After some rest, Kairos Flint had regained much of his physical strength.
Together with Nami, he moved all the supplies from the shore back onto the ship. It was a time-consuming process, but they eventually got everything sorted and organized.
During the cleanup, Kairos also gathered the 98 ordinary machetes he had seized from the pirates.
Judging by their quality, they were roughly equivalent to the ones sold at Ipponmatsu's shop. Rounding it to an even hundred wasn't a stretch.
Each machete was worth around 50,000 Beli.
A hundred of them added up to a solid five million Beli.
In other words, he had effectively earned around 5 million Beli just from these weapons.
"Let's take them back to the ship and synthesize them gradually," Kairos muttered.
With a single sweep of his hand—and making sure Nami wasn't paying attention—he quietly stored all the machetes inside his personal space.
Once everything was packed and sorted, they left the small island and set sail for Loguetown.
After all, if corpses were left unattended for too long, they'd begin to rot. He didn't have the kind of ability someone like Aokiji had—to freeze corpses and preserve them.
So heading straight to Loguetown was the only option.
And among the two, Nami was definitely the happier one.
Every time they took down a pirate crew, there was bounty money waiting. How could she not be thrilled? If they kept this up a few more times, she could scrape together the 100 million Beli needed to buy back her village.
A day and a half later
The boat sailed quietly across the sea.
Kairos and Nami had finally reached Loguetown again.
During their voyage, Kairos spent his time synthesizing all the ability crystals he could manage.
By now, he had already obtained several rare crystals:
1 Rare Physical Crystal
3 Rare Soul Crystals
3 Rare Talent Crystals
2 Rare Constitution Crystals
He also had a small stash of ordinary and superior-grade ability crystals.
Some of the crystals had just been synthesized into higher-tier ones, so their count had dropped to zero. Others still had a few remaining, but not enough to synthesize into anything more advanced. Many of them were down to single digits.
Overall, the haul from this trip had been quite substantial.
Even though the pirates in the East Blue were the weakest of the four seas—mainly because Garp frequently returned home to visit—it didn't change the fact that the East Blue made for an ideal beginner's zone.
For someone like Kairos, who had just arrived in the world of pirates, it was the perfect place to grow and build up his strength.
He also finished synthesizing all 98 machetes into 9 finely-crafted blades.
However, if he wanted to upgrade the Third Generation Kitetsu—his current sword—he needed to synthesize a "Grade: Good" weapon and then fuse it with his Kitetsu. Only then could the blade's current rating as a "Fast Sword" be elevated to the next tier.
But achieving that wasn't going to be easy.
Based on the decimal system, to create a "Good" sword from scratch, he'd need to synthesize at least 10,000 ordinary weapons.
If he used fine-grade weapons instead, he'd still need around a thousand.
Getting that many weapons wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
He could only take things one step at a time—hunting more pirates, looting their weapons, and avoiding the need to spend Beli to buy synthesis materials.
Back in Loguetown
Following their usual routine, they paid the docking fee, rented a cart, and hauled the corpses of the pirates to the local Navy branch.
This was their second time visiting, so the Navy staff was already familiar with them.
After a round of inspections and confirmations, they were allowed to claim the bounty.
Once the transaction was complete, Nami couldn't stop smiling.
But just as they stepped out of the naval base, they ran into someone—someone who looked both familiar and unfamiliar.
She had short, dark blue hair, wore glasses, and carried a katana at her side.
For someone who had watched One Piece, Kairos recognized her in an instant.
Tashigi!
She was currently just a sergeant under Smoker, stationed at the Loguetown branch. But in just a couple of years, she'd rise to become a colonel in the Marine G-5 branch and earn the nickname "The Standout of the Filthy G-5 Unit."
Who would've thought that this slightly nerdy-looking girl in her unfashionable outfit would eventually command such presence?
Time truly is both a ruthless blade and the finest of cosmetics.
"You are…?" Tashigi approached them with a curious expression. It was her first time seeing Kairos and Nami, and given they were standing inside the Marine base, her instincts compelled her to inquire.
"Bounty hunters," Kairos answered plainly.
Even though she was an important supporting character in One Piece, Kairos wasn't about to go starstruck just because he saw her in person.
What really caught his attention, though, was the sword at her side.
Shigure.
A weapon on par with the Third Generation Kitetsu.
If he could get his hands on that sword, he could skip synthesizing a thousand ordinary-grade weapons.
Of course… that was just a fleeting thought.
He had no intention of antagonizing the Marines.
He was a bounty hunter, after all.
If he burned that bridge, what was he supposed to do—turn pirate and make money through murder and theft?
No thanks.
Life as a bounty hunter was much more comfortable.