After safely arriving on the island, I got a room at an inn in town, had a proper meal, and took my time resting up, recovering the stamina that my drifting life had sapped away.
During that time, there were no pirate raids or anything of the sort. I was able to live in perfectly normal peace. With a Marine Base nearby, troublemakers were rare in the area. Forget pirates; even ordinary criminals hardly ever stirred things up around here.
It was pure luck that the island I'd picked on a whim, just because it was close, turned out to be such a peaceful place.
About two weeks passed like that.
After taking it easy and making a full recovery, I considered whether to settle down here permanently.
As I mentioned, the island was peaceful for those reasons, and it seemed like a place where I could live quietly without getting caught up in any rough business. You could say the conditions were ideal for putting down roots.
The locals weren't particularly exclusionary, but they also didn't intrude on my personal space. They kept a comfortable distance in their interactions with me.
If this had been me from a few months ago, I think I would have found that comfort more appealing than anything else and decided to live here on the spot.
But in the end, I chose not to settle down. I chose to set out on a journey.
The reason was simple. During that drifting life, I had realized something about myself: more than anything, I was the kind of person who loved gaining all sorts of experiences that ordinary life could never offer, and acquiring knowledge I'd never even known existed.
Sure, a peaceful, uneventful life had its appeal.
But the intellectual curiosity inside me had been hammering away the entire time I was resting. More of the unknown. More of the unexperienced. It wouldn't shut up.
Even as I genuinely savored the happiness of being able to lie peacefully in a bed, a sensibility had already taken shape within me that found a life of only that utterly insufficient.
Learning something I'd never known before, seeing things I'd never seen, doing things I'd never done... I already knew that thrill.
Settling in one place, getting a steady job, living a quiet life, the way I always had... before I knew it, I no longer wanted to choose that kind of future.
So I bought all the supplies I thought I'd need in town, and set out on my journey.
As for a ship to travel in, I obviously couldn't use a pirate ship, so I bought a new one.
I'd been gradually converting what I'd taken from the pirate ship into cash, little by little so as not to attract attention and invite unwanted trouble, and used that as my war chest to purchase a small, secondhand vessel.
I picked one that was more than big enough for a solo journey and looked easy to handle.
I'd learned the bare minimum of seamanship already, but just to be safe, I bought a few specialized books to supplement my knowledge.
I also made sure to pack an Eternal Pose for this island, so I could come back if anything happened or if I ever needed to. I know I keep saying it, but since it's a peaceful island, it seemed like a good place to return to whenever I wanted a quiet rest. Even without settling down, I figured I could use it as a sort of base to stop by between legs of my journey.
With preparations complete, for the first time ever, I set out to sea of my own free will. Not "dragged along." Not "kidnapped." My own choice.
To experience things I had yet to see, and to enjoy this strange second life of mine to the fullest.
...And that was already a year ago.
I, Venerdi Toto Sue, had turned fourteen.
Over the past year, sailing between the islands within the limits of my own navigation skills, I'd visited all sorts of places, from tourist attractions to mysterious adventure spots, and accumulated all kinds of experiences.
I saw scenery more beautiful than anything I'd ever laid eyes on.
I encountered natural environments more harsh than I could have imagined.
I ate and drank delicious things I'd never tasted before.
I got attacked by pirates, who were honestly pretty much everywhere, and beat them right back.
I experienced so many things that a word or two couldn't even begin to cover it all.
Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing. There were hardships, painful times, moments where things got so dire it wasn't even funny, things I'd rather not talk about... and plenty more besides. But all of it, every last bit, I consider valuable experience.
I'd gotten completely used to traveling alone by now, and as a full-fledged traveler, or adventurer if you will, I continued my journey across various seas day after day. Life was fulfilling. Every day was fun.
Oh, but I just casually said "adventurer" and "traveler," didn't I? If someone asked what my occupation strictly was right now, I'd have a bit of trouble answering.
I was doing all sorts of things, combining hobby and livelihood.
Since I traveled all over the place and sometimes ventured into uncharted wilderness, calling myself a "traveler" or "adventurer" like I just did wasn't wrong.
But my living expenses mainly came from beating back pirates who attacked me (though I sometimes went on the offensive myself), raiding their ships for spoils, or capturing Bounty Targets and turning them in to the Marines for the Bounty money. So I was also a Bounty Hunter.
I'd kept up my training diligently throughout, and I'd grown even stronger than before.
The swordsmanship I'd been using from the start, of course, but also the powers of the Paper-Paper Fruit I'd acquired, I'd been properly researching and training to refine them.
It wasn't just scattering apart to dodge enemy attacks or attacking with razor-sharp paper anymore. I could do all sorts of things now. Someone in the Original Work once said that Devil Fruit powers could become endlessly powerful combat tools depending on how you used them, and every day proved just how right that was.
As for the specifics of what I could do now, well... that's a story for another time.
So, that's me as a Bounty Hunter. But there's one more thing I could list as an occupation.
And that is...
"Yes, manuscript received! Sue-sensei, thank you so much for this one too!"
"Thanks for your hard work, Eddie-chan. I'll leave the rest to you."
"You got iiiit! Well then, I'll rush this back to the office, so excuse meee!"
The girl who just bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle and then sprinted off at full speed was my assigned editor.
She'd taken the novel manuscript I'd just written and handed over and headed back to the office to check the content and handle all the details.
And my occupation, the one that had me handing manuscripts to her? That's right: writer.
I was still a newcomer, and being called "Sensei" still made me squirm a little, but I was working as a proper, legitimate writer.
I already mentioned that I'd had all sorts of experiences over the past year, but after accumulating a decent amount of them, I felt the urge to pick up the pen again for the first time in a while.
Not just input. I wanted output too.
Using my accumulated experiences as fuel, I wanted to write my own stories, put them into words, and have someone read them. Read them and enjoy them.
Once I started feeling that way and couldn't hold back anymore, I took a break between adventures, settled in for a while, and let my pen fly wherever my creative drive took me.
The original novel I completed that way, I entered into a publishing company's contest, just like I had years ago, and the result? I actually won the grand prix.
That work, an adventure novel based on several of my real-life adventures, was published and became quite a hit, racking up a respectable amount in sales.
After that, the publishing company assigned me a proper editor: Eddie-chan.
I'd adventure to my heart's content, and once an idea took shape, I'd write it all down as a novel.
When the manuscript was done, I'd hand it to Eddie-chan for her review, and if she gave it a "This is great!" she'd pitch it to the company for deliberation.
If it passed that too, we'd sign a contract and it would be officially published as a book.
That was how I was properly working as a writer!
A dream I'd had since I was little, thinking 'I'd like to try that someday, wouldn't it be nice'... having that dream come true was, well, incredibly joyful and fun.
And after I'd written everything I wanted to write and felt satisfied, the urge for adventure would come back. The desire for exciting experiences I didn't yet have.
And after I'd adventured and experienced to my heart's content, the desire to give those experiences form would well up again, and I'd pick up the pen once more.
So it went, this cycle of two things.
Adventure and writing. Input and output. The two meshed together in a beautiful loop, forming the enjoyable life I lived now, wearing two hats as both writer and adventurer.
If I had to mash both together into one title, maybe Adventure Writer? Actually, I kind of liked the ring of that.
Well then, I'd written everything I wanted to write this time too and was feeling satisfied, so... maybe I'd head out on another adventure before long.
Where to go next? Lately I'd been doing a lot of exploration in nature-rich areas, so maybe it would be nice to visit a bustling city or some lively place.
Seeking out some unknown "something" I hadn't yet encountered, plunging fearlessly into all sorts of places.
Even if it meant painful experiences, terrible ordeals, or all manner of things that left me sad and hurting... I probably wouldn't stop this journey. This way of living.
Joyful things and happy things, sad things and painful things, I wanted to experience more and more of everything, craft even more fascinating stories, and deliver them to as many people as possible.
The things I created. I wanted people to see them, read them, take joy in them. The stories born from my life, I wanted to show them off to the whole world.
I was still a greenhorn just starting out, but someday, for sure.
Over this past year, I'd come to think that way, and it had become my dream.
If I were to put it in One Piece terms... yes.
"I will become a Great Writer!!"
This is the story of how I wield both sword and pen to ride the stormy waves of the Great Pirate Era and become the greatest writer of all, one who lifts up a world full of suffering with the power of the written word!
...Probably!
To be continued...