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Chapter 45
Jepack snapped out of his thoughts. Seeing Luffy point at Nami and ask, he thought to himself: So we've reached the crew bond moment again?
Though a bit helpless, he still answered:
"Yes, Nami is my crewmate. She's an amazing navigator!"
Hearing Jepack call Nami a navigator, Luffy's eyes lit up at first. Then he said somewhat regretfully:
"It'd be great if she were my crewmate. With a navigator, I could set sail much earlier to chase my dream."
Jepack thought to himself: Sorry, Luffy—she was supposed to be your crewmate. But I met her first, and there's no way I'm giving her up.
"That's really a shame. She's already my crewmate—I can't give her to you. Plus she's your grandpa's disciple. Aren't you afraid she'll learn some moves from the old man to subdue you? Hahaha~"
The usually bold and fearless Luffy immediately looked horrified and said:
"(?A?;)! You're right—if she learns even half of what the old man knows, I'll be in big trouble later. Yeah… it's a real shame!"
It seemed the memories Garp left in Luffy were quite severe—severe enough to scare him more than the thought of losing a crewmate. Without the scene of fighting Sanji over lost crewmates, and combined with his expression, the whole thing was both funny and a little absurd.
After staring at Nami for a while, Luffy went back to burying his face in his food. It seemed nothing could stop his determination to eat.
Jepack watched Luffy's actions, shook his head, and said nothing more. Instead he walked to the center of the bonfire, snapped his fingers, shouted "Music!" and started performing the famous basketball star's between-the-legs dribble move that he loved so much back in the real world!
Instantly the crowd erupted in enthusiastic cheers.
"Woo Woo Woo Woo!"
"Awesome!"
"One more!"
After one full dance routine, even Jepack was a little tired. He then went to sit beside Garp and the others, pulled out a bottle of lager, and started chugging it.
He didn't deliberately listen to their conversation, but he still vaguely caught one line:
"If that brat ever dares to bully you two in the future, just come to Navy HQ and find me. This old man will give that punk a proper beating."
Jepack curled his lip but didn't interrupt. Instead he comfortably found the perfect spot for lying down like Ge You and settled in.
Sipping his drink while watching the starry sky overhead—couldn't get more relaxing than this.
Unknowingly, he fell asleep…
The next morning, Jepack woke up and realized he was sleeping in the same place as Luffy.
He quickly got up and checked his clothes and pants. In his previous life he'd heard plenty of weird stories from that side of the river—surely nothing like that would happen in a Japanese anime world, right?
After checking, he found that both last night's and current clothes were unchanged. The only difference was that someone had moved him to a different sleeping spot.
"Phew~ Good thing no '01 incident' happened!"
Jepack let out a long sigh of relief, then went to wash up and prepare food.
"Looks like I need to cook a big pot today. So many mouths to feed!"
While Jepack was cooking, people gradually woke up, drawn by the smell. One by one they finished washing up and sat neatly at the table waiting for food.
If you didn't know better, you'd think it was kindergarten mealtime—everyone sitting so orderly.
Nami and Guina appeared behind Dadan. Looked like they had slept in Dadan's room last night.
The last two to arrive at the same time were actually Garp and Luffy. Truly grandfather and grandson—same timing, same actions. They sat at the table knocking their bowls excitedly, waiting to eat.
...
After finishing the meal, Garp took Luffy out again.
Nami and Guina found a spot and went back to training. That left the idle Jepack wandering around until he once again arrived at Makino's tavern.
"Huh? What happened at the tavern? Why is everyone in the village avoiding this place?"
Curious, Jepack walked toward the tavern door. Without thinking too much, he pushed it open.
Instantly, everyone inside the tavern was drawn by the creaking sound of the door and turned to look at Jepack.
In one glance, Jepack's eyes were caught by the man sitting at the bar counter: wearing a brownish-red coat with circular patterns, white shirt underneath, holding a sheathed sword, black boots, braided hair, and a bearded face.
"Hey! Are you the Bandit King Higuma?"
Jepack's memory got a bit jumbled. Wasn't Higuma already swallowed by the Lord of the Coast long ago? How was he appearing here now?
So he stood at the doorway and loudly asked.
The Bandit King heard him, glanced over, and replied with strange excitement:
"I am indeed the Bandit King—but I'm not Boss Higuma. My name is Hachi!"
Jepack was completely confused. Where did this Hachi come from?! He was even imitating Higuma's outfit—making Jepack think his own memory had gone wrong.
Seeing it wasn't Higuma, Jepack lost interest. He walked straight to the bar counter, sat next to the Bandit King Hachi, and said to Makino:
"One glass of rum. What's going on in the tavern today? Outside, everyone in the village is avoiding this place."
Makino glanced at the Bandit King but didn't speak. She turned around to pour Jepack's drink.
Hachi next to him saw that Jepack had zero situational awareness and still dared to sit beside him. He walked over to Jepack's side and spoke in a sinister tone:
"Hey kid, are you treating the words 'Bandit King' like wind in your ears? You even have the nerve to ask why. Why don't you take a good look at me, and then look around?"
The drinking subordinates around them immediately burst into loud laughter. Some even shouted:
"Boss Hachi, beat him up!!"
"So these are all your subordinates? There are so many bandits!"
Only then did Jepack suddenly realize—it was all because of Higuma messing with his thinking.
At that moment, Hachi gently placed his hand on Jepack's shoulder and said:
"Since you're so knowledgeable and even recognize Boss Higuma, I'll let you off today."
After saying that to Jepack, he immediately turned to Makino.
"Boss lady, is the liquor we ordered ready yet?"
Makino pointed to three or four wooden barrels in the corner and said:
"All the tavern's stored liquor is over there."
"Just this little bit of liquor? Fine, we'll let it slide this time. We'll come back again—next time prepare more!"
"..."
Makino was somewhat speechless. She still remembered the last person who said something like that—he ended up getting killed.
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