"A week, and you've grown several centimeters. How did you manage that?"
"What kind of martial arts are you practicing? It's so noisy every day."
"Do you think I have a chance to learn it?"
In the restaurant, Shano swept through the food like a storm, with plates stacked into two mountains beside him. In the gap between the mountains sat an elderly man with wrinkles all over his face, looking like a curious child, bombarding him with questions.
Shano had avoided the earlier questions with vague, unclear answers.
But when he heard the last one, he finally lifted his head from his plate, looking speechless.
"You're almost seventy, aren't you? You really want me to tell the truth?"
"..." Gatte sighed heavily. "Forget it. I still want to live a few more years. I don't want to break these old bones."
"Let's talk business." The old man smacked his lips. "The journey has gone smoothly these past few days. We should reach Shallow Sakura Island within two hours, before sunset."
"…"
Shano froze for a moment, then nodded, not surprised.
If it weren't for the Sea King messing with them, causing the Gatte ship to be stuck for a full day for repairs, they should have arrived around this time yesterday.
"These past few days, I've really appreciated your help," Shano said after swallowing his food. "If it weren't for the environment you provided me to focus on my training, I wouldn't have made any breakthroughs."
"Stop with the nonsense!" Gatte laughed heartily. "Compared to your life-saving grace, this is nothing!"
"But hearing you say that, it really makes me feel good, old man. Haha!"
"Oh, right! From now on, the Gatte ship will always reserve the most luxurious room for your family, free of charge! All meals will be covered by us! This is a decision supported by all the crew members, and you have no right to refuse!"
"Only a fool would refuse."
Shano was someone who never killed the mood. He laughed along.
"Alright, it's a deal. If you come back to Cocoa West Village next year, I'll bring the whole family to mooch off you! Luckily, my two sisters don't eat much. If they were like me, you'd probably go bankrupt feeding us!"
"You're being too humble. Honestly, just feeding you for these past few days, I'm about to go bankrupt."
"Hehe..."
As they chatted, Shano suddenly realized that it had already been a week since he left home.
With only two hours left before they reached shore, he could take this time to call his family from his room.
...
"We've arrived, this is Shallow Sakura Island!"
"You can disembark here. It's getting late, so you can find a hotel in the outskirts for the night. Tomorrow, you can enter the city during the day and look for the swordsmanship dojo you like."
"We need to unload cargo at the northern dock warehouse. Once that's done, we'll continue our journey. I'm afraid we won't meet again until next autumn."
On the south dock of Shallow Sakura Island, sailors crowded the railings, reluctantly waving goodbye to Shano on the shore.
Old Gatte walked the last stretch of the pier with him.
Shano listened carefully to his advice, but his peripheral vision was caught by the sight of ragged beggars squatting at the junctions of several roads extending from the dock to the city center.
Although they were scattered, there were quite a few of them.
He couldn't help but speak up.
"Strange, Shallow Sakura Island is one of the East Sea's famous commercial hubs. It should be quite wealthy, but there are more beggars and vagrants here than in my hometown."
"Naive." Old Gatte sneered. "These are professional beggars who live in the city. They squat here all year round because the dock sees a lot of traffic, and there are plenty of rich folks coming in and out. There's always some ignorant outsiders who get tricked."
"These people live quite luxuriously from this. Occasionally, you might find a real poor soul, but that's someone who gambled all their money away and got kicked out. They're not worth feeling sorry for."
"Alright, that's it. I'm leaving!"
Finally, they reached the end of the pier. Gatte patted Shano's shoulder, not saying any more, and walked back toward the ship with a puff of dry smoke.
Shano stood quietly, watching him board the ship.
It was only when the Gatte ship sailed off, gradually shrinking into a small dot on the horizon, that Shano turned around and picked the leftmost fork in the road, heading toward the outskirts of the city.
It was already dusk, with the sun sinking into the west.
Looking up, Shano saw the town in the distance, enveloped in the twilight.
The main canal flowed from north to south through the city. Both sides were lined with cherry blossom trees, and the buildings in the city were symmetrically arranged along the canal, orderly and densely packed.
Since it was the flower season, countless pale pink cherry blossom petals floated on the river's surface, drifting downstream. With the evening breeze, the fragrance of flowers filled the air, and even the dock was covered in a soft, delicate scent.
"With such a developed commercial center, beautiful scenery, and spring-like weather all year round, no wonder it's a famous tourist destination in the East Sea."
Walking through such an environment, Shano felt much more at ease.
When he neared the dock's management office, which was already closed for the night, he realized it was indeed too late to inquire about the ships now. He could stay at a hotel tonight and come back tomorrow morning to ask for the ship information he needed.
Gatte still thought he was here to study swordsmanship, but in reality, his goal had never changed. He intended to use the island's thriving port to find a ship to the Kingdom of Goya.
By logic...
After sacrificing Shanks' severed arm, he already had enough points. The urgency to get Luffy's straw hat had naturally decreased.
But once you've tasted crabs, who can resist another large chunk of points?
Besides, he had a month of time.
It had only been a week so far, and there was plenty of time for him to go back and forth from here to the Kingdom of Goya.
...
"Alright… alright, fine, I haven't eaten for two days and nights. Just give me some change…"
Suddenly, a weak groan came from the side. A dirty hand stretched out holding a metal box, and just like what Old Gatte had mentioned, Shano couldn't be bothered and walked past him.
But just a few steps later, he heard the sound of coins clinking into the iron box.
Shano instinctively turned around to see a skinny boy in tattered swordsmanship attire stopping in front of the fifty- or sixty-year-old beggar. The boy carefully shook out all the small coins from his cloth wallet.
With his enhanced eyesight, Shano could clearly see that all the coins were 20 or 50 units each, totaling only two or three hundred Beli.
The beggar clearly wasn't pleased. He frowned and glared at the boy but still kept holding the iron box out.
"I… I only have this much…"
The skinny boy looked embarrassed. He suddenly seemed to remember something, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out a large, blackened loaf of bread from the bag behind him. He tore off a big piece and gently placed it on top of the iron box.
"I haven't had dinner yet. I need to save some for myself. Sorry."
The boy didn't dare look at the beggar. He stammered, "Even though it doesn't look good or smell great, believe me, it's really filling. One loaf is enough for a whole day."
Without waiting for the beggar to respond, the boy quickly packed up the bag, turned, and hurriedly walked toward the city gate.
Shano watched the beggar, who didn't even bother to try the bread. Instead, he tossed it aside in disgust.
Then he emptied the coins from the iron box, counted them, and spat to the side. "What bad luck, filthy beggar!"
Shano furrowed his brows and was about to call out to the boy.
But to his surprise, the boy, despite looking weak, was quick on his feet. In the blink of an eye, he had disappeared into the distance.
Shano stood there for a while, silently observing the beggar, who stared back at him with a confused look.
"Couldn't you be a little more arrogant? Like, call me a little brat and threaten to gouge my eyes out or something?" Shano suddenly said in a low voice.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?" The beggar rolled his eyes. "With those muscles of yours, you look like you could kill me with one punch. I'm just trying to get something to eat, why would I mess with you?"
Shano looked down and suddenly remembered that when he had walked out of the dock, it had been so warm that he'd sweated a lot and had taken off his jacket, leaving only a shirt, which made his physique more obvious.
"Ugh."
How disappointing. Shano sighed, and with the beggar's incredulous gaze, he grabbed the two hundred Beli from his hand and continued toward the city.
He could only blame his bad luck. He hadn't encountered a bigger scam, but after his recent breakthrough, his body was still a bit unaccustomed to the new strength. It was hard to control the force when he acted.
Two hundred Beli was barely enough to buy Nami two cheap hairpins. It seemed a bit inappropriate to beat someone half to death over such a small matter.