Chapter 181: Cedar Mine Island
"How can you just scream like that?!"
Nami's fist connected with the back of Luffy's head before he could draw another breath. "You basically announced to the entire island that we're here to be robbed!"
Carrot, bouncing beside Nami, was vibrating with barely contained excitement. "This is the first time I've ever seen a town besides Zou! Are we going shopping?! I've always wanted to go shopping!"
She sprang forward—and was promptly yanked back by her ears.
"Don't move yet."
Itachi's expression had shifted. The usual exasperated resignation was gone, replaced by something sharper. More alert.
"What's wrong?" Nami's hand moved instinctively toward her Clima-Tact. "Did you find something?"
"I didn't find anything." Itachi pointed toward the town ahead. "Look. Every store is closed. There's no one on the streets."
Nami's eyes swept across the storefronts. Shutters drawn. Doors barred. The usual chaos that Luffy's shouting should have provoked—angry merchants, curious children, someone throwing a shoe—was completely absent.
She stepped back and looked up at the stone arch they had passed beneath. A name was carved into the weathered grey stone.
"Cedar Mine Island?"
"Weird name." Luffy squinted at the characters.
"It probably relates to those." Itachi gestured toward the island's interior, where massive fir trees towered against the sky—ancient, colossal things that seemed to scrape the clouds themselves.
As they watched, one of the enormous trees—visible even from the town—shuddered. Then, with a groan that carried across the entire island, it toppled. Birds erupted from the forest in a dark cloud.
"Is someone... cutting down those giant trees?" Nami's voice was small.
"How much force would that even take?" Luffy rubbed his chin. "Could Zoro do it?"
His stomach answered before anyone else could. A growl so loud it echoed off the stone gate.
"AAAGH! I'M SO HUNGRY! IS ANYONE HERE?!"
"LUFFY—!"
But before Nami's fist could connect, a sound interrupted them. The sliding door of the nearest shopfront—a weathered sign reading "DALANG SEAFOOD" hanging above it—creaked open.
Everyone turned.
An old woman, bent with age and wearing glasses thick as bottle bottoms, emerged carrying a wooden washbasin. She shuffled toward the town center with the unsteady gait of someone who had been walking the same path for decades.
"GRANDMA!" Luffy bounded toward her. "I'M STARVING! DO YOU HAVE ANY FOOD?!"
The old woman continued walking. "What's that? You'll leave the door open for me tonight?"
"...What?"
"Grandma! I said I'm HUNGRY! FOOD! DO YOU HAVE FOOD?!"
"What's that, dear? You'll leave a key for me?"
"No, Grandma, I said—"
Itachi placed a hand on Luffy's shoulder. "She appears to be extremely nearsighted. And partially deaf."
But before Luffy could respond, the old woman froze. Her washbasin clattered to the ground.
"AHHH! BANDITS! HONEY! HELP!"
The trembling shuffle vanished. The old woman sprinted into the shop with the speed of a woman forty years younger and yanked the shutter down behind her.
Itachi stared at the closed door. Luffy stared at the closed door.
"Itachi. Didn't you say she was deaf and nearsighted?"
"...She appears to have excellent leg strength."
Nami pushed past them and knocked gently on the shutter. "Grandma? We're not bandits. We're traveling merchants. We just want to buy some food. Do you have anything to sell? Grandma?"
Itachi's eyes flicked downward.
He seized Nami by the collar and yanked her backward.
SHUNK.
A harpoon punched through the shutter exactly where Nami's head had been.
The harpoon retracted. The shutter flew open. An old man—bald, wiry, and brandishing the harpoon like a trident—burst onto the street.
"BANDITS! WHERE ARE THE BANDITS?!"
"Grandpa! We're not bandits!" Luffy waved his hands. "We're pirates! Pirates aren't bandits!"
Everyone froze.
"PIRATES!" The old man's eyes blazed. "So you ARE bandits! DIE, BANDITS!"
He thrust the harpoon forward. Luffy dodged. Thrust again. Dodged again.
"We keep telling you—we're NOT bandits!"
"Not bandits?" The old man lowered the harpoon and scratched his bald head sheepishly. "My apologies. If you're not bandits, you must be good people."
"We're not good people either! We're PIRATES! PIRATES!"
"PIRATES!" The harpoon came back up. "BANDITS! DIE!"
They continued like this for some time. The old woman watched from inside the shop, her expression cycling between terror and relief like a metronome. Itachi, Nami, and Carrot stood to the side with expressions of profound, almost spiritual exhaustion. Luffy and the old man continued their deadly ballet of thrust and dodge until the grandfather finally grabbed his lower back with a groan.
"Ah, so you're good people, not bandits."
The old man—now seated comfortably in his home with Luffy and Itachi supporting him—nodded with satisfaction.
"For the LAST time—" Luffy started.
Nami's fist silenced him. "Yes, Grandpa. We're absolutely good people. One hundred percent."
"That's a relief." The old man's wrinkles softened.
Itachi opened his mouth to ask about the island's situation, but Luffy's hunger had reached critical mass. "I'M HUNGRY! I WANT FOOD!"
"Goodness, this child is hungry. Dear, bring something to eat."
"Coming, coming! Food for our guests!"
The old woman hurried over and set several bowls on the table. Each one contained a thin broth with wilted, unidentifiable leaves floating on the surface.
Luffy stared. "This is... this is WORSE than what I cooked!"
"We're so sorry." The old woman wrung her hands. "This is all we have at home. I was going to collect the food bucket the Navy left, but those bandits frightened me. I never made it to the distribution point."
She picked up her washbasin again, her earlier terror apparently forgotten in the face of hospitality. "I'll go fetch the Navy rations right now. Please make do with this until I return."
She shuffled out the door and headed toward the town center.
"Navy distribution point?" Itachi's eyes narrowed.
(End of Chapter)
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