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Chapter 47
"What kind of person is Shanks? Honestly, I can't really describe him clearly. I just remember his pirate crew would show up on this island from time to time, and they'd have parties every day. The alcohol was all supplied by me. Shanks always wore his straw hat—he never took it off. Later, for some reason, he gave that straw hat to Luffy. The straw hat on Luffy's head right now is the one Shanks gave him."
Makino thought for a while before giving a somewhat vague answer. Jepack didn't press her further.
He stood up, ready to return to the Ten'en and store the supplies first.
"The sky's getting dark. The tavern should be repaired by now. I need to head back to the ship and put the supplies away."
"Yeah, time really flies! I should get back to the tavern too!"
Makino replied while sipping her Pepsi, then stood up as well, preparing to walk toward the tavern.
After taking a few steps toward the tavern, Makino turned back, looked at Jepack, waved her hand, and called out:
"See you tomorrow, Jepack!"
"See you tomorrow!"
...
Back on the Ten'en, after storing the supplies, Jepack lay down in his favorite deck chair again, thinking about the system update.
"Four days left until the system update! It says the update takes 30 days—don't tell me they're cooking up something huge! I just hope the gap between versions doesn't get any bigger."
After thinking for a while, he started missing Nami and Guina.
"I wonder how Nami and Guina's training is going right now!"
Meanwhile, on the other side, Nami and Guina were still training.
Guina had gradually reached the point where she could vaguely visualize Nami's attacks in her mind—the first signs of Observation Haki had appeared. Armament Haki still showed no progress, and even when coordinating with Nami's attacks, her body's energy didn't seem to be squeezed to the absolute limit.
Nami still found it very difficult to handle Guina's attacks. After all, she didn't have the same foundation in swordsmanship that Guina had built since childhood.
From time to time she would still get hit on various parts of her body, but she kept gritting her teeth and enduring. Every training session with Guina pushed her body's energy to the extreme, but she was only slowly reaching Guina's physical level—still far from the requirements for Armament Haki.
As the sky slowly darkened…
Jepack stood up from his deck chair, muttering to himself:
"My stomach's getting hungry. Why haven't Nami and Guina come back yet?"
He had completely forgotten to tell them he was already back on the ship—after all, the decision to go shopping with Makino had been made on the spot.
Walking into the kitchen, Jepack saw today's purchased supplies and suddenly remembered. He quickly prepared enough food for a group, then headed to Dadan's hideout.
He saw Nami and Guina sitting next to Luffy and Garp. The bandits had started another bonfire party, and everyone was eating to replenish the energy they'd burned through today.
In the next second, Jepack appeared behind them. The crowd was immediately drawn by the delicious smell from his hands—the food they were holding suddenly didn't seem tasty anymore.
"Here—this is your nutrition meal for today!"
"This portion is for Luffy too to recharge. The rest can be shared by everyone!"
Jepack handed the two separate portions to Nami and Guina, then gave the remaining bits that couldn't fit into separate boxes to Luffy.
The big pot of leftover food was passed to Dadan's subordinates to share.
"Jepack banzai! You are my god!"
"Great Jack, I love you~"
"Gotta say, your cooking is really good. Eating your food makes this old man's appetite even better!"
"Cut it out, Garp—your appetite's always been huge. You can eat a whole dinosaur in one meal!"
At that moment, a somewhat tipsy Dadan called Garp out.
Everyone present was startled by Dadan's boldness—until Garp burst into loud laughter and gave a powerful slap to the back of Luffy, who was still devouring food. The impact nearly made Luffy spit out the meat in his mouth, but he clamped his mouth shut and kept it all in!
After swallowing, Luffy cursed Garp:
"Damn old man! Are you trying to choke me to death so Nami and Guina can inherit your doughnut fortune?!"
Hearing Luffy's words, Garp gave him a Love's Iron Fist to the head, then slung an arm around Dadan's shoulder and started dancing comically.
After the hilarious grandfather-grandson antics and Garp leading the dance, everyone burst into laughter again. The atmosphere became lively and festive once more.
Three days passed like this in the blink of an eye. It could be said that the idlest person on the entire island was Jepack. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would call Nami and Guina (when they weren't training) to the previous cave for a bath—calling it "balancing work and rest" and "relaxing the body."
In reality, both sides knew exactly what was going on. The moment they arrived, it turned into battle mode.
After Nami couldn't handle him alone, Guina joined in. On the surface it looked like two against one, but in truth Jepack was dominating the two-on-one fight.
During the battle, Nami kept stubbornly saying she'd get him back once she mastered Armament Haki—only to be quickly knocked down and behave herself, lying limp on the ground.
Whenever Nami reminded him about Armament Haki, Jepack coated his entire body in black. The two girls cursed him, saying he wasn't human…
Otherwise, during the times when Guina and Nami were training, he would go to Makino's tavern to drink and mingle with the villagers who were also drinking.
He would occasionally flirt with Makino—who might become someone else's wife in the future. After the Bandit King incident, their relationship had reached the point where they could put arms around each other's shoulders.
For most of those three days, Jepack spent his time lying in his deck chair on the Ten'en's deck. He really had nothing else to do.
On the fourth day, the overly idle Jepack said goodbye to Garp, announcing that they would set sail.
Unexpectedly, the old man Garp was also leaving the island today to return to Navy HQ. His warship had already been waiting in nearby waters for two days.
After saying farewell to Makino, Luffy, and the others…
Jepack and Garp lay in deck chairs on the Ten'en's deck, waiting for the dog-head warship to arrive. After enjoying it, Garp had also grown fond of the rocking chair.
The warship slowly approached the Ten'en. Bogard stood at the bow, looking at Jepack without saying a word. Anyone could see the burning fighting spirit in his eyes.
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