When Shirakawa arrived at Tom's Shipyard, he deliberately let his presence leak out, all to make it easier for his crewmates to find him. Sure enough, under the perception of his Observation Haki, his crewmates appeared one after another, as if by unspoken agreement, converging on the same place.
"Long time no see, you lot." At the entrance of Tom's Shipyard, Jora spotted the Abro family coming from another direction, though Salar was tagging along beside them as well.
Then Kurokam and Uristin came walking over from yet another road, but all of them, by quiet understanding, held back from going inside. They planned to wait until everyone had gathered before going in together to see their captain.
Before long, every member of the Silver Pirate Crew had assembled here—Riddle, Jora, Uristin, Salar, Abro, Adara, Lisa, Kurokam, Mut, and Wend.
"Alright, let's head in. I'm sure the way we look now will give the captain a nice surprise."
With that, Jora pushed open the gates of Tom's Shipyard.
The first thing they saw was Shirakawa, Mohr, and several other strangers Jora and the rest didn't recognize.
"Long time no see, everyone." Shirakawa spoke first, sensing the tremendous change in each of his crewmates. It filled him with a deep sense of satisfaction.
Take Mut, for example. As someone who'd joined the crew late, his lack of strength had sometimes made him seem a little timid aboard the ship. But now he looked different—Mut exuded an air of total confidence.
"You've all changed so much."
It was fair to say the Silver Pirate Crew now, compared to five years ago, was a complete transformation. If they ran into their five-years-ago selves now, even if they couldn't kill them instantly, taking them down within a hundred moves would still be easy.
"Jora—especially you. You're already a Great Swordsman!"
"Heh, well, of course." Jora said proudly.
"I've been hearing your name all over the seas, Jora." Uristin spoke up then.
"In the last two years, two Great Swordsmen suddenly appeared and challenged famous swordsmen all over the world, defeating every one of them. You're one of those two, aren't you?"
"Yeah. It was me and my senior brother."
Jora explained. After spending two years breaking through to the level of Great Swordsman, Jora took some time to get used to his own power.
Then he set out to sea to temper himself through real experience—and unexpectedly ran into his senior brother, Mihawk. So the two of them sat together on that coffin-shaped raft and went around challenging Great Swordsmen across the world.
"But don't single me out—Uristin, you've had a pretty good five years yourself, haven't you? I've heard there's a new bounty hunter on the seas called 'Death.' If I'm not mistaken, that 'Death' is you, right?"
"Haha, a trifling thing. Not worth mentioning."
As for why Uristin had earned the name "Death"—it was because his targets didn't even know how they died when death took them.
In short, the crew of the Shirakawa Pirates had all carved out immortal achievements on the seas.
"Though if we're talking about who's been the most active in the last five years, that has to be the captain, no?"
"Yeah, yeah."
They'd been hearing reports about Shirakawa constantly—"White Demon" this, "Silver Demon" that. The first few times, they'd actually been worried for their captain's safety.
But eventually they got used to it. The news kept coming, but the Marines could never catch so much as a glimpse of the captain—only occasionally a photo of Shirakawa's back would surface.
"Let me introduce everyone." At that, Shirakawa patted William on the shoulder.
"This is our new crewmate. He serves as our shipwright aboard the ship. Let's give him a warm welcome."
After hearing Shirakawa's words, everyone applauded, looking at William with curiosity. They could sense that William's strength seemed considerable as well.
Originally, William hadn't known how to repair ships, but after spending so much time learning from Tom through daily exposure, he'd become an outstanding shipwright.
"He's also an archer. Uristin, if you've got free time, you two should talk more—I think you'll find you have a lot in common."
"We will." Uristin and William nodded together.
"And this is Mr. Tom. Our ship was built entirely by his hands."
"I know—the shipwright who once built a ship for Roger, right? Though I'd heard Mr. Tom had stopped building ships. I never thought the captain could get Mr. Tom to pick up his tools again. Impressive."
"Well, of course." Hearing Uristin's praise, Shirakawa accepted it without hesitation—because if it were anyone else, Mr. Tom really might not have agreed to take up the craft again.
"Now let's go admire what our pirate ship looks like."
"What about us?" Hearing Shirakawa say that, Iceburg and Franky grew anxious. You introduced all these people—how could you just forget about the two of us?
"Haha, then let me introduce you."
"These two young men are Mr. Tom's two disciples—Iceburg and Franky. The ship for the Giant Warrior Pirates was built by the two of them together."
"Is that so? Those two young fellows really are impressive."
The crew said with some surprise, because building a ship that could carry giants across the sea was no easy task.
"Now can we admire our own pirate ship?"
Shirakawa asked Iceburg and Franky.
"Of course." Hearing the praise from the Silver Pirate Crew, Iceburg and Franky were also quite happy, finally feeling a sense of recognition.
Then, everyone walked out to the harbor together and saw a pirate ship covered with a cloth.
They couldn't make out the details of the ship yet, but from its sheer size alone, it was much larger than the Silver Pirate Crew's previous ship. At the very least, Shirakawa felt it could accommodate seventy or eighty people without a problem.
"Iceburg, Franky—you two go pull off the cover." Tom said to his two disciples.
"Leave it to me."
At that, Salar spoke up, and his figure vanished right before everyone's eyes.
Then, in less than a second, the cloth covering the ship was gone, and the pirate ship could finally be seen in full.
"What speed." Every crew member thought to themselves. A moment ago, several of them hadn't even been able to catch Salar's movements with their Observation Haki.
"You've gotten strong, Salar." Jora slung an arm around Salar's neck.
"If I'd spent five years standing still, I wouldn't have the face to show up here."
Salar smiled and said it as if it were only natural.
/-\
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