Chapter 195: He Who Hears the Way!
"Pfft."
Suzaku, walking at the very front of the formation, pressed a hand over his mouth.
His broad shoulders shook slightly under his coat.
He had been trying to hold it in for the last ten minutes of their walk, but the sight behind him was simply too comical to ignore.
He finally couldn't help but laugh out loud, the crisp sound breaking the serene silence of the morning walk.
He turned around, his steps slowing as he looked at Nami.
The beautiful orange-haired navigator looked like a withering plant deprived of sunlight for weeks.
She was dragging her feet, her head hung low, and her face clearly screaming a silent message of "you guys don't understand me at all."
Suzaku shook his head in absolute amusement, thoroughly enjoying the misery written across her delicate features.
"You've all guessed wrong," Suzaku said teasingly to the rest of the crew.
He crossed his arms over his chest, revealing the truth with a perfectly crafted straight face.
"Our dear navigator is not suffering from exhaustion. This isn't battle-induced depression either."
He paused for dramatic effect, letting a smirk tug at the corner of his lips.
"This is a very serious, classic case of Post-War Treasure Separation Syndrome."
"Treasure?" Rem and Akame echoed in perfect unison.
The two girls blinked, their expressions entirely blank as they failed to grasp the depth of the issue.
Rem, dressed in her immaculate maid outfit that miraculously remained free of the war's grime, tilted her head in confusion.
Her sharp, meticulous eyes scanned their current formation, noticing a distinct absence.
Then, she noticed that the little Ship Girl, who was usually trailing closely behind the Captain with a bright smile, was completely missing from the group.
"Captain Suzaku," Rem spoke up, her polite and gentle voice filled with genuine curiosity. "Speaking of which, where is the Ship Girl?"
"Ahhhh...!"
That simple, innocent question was the breaking point.
Nami, whose deepest, darkest secret pain had just been mercilessly poked, instantly broke down.
She jumped up into the air, her back arching like a startled cat whose tail had just been brutally stepped on.
She landed with a heavy thud, pointing a trembling finger right at Suzaku's smug face.
Her wide eyes were brimming with genuine grief and righteous indignation.
"Captain! How can you say it so lightly?!" Nami shrieked, her voice echoing through the quiet bamboo forest bordering their path.
She clutched her head, her fingers tangling in her orange hair as if the memory alone was causing her physical agony.
"That's... that's all the treasure the Beasts Pirates have plundered over the past two decades!"
She took a deep, shuddering breath, her mind overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the wealth she had witnessed in Onigashima's deepest vaults.
"It was piled as high as a literal mountain! Golden, shiny Berries! Giant bars of pure gold! Rare gemstones the size of my fist!"
As she spoke with rising, feverish excitement, two distinct, glowing "$$" symbols seemed to physically manifest in her eyes.
Her breathing grew heavy, her face flushed with the ultimate greed of a master thief who had found the motherlode.
But just as quickly as the light of wealth appeared, it tragically dimmed, replaced by the dark clouds of profound loss.
"Rem, are you really asking where the Ship Girl went?" Suzaku asked, his tone dripping with mischief.
He leaned forward slightly, eager to see more of Nami's theatrical drama unfold.
Rem nodded blankly, her blue hair swaying with the motion as she waited for the explanation.
Nami sniffled loudly, dramatically wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of her eye.
Her face was a perfect, tragic picture of utter, irredeemable despair.
"Because the Ship Girl has a spatial storage ability, she was the only one who could carry it," Nami sobbed, her voice cracking.
"But she was so full of treasure she was almost completely overloaded! She could barely walk!"
Nami dropped to her knees on the dirt path, staring up at the bright Wano sky as if asking the heavens for justice.
"So the Captain... the Captain had her deliver all the treasure directly to the Pola docked all the way in Kuri!"
She reached out a trembling hand toward the horizon, grasping at the empty air.
"My... my beautiful mountain of treasure... moving further and further away from me..."
"What's the big deal?" Akame's flat, emotionless voice suddenly cut through Nami's dramatic lamentation.
The deadly assassin from the Empire stood there, looking completely puzzled by the navigator's breakdown.
She casually reached into the deep pocket of her dark coat and pulled out a thick, heavily spiced piece of dried Sea King jerky.
Without missing a beat, she stuffed the tough meat into her mouth and began to chew vigorously.
"There's nothing to be so dispirited about," Akame said indistinctly, her cheeks bulging slightly.
She swallowed the jerky, her deep red eyes reflecting absolute sincerity.
"Gold and Berries cannot be eaten. To me, finding delicious food is much more attractive and worthy of celebrating."
"What do you know?!" Nami immediately retorted, springing back to her feet with renewed energy.
She stomped over to Akame, grabbing the assassin by the shoulders and shaking her slightly.
This was an emergency. It was time to begin Akame's mandatory "financial education."
"Treasure is everything! With treasure, you can buy all the delicious food in this entire world!"
Nami's eyes blazed with the fiery passion of a true merchant, her hands gesturing wildly to paint a picture.
"You can use Berries to buy a whole city full of the Grand Line's top-tier chefs! You can make them cook for you twenty-four hours a day!"
Akame blinked slowly, her chewing slowing down as the words began to register.
"You can buy an entire island full of the finest, rarest ingredients! Wagyu beef! Giant Sea King cuts! Endless supplies of premium sweets!"
Nami clasped her hands together, a dreamy sigh escaping her lips.
"So much treasure... it's truly a wonderful thing! I really don't want to leave those Berries out of my sight for even a single second!"
Akame's chewing stopped completely.
The piece of jerky in her hand was forgotten.
In her deep, crimson red eyes, a brilliant light that no one had ever seen before suddenly flashed.
It was as if the heavy, locked gates to an entirely New World had just been blasted wide open in her mind.
"Mhm!" Akame nodded heavily, her entire demeanor shifting from indifferent to intensely focused.
Following Nami's logic perfectly, her usually stoic face filled with an overwhelming, almost reverent yearning.
"I understand now... So much money means... so much delicious food!"
"..."
Nami opened her mouth to continue her lecture, but the words died in her throat.
She stared at Akame's drooling expression, realizing that her communication channel with this ultimate foodie had never been aligned from the very start.
One was grieving the loss of touching physical coins and feeling the weight of gold bars.
The other was actively yearning for an imaginary mountain of roasted meat and desserts.
Their dialogue was completely mismatched, operating on entirely different wavelengths, yet it was strangely, hilariously harmonious.
Beside them, Suzaku couldn't hold back anymore.
A loud, booming laugh erupted from his chest, startling the birds in the nearby trees.
Rem covered her mouth with a delicate hand, her shoulders trembling as a string of sweet, musical giggles escaped her lips.
Even the usually composed members of the crew found themselves smiling brightly at the absurd interaction.
The hearty laughter triggered by Akame and Nami's "talking at cross-purposes" drifted under the warm morning sun.
It echoed down the dirt path, lingering in the air for a long time.
Looking at the group, everyone's face was filled with heartfelt ease, relief, and joy.
There was no tension, no fear of sudden ambushes.
This was the relaxed, unapologetic posture of true victors who had just conquered the strongest creature in the world.
Nami stopped her ranting.
She looked away from the drooling Akame and focused on the bright smiles gracing her companions' faces.
She listened to the carefree laughter ringing in her ears, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin.
It seemed that even the heavy reluctance in her heart for that mountain of gold and silver was diluted just a little bit by this warmth.
She turned her gaze away from the crew, looking around at the vast landscape of Wano.
This was a land that had just been liberated from two decades of brutal, suffocating tyranny.
She could see the distant silhouettes of villages where people were probably waking up to their first day of true freedom.
Then, she looked back at the companions walking beside her.
They looked like ordinary people laughing at a joke, but Nami knew the terrifying truth.
Every single one of them was as powerful as a legendary monster, capable of overturning the seas and shattering islands.
She couldn't help but utter a soft, dreamlike sigh.
"It feels... like I'm dreaming."
Her voice wasn't loud. It was barely above a whisper, carrying a heavy hint of trance and profound unreality.
"That was one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. That was Kaido of the Beasts..."
She hugged her arms, feeling a phantom chill as she remembered the overwhelming pressure of the dragon's roar.
"...and he was defeated by us. Just like that?"
She looked at Suzaku's broad back, her eyes softening with a mix of deep awe and absolute trust.
"The entire Wano Country, this legendary, impenetrable fortress of the New World... now belongs to our Suzaku Pirates?"
She shook her head slowly, a self-deprecating smile forming on her lips.
"Even now, walking on this very soil, I still find it a bit hard to believe..."
Her quiet words drifted through the group, causing the laughter to subside slightly.
The atmosphere grew a touch more solemn, but not heavy.
Indeed, they had just accomplished a feat that was guaranteed to completely shake the entire world to its core.
When the news spread, the World Government, the Marines, and the remaining Emperors would be thrown into absolute chaos.
This victory was so massive, so historically significant, that it made Nami feel it was all somewhat surreal.
"Hehe."
Suzaku, walking at the front with his hands tucked casually into his pockets, chuckled upon hearing her whispered doubts.
He didn't look back, keeping his eyes on the beautiful, blooming cherry blossoms in the distance.
His voice just drifted over to them leisurely, carrying a soothing, confident tone.
"In my homeland, there is an old philosophical saying that puts this exact feeling into perspective very well."
He deliberately paused, letting the silence stretch out to keep them in suspense.
It was a cheap trick, but it successfully piqued everyone's curiosity.
Even Akame stopped thinking about food for a second to listen.
"It goes like this," Suzaku finally said, his tone turning profound and scholarly.
"He who hears the Way in the morning, may die at sunset!"
"Eh?" Nami blinked her beautiful large eyes, thoroughly confused by the sudden shift in tone.
She frowned, trying to decipher the ancient words.
"What does that mean? It sounds very profound, but a bit gloomy. Why are we talking about dying?"
"I know! I know!"
Before Nami's words had even completely faded into the air, Yamato immediately sprang into action.
The tall, powerful warrior with striking horns raised her hand high into the air with explosive excitement.
She looked exactly like a top student in a classroom, desperately rushing to answer the teacher's question before anyone else could.
Her face was entirely flushed with a pure desire for knowledge and overflowing confidence.
"This sentence is a testament to the ultimate spirit of a warrior!" Yamato declared loudly.
She puffed out her chest, clutching her kanabo with a fierce, proud grip.
"It means that in order to pursue the 'Way'—the ultimate truth one has identified deep within one's heart—one must be willing to sacrifice everything!"
Yamato's eyes practically sparkled with heroic determination as she continued her passionate lecture.
"To realize one's grand ideals and unbreakable beliefs, even if one only truly understands that path in the morning..."
She clenched her fist, striking it against her chest over her heart.
"...and dies fighting for it in the evening, one is entirely willing and holds absolutely no regrets! This is the true resolve of a great hero!"
She stood tall, speaking with such great passion and fiery conviction that it felt as if she were that very "Hearer of the Way."
She had perfectly interpreted the originally profound, philosophical meaning of the ancient phrase, likely drawing parallels to the samurai spirit she admired so much.
"Mhm," Suzaku nodded slowly and approvingly.
He rubbed his chin, looking at Yamato from the corner of his eye, seemingly very satisfied with her deep, well-thought-out answer.
Then... he abruptly stopped walking.
He turned around, looked Yamato dead in the eyes, and shook his head with a completely straight, deadpan face.
"Wrong."
"Eh?"
Yamato's grand, burning ambition instantly stalled.
The heroic aura surrounding her shattered like fragile glass, and she stood there completely dazed, her raised hand still awkwardly pointing at the sky.
Everyone else in the group also stopped in their tracks, looking at Suzaku in utter bewilderment.
If Yamato's beautiful interpretation was wrong, then what on earth did it mean?
Suzaku fully turned around to face them.
A wide, unapologetic smile that mixed pure mischief and street-thug playfulness spread across his face.
Looking at the confused group, and especially locking eyes with the still-recovering Nami, he explained slowly, enunciating every single word.
"The true meaning of this sentence is actually quite simple..."
He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice into a faux-menacing whisper.
"...if I find out the road to your house in the morning, you're dead by evening!"
"..."
The whole place was dead silent for exactly three seconds.
Only the sound of a gentle breeze rustling the bamboo leaves could be heard.
Yamato's jaw went slack. Nami's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"Pfft... Hahahaha!"
Nami was the very first to react to the sheer absurdity of the twist.
She slapped a hand over her mouth, bending forward as she laughed so hard her entire body was shaking.
Tears of pure mirth threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes.
"What the hell is that! Captain, you must be talking absolute nonsense!" Nami wheezed, struggling to catch her breath. "That's just the logic of a street gangster!"
"How so?" Suzaku spread his hands wide, a ridiculously proud expression plastered on his face.
He looked exactly like a man saying, "See, I told you I was right."
"Look at us," Suzaku pointed a finger down to the dirt road beneath their feet.
Then, he pointed his thumb confidently at himself, before sweeping his hand to indicate the incredible companions standing beside him.
He puffed out his chest, speaking righteously as if he were stating an undisputed law of the universe.
"Didn't we find out the way to Wano Country this morning?"
He raised an eyebrow, a triumphant grin breaking through.
"And then? Didn't Kaido die by the evening?"
It was the logic of an absolute madman. A flawless, twisted, completely unhinged closed loop of reasoning.
"Hahahahaha... So that's what it means!!!"
This time, even Yamato, who had just been brutally rebuffed and had her samurai ideals momentarily crushed, couldn't help it.
She threw her head back and laughed out loud, her booming voice echoing with uncontained joy.
The rest of the group finally broke out of their stupor.
Rem let out a bright, ringing laugh, no longer bothering to cover her mouth.
Even Akame offered a rare, genuine smile, amused by the Captain's ridiculous wordplay.
They all looked at their clowning, incredibly powerful Captain and couldn't help but let out laughter even louder and freer than before.
Nami wiped a tear from her eye, her stomach hurting from laughing so much.
Her previous sense of heavy unreality regarding the massive victory they had just achieved...
It was completely, utterly dispelled at this very moment by this burst of uninhibited, family-like laughter.
Under the rising morning sun, the shadows of the group were stretched long and proud across the earth.
They were the new conquerors of the seas, the absolute future masters of this liberated land.
And their cheerful, carefree laughter, echoing continuously on the road leading to the Flower Capital, drifted far away, carried toward a bright new era by the gentle wind.
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