Life aboard the Oro Jackson was not all training and clashing fists.
On a long voyage, most of the time was filled with small, ordinary things.
Sailors maintained the hull, tended ropes and sails. The cooks were busy in the galley, and those with nothing to do lay in the sun, bragged in corners, or quietly worked on their own little schemes.
Like a certain red nosed apprentice.
By the time Bullet finished his afternoon Haki sensing practice, the sun was already leaning westward.
He did not return to his cabin immediately. Instead, he wandered around the ship.
On one hand, he was relaxing his mind. On the other, he was using his newly refined Observation Haki to "listen" to the ship itself.
He "heard" the steady heartbeat of the engine room, the rippling aroma from the kitchen, the subtle life rhythms of the crew.
As he passed near the lower cargo hold, a presence that did not quite match the rest of the environment tugged at his attention.
It was a tightly packed residue of energy, a mix of metal, gemstones, and old dust.
Very well hidden. If not for the way his Observation, influenced by his devouring talent, was particularly sensitive to energy concentration, he would never have noticed it.
In a corner of the hold, behind a stack of wooden crates covered with waterproof tarpaulin.
Bullet approached silently.
The lighting in the cargo hold was dim, the air thick with the smell of tarred rope and damp wood.
He tilted his head and listened. From behind the tarp came rustling sounds and small, satisfied hums.
Without alerting whoever was inside, Bullet reached out, pinched one corner of the canvas, and quietly lifted it a crack.
In the gloom, a red nose appeared first, followed by a head of blue hair.
Buggy the Clown had his back to him, crouched on the floor. Spread out before him on a filthy bit of velvet cloth, a pile of objects gleamed invitingly even in the weak light.
Stacks of gold coins, all kinds of gemstone embedded jewelry, uncut natural gems, several oddly shaped gold coins...
The variety was dazzling. It was practically a miniature treasure hoard.
Buggy was holding a ruby ring, staring at it with half closed eyes, so enraptured that drool was nearly dripping from his mouth.
"I knew it..."
Bullet understood at once.
Buggy's obsession with treasure was something he had already confirmed from his fused memories and these past days of observation.
The guy was like a hoarding hamster that specialized in gathering shiny things, always pulling valuables out of unexpected places and always managing to find even more secret spots to hide them in.
Bullet let the tarp fall back into place. He did not speak right away, spending half a second thinking.
Report this directly?
No need. Roger would probably laugh and forget it.
Ignore it?
That felt a bit wasteful.
He would need starting capital when he set sail on his own in the future.
Rayleigh's teachings were priceless, but Roger was not about to put him on payroll.
And right in front of him... was a very "friendly" potential sponsor.
Decision made, Bullet cleared his throat.
"Ahem."
"Waaah!!"
Buggy shot up like a cat with its tail stepped on, the ring tumbling from his hands and sending a scatter of gems clinking across the floor.
He spun around, all the color draining from his face.
When he saw that the intruder was Bullet, terror quickly melted into anger and guilt.
"Bu... Bullet!"
"What are you doing sneaking around here!"
Buggy shouted, arms flailing as he tried in a panic to block the treasure behind him with his body.
Unfortunately, his scrawny frame did nothing to hide the pile of glittering loot.
"Just passing by."
Bullet's tone was calm as his gaze swept across the treasure at Buggy's feet.
"Looks like your collection is quite impressive, Buggy."
"T... those are all mine!"
"I worked really hard... to find them!"
Buggy panicked, waving his arms more fiercely.
"I am warning you, do not even think about touching them!"
"Or... or I will go tell Uncle Rayleigh!"
"Tell Mr. Rayleigh what?"
Bullet took a single step forward. In the dim light, his tall figure loomed in Buggy's eyes like a demon god.
"That you are secretly hoarding a large amount of unreported 'spoils' from the crew's raids?"
"Out at sea, according to the rules, skimming off the top comes with punishment."
"T... they are not spoils!"
"They are mine, all mine!"
"I had them before I got on the ship!"
"Yeah, that is right!"
Buggy started babbling nonsense, grasping at anything he could say.
But his shifty gaze betrayed how flimsy his confidence was.
Bullet had no interest in arguing.
He simply extended his right hand. Under Buggy's horrified stare, his arm rapidly transformed, black scales spreading as it turned into a menacing dragon claw.
He did not strike. Instead, he reached that dragon claw toward the pile of treasure.
"Wha... what are you doing!"
Buggy shrieked.
The claw did not rake up fistfuls of gold and jewels. It delicately pinched a single sapphire about the size of a walnut.
Buggy's heart leaped into his throat. That was one of his absolute favorite gems.
Then, under his bulging, nearly popping eyes, the scaled fingers of the dragon claw closed lightly.
Crack.
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
The sapphire crumbled into dust between the dragon claw's fingers, the powder sifting down through the gaps between the scales.