Time slipped by almost without notice. Before anyone realized it, nearly three months had passed.
Winter had begun to settle over the island of Ohara. The temperature dropped day by day, and although snow hadn't yet fallen, the townspeople were already bundled up in their thick, long-sleeved winter coats and padded jackets. Yashiro, too, no longer wore the tattered rags he'd arrived with. Using the 100 berries he'd earned washing dishes at the Paiwa Tavern, he traded with Luoji for a second-hand blue padded coat—threadbare, but wonderfully warm.
The moment Yashiro slipped it on, the heat wrapping around his body almost made him moan in relief.Winter dishwashing was brutal; icy seawater cracked the skin and numbed the fingers until they stung. Most of the children slowed down in the cold weather, often failing to finish their assigned workloads each day.
Paiwa noticed this. She had started mixing a little boiled water into the dishwashing tubs, taking the edge off the freezing temperature. More importantly, she raised the children's wages—from fifty berries to seventy. She had added twenty full berries to their daily pay. That alone made Yashiro and the others complain far less, and they worked even harder to help out in the tavern.
After some time together, Yashiro gradually came to recognize the truth about Paiwa. Yes, she was fat. Yes, she was blunt, rough, and not particularly graceful. But beneath her large frame and harsh voice was a surprisingly kind and warmhearted woman.
Through conversations with Paiwa and the children, Yashiro learned pieces of her past. Once, long ago, Paiwa had been a beauty—someone said to rival Mrs. Gusclary in elegance. Dockworkers would go to the tavern not only for food, but to catch a glimpse of her former charm. But back then, her personality had been gentle, not loud and coarse like it was now. She had run the tavern alone while raising her only child.
Many single men had tried to win her favor, hoping to one day marry her. But for the sake of her child, she turned every one of them down.
Trying to picture the current Paiwa as that elegant young woman was almost impossible for Yashiro. But after thinking it over, he found it believable. In Oda's world, beauty and middle age rarely got along. Many originally beautiful women changed drastically as they grew older. A shift in appearance was practically a natural law.
But peaceful days never lasted long.
Six winters ago, during a heavy snowfall, Paiwa's child disappeared without a trace.
Nearly thirty children had gone missing across the entire island of Ohara that night. People searched everywhere, torches cutting through the blizzard as adults braved the forest, even fighting wild beasts in hopes of finding their sons and daughters.
Like every parent, Paiwa was frantic. She spent those first days stumbling through the snow, calling out over and over, her voice hoarse and empty with despair.
After three days and three nights of desperate searching, she collapsed, unconscious, in the snow. Someone from the town found her and carried her back to the tavern. That was the only reason she survived.
But her child was never found. Not even after Paiwa searched the entire island for a full year.
From then on, her temperament changed. She buried her pain under food—eating endlessly, trying to smother the ache in her heart. Her body changed, her personality hardened, and the bright young woman she once was faded away.
"Sigh… she really is a pitiful person," Yashiro murmured after learning her story.
But her tragedy reminded him of something else—the rumors about a "snow monster." Maybe it hadn't been something the adults made up after all. In a world as vast and bizarre as One Piece, unusual creatures existed everywhere. Such a being might very well lurk on Ohara.
He needed to be careful.
Still, he wasn't too worried. His own strength had improved greatly over the last three months. Thanks to constant meditation, the seal on his chakra had begun to loosen. He could now barely use some ninjutsu. Even more exciting was the physical change—his body felt stronger, sturdier.
At the moment, Yashiro sat atop a large rock by the shore, facing the rising sun. Breathing rhythmically, his posture sharp and focused, he slowly opened his eyes.
After finishing his meditation, he stretched, hopped down from the rock, picked up a shell at his feet, and crushed it easily in his palm—the fragments scattering across the sand.
A grin tugged at his lips. Ever since working at the Paiwa Tavern, he had been eating full meals—sometimes even meat at night. With a steady diet and better training, his body had begun to grow in ways even he could feel. If those three boys who had once beaten him up showed up again, Yashiro was pretty sure he could flatten them without using ninjutsu.
Judging from the sun's position, he still had time before he needed to rush to the tavern.
Feeling bored, he opened his status panel to check his progress.
System Level: LV 0Name: YashiroStrength: 3.7Speed: 5.8Constitution: 3.0Chakra: 50 (usable) / 650 (sealed)Skills:• Shadow Clone Technique• Substitution Technique• Body Flicker Technique• Lightning Release – Ground Walk• Fire Release – Flame Burst• Earth Release – Stealth Technique• Earth Release – Ground Stab…
Yashiro's mouth twitched after a quick glance. Three months of effort, and only fifty measly chakra points had been unsealed.
"Hanaka-chan… Hanaka-chan… why is your Gentle Fist stronger than the sealing technique…?" he grumbled, nearly in tears.
The fat hamster spirit on the status board perked up immediately, sensing his complaint.
"Host, let me explain! I checked your physical condition thoroughly. Your transmigration involved some… bodily cross-dimensional interaction. Something occurred that forced your body to revert to its childhood state. And the Gentle Fist damage originally inflicted on you has technically 'shrunk' as well—condensed, refined, and thus harder to break through. Your chakra seal is reinforced because of that!"
"So I basically offended the wrong person…" Yashiro muttered helplessly.
Even so, he knew he had no one else to blame. He had put himself in this ridiculous situation.
With only fifty usable chakra points, he could barely make two shadow clones—or cast two C-rank techniques before running dry.
Fantastic… just fantastic…
He pulled his padded jacket tight, burying his entire head inside it. The winter sea breeze cut across his face like a knife. With a sigh, he trudged toward the grove where Nico Robin usually spent her mornings reading.
Yashiro's daily schedule had become something like this:
Practice meditation.
Tease little Robin.
Wash dishes and eat.
Help old Jack carry and clean things.
Train.
Sleep.
With meditation finished, it was time for task number two: pestering Nico Robin.
"That little girl's been getting more and more outrageous lately," Yashiro muttered, stomping through the cold. "Using her Devil Fruit ability to bully me every day—flicking my forehead with those hands of hers… Just you wait. Now that I've got chakra, I'll show you…"
A mischievous smile spread across his face.
"When she's not paying attention, I'll set up a little fire trap to scare her."
He could already imagine it: casting Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique, then escaping underground with Earth Release—leaving Robin shocked and sputtering behind him.
He chuckled at the thought.
Forming a quick seal, he dashed toward her usual reading spot, a tiny flame ready in his throat.
But when he arrived—
There was no sign of Nico Robin.
Lowering his body, he searched the surrounding bushes. She really wasn't here.
"Robin? Where did you wander off to…?" Yashiro whispered, puzzled.
Just as he was about to head deeper into the forest——the ground began to tremble.
A deep, rhythmic vibration. Something large was moving toward him.
Instinctively, Yashiro grabbed a sharp stone and ducked behind a tree, peeking toward the forest path.
The tremors grew heavier. The sound of crashing trees echoed through the woods.
Yashiro gulped. Whatever was coming was big. Very big.
If Robin weren't possibly in danger, he would've already sprinted for safety.
"Really… this is way too scary for a kid my size…" he whispered anxiously.
Then—CRASH!
A tree behind him toppled over, and someone burst out of the forest—panting, clutching a book to her chest, eyes filled with fierce determination.
Robin.
Yashiro leapt from behind the tree. At the same moment, he caught sight of the enormous, tusked creature charging after her.
"Yashiro, run!" Robin shouted.
No time to hesitate.
The black shape behind her lunged forward—
Yashiro rushed in, forming hand seals mid-stride. He sucked in a deep breath, his chest swelling.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique!"
Four small fireballs shot from his mouth, exploding against the massive shadow. The beast staggered, even if only for a heartbeat.
That was enough.
"Earth Release—Earth and Stone Wall!"
Slamming his hands to the ground, Yashiro raised a thick wall of dirt and rock between Robin and the monster.
He grabbed Robin's hand, jumped high, and snagged a hanging vine—swinging the two of them up into a sturdy tree branch just seconds before the beast plowed straight through the wall.
The earth wall shattered instantly.The huge black creature barreled ahead, rage unbroken.
Sitting high above on the branch, now finally able to breathe, Yashiro saw the monster clearly.
A giant wild boar—massive, vicious, heavy enough to shake the entire forest.
"How did you even manage to provoke that thing…?" he muttered in disbelief.
The Earth Release wall he had used was a C-rank, simplified version of the B-rank Earth Flow Wall. Smaller, weaker, but enough to buy just a moment.
A moment that had saved Robin's life.