sky was clear and sunny, and the next, dark clouds, like a giant beast, had devoured the entire sea.
Rumble!
Lightning began to flicker in the distant sky.
"It looks like a big storm is coming,"
Nami said, standing up from her wicker chair under the parasol and looking up at the sky.
At this moment, she had already recovered from the blow to her pride. She held out her pale hand, feeling the flow of the wind, her expression grim. "This one is much more terrifying than the last few combined."
Just as Shane had said.
His luck was indeed very good. In the more than a month since they had entered the Grand Line, The Curtain Call had only encountered a handful of natural disasters.
They had only run into a few storms, and none of them had been very large. With the sturdy Adam Wood hull, they had weathered them all without any trouble.
But this time, it seemed different.
"All hands, on deck!"
Nami turned and shouted. "Furl the sails! Main and mizzen! Hard to port!"
Before she could finish, large raindrops began to fall.
At first, it was just a few scattered drops, but in the blink of an eye, it had turned into a torrential downpour. Amidst the flashing lightning and thunder, the raindrops slammed against the deck with a loud pitter-patter, as if a thousand pearls had shattered at once.
"Dammit!"
Smoker fumbled to put on his raincoat and rushed to the helm. "I'll take the helm! Nami, get off the deck! Go somewhere you can take cover and give orders!"
"Mmm, it's all yours!"
Nami nimbly flipped up to the open-air dojo on the second floor and took shelter under the eaves.
Her soaking wet orange hair was plastered to her cheeks. She casually brushed it aside and narrowed her eyes, looking out into the rain. The strong wind whipped against her face, but it didn't affect her sharp gaze in the slightest.
"Break through at ten o'clock! The clouds are thinnest there! If we go that way, we can get out of this storm the fastest!"
"Understood!"
The crew immediately sprang into action.
Smoker didn't hesitate to follow Nami's instructions, quickly turning the helm in that direction.
Nami's talent for navigation had long since earned the respect of everyone on the crew.
Even Smoker, who had come from the elite training camp at Marine Headquarters, had to admit that of all the colleagues he had ever met, Nami's navigation skills were second to none.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, the wind grew much more violent, tearing at the waves with a shriek. The previously calm sea suddenly erupted in a rage, and a giant wave, over a hundred meters high, came crashing down on the deck.
SWISH!
A black shadow flashed by, and Kuina appeared at the bow of the ship.
"Wind Wall."
She whispered, her thumb pushing the hilt of her sword.
ZING—
The Wado Ichimonji was drawn, and a fierce sword wind instantly erupted!
In an instant, the air in front of the ship distorted and trembled. A translucent wall of wind, over ten meters wide, formed above the deck.
BOOM!!!
The hundred-meter-high, churning wave crashed against the wind wall. The force, which should have been devastating, was instantly dissipated, as if it had been swallowed by the sea.
Only a small part of the water at the edges splashed onto the sides of the ship, having no effect on The Curtain Call at all.
"Huh? It just absorbed it?"
Nojiko's eyes widened. "Is that also from that Gale Sword manual? That's amazing!"
She had been about to use her own ability to freeze the oncoming wave into ice.
The wave had come so fast that she hadn't been very confident.
But she had never expected that Kuina would be able to easily resolve the crisis with a single sword stroke.
"Mmm, I just got the hang of this move yesterday. I thought I'd give it a try," Kuina said with a smile.
Though her expression was calm, she was breathing a little heavily. It was clear that this move was more taxing on her stamina than the "Steel Tempest."
I still need more practice.
Kuina thought to herself. The Gale Sword Style was too profound. She had only just scratched the surface.
Absorbing a single wave was nothing.
If she could completely master the "Wind Wall," then, according to the manual, she would be able to swallow any form of ranged attack.
She wondered when she would be able to reach that level…
She shook her head and looked up.
Under the eaves on the second floor, Nami had not relaxed just because the giant wave had been easily dealt with. On the contrary, she was staring into the distance, her expression even more grim.
Is it because the storm is getting worse?
Kuina turned and looked at the sky.
In the dark clouds, lightning snakes writhed. With every flash, the entire sea was lit up as if it were day.
The roar of the waves was also getting more and more intense, like the roar of a giant sea beast. And the surrounding currents had suddenly become chaotic and violent, swirling like a vortex.
"That's not right! That's not right! This kind of ocean anomaly shouldn't be happening at the same time…"
Nami stared at the surface of the sea. She suddenly realized something, and her pupils constricted. "It's a giant Sea King! The storm is so big, it's disturbed the big guy that's been lurking at the bottom of the sea! And he's pissed!" she shouted.
As if to confirm her words, the surface of the sea suddenly bulged, a massive mound over a thousand meters in diameter. The surrounding water began to churn violently—
BOOM!!!
A青色tentacle, over a hundred meters thick, shot out of the water, carrying with it tens of thousands of tons of seawater, and slammed down on The Curtain Call!
Not good!
Kuina was shocked. She immediately drew her sword, trying to block, but the moment she made contact, she was sent flying by the tentacle, crashing onto the deck.
"Kuina!" Nami screamed, her face pale.
Just in the nick of time—
BANG!
The door to the training room was suddenly kicked open, and a black shadow shot out like a cannonball. It landed on the deck with a spiderweb of cracks and then shot into the sky!
"Spear of Elbaf…"
Shane's figure crashed into the tentacle, but he stood firm. He grinned, and his right fist, coated in Haki, slammed into the massive, sky-blotting figure.
"…Ikoku!"
☆☆☆
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you