Chapter Twenty-Six: Komik Island

Aoshi saw that he didn’t seem to be lying, so he didn’t press him further. However, at sea, not knowing how to fight was simply not an option.

Aoshi looked at Chiyue and asked, “Do you want to learn how to fight?”

“If you’re going to travel with the ship, you’ll inevitably run into danger. You know as well as I do—right now, the seas are in turmoil, and new pirates are cropping up everywhere.”

“Without strength, it’d be hard even to protect yourself.”

Chiyue nodded slightly. “Fighting? Of course I want to learn.”

Aoshi thought for a moment, then said, “Then I’ll teach you the basics of the Six Powers of the Navy. Are you interested?”

Chiyue’s eyes lit up at once. He looked at Aoshi, a bit excited, and said, “The Six Powers? You were in the Navy? Wait, I knew you looked familiar! I saw you during the Summit War.”

Aoshi replied, “Was it Bucky’s live broadcast? That red-nosed guy must have eaten the Luck-Luck Fruit.”

“But to think I became famous because of that…” Aoshi didn’t deny his past in the Navy. He nodded. “I was, but I’m not anymore.”

Chiyue asked, “Why did you leave?”

Aoshi gazed at Chiyue, then squinted toward the distant, radiant sun. “Chiyue, do you think there are shadows behind the sun?”

Chiyue felt somewhat puzzled. What did that have to do with leaving the Navy? Still, he could tell that the man before him, not much older than himself, wasn’t a bad person.

As for the reasons behind leaving the Navy—perhaps it was better not to know.

Aoshi glanced at the pirate flag, then used Moon Step to walk through the air and took down the flag.

Chiyue looked out and asked, “Captain, where exactly are we headed?”

Aoshi replied with a hint of embarrassment, “I don’t know. Probably the New World.”

“But before that, we need to get stronger. The monsters in the New World are far fiercer than here.”

“We’ll go wherever the winds take us—let’s see where we end up.”

Chiyue’s eyes widened. “What? You don’t have a Log Pose or a sea chart?”

Aoshi shook his head. “No Log Pose. I do have a sea chart, but I can’t read it. Hahaha.”

Chiyue: …Why did it feel like following this guy was going to be dangerous?

And so, the two drifted at sea for three days.

They’d already been out of food for a day. Aoshi and Chiyue were sprawled weakly on the deck.

Aoshi asked, “Do you see any News-Coated Seagulls? If we shot one down and roasted it, I bet it would be delicious.”

Chiyue replied, “No seagulls… just an utterly unremarkable island.”

“An island’s good too. Can we eat it?”

“An island?”

“An island!”

They both sat up from the deck, rushed to the helm, and immediately set course for the island.

Going without food was tough enough, but lacking water was truly unbearable.

A dozen minutes later, they landed successfully. After tidying up the ship, they headed inland.

A quick exploration revealed that the island seemed uninhabited, with no trace of human life.

They entered the forest and soon noticed some fruit. Aoshi had picked wild fruit with Tianye before and was fairly knowledgeable about them. For example, the tree not far away, laden with blue fruit—eating those would cause hallucinations.

Tianye once ate five in one go and hallucinated that she was a fairy fallen to the mortal world, dazzling Aoshi’s eyes for two days straight…

In truth, Aoshi had developed a rule for distinguishing edible wild fruit: if it looks unappetizing, don’t eat it.

Tasty foods are usually warm colors; apart from blueberries, blue foods generally aren’t appealing—this is a quirk of human genetics.

After eating some wild fruit to stave off their hunger, both Aoshi and Chiyue felt much better.

They decided to keep searching for meat—after all, in the pirate world, a meal without meat was no meal at all, and a few fruits couldn’t possibly fill them up.

They soon reached the mountaintop.

The island wasn’t large, which explained why no one lived there. Despite wandering for so long, they hadn’t seen a single animal. They decided to press on.

Looking around, they headed for the other side of the island.

“Aoshi, do you hear something?”

Aoshi, who’d been scanning the surroundings, was stopped by Chiyue. He stood perfectly still, his large, wind-catching ears twitching slightly.

Chiyue lowered his voice. “Someone’s laughing—it sounds like women’s laughter.”

He tugged Aoshi toward the left.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a cliffside. The girls’ laughter grew clearer, and mist drifted through the air.

Aoshi peeked out.

A group of young women were bathing in a hot spring! They splashed and played, pouring water over each other.

Aoshi quickly pulled his head back, sniffing the air.

Chiyue, seeing Aoshi’s reaction, peeked as well, then swiftly ducked back.

He swallowed hard.

“Captain, is this paradise?”

Aoshi replied, “Weren’t you pining for your beloved? Why are you getting a nosebleed now?”

Chiyue said, “Beloved? I’ve long forgotten her. No, I need another look.”

Aoshi grinned, “Let’s go together!”

The two peeked out at the same time, but in that instant, Aoshi hurriedly pushed Chiyue’s head back down.

The girls had already dressed and were aiming longbows in their direction.

Aoshi exclaimed, “Damn, we’ve been spotted.”

Chiyue asked, “What do we do now?”

Aoshi slung the bag of fruit over his shoulder and dashed off. “Run, quickly!”

Chiyue snapped out of it and took off after him. “Wait for me, you bastard!”

Several girls gave chase, arrows nocked and aimed at the pair. Aoshi spun around, Haki enveloping him, and snapped all the incoming arrows.

Only one of them had Armament Haki—nothing to be afraid of.

From the arrows, Aoshi could tell that only the tall, fair-skinned girl wielded Haki.

Nothing to fear, especially if they weren’t outmatched.

Aoshi stopped and called Chiyue back, then strode toward the group of girls.

The girls seemed taken aback as Aoshi approached, their eyes collectively darting to the girl standing on the dead tree, as if awaiting orders.

Aoshi smiled and said, “Lovely ladies, please don’t be angry. We were just passing by and stumbled upon your bath by accident. I hope you can forgive us.”

The girl in white snorted coldly, pulling a white-feathered arrow from her quiver and aiming it at Aoshi. “Shameless perverts—then why did you run?”

Aoshi kept his composure. “You were chasing us with arrows—should we have just stood there and waited to die?”

“Hmph,” the girl in white sniffed, clearly disbelieving him.

But when Aoshi glanced at the other girls, their expressions told Suye they believed him.

“Sis, he probably isn’t lying. He’s so handsome, after all…”

“Yeah, yeah, sis, they must have just passed by by chance. Let’s forgive them, okay?”