The small boat drifted along with the wind on the vast sea.
Sage sat cross-legged at the bow, sipping on the liquor from his flask sporadically until the last drop dripped into his mouth, and only then did he smacked his lips.
Lily sat at the stern, using an oar as a fishing rod, and a thin string from the boat served as the fishing line. She had somehow found a large, fat worm and tied it to the string, dipping it into the water to fish.
"Don't worry, when there was a storm on that side, many schools of fish drifted along the currents, we'll definitely catch something!" Lily said confidently.
Sage was equally confident; go ahead and fish, catch one, and it will remain silent.
Fishing while with him? Think again.
He once had a school of three thousand fish pass by, and didn't catch a single one!
Even if you brought others to help, anyone associated with him wouldn't smell even a hint of fish, not even women!
Sage let out a sneer, even if you somehow got some bait...
Bait?
Staring at the line in the water, Sage's expression grew increasingly peculiar, and he couldn't help but ask, "Lily..."
"Hmm?"
"Where did the worm come from?"
"Got it from the seams of the boat," Lily said nonchalantly, "Even though I'm a princess, since I became a pirate, I've taken to the pirate style. Worms are nothing to me."
To prove herself, she freed a hand and fetched a few more worms from the cracks of the boat, large as white bread, twisting and turning in her slender, fair fingers.
"See..."
Crack!
"Moon Step!"
Sage stepped on the air, and in one swift motion grabbed the back of Lily's neck, stepping continuously in the air as they soared skyward.
At that moment, the strange sound heralded the complete collapse of the wooden boat, splitting into several pieces, turning into drifting wood on the sea.
The small boat was gone!
"How could it..." Lily was dumbfounded.
"Where did you get a rotten boat?" Sage asked.
A worm-eaten boat, subjected to bombardment and the ravages of storms, it was surprising it hadn't fallen apart sooner.
"This was the only boat, the others were all gone."
Lily explained, "I had obtained a ship before, intending to come find you, but the navy ship approached too quickly. I couldn't risk the crew getting caught, so I left to find you myself."
"Sorry..."
With that, she lowered her head, "I didn't consider you'd step through the air."
"No worries, it's not a big deal." Sage was rather calm.
"You don't blame me?"
Lily asked incredulously, "There was a chance to get a large ship, but I blew it."
Sage tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a meaningful smile, "As long as you don't blame me..."
It's just bad luck.
He was long accustomed to it.
When it came to bad luck, he was quite confident.
He thought not snagging a single ship from the port was already bad enough, but there was more to come...
"This small difficulty can't stump me. Do you know how many storms I've weathered?"
Sage smiled confidently, his feet bouncing on the air like springs, keeping him airborne.
Ordinary Moon Step can't maintain so much air-time, but Sage's deep understanding of the human body allowed him to stay aloft for an extended time.
The Six Styles were indeed fine body techniques, seemingly simple but entailed extreme usage of the body. Each style had its own category, especially Moon Step, which had the highest technical content.
Unlike North Star Divine Fist, which had many moves in memory, but in fact, only a few could truly be dubbed 'moves.' The rest were applications of Secret Hole Acupoints given a name.
North Star Divine Fist focused more on Secret Hole acupoint techniques. Even though Sage was deliberately increasing his strength, it still fell a bit short. Now with the Six Styles, his weaknesses were compensated.
As for Haki...
North Star Divine Fist had the power of fighting spirit, which here also turned into Haki.
Sage didn't yet grasp Haki, only just touching upon it.
Though his external support came early, it was one to be trained personally, not like eating a Devil Fruit that instantly grants abilities.
It was more like being handed a personal textbook. The methods are in the book; go practice.
Reaching the level of mastering body technique principles, Sage felt he was quite talented.
"Where should we head, point me in a direction. I can't stay in the sky forever, better find an island with a village to get some supplies."
No matter how strong Moon Step's levitation capacity was, it had its limits, unrelated to Sage's physical strength. Hovering in the air endlessly, no amount of stamina would suffice.
However, Lily's next words stunned Sage.
"I don't know."
"What?"
"I don't know."
Lily shook her head, "Without a sea map, I don't know where to go either."
A Navigator is a profession that grasps wind directions and climate, not a diviner who conjures locations from thin air.
"Aren't you a Navigator? Don't you know the routes?" Sage pulled the corners of his mouth.
"I'm just good theoretically..." Lily replied weakly.
Her theory was decent, but she had no practical experience nor had ever been off the land, so how could she know the routes?
As for Sage, he knew nothing...
He gazed at the endless, featureless sea horizon and sighed, "Pick a direction, at least get moving."
The little wooden boat had paddled quite far before, swaying left and right with the wind's change, making its exact direction unknown. Otherwise, he might be able to make his way back to Oykot.
Lily glanced up at the sun's position, then at the sea, pointing north, "We can try heading north. Sage, there's no need to worry; there are always ships at sea. As long as our luck isn't too bad, we'll meet one. And I can swim, if worse comes to worst, we can swim in the water."
"I'd rather not get in the water, by the way..."
Sage gave a mocking smile, "You underestimate me!"
"Underestimate?" Lily was puzzled.
Sage didn't explain, carrying Lily as he stepped repeatedly in the air towards the north.
Very soon, very soon indeed, it took just a day for Lily to understand what Sage meant by 'underestimate.'
There should always be ships at sea, even remote outer seas had vessels traversing them.
Particularly from a high vantage point, as long as luck wasn't too rotten, you'd spot a ship. A ship means a plan.
But from sunrise to moonset, and then to sunrise again, apart from the commotion from Sage's air steps, there wasn't a sound around.
Ships?
What are those?
Does such a thing exist at sea?
"Sage, you..."
Lily was not only smart but very wise, quickly grasping the true meaning of his 'underestimate' and his earlier words of 'not blaming him in the future.'
She pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, then looked up at Sage's expressionless face and gently said, "Do you have a bit of bad luck..."
"Do you wonder why I haven't struck it rich in this tiny East Sea?"
Sage let out a cold laugh, "Yes, I'm an unlucky mess!"
"No, it's just... a bit of a mishap. It's normal not to encounter a ship for a couple of days at sea, maybe we just missed them. If we hadn't moved, perhaps we'd have met a ship." Lily tried to comfort him.
"You're wrong then."
Sage's confidence was unwavering, "This I know well, if we stayed put, ships would've appeared in our advancing direction. If we moved, ships would appear where we stayed, akin to Schrödinger's ship."
Lily didn't know who Schrödinger was, nor did she want to.
Having recognized a captain turns out to be someone colossally unlucky...
At this rate, she wasn't sure about becoming a pirate, but if things continued, she could certainly become a sea scrap.